February 26
Hi Journal,
There are two meets coming up this weekend, one I have absolutely no chance of participating in and the other is going basicly a given, any active gymnast is allowed to particpate. I'd say I would just make hat qualification. I am really disappointed in myself. I really wanted to do well and I had promised myself I was going to work hard and atleast show that I wanted to be considered for the American Cup, not that I would have had a chance but atleast the coaches would have had better thoughts about me. The two girls who will be participating haven't been announced yet but it's always whoever is on top that gets selected to meets, so I know it won't be me. Atler and Kayla are the top two, as of the 21st. I guess it's really a good thing that I won't be going, chances are if I did I wouldn't be going with Crystal and then we'de be apart for our birthday. It's still frustrating, I wish the coaches would send a team of girls who weren't tops in the rankings to a meet for a change. I know, I know life isn't fair and if it was I would still be complaining about it. I just need to take this disappointment and use it to fuel myself in practice. I need to set some goals. Let's see... The American Classic is coming up. It's the first qualifier to Nationals, I think I'll make it my goal to qualify at that meet. Now I just need to keep that in mind and work hard everyday. And I mean everyday. Like the saying goes "Work Hard or Go Home!"
Babbling Brooke

February 20
Hey Journal,
If this year was a Leap Year, our birthday would be in 9 days! So what are we doing to celebrate our 15th? So far we haven't decided. Looking on the calendar there are meets on both the 28th of February and the 1st of March. The likelihood of either of us actually being selected to either team is slim but still we would like to have everyone here to celebrate with us. Maybe we'll just postpone it a few days. If Coach Lois is looking for the perfect gift she could just send us to a meet :) Preferebly the same so that we can be together for our birthday, even if there isn't a party.

Practice is going... odd. Beam is improving and vault and flor are normal but bars was awful. It wasn't that I was having trouble wih any skill, it was my mindset that was hurting my practice. I just didn't give my all on bars. Forget about 100% I didn't even give 30%! Very disappointing, I hope I can get it together for practice tomorrow. Maybe I'll do a private on bars today. And for the record, I did train with my normal squad today. Crystal and I have decided that switching wouldn't be a good idea. We were struggling with each other's routines and that wasn't helping either of us. Plus eventually they will know us well enough to atleast tell one of us from the other reliably and if we kept up our trade then they would probably forever think I was Crystal and she was me. Neither of us wanted that! Some may feel we should be punished for our stunt but we were so don't worry. The coaches and our teammates may not be aware of our punishment but we did get one. See, we had a Squads Alive competition on Monday and although we had been spending most practices as each other, we chickened out and didn't switch for the meet. So I had to do my normal routines and I hadn't had much practice with them. My squad lost to Opilly on the first night and I think I had a lot of the blame. Had I been a good girl and trained my real routines instead of switching with Crystal I would have done better and if not helped Pop win, then atleast we would have had a much stronger showing. So knowing that I let myself and my team down I feel that is my punishment. Plus I placed last in the allaround between Pop and Opilly, but if you took my scores and compared them to the Lilly and Tiger meet then I wasn't in last place. I got a 34.65 or somewhere around there, very disappointing. By the way, Tiger lost to Lilly. So day two was Lilly versus Opilly, and Opilly won. They had two more gymnasts and were allowed to drop their two lowest scores. When we competed against them on day one we had four on the team that were competing, so we were down by three. Still we came closer to beating Opilly than Tiger came to beating Lilly, they lost by over four points and we lost by just under one (I think).

Babbling Brooke

February 12
Hey Journal,
The other day Crys and I switched places and I have to say I like her coach better. I didn't think I would really but I found myself wishing I could train with the Tigers today instead of Pop. So I asked Crystal if she'd like to trade again for the day. Naturally she jumped at the chance. I think she really prefers Pop Squad, especially since she is better friends with Ashley and Sammie than I am with them. Not that I would say we are particularly close to anyone here yet though. So I am considering asking Crystal if she'd like to just permanently switch. I haven't completely made up my mind though, I think I'll workout a few more days with the Tigers before I know for sure. I doubt the coaches will allow us to switch, so we're going to have to figure out someway of switching behind there backs. Our routines are different and play to our individual strengths so we will be needing to somehow get back to doing our own routines.

It bugs me that no one can tell us apart yet. It is good because it allows us to switch training squads but I still wish that someone would be able to tell us apart. We tested them yesterday and they failed miserably, even the ones we thought would be able to pass. Ashley and Kayla had absolutely no idea and they are probably the two who know us the best. Sammie isn't here but I bet she'd be able to pass. Alana never had any trouble really and I can tell Sammie is atleast as smart as Alana, if not more so. When she gets back we'll have to test her.

