I Love Denver In the Spring (or Ode to I-70)

Mile High Blues was this weekend!  Wooo hoo!  Loved seeing my dance friends again.  Hadn't seen many of them since I left Utah in 2009 to go back to England.  Was wonderful to reconnect.  And had a fantastic time dancing til the wee small hours of the morning.  The best blues is always around 3 am.  Ended up with some mild trauma driving home, though.  Oh, and by "home" I really mean campus, to teach!  I still haven't been to my place.  Won't get there til sometime after 7 this evening.  But, I-70 was a solid wall of snow from Denver to Grand Junction.  Took us 3 extra hours to drive it, since we could only go between 25 and 45 MPH the whole way.  Not fun.  And even at that, we ended up spinning out, doing a 180 in the road!  Fortunately we were going really slow, so we didn't have any problems.  Just a bit of excitement.  And it was the best possible location.  Flat area, no cliff, no traffic... as perfect a spinout as you could have.  We didn't even leave the road!  We just basically spun around to face the other way.  Seems like I always have this trouble driving home from Mile High Blues.  Must be trying to tell me something.... like I should stay in Denver with the awesome dancing.

Blues P.S.

I finished the Red(ish) Vintage dress, and took it with me to the Blues Exchange. Wore it Saturday night, to great acclaim. Seriously, everyone loved it. The ladies loved it because it was pretty, and the guys loved the way it swished and flared when they spun me! Sorry . . . yet again I don't have any photos. I even wore The Blue Dress again, and still didn't manage to get any photos of it! Seriously, I'm so busy when I'm dancing (dancing!) that I never get photos. *sigh* And there was another gorgeous dress I wore Sunday night, that I don't have photos of, either!!!! Anyway, just though I'd let you know that one of my projects is finished.

Bluesin' Baby!

As many of you already know, I am an avid swing dancer. I do several different styles: Lindy Hop, Balboa, some Charleston (which can be danced solo or in pairs), and Blues. This weekend was the Mile High Blues Exchange in Denver, Colorado. And boy was it smokin'!!!! Now, I'm a good dancer, but I'm not exceptional. There were some truly exceptional specimens this weekend.

What is an Exchange, I hear you ask? Well, originally it was when a group of Lindy dancers from city A invited dancers from city B to come spend the weekend. Then city B reciprocated . . . thus the 'Exchange'. Nowadays it's more of a roving party. Different cities host it throughout the year. So there's a Portland Exchange, Denver Exchange, St Louise Exchange . . . . and even abroad: Moscow Exchange, London Exchange, Munich Exchange . . . . The local dancers all pitch in and help run the event (free of charge) and everyone pays a small (larger if there's teaching going on, but there often isn't. Just loads of social dancing) fee to pay for the venues, teaching, food . . . . Mostly it's just a lot of fun. People travel from all over the country, and even all over the world for the best exchanges, to come dance for the weekend. It's typically a Friday Night + Late Night, Saturday Afternoon (sometimes, not always) + Night + Late Night, and Sunday Afternoon (again, sometimes, but not always) + Night + Late Night (though there's not always a Late Night Sunday because of people leaving). Sometimes there's a pre and a post dance the night before/after the exchange, as well. Sometimes there are classes on Saturday/Sunday, sometimes there are activities (like the Utah Exchange they went sledding) . . . every exchange is different.

So, the schedule for this exchange?

Friday 7.00 am -- Leave for Denver (8 hour drive!)
6.30 pm -- Arrival/Registration/Auditions for upper level classes.
8.00 pm -- Dance
12.00 am -- Late Night
Now, the Late Night finished at 4.00 am, but I'd had a massive headache all day, so we called it quits around 3.00 am, and the 4 of us (Utah Dancers) went back to the hotel room we'd rented near the venues.

Saturday 8.30 am -- Up. (I know . . . I couldn't believe it either)
11.00 am -- Class (really good)
12.00 pm -- Class (really good)
1.00 pm -- Class (really good)
2.00 pm -- Lunch (didn't get any, too rushed)
3.00 pm -- Class (missed half of the class, but no problem because knew the stuff from the 1st half. 2nd class was good, though!)
4.00 pm -- Class (skipped)
5.00 pm -- NAP!
8.00 pm -- Dance
12.30 pm -- Late Night (no headache . . . . . got swept out the door at 4.00 am!)

Sunday 9.30 am -- Up.
10.00 am -- Class (missed the 1st 10 minutes)
11.00 am -- Class (fun, but not fabulous)
12.00 pm -- Class (I skipped the rest of the classes and did marking instead. *sigh*)
5.00 pm -- Easter Dinner with new Denver Dance Friends. Ooooooh so yummy!
9.00 pm -- Dance
12.00 am -- Late Night
3.30 am -- Jumped in the car to head back to Utah. I slept the first 2 hours, then swapped to be the driver. Will and I swapped back and forth most of the rest of the trip (8 hours) back.

Monday 2.30 pm -- Arrival to Salt Lake
4.00 pm -- Picked up Jane and Naomi from the Airport (Jane had been at an interview earlier in the week, so she flew to Denver, and Naomi had been visiting her friends in Seattle.)

So, it's 8.00 pm now, and I still haven't been to sleep (car sleep doesn't count. It just takes the edge off.) And the plan for the evening? Will, Naomi and I (and maybe Jane) are going to Keys on Main to see a live Jazz Band. We live by this motto:

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming...
Damn, What a ride!!