Step Lively

My 10th LJ Anniversary

ann0625 — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 01:42:36 GMT

It's hard to believe that the last time I posted an entry here was 4 years ago, but I haven't abandoned LJ, and I still want to come back to write regularly someday.

My 6th LJ Anniversary

ann0625 — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 20:19:21 GMT

I started on Sunday, 6/25, 2006. My employer blocked LJ about three years ago, which has decreased my usage significantly. I only log in about once a month now, but I'm still here, and still have no desire to join Facebook. It's always good to see the old friends who are still holding on here!

BTW: I'm not going to the convention this year.

The total number of tips I danced at the 2011 IAGSDC Convention

ann0625 — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 05:56:54 GMT

	MS	Plus	Advanced	C1	C2	Total by Caller
Bill Eyler	1		3	3		7
Daryl Murphy					1	1
Dayle Hodge		2	3			5
Deborah Caroll-Jones			3			3
Harlan Kerr			1			1
John Herriot	1					1
John Marshall			3	4		7
JR. St. Jean	3		4			7
Michael Kellogg		3	5		7	15
Michael Maltenfort			2			2
Vic Ceder			3	3	7	13
Zip's substitute	1					1
Total by Level	6	5	27	10	15	63

I also danced the whole three hours of Country/Western Dance, 1 tip at the Trail-in Dance, 3 tips at the Trail-out Dance, 2 tips at the GCA School Dance, and I was a checker for GCA School for two days.

Chart first, words later.

Happy New Year!

ann0625 — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:02:03 GMT

It’s a warm but dark day here in Atlanta. The temperature is in the pleasant 60+, but we’ve had sporadic showers all morning. I’m sitting through the third one right now.

The earliest possible dance weekend that I’ve planned for is AACE in June.

Hotlanta Squares will not have a fly-in this year, but we will have our 10-year anniversary dance two weeks from today, with Anne and Tim Marriner calling. In February Roger Loney will call for our Valentine Dance. In March I have the annual Peach State Dance weekend to look forward to.

A Normal Week

ann0625 — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 01:44:14 GMT

Last Saturday night I left 3-Legged Cowboy by midnight, and since I danced so much that night, I had to take a shower after I got home. It was 1 a.m. when I went to bed. I got up at 8:50 on Sunday morning, but still finished my food shopping before 10:30 a.m.

I probably shouldn’t have had a large latte around 5 p.m. on Sunday, because I didn’t sleep well on Sunday night and then lingered in bed until 7:37 a.m. on Monday morning. I missed the 8 a.m. train even after running several blocks. But since I normally leave myself half hour for breakfast, I still walked into office on time.

The rest of the week went well. From Tuesday to Friday, I woke up before the alarm, caught the 8 a.m. train, and felt comfortable for the rest of the day. Nowadays I usually start feeling sleepy by 10:30-ish, so I finish whatever I’m doing by 11-ish, and then soak my feet in hot water for 30 minutes (it’s a family tradition) while reading a book, and then go to bed before midnight. A good night of sleep and a light and relaxing breakfast really makes a lot of difference.

I did not take any days off this week. On Friday I was the only person in. It was a day without distraction, and I finished updating two large and very tedious Excel worksheets, plus some other misc. It occurred to me that I still need to complete at least 20 hours of continuing professional education before year-end, so I purchased five four-credit hour online courses from Gleim. All of them are personal tax courses. I printed the 80 pages of course outline to use on the weekend, and then left work at 4 p.m.

Like most years, I didn’t do any shopping for Christmas. Actually I haven’t been in a mall in the past 18 months and I don’t miss it at all. I did give my friend Alan a present at his Christmas party tonight, because I happened to spot something interesting when I walked through the neighborhood CVS one day last month. I wrapped it up last night using some gift paper my landlord left in the attic.

My housemate was out of town and I’m feeding his cat. The cat only comes out eating while I’m not around. I have a quiet house all for myself. I finished one of the tax courses last night. It was basically a 40-multiple choice online quiz with open book, since I’ve printed the outline. This morning I got up at 8:15 a.m. I’ve stopped using alarm on weekends, since by now I’ve gotten used to not staying in bed for too long after I wake up. I finished another course this morning, walked to Starbucks for a latte. It was cold and cloudy but not windy, so I enjoyed a refreshing walk outside while sipping my latte. I finished another course around noon, ate a light lunch, read a few pages of a Chinese novel, and then went to Alan’s annual Christmas party.

Most of the regular attendees are square dancers. The number is a little low – about 30 people, probably because of the weather. The meal is usually much lighter than the one on Thanksgiving. I had a bowl of chili, a slice of bread, a little bit of banana pudding and some ham. My strategy for eating ham is that I let everyone else get their slices first, and then I trim the little pieces of leftovers near the center bone. Those are the reddest, most tender and juiciest parts. People also left earlier because they were worrying about the snow. Yes it’s snowing outside! Although the snow “drops” is melting almost as soon as they hit the ground, I think there are enough to be called “measurable”, so this is the first time Atlanta had a Christmas with measurable snow in 153 years!

