Saturday, January 3, 2015

I Have Kidnapped myself; Unless you pay me a ransom in Red Bulls and a new wig you will never see me again.

OK – this one is going to be a big one!

Let me start this post of with some apologies; I am sorry I have been an absentee writer Since October –  what the feck is up with that, right? I’ll be lucky if any of you stuck around from that communications black out.

In a feeble attempt to justify myself, let me sum up the last 3 months:

  • Broke Toe
  • Finished planning a wedding , including dance classes of a non Irish variety
  • Got Married (it was gorgeous and tons of fun in case anyone was wondering! No, we didn’t have any Irish Dance as I was the only dancer present and I was wearing a million pounds of Taffeta.We compensated by having DJ Ipod Shuffle play a selection of Dropkick Murphys, Pogues and Great Big Sea)
  • Spent a week recovering from the wedding
  • Spent the entire month of November at work, at work, trying to catch up from my week off
  • Long weekend trip out of state for Thanksgiving
  • Family in town for Saint Nicholas’s Day
  • More Work Drama
  • Baking a bajillion Christmas Cookies
  • Family in town for Christmas

Which brings us to date. So, dear readers, please don’t think that you aren’t priority to me – you just aren’t priority that show up at my door demanding attention and baked goods!

But now that we have the random life updates done, on with the DANCE updates:
  • Halloween Feis:  Ended up not going. See aforementioned broken toe. Of all derpitude, I didn’t break it while dancing. I broke it walking into my kitchen and slamming my foot against a chair leg. But, for the sake of my pride, can we say I broke it doing some kind of crazy awesome dance move? Yeah, let’s go with that. Anyway, it was almost healed up in time for the Feis (read; at least the swelling had gone down) but it was still pretty sore and hard to dance on. Between that, feeling the $ pinch from all those final wedding payments and only 2 people registered for the one dance I still need to place out of in AB2, I called it. Just wasn’t worth it. Not even for the promise of IKEA meatballs afterwards.
  • Class in general; Have pretty much entirely transitioned to Monday night classes. This is a multi-purpose boon. First, I get to leave work 30 minutes early to get there. Second, It is only a 15 minute drive as apposed to 45 minutes. Third, it doesn’t waste a large chunk of my Saturday that I could be spending with my husband (Call me weird, but I kind of like him). Fourth, a certain child who shall continue to remain nameless and non-descript doesn’t come to this class. Yah for not having my self esteem shot to hell with one critical glance of a nine year old!
  • Previous Dance Goals: I am now split between three levels. While this irritates me greatly, and makes stage assignments a bitch to navigate, I am still not going to complain. There was a time in my life when I thought I was never going to see Novice, none the less actually make it to Prizewinner in one dance (although I am still convinced that must have been some kind of fluke). I haven’t made any further progress on placing my Slip Jig or my SPD. Between holidays, and me having family commitments, I haven’t had much class time. I have started learning some of my Novice steps though, so I won’t feel like a complete spaz case still doing the easy steps all the time
  • Future Dance goals: Register for North Coast and Possibly West Virginia.  Focus on SJ and SPD to finally kick Advanced Beginner’s ass to the curb. Finish learning other Novice steps so I can start placing them as well. Start getting comfortable with new Hornpipe speed and finish learning other novice steps so I can eventually start actually competing in Prizewinner because . . . .
  • Maybe I should have mentioned this first and foremost; I BOUGHT A SOLO DRESS!!!! *aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh*. Ok, so long story short, I happened to find a listing for a used dress that was in my price range (rare), actually a style/colour that I don’t hate (uncommon) and it was my EXACT measurements (a miraculous aligning of the moon). After confirming with my TC if it would be ok for me to go ahead and make a pre-emptive dress purchase, I went for it. It arrived in the mail a few days before the wedding. Best. Wedding. Present. EVER.  Obviously, I can only wear it for my one prizewinner dance (which I am not going to be competing in for a while), but there is something very surreal about actually owning a dress. Again . . . things I thought would never happen. It’s not my “dream” solo dress, but it’s my first, and that is amazing. 
  • Final thoughts: (a la Jerry Springer, but with out hitting people with chairs) Despite all the great
    things that have happened over the past 3 months, it’s been a struggle. I’ve been having a hard time really pushing myself to make it to classes. I guess it’s winter hibernation mode or something, but I want to just go home shove an obscene amount of carbs into my pie-hole and snuggle with the husband. Energy has been nil. I’ve been fighting a lot of the “I suck at everything’ thoughts. And it’s true, I am still fairly sucky at Dance. I am not naturally gifted or talented for it. But if you can win Championships on desire, determination and sheer stupid stubbornness, I will someday bring home a big trophy – might not be til I am 90 years old, but hot damn I will chug my Metamucil, strap on my heavies and kick some butt. 

Slainte, team!


PS. I want a “old person” ID bumper sticker. Has any one found one in existence, or should I just trot out my poor to craptastic graphic design skills and just make my own?