I think there are two exceptionally memorable episodes of the Cosby show.  Not that I actually remember the plots, there were just segments of the two episodes that left a significant impression in the clay of my recollections (assuming, of course, that my memories are accurate).  The first episode that always leaps to mind is one where the whole Cosby clan put on a show for the grandparents by strutting and lip-syncing along to a jazz record.  That’s So Rudy got to pretend to sing some of the funniest parts.  The second episode that I always associate with the series is one where I recall Bill Cosby and a guest star doing a little dance battle.  The guest star would do some fancy tap dancing and then shout challenge so that it sounded like “Chah-LONJ”.  Bill Cosby would do some fancy footwork in return, and this went for a while.

I thought of the latter episode as I drove home on Thursday night because Abigail just challenged me to join her on a quest.

Let me pause a moment to say that if you are ever invited upon or spy the opportunity to join a Quest (and you are not opposed to the goal), you should leap at the chance.  Many of us give ourselves daily, weekly, monthly, lifelong goals, and that’s all well and good (some of us have no goals and that is sad).  But the goals we give ourselves must originate from some thoughts of our own, even if the goal is to acquire new thoughts or experiences.  A Quest, on the other hand, is a life goal that you might not ever have devised for yourself since it came from outside your own mind.  You might have…but you didn’t!   For a brief while, you could walk paths you’d never otherwise tread; you might experience situations outside your wildest imaginations; at least you might pick up a souvenir along the way.  Try not to pick up anything more intrusive.

Back to Abigail: she challenged me in a very affable manner to complete a novel in November. She was not so aggressive as Sandman.  She would write a novel in November as well.  It would not be a collaboration, just a shared activity.  The Quest: with no more assistance than the reassuring existence of a metaphorical comrade-in-arms, create a 50,000 word novel in a 30 day period.  I cry out, “Chah-LONJ!” and I step up.

There are many story ideas I’ve had in the past and I’ve written quite a few words to begin a book here and there, but I’ve immediately realized that wanting to write a novel feels quite different from being challenged to finish a novel.  This could be good.  This could be really good.

I obviously don’t seem to have much problem in typing out a pile of words in a hurry–if anything, I write too much on the Internet.  It’s probably going to clog something one of these days.  One of the real obstacles on this quest is The Plot.  I don’t intend to write something abstract and complicated (unless that’s how it turns out, in which case that was my intention all along).  Rather, I would like my novel to have a beginning, middle, and end, and I would like all of those pieces to come across to the reader as being related to each other.   Protagonist and Antagonist?  Yes, please.  Story-related problem and climax?  That would be great.  Resolution and happy ending?  In lieu of innuendos, I’ll just say that I’d like the story to reach a point that feels like a satisfying conclusion or a point of “Life goes on” dissipation to the narrative tension.  I’ll have to work on all of that.

Another obstacle on this quest becomes clear when I consider the very sound adage that a writer should “write what he knows”.  This is advice that even writers of speculative fiction should follow, so the best of them develop a World Bible for their story, even if that is wholly internalized.  As a practiced reader, it’s clear to me that literature about a topic written by an author unfamiliar with said topic often fails to impress.  I know almost nothing about deep sea diving, but I’ve read a good example and a bad example on that topic and the bad example was obviously full of garbage.  My personal experience seems lacking to write a novel (not enough law breaking, world traveling, career changing, or general debauchery), but I won’t let that stop me.  If I start writing about a topic with which I have no familiarity, I’ll attempt Internet research and then if that is insufficient, I’ll attempt some real life interviews with people who are knowledgeable.  I’m hoping that a new website I’ve discovered LivePerson.com will help me if I stumble.  Then, too, there are all of these social networking sites I’ve joined.  Perhaps they can finally be of some practical use instead of data voyeurism.