So it’s been a quiet and relaxing week. I’m not tired, stressed or stuffed, and I’m ready to go out dancing at 3LC at this moment. Merry Christmas to you all!

Another day without an entry

ann0625 — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 04:31:02 GMT

This is another day that I didn’t write a real LJ post. But I replied three comments; can they substitute for one post?

Just like Sunday night, I have planned to write about the dance workshop I attended at 3LC on Saturday. But when I think about writing a dancing-related journal my mind starts to wonder about dancing in general, and then I can’t help but start searching dance videos and music on YouTube, and then my time runs out.

Unresolved 2/10 Petaluma C4 sequence #1

ann0625 — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:35:44 GMT

This is another short and quick Monday night post.

I'm stuck with this Vic Ceder sequence from the Feb. 2010 Petaluma weekend. If you have the recording, it's in the middle of Tip #27.

Sides pass the sea
PIECEWISE YOYO single scoot and trade
inside triangle 2/3 exchange the triangle
triple cast
3/4 exchange the diamond
6 x 2 acey duecy
inroll to a wave and roll
YOYO cast a net
end girls ripple 3 & 1/2

At this point I have a Bat/Rigger with heads as a couple and have their left shoulders towards the center, and sides in the center box holding right hands. I don't know how to do a Crackle from here. The rest of the sequence is:

crackle and circle 1/4
all 8 diamond recycle
release <center diamond drop in and weave>
offset waves scatter scoot
center 4 mix, others anchor the boys for a trade, and roll
L.A.

Walking, Walking...

ann0625 — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:16:20 GMT

I mentioned earlier this year that I signed up for the Virgin Health Mile program my company offered. At first I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it, and procrastinated for over a month before I finally activated my pedometer and logged on to the VHM website for the first time. I often forgot to wear the pedometer in the morning and sometimes wondered if it was worth the daily trouble to earn the maximum reward of $200 a year. And then I lost the pedometer in the Hilton during the IAGSDC convention. I put it down in a restroom and forgot to put it back on. Nobody turned it in.

So I was just ready to give up, but in August my Dear Employer offered us a ten-day discount period to replace a lost pedometer for $15 (we get our first one for free, but each additional one normally cost $25). At the same time, the maximum annual reward was increased to $500. That was enough to draw me back. I did the math and figured out that there was no way I could earn the full $500 by my anniversary date on April 8^th, because I have wasted too much time earlier this year, but a total of $350 is very attainable. Here’s how the programs works:

Each day: I can earn 20 points for walking less than 7,000 steps, or 60 points for more than 7,000 steps, or 80 points for more than 12,000 steps. I can write two activity journals in the website for 10 points each. The journal points are really freebies because mostly I just need to select dates, time and activity from drop-down boxes. The maximum points I can earn in one day is 100, so there’s no economic benefit for walking more than $12,000 steps a day. This is very easy for me to achieve. I’m one of the few Atlanta residents who don’t use a car to get to work, because I live and work just a few blocks from a MARTA station. My daily commute is at least 5,000 steps, and my walk to the food court during lunch time is another 1,000 steps. If I just stop by at the Decatur library on my way home, I’ve got my 7,000 steps already.

Each week: I earn 20 points simply by logging on to the VHM website.

Each month: I earn 200 points by entering my improved fitness measurements in the website. I can also participate in a monthly challenge and earn an extra 150 to 250 points, such as the “walk more than X steps during the Thanksgiving week Turkey Trail Challenge”.

Every year: I earn extra points for doing an online fitness assessment and signing a no-smoking agreement.

Here’s how the rewards accumulate: For the first 5,999 points I just get a free pedometer (the lost one). At 6,000 points I climb to Level 2 and earn $75. I reached L2 in September and the money was automatically transferred to my Health Savings Account a few days later. At 12,000 points I climb to Level 3 and get another $125. I earned it before Thanksgiving. The next two levels will take much longer time to reach. I will need to accumulate another 12,000 points to get another $150, which will take me a little less than four months. After that I will run out of time, because my points will be reset to zero on my anniversary date.

Right now I’m participating in another special challenge that offers the biggest reward for the year. I’ll write about it tomorrow. It’s time for bed. Good night.

Weekend Misc.

ann0625 — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 04:00:21 GMT

Saturday:

Got up at 7:50 a.m.; walked 7,000 steps in the neighborhood after breakfast; completed one Rob French C4 tip; read in the library.

Went to Hotlanta Squares’ holiday dance, called by local caller Richard Smith; ate four lemon pepper chicken wings brought by Danny and Bill and two coconut macaroons baked by Dave.

Sunday:

Got up at 8:20 a.m. and went to the DeKalb Farmers Market right after it opened at 9 a.m. I’ve moved my weekly food-shopping trip to a weekend morning to give myself extra incentives to get up earlier.

Surfed on the internet; should have used that time to write a LJ post.

