Let's see, where did I leave off last time? Oh yes, I'm at the La Guardia Airport in New York just days before the Figure Nationals. Well, let's just hold that train of thought for a minute. I have to step onto a soap box for a bit.

Recently, Tracey Greenwood won the Jan Tana Fitness show and the sparks of controversy have begun to fly higher than the ones off your dad's barbecue grill when he's attempting to make hamburgers. It seems that some didn't agree that she met the qualifications in her mandatory moves of her routines. And some think she is too vascular and too muscular. I won't touch the first one, for I wasn't there to witness the routines, but I will stick my nose into the second one and ask a few opinions (we have to get a discussion going on the members' message board somehow, right?!). Since when is a fitness competitor going to be deemed too muscular and what is occuring with fans of today? How is it when Monica Brant won in 1998, fans went crazy? (I personally thought she looked the best and thought that figure was going to expect that type of physique from the competitors; my head is shaking in disappointment right now.) What do you think is too hard for fitness, too hard for figure? What should the differences be between bodybuilding, fitness, and figure? I have my opinions, but I'll wait to divulge them until y'all start stating yours on the message board.

By the way, those Gene Carangal pictures (which are the bomb, if I do say so myself...lol; in all honesty, though, Carangal's gift as a photographer put these at the top of the list for the work I've done in 2003).

Okay, I know y'all are on the edge of your seats, awaiting to hear what happened at the show. Well, even if you're not, I'm going to go on with the story...lol!

New York always scares me a bit. So many people rushing here, rushing there. Remember, I'm a Southern girl. I move in backwards time! I'm getting knocked into by everyone as I try to lug my bags (there were about six of them...hey, I had a lot to pack!) and navigate my way through the crowd. Once outside, a limousine driver accosted me immediately, and I decided to go to the Marriott Financial Center in style. An hour and seventy dollars later, I arrived, checked in, and rode the elevator up to the 17th floor, where a corner room where a view of the Hudson bay from two different angles awaited me.

The weather in New York was quite breezy and tolerable compared to last year in August, when the girls nearly melted in the sweltering heat. You just don't want to be sweating (oops, wait...girls glisten, men sweat...lol!) when you have five coats of Protan on and two inches of make up adorning the face and only a can of hairspray holding your hair in place.

It didn't take long for me to settle in, munch on some egg whites, and stare at the Protan bottle, knowing that the inevitable was about to occur. Tanning is an interesting (and I use the word loosely) process. I don't know how all the other girls do it, but I am fair skinned and even though I've been attending the denomic tanning salon for the shows this year (Junior USA's revealed that I was distant cousin of the Hulk, and I didn't think that green-tinted skin was very appealing for the stage), I still have trouble with the spray on tanning process. Basically, my nerves come out to play when I begin to tan for the show. It's a sign that the I'm truly about to compete.

Anyway, I diverge from the topic, which you'll notice I do regularly. My tanning routine is this: two coats Thursday night, rinse off in the shower Friday morning, three coats Friday, hope and pray all Friday night, wake up Saturday, peek out of one eye while prayers are still running through the mind, take a look in the mirror, breathe a sigh of relief, look at pasty white face and mangled hair, and scream in fright...lol! Lots of make up is needed to match the face to the newly bronzed body.

Well, this particular Thursday, I didn't get to the tanning ordeal right away. I had to call all my friends, of course! I talked with Lesli Russell for a while, and she was kind enough to part with her asparagus, for I somehow forgot the one-pound bag I meant to pack. I took a look at her, provided a few suggestions, helped her to calm down (she looked great, by the way; that girl has worked hard this year!), and sent her on her merry way. Then I called Dina al Sabah and chatted with her for an hour. She gave me my snickerdoodle cookies and took a shovel...ahem...handful of my chocolatey chocolate brownies and then left. I was finally able to begin tanning and was up until after midnight waiting for each coat to dry. Mind you, I had about three more tasty meals throughout the evening.

Wow! I'm exhausted already! I don't know how I keep my endurance going (adrenaline, huh?) before a show, but you can see that there is so much to do, and I haven't even gotten into Friday's events. I'll get there eventually. Just be patient!

In the meantime, I arrive home from London on Monday and will be able to write in the journal on a much more regular basis. I do hope y'all are reading. If not, then I guess I'll just have to laugh at my moronic jokes all by myself. What else is new?! lol!

I'm off to eat a bowl of cereal (cereal is so yummy! I never get it during the in season, or in the off season, for that matter, so this is quite nice!). Have a great Sunday!

Jodi