New Years Eve

For New Years, Kevin and I spent our time in Boston at New Year's Dancing Eve, which was a cross-over event (meaning Lindy Hop and West Coast).

Joe and Kathey Mahoney put on a wonderful event. The contest ran smoothly, the award show/dinner show was awesome, and people danced the night away on New Years.

Some highlights:

During the dinner show, Arjay Centeno danced with his partner Melissa Rutz and Deborah Szekely, another superstar in the West Coast scene, did the best 3 person dance I have ever seen. Check it out here. Just watch it; it was amazing. I have a better appreciation for West Coast after this dance and am more amazed that one man could do so much!

On Saturday night I did pickle shots up in somebody's hotel room. I don't know who's suite it was, but I was invited it, pickles were cute, and about 20 of us grabbed a chilled shot of vodka, threw it back, and then munched on the pickle. I'll be honest, if you don't try this, you aren't missing anything.

I turned 24 that weekend. And someone remembered. And Kevin made sure I had a birthday cake and that I got sung to. It was the simplest, yet most fulfilling birthday ever.

I almost missed my flight back home because I hit snooze, or so I thought. It would have been the first plane I have ever missed in 10 years of traveling (that would have been due to me). Luckily Davis Thurber was kind enough to drive me to the airport.

Kevin and I got to close out the dinner show on New Years Eve.

I got to hang out with a couple named Dorry and Sommer from Baltimore, MA. They are some of the coolest, down-to-earth, funny, and brilliant people I know. If you don't know them, search them out and let them know that you found them on my recommendation.

Happy New Years!

And to all my friends, I wrote you notes and mailed them. Yes, mailed them. Not email, but mailed them. I don't know if you will get them though....perhaps there wasn't enough postage on them, or because they didn't have a sealant on them (and subsequently taped them), in which case I am betting the Post won't be merry or jolly enough to just send them. More to come on this.

Boston - the adventure

Kev and I had an awesome time. We were picked up at the airport immediately after we arrived, we drove back to Aurelie & Tony’s house. After unpacking, meeting their cat Belle (who was not terribly friendly, but awfully curious), and checking out their old school photos in their dance room, we were off to dinner.

We tried to get into a Mexican Restaurant but it was packed, so we headed over to Ruby Tuesdays. Kev got sliders and access to their salad bar and I had soup (and I don’t remember what T&A ordered). I did, however, get to steal food from Kevin – and this just makes my night. Food often seems better when it is on somebody else’s plate. But the really-really of it all is that I fill up quickly and I only want a few bites of many different things. I am a happy camper when I get to nibble!

After dinner we headed back home, hooked up to the internet (which was an event in itself), did some homework (all work related), and then headed to bed.

Saturday morning we got up, showered, ate, and headed off to the workshop. Kev and I drove separately; we got to take their Prius (wish Kevin calls Pious after seeing a South Park episode) and use Tony’s navigation device. It was an easy 35 minute drive and the car was quiet the entire way. Not only that, but we were getting 99 mpg during part of the trip. Kevin was learning how to coast and speed up in order to get the best gas mileage, but he was still paying attention to the road.

If you haven’t driven around Boston, you might not know about the tolls; they are freaking everywhere!!! It felt like every 10 minutes or so we’d have to pay a new toll, and we were driving at least 30 minutes everywhere we went. I couldn’t believe it! So many tolls!!! I guess they were instated in order to pay off a bridge, but the committee that was created in order to oversee the budgeting and the project found a way to funnel the money around to various projects, whereby never really paying off the bridge. It’s something like that; mostly, the people behind the organization don’t want to look for a new job, so they have found other ways to make the company useful so that it cannot go out of business. Genius.

Class went really well; once we found our students’ rhythm, we cranked through material at an appropriate pace, we fed them one liners all afternoon (there was lots of laughing, just as we prefer), and they were asking intelligent questions about technique (they were obviously thinking about the material instead of just trying to do the move). It was fabulous!

After class, Kev and I grabbed some food with some buddies at an upscale pizza joint. We ordered salad (which were sizable) and three different thin-crust pizzas that were just amazing, and the boys indulged in a blueberry flavored beer which was outstanding. And the waitress was so nice – she basically read me and Kev the menu (which was short, but still….) and gave us recommendation while the boys (Davis and Dave) parked the car. The service in Boston is outstanding; the best I’ve seen actually.

Oh yes, and another FYI – there is NO parking in Boston. The streets are parked up for miles! It felt like a super-duper cold San Francisco.

The dessert menu was rather limited at that restaurant, so we headed out to a chocolate shop. We didn’t get very far because Kev found a tea store and then decided that he needed some Bobba. What you might not know about Kev is that he is a fan of bobba. If we drive by something that says the word “Tea” on it, we almost always stop in (or he jumps out of the car) and see if they’ve got some. He got his drink, I grabbed a mochi, and then we headed to the chocolate store.