Went to the Chamblee branch library, which has a large collection of Chinese books, and then bought some snack from a Chinese supermarket.

Played a half hour of Wii Fit at Ed’s house before we drove to Hapeville for Matrix South’s holiday dance, called by Hotlanta Squares’ club caller JR. We had a little more than three squares and alternated A2 and C1 for three hours.

I ate plenty of finger foods at the dance, but still cooked a light dinner for myself afterwards, just so that I ate enough vegetables. There was not much time left for LJ after dinner.

Of course I’d like to present my journal in coherent paragraphs instead of sentence fragments, but sometimes setting a high standard is the main reason that I end up doing nothing at all.

2010 Dance Expense - $2,389

ann0625 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 03:49:38 GMT

I don't have much time posting on Monday nights, because it's Hotlanta Squares' class night. So I'll post statistics here instead of words. This year is not over yet, but I'm done with traveling.

$1,889 for out-of-town square dance weekend. Click on the journal title to see a better formated table. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the extra spaces below the table

	Maryland C4 workshop	AACE	IAGSDC Convention	September Importers	November Importers	Total
Airline	Delta	Midwest	UA	Delta	UA
Flight	$317	$188	$175	$180	$174	$1,034
Other Transportation	$2	$1	$5	$2.5	$2.5	$13
Admission	0	$80	$200	$65	$65	$410
Lodging	free lodging and free meals	$156 - four nights with two roommates at hosting hotel	$152 - four nights at youth hostel	$62 for one night at Redroof Inn	$62 for one night at Redroof Inn	$432
Total	$319	$425	$532	$310	$310	$1,889
Hours of dancing	11	26	26	10	10	83
$ per hour	$29	$16	$21	$31	$31	$23

$500 for local dancing:

$259 for Hotlanta Squares class nights, club dances, raffles, fly-in and membership
$65 for other local square dances
$14 for drinks and coat check at 3-Legged Cowboy
$53 for a-la-carte admissions for the Peachstate Country Western Dance Weekend in March
$5 for my first and only English country dance
$7.5 for C4 MP3s
$96 for estimated dancing related gas cost

Year-end Resolutions Update

ann0625 — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 04:36:08 GMT

On every work day of this week, I set my alarm at 7:20 a.m., left my bed before 7:30, walked into the Decatur MARTA station before 8, caught the 8 a.m. train, arrived at the Peachtree Center station and bought my breakfast in the food court before 8:30, finished eating by 8:50, and walked into office at 9 a.m.

I made some small changes to my routine to making my early mornings more comfortable:

1. I turned up my bedtime room temperature by one degree, and in the small unit I live, the difference is quite noticeable. At night I could fall asleep more quickly, and in the morning I was no longer afraid of exposing to the cold air.

2. Of course the bathroom was the still a little cold, so I brushed my teeth in the shower.

3. I turned down the volume of my radio. I realized that if I was woken up by a intrusive noise, my natural reaction was to shut it off immediately and do exactly the opposite of what it told me to do. A gentler wakeup call worked much better, and the radio was more pleasant than the buzz sound. For the same reason, I will not use the “put the clock at the other side of the room so you’ll have to get up to shut it off” approach.

4. I moved my pillow to the other end of the bed, so now I lay facing a window and I can see more lights in the morning.

5. Notes to self: I’m doing fine as long as I catch the 8 a.m. train. I don’t need to jump up in the second the alarm goes off. I’m not in the military. It’s OK to stay in bed and listen to a good country song or two, but I try to keep my eyes open during those few minutes.

6. Selected my clothes and organized my purse for tomorrow before I went to bed.

Lessons learned: Don’t just use my willpower to tolerate something that I dislike. Try to look at it from a different angle and add more joy to it.

My First Square Dance MP3

ann0625 — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 04:15:37 GMT

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I ordered my first MP3 square dance recording from Keith Rubow.

I’ve been buying cassette tapes since I started learning C4 in the summer of 2005. Why cassette tapes? Because I didn’t have a home computer until a year ago and I still don’t have a MP3 player. I had an AM/FM stereo cassette recorder that a friend bought for $10 at a yard sale long time ago and then passed on to me, so cassette was the natural choice. Besides, the two tape groups I danced with were using mostly tapes, so I was just used to it.

Of course a tape cost twice as much as a disc, but it was just easier to make a lot of small purchases overtime than to shop for a new gadget. But drawing sequences turned out to be more addictive than I had expected, and over the course of three years I bought close to $500 worth of tapes. Considering how much fun I had from drawing sequences and the ending result of my practice, I think I’ve got my money’s worth.

In the past two years I’ve been getting choreographies in word document from various callers and dancers, mainly to save me the trouble of transcribing.

