The Original Musings

Wow, what a day!

Missy and I left a few minutes after 6:00 a.m. (it’s a 4.5 hour drive, not counting any stops along the way). We got there without incident, actually found a place to park right under the Lansing Center and got up to the stage in short order.

Looking at the stage assignments, we thought we had two dances before her first one. Uhh, no, turns out we didn’t. They had moved the 515′s and 516′s (the latter being Missy’s group) to stage 2 which was on the absolute opposite side of the room, you couldn’t get any further apart.  (Of course, LOL!) So we grabbed back up everything we’d just unloaded and ran like hell for the other stage. As we got to the stage, they were just doing Missy’s *second* dance. ::sigh:: At that point we thought she’d missed both of her soft shoe dances, but the stage monitor came over and let us know that they were holding all of the sheets and would let her dance both of them because she wasn’t the only one who didn’t know about the change in stages and they had only announced it twice. (The first time before we got there, the second time when we heard it.)

So, she rushed and got ready, got up on stage and did her Reel and then after two 515′s made up their Slip Jig, she danced her Slip Jig. The Judge then switched off to another stage and she had the next Judge for the rest of the day. The Judge she got second is a heavy traditional Judge and Missy’s a traditional dancer, so Missy was on cloud nine. And it showed!

With only two groups dancing on the stage, the dances just flew by. Basically she had time to sit down, catch her breath and then she was right back up on stage again to do the next dance. Oh, and there was a boy in her group — which is seen as almost always a death sentence for the girls in the group — and in fact, Missy danced on stage with him (for the uninitiated, they dance two at a time, not solo) for both Treble Jig and Hornpipe, and she actually outplaced him! All six dances were over and done with in record time — she had her Reel at 11:30 and by 1:00 we had already collected her medals and were out in the hall waiting for the final result print out (which took over an hour, LOL!). We were out of the Lansing Center and back on the road by 2:30, so we wound up coming home via a scenic route we’ve never gone before, and even with a stop by Dad’s for a short visit, we were home and unloaded by 9:00! (And in bed, asleep by 10:00!)

So, final results …

• Reel – 3rd place
• Slip Jig – 6th place
• Treble Jig – 2nd place
• Hornpipe – 2nd place
• Traditional Set – 4th place
• Treble Reel – 3rd place

She walked out of there with five medals from six dances!  This was the fastest Feis of the year (hell, it may be the fastest of her dance career since she got to the six dance level) and without a doubt her best Feis since switching schools. I really can’t complain about anything, even the wait for printed results (which was irritating but not the end of the world) couldn’t ruin the day.  I have to give this the award for best Feis of the year and not just because my kid did so well! 

Her dress looked really great with the new cape (black with hologram butterflies) and the new liquid pink underskirt (not a petticoat, a soft skirt).  I shortened the main skirt and put black lace trim on it, and cut away where the front panel would be (and continued the lace up and across) to show the underskirt.  The overall effect was kind of an Irish Dancer Goth Princess look and it got a lot of compliments.  The way the skirt flares out when she turns and the way the color ripples when she moves, it really draws a lot of attention to her legs — which is what you want, after all!  Combine that with the longer wig that helps add to the bounce and it just really comes off well, even if it’s totally not traditional looking.  Everywhere you look anymore, they’re getting less and less traditional, so we decided to go with what she likes and something that compliments her coloring and so on.

We liked the way it looked on stage so much she asked me to make her an alternate underskirt in a different color (probably liquid red) and possibly a third (maybe in a teal or aqua color) just to mix it up a bit.  I’m also going to have to alter the bodice on the dress again, she’s lost more weight and it’s getting a touch baggy through the waist again.  It doesn’t matter as much because of the way the underskirt is and since it’s not a stiff skirt, you don’t have to carry the dress at the waist, but still.  Pictures will be posted as soon as I can.  And yes, I will make her submit to pictures with the wig and the whole spiel  as well. 

In the morning …

Looks like she won’t have her first dance till after lunch, but we’re going to get there between 10:30 and 11:00 just to be safe. We’ll be hitting the road around 9:00 or thereabouts, it takes about an hour and a half to get there.

::fingers crossed:: for a good day, with no injuries!!