Now this was no ordinary chocolate store. No no – this was a Chocolate Delicatessen. I saw chocolates in the shapes of penguins and mice (as well as the standard triangles and squares) and they were about $3 a piece (holy moly). Not only did they have a lovely window display of truffles and treats, but at the other end of the store they made hot drinks. Apparently the best hot chocolate in the city was at this store.

After hearing such a statement, I then HAD to see for myself. A small hot chocolate was ordered for me (you had the choice of demi, small, and medium) and then I got lost staring into the pastry window. Low and behold there were macaroons (but they called them Luxemburg’s). The last time I saw these delicate cookies I was in the south of France, and they were expensive! A cookie the size of a half dollar (picture it looking like a petite ice cream sandwich) cost 3€! However, the lovely treats that sat before me were a mere 75 cents. I told the lady behind the counter what I was looking at and she just gave me one. I was shocked; again a staff member took time to talk with me and bothered to listen to me, and then gave me a free cookie! In my mind, Boston is the best Service Oriented City in the world!!!

Hot chocolates and Bobba drinks were enjoyed on the way back to Davis’ place. Once there, we got ready for the Saturday night dance. I begrudgingly got dressed (it was really cold and I didn’t want to get out of my warm clothes into cold ones) and then convinced Davis that he needed some eye makeup for this evenings soiree.

Kev and I, plus the boys, headed out to the dance. After finding parking, Kev and I couldn’t locate the entrance to the dance venue. We were running up and down the street, with our luggage in tow, freezing. It was about 30°F out; I was dying – I was not built to live in this kind of weather. After banging on what appeared to be a door (we were able to see dancers checking in at the front desk) there was a mild sense of defeat. I felt more like Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters when he was chased down by one of the stone dog-creature things, made it to a restaurant, couldn’t get in, and ended up sliding down the outside of the window before the dog got him. The “dog” in my case was the cold.

But we finally got in, finished getting dressed, threw an aerial, and then performed. We did Swingin at the Cotton Club again and the audience loved it. We did not, however, do our new ending; I wasn’t feeling up to it.

After some social dancing and cake, we headed back to Davis’ place to chill. After a cup of hot water and a good stretch, Kev and I finalized our Sunday material and headed back to T&A’s place. Bedtime: 4:14am.

Sunday

We wake up, shower, pack our bags, grab breakfast, and head out (and all of this was done in 40 minutes). We got to class, Kev warmed up the students, and then we did some jazz. Again, the students were great and worked really hard at learning the choreography.

In between classes, I got Seth and Davis to sit on the children’s benches in the bathroom. They were too big for the bench, but they decided to amuse me anyways.

Lots of great 80's movie references were made as well as some potentially inappropriate ones. Most of the students laughed; it was awesome that they were all on board with our humor.

After the four classes had finished, the boys decided to do some calisthenics which eventually turned into playing basketball and then hanging from the hoop.

After game time, we got dressed and headed out to dinner with T&A. They took us to Legal Seafood which was phenomenal. After reading the first page I was afraid to turn to the next because there was so much good food! I narrowed my choices down to 10 dishes and then decided to go with the New England Clam Chowder ("When in Rome...."). T&A and Kev ordered salads and a main dish; I got to nibble off of them.

After our meal, we begrudgingly looked at the dessert menu; and thank god we did! We got 2 orders of Bananas Fosters and a Boston Creme Pie (again..."When in Rome...") and stuffed ourselves. It was one of the best dessert nights I had all year!

After our meal, we headed back to Davis' house, watched Dogma, and did emails. Then it was off to bed.

Monday

We got up, ate breakfast, and headed to the gym. The boys did 20 minutes of cardio and then hit the weights; they did chest, arms and back. I did 30 mins of cardio and then flitted from machine to machine; I did arms and legs. After rolling ourselves out on the pilates rollers, we realized we had to get going in order to make our flight.

As we walked home, it started to snow. It was almost like we were in the movies. The streets were a little bit slushy, but there was a fresh batch of snow on the ground and flakes were floating down from the sky above. It was cold, but it was lovely.

We got to the airport with 40 minutes to spare, or so we thought. Our flight had been delayed 45 minutes so we decided to pony up to the counter and eat at Johnny Rockets. We had a strawberry-banana milkshake, fries, a burger and a tuna melt. We were happy little piggies.

And then we flew home on Jetblue Airlines, which is one of the best airlines out there. The direct TV rocks and the flight attendants are always nice. Oooh, and there is more legroom in coach than anywhere else!! Support Jetblue if you can!!