Denver, Day 2

Saturday dawned as another beautiful day in Colorado.  I slept soundly and woke up about 8:30 finally.

Sharon was about to head out to the store for some breakfast pick-me-ups (she doesn't cook), so I fired up the laptop and started a very productive morning.  After snacking for breakies, I got through 24 new C1 sequences and wrote up my bio for the Sneak-a-Peek in an upcoming American Square Dance magazine.  Read up on the history of Colfax Street and Aurora on the ever-helpful wikipedia.org.

After I closed up shop, we poked around Sharon's patio she had made and talked about her plants.  She's quite handy, having laid the patio herself and built the privacy fence around her mini-yard.  Quite nice.

Since Sharon dances through Plus only, they made arrangements for Joy to pick me up at 2 to haul me down to the Washington Street Community Center (an interesting old building that I finally discovered was built in 1907 as the Ohio Street Congregational Church, used until 1966).

We got there with 30 minutes to spare for me to set up the sound equipment again while Joy set up for the later potluck.  By 3pm when the C1 dance was to start, we only had 5 dancers.  Finally, by 3:15 we had 7 plus me; I had the foresight to bring my wireless headset this time, so filled in as the 8th dancer until someone else arrived about 3:25.

The afternoon dance ended at 5.  All told, there were 10 that showed up for that session.  They thought they'd have 24 or so.  Hmm.

The potluck was lightly attended, too.  Several of the C1 dancers escaped to set up for a games night they were having somewhere.  The food that was there was tasty and plentiful, though.  The theme was "Masquerade" for the evening, but only 2 people brought anything resembling costumes, one of them being Sharon.  I wore some Mardi Gras beads and a boa.  The face mask I brought was too cumbersome to call in.

I started the 7pm Mainstream and Plus dance at 6:30 by teaching 2 line dances, "CC Shuffle" and "Down on the Corner," both well received for the 12 or so that joined in.  I interspersed a couple of other line dances and mixers into the program with the alternating square dance tips and tried very hard to keep the interest up.  I just think they're all burned out by dancing both Tuesdays and Thursdays already, then having a weekend of more dancing that's nearly like a flyin.  There was one poor woman, very small, who was totally hopeless.  It was like pulling teeth to get anyone into her square, but they finally filled in several minutes after I put the music on.

Apparently they had asked me to call for them in October 2009 the same weekend we're hosting the A&C weekend.  I thought I was booked for a month earlier, but that's their 25th anniversary flyin with Anne U and Deborah CJ calling.  I'll have to check my schedule when I get home.  In any case, I'm going to take my name out of future monthly dances with them.  I'm booked to call on my birthday next year, but I think Danny and I should plan something special for my 55th.

A 25 minute drive back home with Sharon.  We sat up chatting for a bit, yakking about rental properties and such, then off to bed with me being VERY tired.  Part 2 of my night, next post.

Denver, Day 2

Saturday dawned as another beautiful day in Colorado.  I slept soundly and woke up about 8:30 finally.

Sharon was about to head out to the store for some breakfast pick-me-ups (she doesn't cook), so I fired up the laptop and started a very productive morning.  After snacking for breakies, I got through 24 new C1 sequences and wrote up my bio for the Sneak-a-Peek in an upcoming American Square Dance magazine.  Read up on the history of Colfax Street and Aurora on the ever-helpful wikipedia.org.

After I closed up shop, we poked around Sharon's patio she had made and talked about her plants.  She's quite handy, having laid the patio herself and built the privacy fence around her mini-yard.  Quite nice.

Since Sharon dances through Plus only, they made arrangements for Joy to pick me up at 2 to haul me down to the Washington Street Community Center (an interesting old building that I finally discovered was built in 1907 as the Ohio Street Congregational Church, used until 1966).

We got there with 30 minutes to spare for me to set up the sound equipment again while Joy set up for the later potluck.  By 3pm when the C1 dance was to start, we only had 5 dancers.  Finally, by 3:15 we had 7 plus me; I had the foresight to bring my wireless headset this time, so filled in as the 8th dancer until someone else arrived about 3:25.

The afternoon dance ended at 5.  All told, there were 10 that showed up for that session.  They thought they'd have 24 or so.  Hmm.

The potluck was lightly attended, too.  Several of the C1 dancers escaped to set up for a games night they were having somewhere.  The food that was there was tasty and plentiful, though.  The theme was "Masquerade" for the evening, but only 2 people brought anything resembling costumes, one of them being Sharon.  I wore some Mardi Gras beads and a boa.  The face mask I brought was too cumbersome to call in.

I started the 7pm Mainstream and Plus dance at 6:30 by teaching 2 line dances, "CC Shuffle" and "Down on the Corner," both well received for the 12 or so that joined in.  I interspersed a couple of other line dances and mixers into the program with the alternating square dance tips and tried very hard to keep the interest up.  I just think they're all burned out by dancing both Tuesdays and Thursdays already, then having a weekend of more dancing that's nearly like a flyin.  There was one poor woman, very small, who was totally hopeless.  It was like pulling teeth to get anyone into her square, but they finally filled in several minutes after I put the music on.

Apparently they had asked me to call for them in October 2009 the same weekend we're hosting the A&C weekend.  I thought I was booked for a month earlier, but that's their 25th anniversary flyin with Anne U and Deborah CJ calling.  I'll have to check my schedule when I get home.  In any case, I'm going to take my name out of future monthly dances with them.  I'm booked to call on my birthday next year, but I think Danny and I should plan something special for my 55th.

A 25 minute drive back home with Sharon.  We sat up chatting for a bit, yakking about rental properties and such, then off to bed with me being VERY tired.  Part 2 of my night, next post.