Results and updates when we get back home tomorrow evening.

… is over!

It wasn’t the smoothest or most efficiently run (which surprised me, because honestly this is usually a good one) but it wasn’t the worst (or even close to it) so …

Missy’s known results for the day are …

• 3rd in Set Dance
• 4th in Treble Jig
• 5th in Hornpipe

Have to wait for printed results to see how she did on the others.

Tomorrow it’s off to Cincinnati where she will be competitor #544.  I’ll actually be meeting her at the Feis, because she went home this afternoon with her friend Kasey.  She’s spending the night there and Kasey’s mom has the enviable (?!) task of getting *two* 15-year old girls ready for the Feis in the morning.  Luckily, the Cincinnati Feis is really good about scheduling, so we already know we don’t have to be there till after the break because neither of them dance before lunch.

Missy is having a good Feis year — she’s placed 22 times so far! – and we are still waiting for some of her results (8 dances in all) so that might change because they don’t always post 4th and 5th places on the day of the Feis.  Since returning to competition in August of 2009 and thru June 26, 2010, in addition to two Honorable Mentions in the Treble Reel, she has earned …

• 2nd place – Treble Reel, Open Jig, Open Jig, Treble Reel
• 3rd place – Set Dance, Set Dance, Treble Reel, Set Dance, Set Dance
• 4th place – Treble Reel, Treble Jig, Treble Reel, Set Dance, Treble Jig
• 5th place – Reel, Treble Reel, Set Dance, Reel, Hornpipe

I’ve updated her 2010 results, dance tally and the trivia pages.  And on that note … I am going to go take a shower and then hit the sack. I’m beat and tomorrow’s another busy day!

Just a quick catch-up!

We wound up driving to the Feis in a thunderstorm with rain that at times was so heavy, visibility was reduced to less than 15 feet. I am *so* glad I was driving my nice, familiar car for that kind of weather. I like knowing how it will respond to my actions, not wondering if the brakes on this loaner are going to lock up or whatever. We arrived 15 minutes past our self-imposed deadline of 9:30 a.m. but it wound up not mattering as she did not start dancing till just after 11:30 a.m.

The new wig looks great, I really like it. Only one gem came off her dress while she was dancing so touch-ups will be a breeze this time around. The newly shortened and smaller petticoat could actually stand to go in a bit more but it at least stayed up! I’m about to need to take the dress and belt in further, I’m just really reluctant to do it when I know they’re going to need it again shortly. I’m actually thinking of reworking it a bit the next time it needs to be altered — I was thinking about extending the bodice down a bit more and then changing the skirt fabric. Maybe lose the petticoat entirely and put on a short puffed skirt. So many ideas!

She had that huge blister on her heel which was fully open and raw so she wore a gel pad bandage under her sock all day. At the end of the day when she took her socks off both heels were bright red, but neither were bleeding so she called that a success!

She had another great day, bringing home 2nd place in her Open Jig, 3rd in her Traditional Set (Job of Journey Works) and 5th in her Reel. She also earned an Honorable Mention in the Treble Reel, which was rather impressive actually because it was the “over-15″ Treble Reel and it was all levels. The dancer who took first place was her TCRG’s daughter who is a championship dancer. I updated her results page, the tally and added a random “trivia” type page as well.

The Feis was smooth sailing — though the shoe change for the Treble Reel was irritating: she had to change out of her soft shoes to do it, and then right back into the soft shoes to do her Slip Jig — and we were out of there by 4:30 p.m.

The drive home was uneventful — we came the scenic route and still managed to outrun the storm. Oh, and we managed to fill up the tank for $2.45/gallon when most everyone else was $2.65-$2.69 All in all, a great day!

Sorry I’ve been silent … all is well!

Just been a busy damn week, with all the running around trying to get the car back and everything else we had to do this week.

Let’s see …

Derwood has had to go on campus all week to take training classes for Red Hat technician and engineer certifications.  Today was the two-part test, which he was convinced he was going to bomb.  Waiting for him to get home so I can see if that assessment still holds. It’ll be nice to have him back on his regular schedule.  Update — he passed part one of the two part test with 81.5%, however he did not pass the second half and will have to re-take it.  At this point he is now a certified Red Hat technician, however he doesn’t yet have the Red Hat engineer certification (part 2 of the test).