The third great obstacle I anticipate is the task of whittling down the ideas that I’d like to include so that I can finish within the parameters specified.  Laconic, I am not.  I could easily annoy myself by writing a 25,000 word flashback in chapter two.  That would just be embarrassing.  I am going to try to help myself out by prioritizing the list of concepts I would like to include: self-interest versus selflessness, loving relationships, friendships, passage of time, confidence, independence, dogs in packs, badassness, challenge photography, traveling, energy exchange, cancer, metaphorical dancing, muppets, ramen noodle.  That is a list that I just created by envisioning a story and jotting down words that described concepts I visualized, and then I reorganized it by priority, from highest to lowest.  I’ll try to keep my words on ramen noodle to a minimum.  I’m pretty sure I can keep that list from growing.  Maybe.  I’ve purchased the Scrivener software for Mac to help me be organized.

But my biggest problem today is that I want to START TODAY.

I strongly suspect I have either a penchant for obsessing, or outright problems with addiction.   Ooh, Addiction!  I have to add that to the list…

Technically, my laptop is an Apple. But Apples just turn brown and then fall apart. My current PowerBook G4 will soon turn into a MacBook Aluminum (Late 2008). That’s not a literal statement, of course. But with the Macintosh operating system’s built-in “Migration Assistant” and the fact that the software on my PBG4 is current, the transformation should appear pretty convincing.

I haven’t actually received the new MacBook just yet, but I’ve tracked the shipment and it is due here today. I’m pretty freakin’ excited. This is how Christmas morning felt when I was a child! I should calm down, though. There is, after all, a Failure-Out-of-Box possibility. An informal, small sample Macintouch Survey which included 260 MacBook users’ reports, showed an 11.1% initial failure rating (failures covering a wide range of issues). As this is a third generation MacBook, using pre-established concepts in a predominantly new design (they took what they learned from the first couple and started over with those lessons in mind) with pretty darned nice parts…. Well, it could go either way. I have never bought the first of any model of computer and though this could be argued as a third generation machine, it could just as easily be labeled an original design.

I’ve been plugging away on my increasingly slow-by-comparisoin laptop because I am not a graphics-based power user. My work consists of some processor-based number crunching with a little GUI design on top. Still, I’ve seen the speed of those Intel computers and wanted to hop on that zippy bandwagon for a while now. I very nearly purchased one of the black MacBooks as I could have gotten it at quite a bargain. But I stuck to my aesthetic guns on the basis that I wanted a small metal laptop. That’s why I got this 12″ PowerBook G4 in the first place!

When the MacBook Air was first announced, I practically leapt into my own computer’s display trying to grab for it: terribly thin, ridiculously light, and with the 13 inch form factor that replaces the 12 inch (for widescreen display purposes). Alas, it was too slow, too crippled, and too expensive for me to justify it to myself. If that MacBook Air had been released for $1200, or if it had contained more power, I might have been typing out my blogs on Air by now.

Instead, I waited. I had patience and confidence in my own excellent taste in design. I felt certain that my sensibilities would not go unrewarded! And sure enough, in October of 2008, Apple released the MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008) and confirmed my suspicions that I’m always right. (Except for spelling the word ‘suspicion’ — I always have to look that up for some reason!) The specs were right, the pricing was right, and it looks quite pretty. I would wait no longer. O, how I would battle for days to reach… actually, I just requested a company discount and payment plan. It’s good to work somewhere you honestly enjoy the perquisites you’re given. As I await my new computer, I give you a geek-friendly, kinda-layperson-friendly comparison chart:

In my life, I have been in therapy.  The most difficult concept for me to accept when I was in therapy was the notion that any emotions and thoughts that were fighting for attention in the theatre of my mind were neither new nor unique.  The idea that anybody else could have felt my feelings or thought my thoughts seemed absurd to me.  If anyone else in history had ever suffered the magnitude of exquisite agony that I, in my teenage years, had to survive on a daily basis, surely that would have been recorded somewhere to serve as warning for all future generations of human beings.  If this had happened before, why wasn’t I warned?  My thoughts, too, seemed earthshatteringly brilliant and revolutionary.  It was obvious that all the adults around me were far too asinine to synthesize the intellectual gems that were occuring to me, so this at least must be new and unique.

