Are We Having Fun Yet?

I haven't written a great deal lately, largely because my life although busy is largely routine at the moment.

We didn't have a C2 square dance class yesterday (Monday): caller John Marshall is out of town most of this week. Instead, many of us from the C2 class made a surprise appearance at justetthon's C1 dance. We were just one person shy of a third square so justetthon called while dancing. It has been a long time since I've just danced without calling or pushing my way through a workshop or class... it's a fun reminder of why I do this stuff in the first place.

Tonight, kent4str and I called an open house for the Chesapeake Squares while cuyahogarvr went to Billy Harrison's Galaxy Stars C1 club night. Our performance for CS went pretty well, although we were a little disappointed we only had two newbies, one of which was just visiting from California. After all the work the club has put into our public appearances this past weekend, I think everyone was hoping for at least four newbies. *sigh*

Still, we had fun. We had three intro-to-dancing tips, two Plus tips and an A2 tip for the regulars. I sight-called the A2 tip, working on building up my skills & confidence and am quite pleased with the results.

The Chesapeake Squares also bought kent4str and me a gift Visa card in gratitude for our hours of work this past weekend. Whee! It also conveniently makes up for me forgetting to prepare an invoice for the June club nights we called... Doh!

Wednesday night, a group of us C2 students will be getting together to practice. Thursday, kent4str and I are calling an open house for the DC Lambda Squares. Friday, we crash.

Tonight's C1 gig with the Ettseteras was lots o' fun. We had two full squares (including both my hubbies) from the start and added one couple arriving late from Virginia.

My choreo was nearly 98% solid: I've marked five figures for either revision for clarity or for transfer from the medium to hard stack. Everyone seemed in a good mood and we all seemed to leave the hall tired but happy. What more could one ask for?

In other square dance news, we got word that Cleveland's "Load the Boat" fly-in in October has been scrubbed. We're going to go to Cleveland anyway since we have the vacation time already booked and there's plenty of friends & family to see & visit.

Tuesday night: John Marshall's Phantom 8s
Thursday night: DC Diamond Circulate 2009 convention meeting and Plus/A2 night with DC Lambda Squares (either myself or kent4str calling, we're still slugging it out);
Saturday night: DC Lambda Squares hosts Ken Ritucci calling Mainstream thru C1.

I'm calling for the Ettseteras in College Park, MD, substituting for justetthon.

So far, I have 12 people RSVPing to attend so the dance is definitely on. See you there!

Last night, cuyahogarvr and I went to Ettseteras to dance C1 to our newly minted MBA-owner, justetthon. kent4str was initially going to join us but backed out at the last minute; still, we had two squares on the floor all evening.

Tonight, despite the best efforts of DC commuter-hell traffic, cuyahogarvr and I danced A2 with John Marshall's Phantom 8s group in Vienna, VA. Dave & Gill Clay were also there from Nottingham, England; Dave called a fun tip part-way through the evening too. John offered me a chance to call a tip jointly with him! Squee! I declined: I wasn't mentally up to the task tonight, had no material and no microphone. Still, I'll be prepared for the next time he offers!

Wednesday, we have dinner with volunqueer. Thursday, justetthon is calling A2 and C1 for the DC Lambda Squares in Washington DC, with dinner at Thai Tanic prior. Fun stuff!

Having set up computer system backups to chug overnight, I'm now heading for bed.

Thanks to a plethora of schedule conflicts, we had precisely seven dancers for tonight's Ettseteras C1 dance. I was subbing for justetthon so I was hopeful for a full square but we didn't quite make it.

Some phone calls were made to track down an eighth body but with none available, we simply danced with a single phantom. It was an odd but very fun evening.

The math is a little unfortunate: Hall rental $50 - (7 x $7) = $-1 But hey, that's life.

We picked up a dozen club shirts to take to the IAGSDC convention in Cleveland and a stack of Zip Coder magazines & subscription forms for distribution. Now if it would only stop raining, we could get this stuff out of the car...

Tonight's Mainstream dance went well, I think: I was worried the heat & humidity might keep many people away but we still had 10 dancers, about average for these Monday night sessions.

As with previous Mainstream dances, I ran through the entire list, called some lefty versions of calls, used a few non-standard positions to give them a little mental stimulation and workshopped anything which seemed to cause heart-burn. We finished the evening with some regular wind-in-your-face dancing. At their behest, we called it an early night, knocking off five minutes early.

Future Mondays will be Butch Adams' latest Mainstream class so I'm available for C1 with the Ettseteras for the summer. In fact, I'm calling their next C1 event in two weeks' time, as well as Plus/Advanced for DCLS this coming Thursday. Whee!

We made it safely back from Roseland Resort yesterday in good time: we left around 1 PM expecting heavy vacation traffic but were pleasantly surprised how (comparatively) light it was.

After arriving at home around 6:30 PM, we quickly unpacked the minivan. I was delighted to note that our land-line telephone had a dial tone once again and our DSL was back up to full speed after sputtering through nearly all of last week. After cooling our heals for a few minutes and woofing down dinner, cuyahogarvr and I headed to justetthon's C1 dancing in College Park.

In all, I have a small stack of photos to share and much to write about but very little time in which to do it. We were hardly home much at all yesterday, I'm in training in Reston, VA, today and more C1 dancing tonight. More news when I get some breathing space.

Tonight's calling subbing for justetthon with the Ettseteras was a lot of fun. We had two squares on the floor at all times with one spare couple; the energy and enthusiasm was pretty high.

Most of the material I had written since AC/DC went over pretty well. There are a few places which need to be touched up for clarity and comprehension but nothing catastrophic. We even had some laughs and cheers in the right places so I'm declaring the night a success.

Tomorrow night: Chesapeake Squares

Oddly enough, I was able to catch up on all of the things which occurred (or didn't) while I was out last Friday within one hour this morning.

The revelation for me was that a huge portion of my office activity is guiding people to solutions while implementation of them takes a relatively small slice of my day. I suddenly have an entirely new take on why the night shift is very popular with some folks: there is much more pressure to produce tangible results but the sense of accomplishment is vastly more pleasing.

After hours this week, we have:

• Monday: C1 with the Ettseteras
  
• Tuesday: Calling MS/Plus/A2 with Chesapeake Squares
  
• Wednesday: Meeting with financial advisor
  
• Thursday: Plus/A2 with DC Lambda Squares (kent4str calling)
  
• Friday: Calling A2 with Zig Zaggers
  
• Saturday: Sleep until Sunday

Here's an overview of the coming week...
Monday: Calling C1 for the Ettseteras, subbing for justetthon in College Park, MD
Tuesday: Calling MS-A2 for the Chesapeake Squares in Baltimore, MD
Wednesday: Night off for my birthday
Thursday: Dancing A2/C1 to justetthon with the DC Lambda Squares in DC
Friday: Teaching Mainstream with Dayle Hodge and kent4str for the Chesapeake Squares
Saturday: Teaching Mainstream with Dayle Hodge and kent4str for the Chesapeake Squares
Sunday: Teaching Mainstream with Dayle Hodge and kent4str the Chesapeake Squares
Monday: Teaching Plus with kent4str for DC Lambda Squares