(Added on Thursday, 12/9:)

But I ran out of choreographies last month, so I dug out the three tapes that I abandoned half-way and finished transcribing and drawing them last month. These were the recordings of three Japanese callers at the Petaluma C4. Whiling I was working on them, I rediscovered the joy of drawing sequences from recordings. When I heard a caller’s voice (and dancers’ noise) on the recording I almost felt like I was also in the dance hall with them, so my practice seemed more “real”. Trying to jot down words at dance speed also got my adrenaline going, and brought me more energy. And of course good background music was always exciting. On some days I could easily complete more than a dozen sequences in one sitting and still wasn’t very tired. That rarely happened when I used printed choreos.

So I started ordering recordings again, this time MP3. For $7.50, I bought all the 15 C4 tips from the Feb. 2010 Petaluma weekend, called by Clark Baker, Vic Ceder, Richard Tuck and Rob French. I asked Keith to just email them to me in attachments, and he did it right away. Over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend I completed 62 sequences, with minimal help from SD. After this binge, I decided to establish a more moderate but regular schedule. I will work on one tip each weekend. A tip usually has 8 to 10 sequences. From transcribing to finish it normally takes me a little over two hours, about the same length of a live dance session.

Ben Rubright Weekend

ann0625 — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 04:17:55 GMT

Ben was in Atlanta on the weekend before Thanksgiving. As usual he stayed at the Tapps’ home in Kennesaw. I missed the C2 session there on Friday night. We had a meeting at work that lasted till 5, and after that I wasn’t motivated enough to take the 30 miles of suburb-bound commute.

I also didn’t attend the two C3A/C3B sessions Ben called in Chattanooga, TN on Saturday, because JR called an A/C dance at Hotlanta Squares from 2 to 5 p.m. I forgot to mention that the A2/C1 session John Marshall called for us in August was the first A/C only dance in our club history, so this was our second time. We alternated Class-level A1/Full A2/Class-level A1/C1. Exactly 16 dancers attended.

On Sunday evening Ben called for the Matrix South tape group in Hapeville at their usual time: A2 from 5 to 7 and C1 from 7 to 9. He used easy and smooth flowing material at solid speed. No Block Concept. We had exactly three squares for A2 and 2.5 for C1, including three Hotlanta members: Ann, Ed and JR. I was glad to see a few local new A dancers that I had never met before. I hope they will start dancing with the tape group.

Guests from Chi-town

ann0625 — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:25:16 GMT

At my last Importers weekend, Lynette and Carl Smith each told me separately that she/he would be in Atlanta for business this week. But I didn’t know that they didn’t know that they would both be here, so it was a nice surprise to them when I sent both a confirmation email last week. And their work locations are very close to each other!

They are only able to come to our club on Monday night, but IMHO the Monday night classes (MS and Plus) is a lot more fun than the Tuesday classes (C1 and A) anyway. Carl has a car, so he picked up Lynette and we met outside of the dance hall at 6:30. Lynette wanted to go to a restaurant nearby called Hawaii Waikiki (her company’s headquarter used to be just across the street from where we dance), but it was closed on Monday nights, so we went to the Thai Chilies across the street, and it turned out to be a very good choice.

We went to the class at 7:30. We had a small crowd tonight, 4 squares for MS and 3 squares for Plus, but a good time was had by all.

Sunday

ann0625 — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:41:53 GMT

I danced at 3LC and returned home at midnight. But like a lot of nights after dancing, I was wide awake and couldn’t fall asleep for quite a while. I was probably a little dehydrated too. I woke up early in the morning feeling thirsty, but didn’t want to get out of bed to drink water. So I probably didn’t sleep well for the rest of the morning either. When the alarm went off at 7:20, I was so not ready to get up. So I shut the alarm and didn’t get up until 10:30, although during the last hour I was awake and just daydreaming. Surprisingly, I felt sleepy again in the afternoon while I was reading in the library, and actually took a 15 minute nap there.

I won’t go to 3LC next Saturday, because Hotlanta Squares will have a holiday dance that last till 10 p.m. I’ll see if that makes any difference next Sunday. I’ll try to remember that oversleep did not make me feel better for the rest of the day.

Earlier Bird

ann0625 — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 01:29:53 GMT

I’m back. Last night I did my weekly food shopping at the DeKalb Farmers Market. This is one of the few places that I find shopping a pleasant experience. Even though I go there every week, and rarely spend more than $30 each time, I always end up spending more than an hour in the store. So by the time I finished cooking and eating, it was already 10:30 p.m. I tried to log on to LJ several times in the next hour, but my attempts always failed due to possible “website under maintenance” or “programming error”. So I went to bed at 11:30.

I looked up in the dictionary, and its definition for “get up” is “to rise from bed in the morning”. It does not specify that I must get out of bed. I’m not looking for loopholes but, on last Wednesday and Thursday morning I “rose” as soon as the alarm went off, and sat in bed with my head pressed against my knees for about 10 minutes before I managed to get out of bed. On both mornings I missed a train by 2 minutes and had to wait for 13 more minutes for the next train. I learned my lesson and got out of bed a little faster on Friday. After I had breakfast and coffee at the food court next to my office, I felt fine all day, so I must had enough sleep.