The blue-screens-of-death have stopped – knock wood! — at long last.  Derwood kept swapping things around and it appears that it was something wrong with the CPU heat sink and/or the fan on the heat sink.  He’s swapped over a different heat sink and fan and so far there hasn’t been another incident.

We got the car back on Tuesday afternoon, thank God.  That gas hog loaner van was killing our budget.

Missy has been busy with dance — she has Indy Feis this Saturday, Louisville next Saturday, and the following weekend is Dayton on Saturday and Cincinnati on Sunday.  Then we get to breathe for a month before Columbus and Lansing.  I *need* to finish up her petticoat, which had to be remade because she’s danced off too many inches and it was falling off her!  I’m procrastinating at the moment, but I need to get a move on, because she must have it for the morning.

She’s done exceptionally well this year, especially considering she’s just getting back into it after her long ass break, and she’s still nursing a healing ankle.  Right now, she’s also got a blister that took out her heel — literally the thing was the size of her entire heel, it opened last night while she was at dance and now her entire heel is raw and exposed — and I’m not quite sure how she intends to dance on it, but she insists that it will be fine. So far this year she’s gone to five Feisianna and she’s brought home…

2nd place – Treble Reel, Open Jig
3rd place – Set Dance, Set Dance, Treble Reel
4th place – Treble Jig, Treble Reel
5th place – Set Dance, Set Dance

We’re still waiting for the rest of her Akron results (we don’t know how she did in the Hornpipe, everything else she placed in).  The worst she’s done so far this year is an 8th place in her Reel at the Queen City Feis; she’s consistently placing in the top half.  Once she fully requalifies for Prelim, she’s moving on up — hopefully soon! — she has six more Feises lined up this year, four of them are this month.  What she ideally needs to do is to move up by Columbus so that she has Columbus and Lansing to qualify for Oireachtas.  It’s a tough order to fill, though, so I’m not sure if it’ll happen.  That almost-a-year off has really hurt, but she’s the one who made the decision and she’s the one who has to live with it now.  :/

On the T0-Shin Do front, she will graduate to her next belt (blue & black) next month — I had my schedule off and thought she was up for it this month and I’m actually relieved it’s not!  She’s had workshops every Thursday and because of the Saturday Feis’ing, her entire schedule is off right now.  Monday she has dance.  Tuesday she has To-Shin Do coaching followed by her actual class, followed by black belt club class.  Wednesday, T0-Shin Do class.  Thursday is dance followed by T0-Shin Do workshop (this week and next is Shuriken, the next three weeks after that are “Ground Flow” training.  Friday and Sunday (except the last Sunday of the month when she has a Feis) are her only days off right now.

I’ve got some more updates, but they’re going to go under lock and key.  If you don’t already have the password and want it, drop me an email and I’ll fill you in.  Unless of course you’re aligned with ™ … if that’s the case, don’t bother wasting my time asking!

This is beyond old now

On Wednesday of last week, a warning light came on in my car.  First thing Thursday morning, into the shop she went.

Problem:  Knock Sensor malfunction, car not safe to drive

Solution:  Replace Sensor, part ordered with expedited overnight shipping, car returned Friday around 12:30 p.m.  Take this full-sized behemoth rental Dodge Ram dual-cab pick up truck as a loaner while you wait for your car. It’s really nice, it’s four feet off the ground and there’s no running boards just for grins, and it’ll suck down fuel like a dancer swills water, but hey, it’s on us, you only have to pay for the gas!

Problem:  Part arrived on time, damaged in transit

Solution:  Replacement part ordered with overnight shipping, won’t arrive till Monday, car returned Monday afternoon around 5:00 p.m.  Take this fuel-efficient rental Chrysler Town & Country mini-van as a loaner while you wait for your car.  Yes, you can take it to Detroit this weekend.  Enjoy!

Problem:  Part did not arrive, shipment misdirected, may arrive Tuesday

Solution:  Please continue to enjoy this fuel-efficient Chrysler Town & Country mini-van until we get your car fixed.  Heh.  We’re really sorry.