Good grief, I was an ass.  Yes, I’m afraid that in the thousands upon thousands of years of recorded human history, other people have experienced the righteously self-deluded feelings and thoughts that I have had.  Your feelings and thoughts, too, probably.  I still think I’m pretty great, but at least I realize that most of my brilliant observations on life have gone observed before.  My thoughts on the topic of Love are no different — people have thought it, felt it, and said it before (in many cases, more eloquently).  Some writers who have contributed to my opinions are M. Scott Peck, Terry Goodkind, Ayn Rand, Terry Pratchett, C.S. Lewis, David Gerrold, and Robert J. Sawyer.  Those authors never became Jane Austin, and I don’t say I wholly agree with all of them on the topic, but they do inform my beliefs.

Love is an active relationship with a person of worth who has the capacity for reciprocation. Love is investing the effort necessary to better yourself as much and as constantly as possible to become a greater person of worth to your loved one and yourself.  Love is committing just as much energy to supporting your loved one as your loved one works to become an even greater person of worth for herself and for you.  Love is a wholly selfish endeavor that just happens to expand the notion of self that it may include another person.  And Love is hard and Love is easy and Love is not guaranteed and has no guarantees and Love is worth it.

Since there is no way to quantify or prove the existence of love in an empirical fashion, it should go without saying that every statement I made in the previous paragraph was an opinion.  But here I go saying it, because people do not understand facts and opinions, just as they do not understand Love.  I understand it well enough that I try not to misuse the word; I like things, I enjoy things, I adore things, I even heart things.  I try to be careful, out of respect.

I am happy to say that right now, I definitely Love at least four people.  I suspect that I am a very rare person indeed to be in such a fortuitous position.  I’m not dating or engaged to or married to any of those women, but that does not lessen the Love I feel for them, my friends.  I am glad, in fact, to have my loved ones as my friends.  As I better myself, they support me.  Should I lean toward bad life choices, they warn me.  I do the same for them.  And because we are all persons of worth, I enjoy the time I spend with them all, in person or in remote conversation.

When I was that foolish self-absorbed teenager, I thought Love was just strong emotions and a willingness to give up any part of myself that was necessary in order to be with an object of my affection.  If I ever met that teen, I would give him such a smack that it would reverberate up the timeline to hurt me, too!  I realize today that the feelings I’ve labeled love in the past were really affection, lust, addiction, obsession, adoration, devotion, and avarice.  You cannot love someone who doesn’t know you.  You cannot love a thing or an animal.  You might love a pastime or an organization but most people do not.

People in my society use the word so frequently and so incorrectly that I wonder if there is an undercurrent of such desperation for Love that they use any excuse for the mislabeling?  “I love my dog!”  “I love tiramisu!” “I love those shoes!”  “I love my team!”  “I love my country!”  “I love that photo I saw on lolcats!”  Only two of those statements are possible but none are probable.

I have a dog.  I like her, I adore her, I care for her, I’m devoted to her, and I even dote on her on occasion.  But she is a source of unconditional affection.  If I beat her (never!), she would still want to be affectionate, though her fear might overcome the yearning.  True Love is not unconditional; there must be the requisite persons of worth.  If you think that it is somehow possible or noble to love an unrepentant villain, you should be locked up.  You should be locked up because you are so blatently insane that you might do harm to others, if you think this way.  I cannot love someone who is purposely self-destructive.  I cannot love someone who purposely hurts others for no good reason.  And, I cannot love someone who is an imbecile.   I might like those people, say at a party, but love would probably be a lie.  Those people are usually not people of worth to me.

Another assessment of people of worth derives from our first impressions.  Xenophobia and its ramifications are discussed by many of the best speculative fiction writers, many of whom note that we classify our interpersonal encounters as Superior, Equal, Inferior, and Other.  I am not the first person to propose that you can only Love an Equal, with a bit of a leeway towards Superior or Inferior.  I could define these categorizations, but the point is that you already do.  You already decide those estimations of the people you meet, though you may not realize or admit to it.  Lying to yourself about that assessment will lead to heartache.