It was much harder on a Saturday morning. I sat in bed for more than 30 minutes wrapped in my blanket, listening to the country music station, daydreaming, and did a little stretching at the end. I didn’t use the snooze button and didn’t lay down again. I’m making progress.

After a shower and breakfast my energy came back. It was cloudy and a little chilly outside, just the kind of weather I like, so I clipped on my pedometer and walked in the neighborhood for 45 minutes, or 5,000 steps, or 1.6 mile. Then I walked to a coffee shop and read a book there for two hours, and came home for lunch at noon. It felt good to be eating lunch at the time that I normally eat breakfast.

Since it’s not too cold outside, I’ll leave for 3-Legged Cowboy in half an hour. I’ll keep in mind that I still need to get up at 7:20 tomorrow.

My 6th Importer Weekend

ann0625 — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 04:01:57 GMT

On November 13^th I flew to Chicago again for the Importers Weekend.

We had 26 dancers for C4:

From Chicago: Bill, Carol, Bruce, Joanie, Sandie, Carl, Tom, Kevin, David and Barb

From CA: Paul, Julia, Connie, Roger, Patricia W, Jane and Harlan

From MD: Dan and Janet

From NJ: Will and Mary

From TX: David, Kathleen and Sue

From MI: Gail

From GA: Ann!

Plus 2 dancers for C3: Rick from Chicago and Jim from TX

I think this is the worst that I’ve danced at Importers. Since we had just filed the 10Q on the 9^th, I didn’t study much for this weekend; and then Lynette called a very hard C4 session. Carol thought that it was harder than Berkshires.

I had some really tasty food though. On Saturday Rick and I had lunch at the Thai restaurant Sticky Rice near his home. I had steamed sole in lemon juice, and warm sticky rice with ~~Duran~~ durian for dessert. Carl, Rick, Gail, Harlan and I went to the Italian Kitchen for dinner. I order a dish called Soupe something, which consisted of large chunks of octopus, sea scallop, jumbo shrimps, lots of squid, a dozen of mussels and clams, and a piece of tilapia that was big enough to be an entrée, all steamed in a mixture of garlic , butter and white wine source. I ate the leftover for lunch on Sunday. I can never have too much seafood.

The weather in Chicago was mild for the most part of the weekend.

Year-end Resolutions

ann0625 — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 04:14:42 GMT

#1: I’m going to post LJ entries every day this month.

When I bought my Netbook (which is also my first home computer) a year ago, I was looking forward to posting on LJ more often. Just two blocks from where I live there is a public library and a coffee shop that has free wireless connection. About two months ago I found out that the connection problem I had in my house had mysteriously disappeared so now I have good internet connection at home too. Right after the Chicago convention, I also found out that I can log in LJ at work again (although recently it has been blocked again), so technically I shouldn’t have any problem.

However, I’ve been distracted by a lot of other things on the internet. The West Coast Swing Youtube videos I posted several months ago was an example. But the real problem is that the less I write, the more difficult it is for me to write. It’s taking me longer time to organize and express my thoughts, so I usually ended up procrastinating instead of doing the hard work. I shouldn’t let this negative cycle continue. It seems to me that making comments on other people’s journals is a more effective way of communicating than posting my own stories, but I need to do this for myself.

#2: I will go to bed before midnight and get up immediately when my alarm clock goes off at 7:20 a.m. No snooze button! And no exceptions on weekends! Some of you are probably already at work by that time, but for a night owl like me, it’s much easier to work till 9 p.m. than to come in at 9 a.m., and I do that quiet often during the busy seasons. Financial Reporting is a dead-line driven department, so as long as I finish my work before the due dates, coming in a little late is not an issue. But I want to make this change for myself. Once again, I want to see if I can conquer a task that’s difficult for me.

Why do I make changes in the last month of the year? Because December is a slow and low-stress month for my work group, so it should be relatively easier for me to exercise my willpower and flexibility in other areas of my life. I’ve read that it takes at least 28 consecutive days to change an old habit. So if I really want to stick to a new year’s resolution, I should start it in December, right?

AACE 2010 on YouTube

ann0625 — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:47:18 GMT

This is me dancing in the Mike Jacobs Memorial Tip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q010e2_LwlQ&feature=related

The Friday C4 session:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87taCNgi208&feature=related

The Saturday night C3B session:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NglX13iK9Qo&feature=related

My 5th Importers Weekend

ann0625 — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:12:01 GMT

On 9/11 I went to Chicago again for my 5^th Importers Weekend. Ben Rubright was the caller.

We had 20 dancers for C4:

Bill & Carol, Tom, Lynette, Barb, David, Carl, Michael (morning session) and Kevin (afternoon session) from Chicago

Scott & Kathleen (with their spanking-new baby), Sue and David from TX

Stricklands and Galburts from FL

Carl and JW from WA

Harlan from CA

Ann from GA!