My car is under warranty, so there won’t be any repair expense.  I’m extremely thankful for that.  VW is paying the rental fee for the loaner vehicle.  I’m beyond thankful for that because I can’t afford it, and my daughter has classes throughout the week and a dance competition with a pre-paid non-refundable entrance fee every weekend this month, so I *must* have a vehicle.  I don’t at all want to sound ungrateful, but I really want there to be no more “Problem” entries.  Here’s hoping we get our car back today (Tuesday).

In other news … I have to alter the petticoat to the dress … she’s lost more inches and it’s sliding down.  If it wasn’t for the velcro along the front, she would have danced right out of it in Detroit!

In Detroit she got:  2nd in her Open Jig, 3rd in her Traditional Set, 3rd in Treble Reel, 7th in her Reel (she rolled her still-healing recently-sprained ankle three times during the course of the dance — the judge even noted on the comment line “ankle rolled”), and 6th in her Treble Jig and Slip Jig.  She didn’t dance the Hornpipe to let her ankle rest because her stage was moving very quickly.  (Let me just mention, I really liked the new venue.  Same type of place as usual — indoor soccer arena — just a different location, and this one stayed cool and comfortable!)

She came home with one silver and two bronze medals — as well as a new, extra long wig.  It looks really nice on her.  It’s a little lighter color than her current wig because it doesn’t have the red highlights of her hair (her current wig does, it’s almost like it was made for her it’s such a close match).  But the new one looks really nice on her and it’s the length Katie wants her in.  Since the first of the year, she’s now gotten a new wig, hard shoes, ghillies, leotard, petticoat, solo dress.  This is what happens after almost a year of not competing.  I keep having to alter her dress because all the weight she gained during her ban is dropping, and everything needed to be replaced!

Back to the van — I want it gone.  I want my Rabbit back!  Darin’s got training classes all this week, so he’s stuck driving the van there and back — after which I get to drive it right back across town with Missy and then back, so we’re really going to be putting some miles on it.

This coming weekend is Indianapolis.  Need to get busy altering the petticoat before then … and definitely need to have my car back by then.

Apparently, this is it

My system has been subjected to ever-increasing blue screen of death episodes.  Despite our best efforts, we have been unable as yet to isolate and eliminate the cause.  This weekend while we are in Detroit, Darin plans to switch my hard drive to another machine while he attempts to find the problem.

On Wednesday, we were driving home from T0-Shin Do in the midst of a horrendous downpour when suddenly an amber alert lamp lit on the dashboard.  A quick check of the manual revealed this was the VW version of a “do not screw around, contact your repair shop NOW!” light.

On Thursday, the car went in to VW and we were told that the problem was a sensor which was going out.  They ordered a part and it was to be overnighted to them.  Meanwhile, they set us up with a rental vehicle at their expense …  The rental turned out to be a full size, dual-cab Dodge Ram pickup.  This behemoth is only slightly shorter in height than a school bus (I know, because at one point we parked right next to one) and although it was a nice vehicle, I wasn’t overly impressed — the biggest flaw was the floor in the damn thing was at waist height when I was standing beside it and there were no running boards.  The other thing that sucked like a Hoover™ was fuel consumption.  According to the real-time display, we were averaging 17.6 miles per gallon.  Whoo hoo?

Today, VW called and let us know that although the part had arrived as promised, it had not arrived unscathed.  A new one would have to be ordered, they wouldn’t be able to get it till Monday, and they would extend our rental.  Well, this was all fine and dandy, but I did not want to drive that tank to Detroit — I especially didn’t want to have to pay for the fuel to drive it to Detroit.   So, they traded us for a “smaller, more fuel-efficient” vehicle … this turned out to be a pretty much stripped-down Chrysler Town & Country mini-van.  Swell.  Once again, I’m not impressed — although it was a lot bigger, the pickup was also a lot nicer than the van.  Hopefully, though, we’ll at least get better than 17½ miles to the gallon!

Which segues right into … Tomorrow, it’s off to Detroit with Missy and I.  We’ll be leaving about 6:00 a.m.  She will be dancing in *seven* dances — this Feis offers an Open Jig — and if she should wind up getting a first in her set dance, she’ll be dancing an eighth dance for a perpetual trophy.