Trust and truth are essential components to a Loving relationship.  If you don’t know the truth about your significant other, how can you support her positive growth and advise her against the negative choices?  If your so-called loved one doesn’t know the truth about you, how can you expect to receive that consideration, either?  Relationships fail in misery the worst when there is deception involved.  Either of the self, or of the partner.  We are fallible, we make mistakes, and we can always try to make the better choices.  I have high standards but I could not love an infallible robot (they would be too Superior or Other).  On the other extreme, there is a significant difference between a partner who chooses to do the wrong thing and the partner who generally chooses to do the right thing but makes mistakes. I wholeheartedly believe in forgiveness, but I believe in acts of contrition as well.  I would not absolve a loved one of her wrong choices if she had no intention of making the right choices the next time.  It may be difficult, but you have to get away from unrepentantly bad people.

The hardest thing about Love is realizing that you love someone who isn’t the right person for you and then taking the right next step.  After all, companionship, friendship, sex, and inside jokes are pretty hard to give up just because it’s the right thing to do.  But I’ve come to think of that situation in this light: if I love someone, then I want the best for her and for her to have the best possible life.  Those feelings would be true whether she and I were suited for a relationship together or not.  So if we’re not right for each other and I claim Love, how could I do anything else but get out of the way so that she could find the right relationship?  The right relationship should contain Love, it’s true, but it should also contain a unified set of goals in life.  In simplest terms, if her goal is to the right and mine is to the left, there’s only so much we can each do to support ourselves and each other before realizing we’re still stuck in the middle.

As I review the paragraphs I’ve written so far, I fear this blog reads like a warning sign for Love, making it akin to the Hell of the Divine Comedy: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!  Far from it.  Humans are a social animal who need affection, companionship, and yes Love, in order to live.  Without Love, we are merely surviving to get through the next day.  With Love, we grow, we better ourselves and the world around us, and there is a completeness that seems to whisper in our hearts that there is nothing we cannot do, no obstacle we cannot conquer.  Love gives us the strength to be the people we want to be, and with your loved one supporting you, it feels like that doesn’t take so much strength after all.  You can grow and be a good person and have a good life without Love, but I would feel sorrow for you and the hardship you must endure.

I write this article to help people.  I find that I’ve spoken to my loved ones a great deal recently about their lives and their struggles and I wished to get my opinions pinned down to the page for closer examination and for retrospection in the future, to help myself.  I want to help my friends who seem to be struggling and I want to help people I haven’t even met.  I think a world in which everyone believed in concepts like these would be a better place.  A place where people don’t settle for fear or from exhaustion, a place where people believe in the dignity and importance of Love.  I hope that I will find a relationship with someone whom I can Love and will Love me in turn and that we will build a wonderful life together.  If I do not, but some of these words help you to find that life, then I have done a good thing and will be happy for that, too.  Perhaps if we are very lucky, my friends and you readers and I will all find that life, a worthwhile life of Love.

I purposely attempted to keep my daily entries in my Traveblogue upbeat and positive, but I did have some thoughts cross my mind that were not quite positive.  If you’d rather avoid reading subjective criticisms, complaints, and general grousing, I would point you to the rest of the series and just skip this entry.

Travel to the event was flawless, but here I am in the airport on the way back facing a rain delay.  Whose fault is that?  If it’s anyone’s fault it would be mine.  I could have chosen to take an earlier flight home, but I wanted to give myself time to eat, get cleaned up, get lost, and return the rental car on time.  So, that’s fine, I chose a later flight for the best combination of cheap and later in the day and I’m stuck here for it (although I’ve gotten to chat with Naomi Uyama and Mike Legett, which makes up for it).

The car was as good a rental car as I could have gotten.  I highly recommend the Hyundai Sonata as a temporary vehicle if you ever need a cheap one.