Plus two more dancers for C3B: Rick from Chicago and Jim from TX

Ben used a lot of his new GENEROUS/STINGY concept and the MIMIC concept, and of course his OWN concept. I’m very happy with my dancing over the weekend. I think this is the best I’ve ever done at Importers, and I received some compliments from Bill Heimann. Although I don’t remember anything specific from the 700+ of Ben’s Berkshires sequences I completed earlier this year, I believe that my studying has paid off. Other people also did well. Ben mis-read his sequences a few times, because we were dancing so fast.

It was great to dance with Harlan again - at his first Importers weekend! Michael Maltenfort did a very good job in his first Importers C4 session, and it was nice to have Carl Smith coming back to C4. Kathleen and cwalesa . also danced very well after long absences.

Notes:

Although Settle Back is a shape changer, some elements don’t change. If you start in a RH column, you’ll end in a LH column and vice versa, and the people in your 1x4 will still end up in your 1x4; if you start in a RH wave, you’ll end in a LH wave and vice versa; if you star in a RH 2FL, you’ll end in a LH 2FL and vice versa, and the people in your box will still end up in your box.

For the ends, the first part of Plenty is Little, not ¼ Right!

John Marshall Weekend, August 26th – 29th

ann0625 — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:21:49 GMT

The Metro Atlanta Square Dancers Association (MASDA) booked John Marshall for one of their monthly dances on 8/29. Because we seldom get an out-of-town caller in this area, several other clubs also took the chance to book him for a dance.

Thursday C3A/C3B at Sets in Motion

Carol Tapp booked John for Thursday and had him stayed at her house on Thursday night. We danced C3A from 3 to 5:30 and then C3B from 7 to 9:30 at the Tapps’ home in Kennesaw. This is the usual time and level this tape group dances. I’ve never danced with them on Thursdays before, but I requested ½ day off from work since we had a live caller. I couldn’t carpool with ZT and Donna this time because they were going to continue their way north to a Lee Kopman’s C3A weekend afterwards.

Every person who could dance these levels and lived within 2 hours of driving distance came. We had exactly two squares for C3A. Four C3A dancers left after the dinner break, but the Morlans came, so we were one couple short for two squares of C3B. Carol had given John an accurate description of the ability of this group, so he called mostly easy material. It was still challenging to some dancers in the group, but we kept moving.

Friday A2/Plus/Rounds at Fiddling Owls

Fiddling Owls is about 5 miles from my home, and Hotlanta Squares’ club caller JR has been calling there once a month for about a year now. On Friday night we had 5 squares for partial A2 from 7 to 8 p.m. The majority of them came from a DBD Plus club that hasn’t completed the Advanced program, although some of them also take Advanced lessons at Hotlanta. More people came in after the A2 session. The final head count was 15 Fiddling Owls members and 83 visitors. There were 8 dancers signed in as Hotlanta Squares members: Danny, Bill, JR, Ann, Mike S., John W., Sam and Ed L. Three clubs, including ours, earned a visitation certificate. JR and I danced rounds between the Plus tips.

It was a fun dance, and I was amazed at John’s ability of resolving a messed up square. He used a lot of good music, but I think the dancers didn’t dance well enough to earn the fastest and/or the most upbeat songs.

Saturday A2/C1 at Hotlanta Squares

This dance was set up very late, so the only available time slot left was Saturday morning from 10:30 to 12:30. But we still had 3 squares. About half of the dancers were Hotlanta Squares dancers; the other half was local dancers who come to our lessons regularly. We danced mostly A2 and only two C1 tips.

After the morning dance I drove John to Hapeville for the afternoon C2 sessions. We stopped by at IHOP for a quick lunch, and JR and Ed joined us there.

Saturday C2 at Matrix South

We had two C2 sessions from 2 to 4p.m., and then from 6 to 8 p.m., with dinner break at a very nice barbeque restaurant nearby. Of the 18 people who danced on Thursday night, only the Tapps, the Caldwells, Fran and I came to the C2 dance. The 4 Chattanooga dancers didn’t want to drive another extra hour south; three Atlanta dancers went to Lee Kopman’s C3A weekend in Indiana. The other 5 people rarely dance below their highest level. We had 12 dancers in the first session. After that JR went home for a disco nap, and another old lady also bailed out.

So we didn’t have many sit-outs, and the floor level was probably the strongest, relatively speaking, of all the dances during that weekend. John used some very interesting choreography. They were not as challenging as some of his tapes that I had heard, nor danced at the same speed, but I did learn a few things. On our way to the dance I mentioned to him that one of my favorite CONCENTRIC calls was CONCENTRIC chain down the line from a tidal. He called it several times that afternoon. Ha!

Saturday MS/Plus at Hotlanta Squares (caller Bill Jones)

Of course this dance was set up long time ago, before we knew that John would be in town on the same weekend. After the C2 dance we went to Hotlanta Squares and caught the end of it. John kept a low profile and stayed at the back of the dance hall, but I did get to dance with him for two tips. The caller Bill Jones was from Whitesburg, GA. He seemed like a fun caller, but he had never called for an APD group before, and we had a little difficulty understanding his accent.