It appears we have a rivalry at Topo. I know we are all competitive with each other but it seems as though Dominique and Kayla are more than just competitive, they appear to be enemies. I know it's not nice but I think it'd be hilarious if Coach Lois made them share a dorm.
Babbling Brooke

January 23
Hey Journal,
Practice was strange today. Beam was awful once again (I'm officially a "Falling Star") but I completely forgot my bar routine and had to jus "wing it" the first time around. I thought my made up routine went very well! Luckily my mind returned for the other routines and I got in some decent bar practice. Floor is okay, nothing major is going wrong but I know I can do better.Vault is going strong.

We started painting yesterday. And as we painted we watched (or rather listened) to American Idol. My poor, poor ears! Some were very good, but others... I love the judges though. I'm glad we aren't judged like that in gymnastics though! I can just hear some of the comments, I think that'd be wose than having Roach Nick crack jokes during practice or Sir Dan and his yelling.

Well, I'd better get going. We still have a lot to do on our room. Ashley might come over and help today and sleepover. Crystal said she was going to invite her, anyway. We were going to invite Sammie too but I think she sensed it and is now visiting relatives, pretending to have strained her back. Some people will do anything to avoid work. (Just kidding, Sammie. Get better soon!)

Babbling Brooke

January 21
Hey Journal, Another somewhat depressing day. I'm really not feeling well and my beam isn't helping anything.Today's workout was awful! I fell off numerous times and I rarely stood my dismount up. All my other events are going fine. Beam isn't usually this bad for me. It's not all that great but this is uncharacteristically bad. "Roach Nick", as I call him behind his back, is going to die from laughing at his horrible jokes I think. Why do I call him Roach? Because he bugs me and I find him rather cocky. That said, he is a good coach and I don't want to trade at all. I'm just not in the mood to put up with all his jokes. Normally I would be, lately I've just been in a bad mood. I haven't been very coachable lately. I'm nice to my teammates but I have been rather icy towards the coaches. I have no idea why, I just feel that way.

So anyway, after practice I've been coming to my room and doing school with Crystal. While she sets everything up I get my frustrations out by drawing *lovely* pictures of Roach Nick and of the balance beam. They are rather violent so I don't dare let anyone other than Crys see them. Speaking of pictures, Crystal has taken down all her Sean Biggerstaff posters. She just put them up a few days ago. We are going to paint our room though, so she had to take them off. It's going to be a fairly large project but I think Crystal is roping in some help. See, we saw this on designer show on tv and one of the bedrooms they did was two shades of purple stripes with a sponged on star border around the center. We loved it and are going to dothat to our room. Only we are just painting our walls one color (lavendar). But we are following the rest of the show's idea. The stars are going to be an off white and the we are going to go back over some of them with glitter paint and others are going to be painted with glow in the dark paint. It's going to look super cool. We're even going to put some glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. And when that's all done we're going to work on sewing covers for our bedspreads so that everything will coordinate. Crystal's going to put the posters back up after we paint but we're going to try and figure out a way to arrange them tastefully. There probably won't be so many up. Maybe we'll cut them into star shapes, so that they fit the theme.

Babbling Brooke

January 19
Hey Journal,
I feel horrible. I think I'm coming down with something. Anyway, I made myself stick it out today in practice. I wasn't easy to be around I'm sure, as I get very moody when I don't feel well. Beam was a nightmare! I fell 35 times on my dismount! We did mount and dismount drills and then we did full routines and not one of my dismounts had me landing on my feet. Bars was okay. It started out bad but by the end I was doing my usual.

I feel like I'm letting my team down. I was last in the rankings before and I'm still down at the bottom, although Marie is below me. Everyone else is doing well and I just feel like they are all mad at me for not working harder. I'm mad at myself for not working harder. I've been feeling sort of blah ever since that food fight at Crystal Lake. I don't know why. Maybe I've got mono or something. I hope not, that would really not make my team happy. We have less members as it is.

I haven't really talked with any of the girls here. I recognize some of them and obviously I know Crystal, but I've just been hanging out on my own. Mostly I stay in my room and read or draw or something. I've really begun to get interested in art. Crystal says I have a natural talent. I drew a picture of her the other day and I have to admit it did look really good. Today I messed around with some beads and made anklets and bracelets. I'm thinking of making everyone on my squad matching anklets using our squad colors and using alpha beads to spell out our squad name.

Crystal just came in. She's putting up more posters of Sean Biggerstaff that a friend sent her. Eva may be crazy over Orlando Bloom but I think Crystal is even more obsessed with Sean Biggerstaff. She has pictures of him everywhere. And she watches Harry Potter every night just so she can see him in the movie. And when she's actually sick of the movie she still watches his scenes. He plays Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. I don't really mind all the pictures and everything, I don't have a serious crush on him but I do admit he's good looking.

I think I'm going to end this entry now. I'm not in the mood to write anymore. I think I'll go walk around for a bit.

Babbling Brooke