The hotel, Holiday Inn RiverCentre, was pretty great, except… I think all hotels should offer some sort of breakfast refreshment in these days of competitive marketing.  A nice hotel can offer a nice breakfast, or a lower tier hotel can offer orange juice and pastries.  Okay, they did give me one free Quizno’s 6″ sub, but still.  Also, the hot water was sporadic in the bath/shower.  It would rapidly alternate from hot to cold for no apparent reason that I could figure out.  I got back at the hotel by splashing water everywhere.  If I ever stay with you, have extra towels on hand for the first time I take a shower because I have a tendency to flood bathrooms with splash water.  I don’t know why it happens to me and not others.  Do other people not dance around under the shower stream waving their arms?  I find that provides the best coverage, personally.

Jimmy John’s is a great place.  No complaints.  Likewise Target.  Okay, maybe they could have a larger men’s clothing section.  Taste of Thailand was a little slow, but the food was great and the Tofu addition was welcome.  It was a tad expensive, but again tasted great.  SuperAmerica markets are not that super but they’re okay.  I would like to complain about the prevalence of young adults going in there to buy cigarettes and chewing tabacco, but I’m not sure to whom I should direct that. Their parents? Society? Al Gore.

Now, the event.  Here I go.  …  Yeah, I got nothing. Wait…

Oooh, okay, the competitors could have been more numerous… but that’s partially my fault since I didn’t put together a team or showcase entry.  Oh, the venue was freaking hot and humid.  I mean, it was hundreds of people squeezed into a relatively small space, but couldn’t there have been more air conditioning?  Maybe drop the temperatures down really low between events?  I dunno.  I hope the New Orleans venue isn’t any worse, but I fear it may not be any better.  A lack of water fountains was also dismaying, but at least they had purchasable refreshments.

Okay, looking back at my list of complaints about Showdown, I see that I haven’t got much.  Oh, well.

How about my complaints about myself?  I had some items on a mental wishlist, all of which were quite optional, but still desirable.  I would have liked to lose weight and get exercise (one combined goal), to enjoy the Soul After Party, and maybe to get my flirt on with some lovely dancer. Oh, and to get reinspired about my own dancing.

I don’t think I’ve lost any weight, but I feel pretty good about my intake versus my activity.  I’ll find out when I get home… Maybe after Jam Cellar after I get home, since I plan to eat during my homeward trip and airport food isn’t exactly health food.

I tried really hard to enjoy the Soul After Party, but I just couldn’t get into it.  I don’t think I was there for more than 15 minutes or so. Soo would know.  In that time, I heard one older soul song that I liked but the rest of the music did not appeal.  I heard that the music got better later in the night.  When I watched Peter and Skye moving to the music, they looked good, but they moved in a way that I…don’t generally feel like moving.  I saw many leads leading what looked like a mangled Lindy Hop, which I very much didn’t want to do.  So I felt that I would have been lost even if I’d wanted to dance. That is, even if the music made me want to move to it.  And I hate to say this for fear of repercussions but… I don’t think I like soul music.  Jerry Almote once wrote something along the lines of “If you don’t like soul music, there’s something wrong with you.”  I guess he was talking to me.  Well, when I was talking to Soo at the beginning of the Soul party, I came to realize that I was being a downer and I didn’t want to bring anyone else down so I took off.  I hope everyone else there had oodles of fun, but I think I would have lessened it for some poor people.

As for flirting: I wasn’t trolling for anything, but I know of many instances when people have gotten together, either for something lasting or for something fleeting, at large events like this one.  I’m single now and I’m interested in new romantic encounters, so I tried to be open to that this weekend.  I think I felt some sparks here and there but frankly, I had no idea what to do about it in the circumstances.  There were always so many other people around and there was no easy escape location and I generally wanted to attend the next scheduled event more than take time away for flirty mischief. Maybe if the event had been in a place where there was an attached or nearby “away” space where people could duck out to do non-event things, I might have tried harder. Like a convention center or a hotel+ballroom. “Hey, wanna go chill out in Ballroom D for a while?” just seems more likely to lead somewhere than, “Hey, feel like walking out in the rain to my rental car and then driving no less than 10 minutes to somewhere away from fun events we might miss in order to chill for a while?” I suppose it may also have helped if I’d actually done any of the social things that the other attendees did, like eating together or… talking to each other or… being around each other.  Hmm.  Oh, well.  I met and got reaquainted with many attractive and interesting women and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

And for my own dancing? I’m happy to say, I think I got my groove back. I definitely danced with a few dancers where I got the “nice!” or “that was cool!” comments, and the live bands certainly played music to inspire. I’m feeling good about Lindy Hop again. I hope it sticks. Maybe I should dose myself with a daily regimen of Lindy dance clips from various international events to keep the juices flowing. It would be like a swing dancing vitamin. Or the hair of the dog.