Sunday A2/MS/Plus/Rounds at MASDA

I did not dance this one. Although the monthly MASDA dance is held at a venue only three miles from my home, I’ve never attended because square dance attire is always required. There were 5 representatives from Hotlanta Squares: Our new president Danny and his partner Bill, vice president Brad, webmaster Wayne and caller JR. Their normal attendance is between 10 to 15 squares, and there were 12 squares for John’s dance, including a lot of people who also attended the Fiddling Owls dance on Friday.

Sunday C1 at Matrix South

Sunday evening we went back to Hapeville for 3 hours of C1. We had two squares for most of the evening. JR came, but then had to leave soon after the dance started. Ed was the only other Hotlanta Squares dancer attended. I’m used to this now and I don’t even care anymore.

Overall I had a wonderful time, and it was a good warm-up for my upcoming Importers weekend. We have so few live dances here that this almost felt like a fly-in to me. We were very fortunate to have John Marshall here for a long weekend. I’ve always enjoyed dancing to him. He is probably my favorite caller for C1 and C2. I also happened to dance my very first C1 tip to John, at Peel the Pumpkin in October 2003. It’s hard to believe that almost 7 years have passed since then.

Chi-Town Shakedown - Sunday

ann0625 — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:40:44 GMT

It was not easy to start dancing at 9 a.m. on the last day of the convention, but I got there on time. I stayed in the A2 hall for two hours, dancing to Barry and Lynette. I had never danced A2 live to Lynette before. Her session was like a hot hash, with short sequences called at fast speed, and the cueing were right on. I think most people enjoyed it. We had about 9 or 10 squares at the beginning of the session, and the same number at the end. I then danced one MS tip to the Ross/Todd duet, had some refreshments in the women’s room, and went back downstairs for an hour of energetic Plus dancing to Kellogg.

After two more hours of C4, I had to start going to all the dance halls to say goodbye to friends. It was a great convention, the best one that I’ve been to. Besides that I had to leave a little early, there wasn’t anything that I don’t like about this convention, and I enjoyed every tip I danced. It was a good idea to get there a couple days early, so that I didn’t feel the trip was over too soon.

Chi-Town Shakedown - Saturday

ann0625 — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:52:14 GMT

My Saturday dancing started with my first and only C3B hour dancing to Lynette. Because Noriko Takahashi registered late and didn’t get a GCA slot, Lynette gave her a tip. We had five squares in the room and both the choreography and the dancing were very good. After that I went downstairs and danced three Advanced tips to Michael Kellogg and then came back up for three hours of C4 with Sandie, Ross, Vic, Noriko, Osamu and Ryo.

Ryo and I planned to go to dinner together after Lynette’s C2 hour, but I had to get a little food from the Women’s Lounge right away. After that I danced two C2 tips to Lynette. At 6 p.m. Lynette, Ryo, Noriko and I went to a Japanese restaurant about a mile south on Michigan Ave. We had wasabi shumai, fried seaweeds and fried soft shell crab for appetizer, followed by three big plates of sushi. The food was very good, but the lighting in the restaurant was so dim that I could hardly see the true color of our food. That was very odd, since table presentation is such an important part of Japanese cuisine.

We took a taxi on our way to dinner, but decided that we had enough time to walk back. We got back to the hotel a little before 8 p.m. Prior to the convention I had worried about not having enough dancing time, but after the 3.5 hours of country dance on Friday night and 3 hours of C4 on Saturday afternoon, I was physically and mentally exhausted, so I was happy not dancing for the rest of the evening.

I hang out at the registration counter during my two hours of volunteer floater shift from 8 to 10, but I wasn’t needed anywhere, except as the room monitor for the MS hall, which became the Plus hall at the time of the leather tip. So I went up there at 8:30 to make sure everything was OK, and then one more time at 9:15. On my second trip I stopped by at the leather tip hall to check out Ross Howell’s outfit, and then danced a Plus tip to John Marshall. Towards the end of the evening I went up to the third floor to check out the challenge halls. I was needed as the eighth person for a C1 square, so I danced my only C1 tip of the weekend, with Bill Eyler.

I wasn’t too sorry about missing the Online Social tip. Like several people here have already expressed, I really want to keep it as LiveJournal only, but I’d like to include both LJ writers and regular readers. There is nothing special about Facebook, since almost everyone is on it or has heard about it. LJ is a much smaller and lesser known community, it has a lot more depth, and it takes lots of effort to maintain. Most of my LJ friends were at the convention. I finally got to meet allanh , bigjohnsf , abqdan , double_ohsteven , bibliocub and fyellin in person, and I was glad to see sfleatherbear and billeyler again after several years of absence.