No new alterations , but I did tinker with the dress a bit this week — affixed some snaps to stop the belt from creeping up while she’s dancing, affixed two gems that had become loose last week in Akron, added an additional piece of velcro to the sash — and it’s ready to go.  Yes, I remembered pictures!  They’re in the gallery as we speak.

In other news, Missy completed her school year this week!

Despite all the little snags and hiccups — and a blog stalker meltdown notwithstanding — it’s all good.  More is right than wrong and I’m not going to let it get to me.  I remain confident that ultimately balance will be restored and things will right themselves.

Here’s what we know

We have to wait for results on two of her dances (Reel and Hornpipe).  Of what we already know, 2nd in her Treble Reel – 5th in her Set Dance – 6th in her Slip Jig – 6th in her Treble Jig.

She received a medal for the second place and ribbons for the other three.

Her TCRG was happy with the revisions to the dress, and glad to see the bow gone.  I like it better too, and so does Missy.  Soon as I have the money, her TCRG wants her to get a new wig — the same color and type of curl, but the longer one rather than a short wig.  I prefer the longer wigs too, so if I had the money right now, I’d be ordering it!

Although we haven’t been to Akron in a few years — last year because of her competition ban for switching schools and a couple years before that because they were opening registration insanely early and I simply missed the cutoff — I remembered why I like this Feis:  smooth and efficient, sums it up!  My only complaints at all would be they put Ballinvilla right out in the sun rather than under the awning and toward the end of the day some of the results were a little slow in posting.

Speaking of Ballinvilla, we got her new hard shoes — thank goodness!  She danced in her old ones of course (the one and only time she ignored my attempts to dissuade her and danced in new hard shoes at a Feis, her feet were literally bleeding when she took them off at the end of the day) and she had to tape them to her feet to keep them on and to keep the heel of one and toe of the other in place.  She’s needed them since the first of the year, but we held off, intending to get them in person at the Buckeye State Feis in April.  I don’t mind buying her ghillies via mail order, but hard shoes are so hard to judge the size.

One thing that really upset me … I’m still kind of stunned by it.  We all know the rules: no video cameras or flash photography.  We all also see the rules being broken all the time and I understand that the Feis workers can’t stay on top of everyone.  I don’t blame the Feis for this, and if we’d seen it happening sooner, we probably would have said something about it. Unfortunately, we didn’t become aware of it till the end of the day.  Here’s what happened:

A dancer from Missy’s old academy is in the same age category as Missy, but a level behind her, in Novice.  They were dancing on the same stage, so her family was off to one side and we were over a little ways to the other side.  (Strangely, rather than going novice dance followed by open dance, they were dancing the open dancers first and the novices after, at least on our stage, so this dancer was on the stage after Missy’s group came off each time.)

Most of the day, I watched Missy dance from the opposite side of the stage and I was doing just that:  watching my kid and not paying any attention to what other people were doing. But on her hornpipe (the next to the last dance for Missy) I happened to move over to the other side where there was finally some room to sit, so I was sitting on the same side of the stage as this other dancer’s mom.  Mom was standing there with a video camera brazenly recording.  I know what you’re thinking right now:  whatever, not my business, right?

Wrong.  The reason it was my business is because she was not merely recording her daughter.   She also recorded my daughter’s hornpipe. Yes, I am 100% positive she was recording Missy, the camera was trained on her and followed Missy throughout the dance.  Then when Missy moved back to the line, the camera went down and was not raised again until the next group when her daughter danced and then the camera followed her daughter around the stage just as it had mine. Missy noticed it first; in fact, it was Missy looking over at her that made me look to see what was distracting her and why on earth she’d flubbed part of her step — that’s when I saw the damn camera trained on her and sat there wondering just what the hell she thought she was doing.

Astounded, and with no idea what I could or should do about it, we texted her TCRG and told her we had a situation to discuss.  Unfortunately, the other dancer doesn’t do a set dance, and they left right after that.  Katie got there in just a couple minutes, watched Missy’s set dance and then after hearing about what happened, told me if we saw her recording anyone in the future, go straight to the stage monitor and ask them to stop her.  It’s a violation of the Feis rules to record your own dancer, it’s a far more serious violation to record someone else’s, particularly without their parent’s permission.