I’m planning to go to Jam Cellar tonight and I hope I’ll keep on attending these dance events that I’m so fortunate to have local to me. I hope it stays fun.

I’ll work at it.

Today is Sunday, the last official day of Showdown.  I’ve got to try to get myself going so that I don’t miss any of the competitions this afternoon: Teams and choreographed Couples are supposed to start at 3pm and I already feel late.  Fortunately, this is a fasting day so I’ve already tossed back 15 calories worth of Airborne and Crystal Light to get started (3 drinks worth), and I’ll just need to buy a lot of low-cal, electrolyte filled liquid goodness throughout the day to keep me going.  I don’t know about the After Hours Soul party.  Since I actually have my own transportation this year, I think I will give it a shot for once.  I’ll check in after the afternoon events…

When I arrived at the Cinema Ballroom, it was around 3:30pm, half-an-hour after the Teams were “scheduled” to start, and the line of people outside the door was just marching in.  So I don’t think I missed anything.  I climbed up the stairs to my usual 2nd floor vantage point and saw that on the ground floor, all the spectators were not facing the bandstand as usual but rather the mirrored side wall with a large space cleared on the floor in front of those mirrors.  I walked up to DJ Larkin and peered over his shoulder to see a bunch of people apparently watching… nothing.  When I asked DJ, “What’s everybody looking at?”, he quite intelligently informed me, “The floor.”

After a few minutes, during which Sean thanked everyone for watching themselves in the mirror, he came out to the center of the cleared space to introduce the Team competition.  Apparently, there were only two entries.  He played it up well, though: “Last night, there were 16 teams!  These are the two finalists!”

I was in a poor position to see and hear but the first team came out in black and blue outfits and I think they were from the west coast.  They put on a fun, decently choreographed routine with a few “ooooh” segments.   They looked nervous as heck and who could blame ‘em?  The second team was Hot Rhythm Rising from the ATL.  Joanna Lucero was on the team and the choreography was great.  There was a good spread of effects, there was good use of the space and plenty of teamwork.  The reverse was gimmicky but fun.  I know that lots of the top-level competitions use jam-style format for non-choreographed divisions, so we see a lot of it, but I do wish one of the teams had included a spotlight section of some type.  I like to see the interplay between the individual couples (you know what I mean) and the team as a whole, and the spotlights are great for that.  I can’t say that these were the best teams I’ve ever seen.  The first team seemed very nervous and a little unsteady on their feet.  The second team was very solidly put together but didn’t have any “wow” moments for me.  I wonder why there weren’t more teams?  Because of ILHC?  ALHC?  Economy?

There was a short break where I social danced a little bit and then we were called to attention by Sean for hands-down the COOLEST format for a showcase division (choreographed couple) I’ve ever seen.   I had known about this in passing but hadn’t really contemplated the implications until it was right in front of me.  As usual, the couples would choose their own piece of music to choreograph and would practice to that until they came to the competition.  Normally, the couples just submit their CD to the event DJ so that their song can be played at the appropriate time.  In this case, the couples had to submit their songs’ arrangements to the event in advance so that the Live Bands could learn the songs and play LIVE during the contest.  Holy Freaking Awesome.  I think the couples had to practice to the live bands in advance this morning.  If they didn’t, then what happened seems miraculous.

The first couple were Oscar and Mikhaila (sp?) and they really planned this out well.  The Hot Swing Combo played for them and it was so amazing I could barely stand it!  Lots of cool breaks in the music where the couple pulled terrific accent moves, plenty of variation in the feeling of the song to give the couple more chance to play, and at least one “wow” aerial, all of which happened in time to the LIVE BAND!