Chi-Town Shakedown - Friday

ann0625 — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:48:59 GMT

I slept in on Friday morning and arrived at the Hilton at the perfect time: the Grand March had just ended. I finally got in touch with Dan. We had a nice chat at the Starbucks next door, and then I gave him a tour of the hostel. But I couldn’t show him my dorm because the two Russian girls were still in bed.

The dancing officially started at 1 p.m. As a good warm-up, I danced one hour Plus to Michael Kellogg, then three tips of Advanced to Dayle Hodge. Then I danced two hours of C2 while performing my room monitor duty. After that I rushed to the MS hall to catch Michael Levy’s GCA slot. This was the first time I heard his lovely singing voice. After another MS tip to Kellogg, it was time for me to eat dinner. After last night’s long dinner march, I decided to have a quick and easy meal on my own for a change. I went back to the hostel, ate my dinner left over plus a marinated eggplant salad that I bought at the Cuban café. Then I did some stretching in my room, picked up my dance shoes for the C/W dance, and walked back to Hilton for the C4 sessions.

About 40 dancers danced in the C4 hall over the whole weekend, but we only had two squares dancing at any given time. The attendees were:

From Japan: Noriko and Ryo

From Europe: Brigit and Arne from Sweden and Liz from Britain

From Canada: Pam and Osamu

From CA: Richard, Neal, Frank, Harlan, Patricia, Stewart, Jonathan, Tim, Vic and Debbie

From Northeast: Mary & Will Leland, Geo and Patrick, Ett

From Chicago: Bill & Carol Heimann, Barb, David Schmidt, Bill Klein and Michael Maltenfort

Form other area: Sue from TX, JW from WA, Ann from GA!

I danced every C4 tip on the schedule, trying to alternate between the front and the back square. The dancing was very good and we all worked well together. I think overall the difficulty of choreography and the quality of dancing is similar to Importers. Michael Maltenfort did very well in his first C4 dance!

The country western dance was a very pleasant surprise. It was much better than I had expected. The DJ David Boyer was excellent. Every song he played made me want to dance. I told him so at the end of the evening, and I told him that the Chicago dancers are very fortunate to have him as their DJ. I wish the The DJs in Remingtons and our own 3-Legged Cowboy were there listening. A lot of the local country dancers joined us, and boy there were some good dancers among them! I danced almost every song from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. and danced with about 30 different people, including a waltz with Bill Eyler. Of course, the country dance would not be complete without Geo. He and Patrick arrived late on Friday night but were able to catch the second half of the dance.

Chi-Town Shakedown – Thursday

ann0625 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:54:42 GMT

I danced every tip of the GCA Caller School dance from 9 to 12. The tips were mainly MS and Plus with a couple of A2. I was glad that I had a preview of Osamu’s asymmetric Plus on Wednesday night. The dance was well attended and we had between four to six squares.

I wish there were more concentrated GCA sessions though. I’ve heard a lot of people saying that it’s very stressful to juggle between calling and dancing throughout the weekend, so I think it would be nice to have another afternoon session for GCA School alumnus. The GCA Meeting could be moved to the evening, at the same time as the Trail End Dance.

After the dance I went to Panera Bread for lunch with Osamu, Chris, Bruce and Len. Bruce observed that none of us were in our native country. The lunch lasted a little longer than I had planned. By the time I got back to Hilton, the Delegates Meeting was at intermission. I was told that I had missed all the fun stuff, and I also found out that I could have had lunch at the meeting. I sat through the second half of the Delegates Meeting, and then took another walk by the lake before coming back for the GCA Meeting. I’m glad that I walked earlier in the week, because the weather got warmer each day.

The GCA Meeting was not as interesting as I had expected. There wasn’t much discussion about the GCA scheduling controversy, which I unashamedly admit was the main reason I went to the meeting this year. Dan Mutschler tried to contact me while I was in the meeting and had my phone on silent. When I called him back after the meeting he had already gone back to his hotel. I did wave at him from the balcony at the Trail's End Dance though.

In the evening I joined a group of Hotlanta dancers for dinner. Jim B. suggested a pizza restaurant, but we all objected after we realized that it was not within walking distance. So we just kept walking northbound on Wabash without knowing where we were heading to, and finally settled on a pizza and rib restaurant when we got tired of walking. The walls of the restaurant were decorated with all kinds of old photos and posters. Above our table there happened to be a large poster of Gone With The Wind. Naturally we took a photo with it, so I guess the long walk was meant to be after all.

On our way back I stopped by at the hostel to put my dinner leftover in the kitchen, and then reported to the volunteer check in before 8 p.m. I volunteered for the registration desk and was assigned to the t-shirts station. I didn’t have much business in the two hours I stayed there, only three pick-ups and one sale. The rest of the time I chatted with Ron Goodman from Midnight Squares, Barb, and whoever stopped by at my station. I’ve always find the Trail's End Dance a little messy and I don’t mind missing it.

After my shift I hang out at the hotel bar chatting with various friends. I walked back to my hostel right before midnight. I missed all the riots on Michigan Ave that night because the lakeside was a little chilly at night, so I took Wabash.