Dancing Queen Update

I think this is the longest I’ve ever gone w/o getting on the computer AT ALL. Two and a half days!!! Anyway, I’m home. 3.3 hours later than expected due to the fact that I “pulled a Lorie” (i.e. got my flight wrong, something which my mother, Lorie, does every single time she flies. Although we probably would have made our flight, Las Vegas requires no less than 45 minutes ahead check in, so they made us wait for the next flight. LAME.) So, withiout further ado, here is the synopsis of my weekend in Vegas…

1) Big Daddy and I went golfing on Saturday and I GOT A BIRDIE!!! If you don’t know anything about golf, a Birdie is good. Very good. I only have had maybe half a dozen in the 10 years I’ve been playing golf. I average about one per summer, if I’m lucky, so that was a huge highlight of my trip. I know, I know-- you didn’t come here to hear about golf. I’m getting to the dancing part; hold your horses!

2) We went to the “Rising Star” competition on Saturday night. The rising stars are the pre-prefessional level. They are as good as professionals but are still in amateur status. It was amazing to watch. The costumes, the hair, the choreography, the near collisions on the dance floor….awesome. It also made me VERY nervous. Not that I in any way equate myself with these dancers. But just watching how good they were made me realize exactly how sucky I am. True, they’ve been dancing for years and I have only been dancing about 3 months, but I still felt the disparity. It was discouraging. The costumes, however, cheered me up somewhat. Most of them were worth $3000-4000 dollars. There had to have been a quarter million dollars worth of gowns in that room that night! And, oh, the sparkles!

3) I slept about 4 hours. I stayed at the ballroom quite late, watching the dancing, and then I went back to my hotel and fretted all night about how my dances would go, about whether or not I needed to have a good bow (the pros and even the little kids that danced before the pros that night all had these amazing triple spin bows), about waking up on time, etc. I “woke up” (I’m not sure I even really slept) at 4:30am and couldn’t force myself to sleep any more. I finally got up about 5:15 to get ready. Fortunately, adrenaline kept me awake until 11:30 when I finally got to nap.

4) I was relieved when I got to the ballroom, all dressed up, to find that I was appropriately dressed. A nice mix of flashy and whorish, like everyone else. There were a few costumes that were plain, but most were extravagant and sparkly and amazing. I’m also glad I opted out of the facial rhinestones. Not that I wouldn't adore walking around with jewels on my eyebrows for a few hours. But it appears that only the pros go quite that far.

5) Ok, I’m finally getting to the part you’re all waiting for: How I did. Well, my cha cha was up first. I was nervous about that because it’s a fast dance and always makes me winded when I do it in practice. But it went by so quickly and I had so much adrenaline that I didn’t notice it at all. I felt like my cha cha was OK. It is definitely my weaker of the two dances, so I had no expectations of placing at all. Still, I felt like I danced it about as well as I can, so I was satisfied. Next was the rumba. I didn’t do as well at this one as I had hoped. It’s my stronger dance, for sure, and I had felt very confident about it. First place confident. But I did one of the moves out of order and had to do a little shuffle to get back on track, and I noticed one of the judges watching me right as I did that little shuffle. I was sure I had screwed it all up. Anyway, I did my 2 minutes of dancing and cleared the floor for the other dances I wasn’t participating in. After an hour or so, they did the awards. The awards process is CRAZY. They line up everyone who danced and then as fast as they can, they say the name of the heat, the name of the dance, and then they call the first place winner’s name, the second place winner’s name, and the third place winner’s name. They don’t even pause between them. You have to sprint up to get your award and then go back in line for the next round of awards, which has already been announced by the time you get back in line.

Ok, so, how did I do?

Rumba?


Cha Cha?


And what did I win? You already saw it.


Yep, stickers. All my hard work of several months and dozens of hours, my blood, sweat, tears, and blisters were crowned with the fabulous prize of two 1” stickers. Ha! But of course no one goes there for the prizes. It’s all about the glory. And the fun. Both of which were had in large amounts. I was very pleased to have earned 2nd place for my cha cha. I hadn’t expected to even place. I was a little disappointed with not getting 1st for my rumba, but when I watched the video, I could see snippets of who won 1st place and she was definitely better than me. By a lot. By enough that I suspect she was padding her entry level. But whatever. I had a great time.

Thanks for all your well-wishes! Round 2 is in December! Who's up for it???






I didn't get any video footage of my rumba in Vegas. Big Daddy got scolded for taking video right after my cha cha (I guess they want you to pay the $50 for the professional videographer's take), so he had to stick to still pics. So I have included my dress rehearsal version.



Oh, and this is what I had for breakfast today. Raspberry lemon pancakes with vanilla bean whipped cream. It might be the best part about my weekend in Vegas. Nothing ends a two week starvation diet like 1500 calories in one sitting.