The second couple were Mike and Laura and every time I’ve seen them do a couple’s choreographed routine, they always dress up in 20′s Ritz style.  Today was no exception.  They got to dance to Loose Marbles playing their song, with singing by the mesmerizing female singer.  Oh man, so good.  This couple had their own style very distinct from Oscar and Mikhaila’s, but they seemed to have planned out their performance just as well and had the same great characteristics.  I’m embarassed to say that I keep wanting to prefer Mike and Laura’s routine in part because of the great job done by Loose Marbles!  But since that doesn’t make sense, I think Oscar and Mikhaila get my vote.

Somewhere in the middle of the showcase couples, Sean had to draw out a few minutes WHILE THE LIVE BANDS SWAPPED PLACES (I can’t get over that).   He therefore orchestrated a silly contest: whomever could eat a Chipotle’s burrito the fastest, would win a coupon for 5 more for free!  Cole Allen and Andrew Thigpen competed in a slow but funny contest that Andrew ultimately won.  Still, Cole hadn’t had a chance to eat yet, so in a way she won, too.

Then came the third couple, Hannah and her partner whose name I forget.  They danced to Hot Swing Combo.  Unfortunately, they somewhat lessened the impact of their routine because throughout the other divisions this weekend, they’d already shown off some of their moves.  Like when Hannah is held at waist height by her partner and pretends to fly/swim.  It would have been cooler if I hadn’t just seen it last night.  Overall, it was a good routine, but didn’t move me as much as the previous two.

After the last couple, before he broke up the crowd for social dancing, Sean held another novelty contest, this time for free admission to… an event whose name I forget.  But the point was the contest.  Five contestants had to drop to the push up position and then on “go”, had to prop themselves up into a one-arm plank position, with the opposite arm held pointed toward the sky.  It was amusing.  Particularly with the semi-trash talking.

And last but not least, Sean also conducted a “mental” contest, again for an event whose name I fail to recall.  This consisted of asking five contestants to explain the reason for the current economic crisis.  Julius was funny, the Asian guy at the other end was just a Bush-basher, and the white guy at that end had nothing useful to contribute.  But the second fellow and Jason Niesz had useful and intelligent analyses of the situation, so they both won.

Then came more social dancing to the Hot Swing Combo.  They were great as usual but for some reason had taken to playing really long songs that were either fast or slow with little in-between.  After they broke for the afternoon, there also came some nice DJ-ed music.

I danced with Tracy Kerchkof, Eli from Norway, Katie from MN , the Girl named Mike, Cole from Seattle, Anderson (Andi?) from Seattle, Gina from Seattle… I think I have a Lindy Crush on Seattle.  I may have danced with another follow or two, but sadly, I don’t recall.  Still, since I left around 5:30, that means that in two hours I witnessed two competitions, three novelty contests, one cause advertisement, and also danced with at least seven follows.  That’s better than I’ve done in any other two hours in months.

By the time the contests were all over and I’d danced a few songs, I was sweating like nobody’s business and was feeling a bit lightheaded.  I needed to eat something.  So, I swung by the SuperAmerica and picked up a few vitamin waters and some zero calorie PowerAdes.  The two vitamin waters added up to 125 calories and 100 calories.  Then, when I returned to my hotel room, I finished off the Thai food: tofu + vegetables + noodles = not fasting.  But I think it was a good idea.  Okay, I also had the 53 calorie (it was printed on the wrapper) fortune cookie that I had left.  But from this point forth, I shall again try not to ingest anything but fluids.  We’ll see.  More after the night’s dancing…

I got back to the ballroom by around 9:15 and the awards had not yet been given out.  It’s amazing how much the crowd had thinned out, but I guess many dancers don’t have Columbus Day off?  At least the Loose Marbles’ dog had space to hang out.