Later, when we were discussing it with some of the other parents at the stage and their dancers, it was pointed out to us that although Missy and I had only seen her recording Missy’s hornpipe, she had also recorded Missy’s reel, slip jig and treble jig.  Because she was so openly brazen about it, and because we used to go to the same school, no one was quite sure whether they should say anything or not.  No one knows if she also recorded the treble reel — I don’t recall seeing her over there, but again, I wasn’t watching the people around us, I was watching Missy and the others in her competitions.

I don’t want to make any allegations as to why, but what possible reasons does she have for recording my daughter?  It can’t be that she’s worried about Missy outplacing her daughter and wants to see what her daughter should work on, because they’re not in the same competition level.  It can’t be that she was recording it because Missy and her daughter are friends (they weren’t friends when we were at the school, they certainly aren’t now) and she was merely recording her daughter’s friend.  What does that leave, besides she was doing it to (a) let Missy notice it and hopefully cause her to mess up (which mostly failed, because Missy didn’t even notice her till the hornpipe) or (b) record Missy’s steps so that they could be shared with the instructors at the old academy for purposes of pulling out any steps or elements that they might want to swipe and incorporate into their dances which itself begs the question of did the TCRGs have any clue that this person was doing it?  Seriously, if I’m missing something, someone enlighten me because as far as I can see, what else is there besides A or B?

You can bet your ass that next time I’m going to watch the woman like a hawk and if I even see her recording HER daughter I’m going to report her to the stage monitor.

Anyhow, enough of that.

On our way home, we stopped at Jeni’s Ice Cream in Dublin, Ohio.  My boss had asked us to swing by there and see what we thought of it.  I guess the sum-up there would be:  mmmm!  Missy tried scoops of their pistachio and honey vanilla bean varieties, while I went with scoops of cherry lambic sorbet and Thai chili pepper.  The only one we didn’t like at all was the pistachio (it had a strange taste that overpowered even the pistachio, almost buttery?).  Missy loved the honey vanilla bean while my favorite was the cherry lambic.  I could eat a gallon of that stuff all by myself I think!  I’ve never had a spicy ice cream before, but the Thai chili pepper ice cream was actually really good.  And despite the sugar, it didn’t send my glucose soaring, so yay!  I can’t even remember the last time we got ice cream out (hell, in, for that matter!) …

Next Feis, this coming Saturday, Detroit.

2010 Akron Feis

We’ll be leaving for Akron first thing in the morning. We’re not doing the Cleveland Feis on Sunday because we despise that one.  I know she needs to get as many in as she can so she has every opportunity to qualify but the last time we attended that Feis was just that: the last time.  We waited for hours for results to post and then later on when they gave out the full results here she had placed a couple of 3rds that weren’t posted and when I wrote them three different times and said hey, how about sending us her medals since you guys didn’t post the results right (or you sent us incorrect results, which is it?) they didn’t respond and never sent her the medals.  Between that kind of crap and the door nazis searching bags and stuff, we vowed to never go back and we haven’t.

The dress has been altered and reworked for what was hopefully the final time.  I *may* make her a new petticoat before the next Feis (she has six of them coming up in a row — every Saturday and one Sunday from now till July) but that’s not decided for sure yet.  I *may* elect to be lazy and NOT make her a new one!

This round of changes:

• Bow is gone, turned into a cape of the same fabric as the bow. (One of the Judges in Cincinnati commented on her results that the bow was distracting.)
• Trim reworked to cut off halfway up and then wind across the chest and around the sides so that it didn’t make her look broad-shouldered.
• More gems added.
• Belt shrunk by 3.5 inches.
• Bodice tapered in by a total of 4 inches.
• Skirt shortened a bit more.

New pictures would have been able to be found in the gallery, HOWEVER, I forgot to put the petticoat on the dressform so they didn’t look right at all.  I’ll take a couple photos after the Feis (or maybe one or two with Missy actually in the dress!) with the petticoat so the full effect can be seen. In the meantime, you’ll have to imagine it because it’s late, I’m tired and I have to be up at 5:00 a.m. and on the road by 6:00 a.m.

And with that … I’m off to bed!