3,2,1!

Dear Madonna,

One more sleep until we head to the Open.  The Meat, Summer, and I will be driving down to  Phoenix tonight and stay at Helen's condo before our morning flight to Burbank, and then everything will start happening pretty quickly.

We have a mandatory competitors' meeting at 2:00 p.m. - which I suppose will be huge, as there's only one such meeting scheduled the entire weekend.  Opening ceremonies are at 7:00 p.m., with participants staging at 6:30 p.m.  The Meat thinks I'll be able to do my Canadian flag bearing duties, plant the flag, and double back to walk in with all the Masters Competitors.  He's also marching in twice, both as a competitor and a sponsor to of the Young American division.

Speaking of which, have I told you about the new man in my life? His name is Chase. He and his partner, Anika are also dancing at the US Open for the first time. We social danced a bit at the studio after one of their practices this week and we both fell madly in love.

My gal Tina did my hair yesterday - she uses these huge rollers and sticks me under the dryer to straighten it, and I scored five pairs of false eyelashes for a dollar a pair at Target, so with Dana's help I should be able to make myself stage-worthy on Saturday. We'll actually be performing twice: Semis at 11:00 a.m. and Finals at 7:00 p.m. 

I'm just worried about getting the Meat up for our floor trials at 6:30 a.m.  He is *not* a morning person.

5,4...

Dear Madonna,

Meet my "Alteration Angel", the Meat's seamstress, Margie.

Has it ever happened to you, during a performance, that you hear a rrrrrrrip sound?  Well, it happened to me during our demo Sunday night at the swing dance in Phoenix. I heard it, kept going, and was having so much fun I didn't really notice until the next morning: a big split in the seams under the right arm of my costume!

Margie to the rescue - and as Joanna said, if you're going to have a wardrobe malfunction, better now than at the Open!!!

7,6....

Dear Madonna,

When I first started dancing West Coast Swing I remember coming to Phoenix for a business trip. My friend, Kathy, who introduced me to WCS originally in New York, happened to be in California on business, too. Her mother was living in Scottsdale at the time so we both extended our trips to spend the weekend in Arizona.

Her niece drove up from Tuscon, and the three of us went out Salsa dancing on the Saturday night. Then on the Sunday night we went to the Greater Phoenix Swing Dance Society's dance at the Elks Lodge.

We were warmly welcomed as out-of-towners, who had "found" their dance on the internet - still a rather novel occurance. I remember it was a bit of a challenge dancing with Leaders who wanted to chat at the same time; I was still counting 1,2, 3&4, 5&6 in my head!

It must have been in November, just prior to the Open, because we got to see a demo of a performance by club members who were going to the US Open soon to compete. (I remember it was Gary Jobst dancing to "Knock, knock, knock on wood").

Well, here we are, years later: it's November, I'm in Arizona, and I'm going to be demo-ing *my* US Open routine with The Meat *tonight* at a swing dance in Phoenix.

Amazing!

10, 9, 8....

Dear Madonna,

The countdown is really on. It's now just eight (8) days until The Meat and I compete at the US Open. Can you believe it?

I arrived in Prescott today for a week of rehearsing before we head to California.  Of course we won't be spending every minute of every day in the dance studio.  For one thing, Summer's Dancework's is busy during the day with classes in Ballet, Tap, Jazz and Hip-Hop - ages three to 87(!).  For another, there's just so much abuse The Meat's body can take hauling my heavy a** over his head.

Or so he likes to say.

I'll be here for U.S. Thanksgiving, which we'll share with Summer and her family. Apparently we're going to see a High School play tomorrow night. I've got a few things to keep me busy but I suspect I'll be crawling the walls and *more* than ready to get on that plane to Burbank next Friday.

And for some reason I can't get the Queen song "Don't Stop Me Now" out of my head....

True Patriot Love

Dear Madonna,

I'm going to be the official Canadian flag carrier at the opening ceremonies at the US Open!  Wow....it's kinda like the Olympics!!

The call for volunteers came out last week and I thought I should check with Myles and Tessa - but they've carried the Maple Leaf several times so are okay with letting me do the honours.

Apparently there's a parade of competitors, with all the American States lined up, and then the countries.  Carriers are to keep the flag rolled up until the competitors' march is completed. Robert Royston will announce the American states in alphabetical order, and then the countries repesented. Each carrier will is to go to the front edge of the floor in turn, present their flag, and "Feel free to move and wave your flag."

Oh, I will, baby...I will.

Lessons from BOTB

I caught Battle of the Blades last night. That's the the über-Canadian reality show that pairs retired NHL hockey players with figure skating superstars to compete as couples - complete with choreography, costumes, and crazy-ass lifts.  They perform a new piece each week, and each week one couple gets voted "off". The ultimate winners take nothing home for themselves except bragging rights; money is donated to their chosen charity.

Their commitment and sacrifices were highlighted in short vignettes between performances showing how the contestants balance a brutal training schedule with their regular busy lives and family obligations. The hockey players, in particular, are pushing themselves way outside their comfort zone, and even as atheletes everyone has to be diligent about staying injury-free.

There was high drama, too, when the custom-made skates of two-time Olympic champion, Ekaterina Gordeeva got delayed due to a flight misconneciton and almost didn’t make it to the rink in time.

I am so not checking my US Open costume!

The Colour Purple

Dear Madonna,

I can't believe I had to make another trip this week to the hospital - this time due to an injury to one of my toes!  It was a dancing accident, which happened during one of our weekly Tuesday night practices at the Dovercourt House, and before some hapless Leader gets blamed I might as well come clean and admit that it was totally self-inflicted.

"The Meat" was understandably concerned; the US Open is less than a month away, and we can't really change the choreography - as Nick suggested - so that we do the entire routine on The Meat's shoulders!

The toe is actually feeling a lot better today. I have a bandage on to stablize it a bit, so haven't checked if the bruising has gone down... 

Seriously, the only purple I want to see on November 27th is my costume.

Julie




The only purpl

One Year Anniversary

Dear Madonna,

I went for for my every-three-month "mole patrol" exam yesterday. It was at Women's College Hospital, where my GP first identified the offending spot which turned out to be Melanoma. WCH is a teaching hospital, so the first part of the examination is usually conducted by a resident - invariably some cute young guy.  I'd flirt, but I don't want to distract him.

The one year anniversary is significant in that from now on I can reduce the trips to the dermatology department at WCH to every six months.

In the meantime: sunscreen!

Julie