Saturday, April 10, 2004

SF was really really fun! We didn't do as well as we had hoped in the competition, but we had a really good time, which is cool. We were supposed to meet at 4:45 in the morning on Friday, which was fine except that Carey wasn't there, so we tried to call him, except that we had the wrong number, and Chris woke someone up, and we thought that was really funny, although we felt bad. So eventually we left without him, because we had to be there on time, so I rode up with Thea and PC, which was fun. Thea slept almost the whole way there, stretched out in the back seat. And PC and I talked, apparently we weren't paying attention, and we missed the 5. So we took the 99 instead, by accident, it took us a bit east of where we wanted to be, which meant I had to pay attention to the maps then and be a good navigator, but we did an excellent job, and were the third car to get to the hotel and only by five minutes. Which we thought was really funny! Adam was behind us. ;) It was amusing. Anyway, so we went and found a little taqueria to have lunch at, and then went back and hurridly got ready for the comptition that afternoon. It was a little rushed, and I was really glad that I had done my hair that morning before we left, even if people did think I was insane... I had the right idea! :) Anyway, so we hurried downstairs and got there just after the latin competition had started. Ashleigh and Ian and Thea and PC were competing when the rest of us got in there. After latin was lindy, and there was only one couple who wasn't from Claremont. It was amusing. Bet they'll think twice about competing again! We swept the competition. Ashleigh and Jon finally got their well-deserved first-place, and Adam and I took second, which was cool. They took a very short break, which I used to change into my skirt, and then we had the standard competition. I was competing quickstep and foxtrot with Adam, and tango and waltz with Ian, and didn't realize that there would be no other heats than the ones I was dancing in. So that made things a little insane! Adam and I had our quickstep first, and he totally forgot the routine! So he was leading really random things, and I was just hoping to goodness that I was following him at least somewhat correctly. It was insane! And somehow I managed to kick my ankle, which I didn't realize until after we were done, and Adam had handed me off to Ian and we were preparing to dance the waltz. The waltz went very well, I was pleased with that one. Especially after our disaster that had been the qs right before. Then Adam was back, and we did our foxtrot, which again, went very very well. We thought we might have placed well on that one, and then Ian was back to do tango with me, which didn't go quite as well, which was disappointing, because we had been practicing it. Ian kept forgetting to take this one step, and so it kind of got weird. Anyway, it wasn't bad, but not great. When it came time for awards though, Adam and I placed second in the qs, which was insane! That shouldn't have happened, we were so bad! And only finalized in our foxtrot, which was sad, because that's definitely our best dance together, and we did a good job in that one. Oh well, in relation to the other couples on the floor we weren't quite good enough. Ian and I took third in the waltz, and finalized in the tango, as it should have been. So that was good and fun. I had almost a complete set of colors. If I had just had a first place... *sigh* next year. ;) Then we had team match, almost immediately, and so I had to change really fast after the awards. I got to wear the pretty black and white dress again, so that was fun. And Adam and I were the foxtrot couple for our team. Unfortunately our team got last, and our other Claremont team placed second to last. There were only five teams, so we got fourth and fifth, but still, kind of a sad showing. Stanford won that one. They had some very very good couples. Then we went off and had dinner, and got back and got ready for medley. Unfortunately it got very stressful because Kay was really really late getting back from dinner, and we had to really hurry to get her ready. She was pissed off, and it was bad. But, it worked out, we got her ready in plenty of time, and then all went down. We got to see the amateur standard competitors, and they were very good. And then some of the teams went. They were rather boring or uninspiring. It was kind of sad. We were in the second set of teams to perform, and we performed wonderfully! We just had two bad things happen, and that knocked us down a bit. Kristi was wearing Tracy's dress, which was slightly too long for her, and she tripped on it, and fell almost at the beginning, but Jon was an awesome partner, and held her up, and kept right on going, so it wasn't terribly noticable, but it was definitely there, and Kristi was a little shaken, which was bad. And then towards the end, Matt and Ian somehow collided, and there was a whole little mess there, which I didn't see, but was bad. But other than that, it was really good. Our performance was good, we were putting our all into it. We ended up getting second to UCSD, because they didn't have anyone fall. Chris thinks that we could have gotten first if we hadn't had the mess-ups, and we might have. I know Ian was really angry that we didn't do as well as we wanted to. But I really feel like we had an excellent performance, and really, at least that didn't happen in Ohio! Anyway, the rest of the night was spent watching the incredibly good latin dancers, and some really awesome theatre arts routines, and having fun. We got up in the morning and went to Kitri's house for brunch, which was fabulous! She had all kinds of fresh fruit and yumminess for us! It was great! And then we came back, into the rain. Bah. It had been so nice in SF! Oh well. It got nicer here during the week again, which we were all greatful for. There was a MOB last night, which was really fun! And I also finally saw Arathi sing. Which was cool, there was a big acapella fextival thing, with groups from Claremont and Caltech, which was really fun! Anyway, I have a ton to do between now and the end of the semester, research papers and projects, and other papers, and concert too.... so I'm going to be working hard, probably won't have much time to write here, but I'll tell you all about it when I get home. Talk to you all soon!