So, a good chunk of the time prior to midnight was spent on the awards ceremony.  You can look elsewhere to find the placements.  Other awards ceremonies are boring and should be skipped unless you have a vested interest, but I’ve found that Showdown always has a good awards show.  Mostly because of the funny contests that the organizers and MC devise and which Sean delivers in a side-splitting deadpan.  First came the prison pushups challenge which led into a pushup-hold challenge wherein we all learned that Anna curses under pressure and Eric is not quite as formidable as he appears.

Then a variation on the old dizzybat challenge: spin in a circle and then lindy hop!  Everybody did pretty well.  Which makes me think they should have to spin in more circles next time.  Still, very funny to watch.

The next contest was a catwalk contest, in the vein of a fashion show.  Adam Boehmer kicked it off in uproarious style, followed by many impressive contenders.  Tena had a lot going for her, but Peter’s over-the-top performance was the obvious standout.  You had to see it.  It was funnier than I can describe.

And then the last novelty contest I remember of the night was essentially “stupid human tricks”, consisting of: a girl doing “the matrix” limbo pose, a fellow busting out some old school break dancing in true white boy style, a very flexible woman showing off how long her lines can be, an awesome use of Adam Boehmer for a Wookie imitation, and then Hannah doing the impossible: licking her own elbow.  This was some messed up fun.  Great!

Sometime during the second band set, the Solo Charleston contest was held.  I thought some people should have been tapped out sooner, and I was surprised that Joanna got tapped out because she looked terrific.  The standouts for me were definitely Hurley and Mikhaila (sp?) though, so I’m glad there was a King and Queen for this award because they really brought it to the contest.

It was sad when Sean announced the end of the final contest of the weekend.  That’s always a bit sad, like during a great dream when you can tell you’re going to wake up soon but you really don’t want to leave the fantasy world just yet.  It was sad again in the 1am-2am hour when Loose Marbles announced they would play their last song… and then after that song when they really played their last song.  Still, it’s become a tradition that I really like and that outsiders may not get, to break away from your own dancing and cheer for the band for the end of their last song.  I like that it happened again at ULHS.  My people!

And that was it for the official events of ULHS 2008.  I didn’t spend a lot of blog time dwelling on individual dances or individual encounters with people, but I’ll try to touch on some highlights.  The Michigan crew of dancers were fun to hang around because they really brought back to me that slightly scared, slightly excited, slightly confused joy that I had when I was just beginning to dance and would attend a big event.  My DC friends were in strong force both in socializing and impressing the heck out of other attendees on the dance floor.  Not to mention the great non-choreographed showings by people I often see on a weekly basis.  On a more personal level, DJ and Meg always seem to be the couple in the know who are nice to me, their backwards cousin, and I appreciate them for it.  Soo and Alicia have filled that space in my life where I really needed friends to help me heckle–and I’m so glad.  I had some great fast dances, but my favorites (though there weren’t enough) were probably with Carolyn from Seattle.  I also had some great slow dances, and my favorites were definitely with Cole from Seattle.  Seattle, I think I heart you.

For my final dance card wrapup, tonight, I danced with Cole from Seattle, Carolyn from Seattle, Deen from NY, Angie from MN, Laney from MN, Lauren from MN, Lucy Dunne, Kelly Arsenault, Alicia Mazzara, probably others that my tired mind cannot recall.  I had one or two awkward dances but not a single bad dance all weekend.  Whether I listed you or not, know that I was thrilled to dance with you, and thank you!

I got back to the hotel around 3:30am, local time.  This is it for the official Showdown related part of my Traveblogue, but I’ll write an epilogue tomorrow, maybe, on my thoughts on other aspects of my weekend.  Overall, this event was great fun.  I danced a lot, I watched some really enjoyable events, I connected with people on the dance floor and off.  I’ve already begun sending off “friend” requests to various people to try to stay in touch.  We’ll see how that goes.  I think I feel inspired enough to try to get back to more dancing in my home area.  I definitely want to go to next year’s Showdown in New Orleans.  Maybe I’ve been feeling burned out lately because I kept seeing the same people at the same venues dancing to the same music.  Perhaps that’s another reason why I should make the effort to do more trips in a year than just one: Camp Jitterbug,  you’re on notice!