I coulda been a contender

Dear Madonna,

It was a big week. Barack Obama sworn in as the first black U.S. president, innaugural balls and whatnot, but for me the real issue was that I had to fly home from Houston before the finals.

You see, I was attending the America's Classic (Dance) Championships which are held in Houston, Texas over the Martin Luther King weekend. Monday is a quasi-holiday, with some, though not all, businesses closed. Anyway the schdedule for the weekend was skewed so that the Jack and Jill Finals, the Pro Strictly Swing competitions and the Masters Strictly Swing all took place after 3:00 p.m. Problem was, I booked my flight a couple of months before the schedule was posted and had to be on the airport shuttle at 3:00 p.m. to catch the last flight back to Toronto.

It *killed* me not to be able to dance in the finals, particularly since it was a mixed Advanced/All-Star division, and I hardly *ever* make finals! (Though I am "two for two", having come in 5th at Swingin' New England.) I even had a Masters Strictly partner lined up and it was going to be the first time I danced in Masters....

(By-the-way - you too would be eligible to dance in Masters. It's for competitors 50 years of age and older.)

Okay, I'm over it. No biggie, really.

Doesn't matter.

C'est la vie.

Julie