Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 00:34:47 -0400
From: Eric William Lamp <elamp@PIPELINE.COM>
Subject: A typical day in the life of Gina Gogean

6:00am - Gina rises. As this is the last day of her career (again), Gina gets in the shower first and uses all the hot water. Ungureanu gets soap in her eyes washing her hair, and silently curses Gina as she is rinsing in ice cold water. Gina does not care, as the end of her glorious career demands some perks.

7:00am - Gina takes breakfast in the cafeteria. As this is the last training day of her glorious career, Gina is first in line, taking all the bananas as her potassium level is dangerously low. Belu steers clear of the oatmeal, opting for cereal instead as he notices that Alexandra Marinescu, wearing an unflattering hair net, is portioning out the hot food. Oh well, he thinks, that's what she gets for attempting artistry.

8:00am - Gina enters the training hall to tumultuous applause, this being the 1,357th day of her fond farewell to gymnastics. She's given her complementary bouquet of roses, which she sends to the residents of the several housing complexes she owns. She then proceeds to do 548 punch fronts on beam and 300 double backs on floor, the only skills she currently does in gymnastics for difficulty credit. After throwing one oak tree as a fond remembrance, she then uses the entire days ration of chalk to talc down her sweaty body. The rest of the team is annoyed, but powdering down with magnesium is the closest she gets to a set of unevens these days, and after all, it is the final training day of her glorious career ( like chalk would help Dobrescu on bars anyway).

noon - back to the cafeteria for lunch. Marinesu heard about the roses and looks upset, so Gina steers clear of the hot table as well. Besides, Marinescu gets so sweaty, it's totally unappetizing, and Gina will need her strength to get thru today's farewell speech at the afternoon session. Ah, the pain of perfection, the anguish of goodbye...

1:00pm - Gina returns to the training hall, more thunderous applause. She then deigns to throw a layout Tsuk 1/2 , which Belu says is "the best Phelps I've ever coached" (unfortunately, that's true). The remaining 3 1/2 hrs of training session is used for the daily showing of the Romainian documentary "The Glorious Career of Gina Gogean". Olaru says it never gets boring, no matter how many hundreds of times she's seen it. Opreu says it's better than cats, not the musical, the actual cats that roam the dormatory complexes running wild.

5:00 Back to the caf for dinner. Tonight is pork chop night, and that's right, gina gets the chop. In a magnanimous gesture, she gives the mint jelly to Presecan, Gina is just like that, so..so..real, just like you and I. Except you and I probably make decisions and move on, while Gina... Anyway, this touching moment is followed by the nightly study of the videos of Gina's beam set, frame by frame analysis of her style, her originality, the way she can do a pivot turn and never have her heels leave the beam... Oh my, all of the sudden it's time for lights out, my goodness, the day just flew by. Luckily, tomarrow promises another glorious day celebrating the glorious career of Gina Gogean, as her farewell continues...

Goodnight
Eric NYC