What was the first Winter Olympics you remember watching on TV?
I remember the Olympics that Tara [Lipinski] won. So, 1998. I would always try to stay awake, and I could never stay awake the whole time. But my mom woke me up to watch Tara and Michelle Kwan. And it was so close between them. But that's the very first one I remember. And then obviously, Salt Lake. I missed her [Sarah Hughes'] performance, because I was asleep. Because they always show it really late, so I would be asleep. I stay awake a lot later now.

Did you consider taking the Olympic year off from school and just training?
Well, I kind of like the whole school experience. I enjoy going to school and I like learning. So I never really thought about taking off. I did some classes in the summer to kind of get them out of the way so I could shorten up my day. And I take some online. But I never really thought about actually not going to school.

Are your friends mostly from skating, school or both?
I have both. I try to keep my skating life and my school life separate. So a lot of people at my school don't really know that I even skate, I think.

Do you think they know by now?
The kids in my class last year knew, but I have a whole bunch of new kids this year. So I don't even know if they know. They're going to find out when I'm absent for a long time (laughs).

Because you don't have your driver's license yet, your mom does that long drive every day from school to the rink?
I think she likes to go, though. It's so bad now because we don't even realize where we are anymore. It's just like, "Oh, we made it to the rink?" It just kind of goes by. But I'm sure she wouldn't mind to have a few days off. She does get Fridays off because my dad takes me.

Do your parents watch the whole practice? What do they do for that whole time?
My mom watches and reads -- she goes through a book so fast. And my dad kind of just watches.

Do you do a lot of off ice training?
I do pretty much work out with the weights and everything. I stretch a lot each day, and I work a lot on my abs.

What do you do for your abs?
I do a lot of crunches, and anything you can work on your abs with, I usually do.

Is that a vanity thing, or do you think it really helps your skating?
Both. I like to have abs, 'cause then I can show off to my brothers, "Hey, I have abs, and you don't." Because they always try and say that they can go faster than me on the ice, and I'm like, "No you can't, not now." So I like to challenge them in these little competitions.

Do you skate seven days a week? Or do you get Sundays off?
Yeah, I usually take off the weekends. I always want to skate on Sundays, but sometimes my parents are like, "Oh, just take it off!" But I'm like, "No, I want to go." It's at a rink 10 minutes from my house, so it's very convenient. But Monday through Friday, I'm up at Delaware.

And you like to go running?
Yeah, well, I have two big dogs, so I go running with them and my dad. I have a boxer and a greater swiss mountain dog. He [the mountain dog] is actually not that great of a runner. He's just kind of big and hairy (laughs). And the boxer is really fast. He goes crazy running.

And you take them running every day?
Well, we usually go every day. We always take the boxer out. Sometimes the greater swiss -- he's just a big lazy dude, so he likes to stay home. But we take him, too. We usually try to go every night so they don't have too much energy. They get really excited [to go run] when we come home.

How long of a run do you do?
Depends on the night. We usually just go to a big field -- soccer fields and those kinds of places -- and just run until he looks like he's really tired. Or else we're really tired.

What would you say you need to work on most in your skating? Is there any one area that needs improvement?
Well, everything could still use a lot more improvement, but probably a lot of it would be my presentation. And again, my skating skills. But I still took a pretty big step at that [this summer].

How does someone work on presentation skills? Is that just something that comes with maturity? Or are there specific things you can do?
It kind of comes with maturity, but I think it's also, just, if you're confident in what you're doing and if you enjoy what it is, then you'll be a lot more able to emote and kind of show what you're feeling.

Do you get really nervous before competitions?
I don't get that nervous. I probably get more excited and anxious to go. Sometimes I get nervous. But over the past year I kind of learned how to keep them down. At Campbell's [a pro-am event] last year, I was both really excited and really nervous. So put those together and I was shaking when I got on the ice. Plus I had never skated with anybody like Michelle or Sasha [Cohen]. And I couldn't stop watching them. So I think just over [last] year, just getting comfortable with that, I feel like I'm not as nervous anymore. I just get a lot more excited and ready to go.

What's been your favorite place to compete so far?
I really enjoyed Portland last year. But probably my favorite place internationally was Holland. [That] was my first junior Worlds [in 2004] and that was a great place to go. I didn't just skate there. We had fun going around and seeing different things. We were in The Hague, and everything was around us and we just had a blast and my skating went well. [Meissner won silver.]

What's your favorite place to vacation?
Well, actually, my aunt has a house on the eastern shore, and we go down there a lot. It's in Easton -- Easton, Maryland. I don't really like the beach that much because when I was novice, I went out on a sandbar and stepped on something and sliced my foot, and I got stitches. So I don't like the water or the beach. I do like to go on the sand and everything, but I just don't venture into the water.

What sport would you like to do if you weren't a figure skater?
I started out doing ballet, so maybe that. I don't know, though. I can't see myself doing anything other than skating as a different sport.