Three

Indiana Challenge - Saturday

I woke up at 5:30 AM to begin the process of getting ready. Shower, Make-Up, Fake lashes, and getting dressed. Shawn did my hair again. I headed downstairs at seven feeling much calmer than I did the day before. I think having a clearer understanding of where I was going to stand took the pressure off. I was competing against the same girls as the day before so I expected not to place and was simply going to enjoy the time. Tim and I did our warm up and I put my warm up clothes back on thinking I had a significant amount of time before my first heat.

Tim finished practicing with Debbie. They cleared the ballroom and we came back in and sat down. Tim disappeared for a few minutes. That was unnerving for me. He reappeared and told me that he had put Debbie and I in the newcomer level today. He hadn't done it previously because the cut off is supposed to be 50 hours of lessons, Debbie and I had both gone over this amount, but as we had seen the day before, that apparently was not a rule they stuck to. Therefore, Tim added a bunch of heats for us that we did not have to pay for. My third surprise for the weekend from Tim. (He shaved his goatee, entered me in the compulsory event on Friday, and then added these heats)

So I quickly took of my warm ups and got ready to go. There are no call backs in newcomers. I headed out to the floor. We did Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, and Viennese Waltz. I felt good. In fact at one point during the Viennese as I was looking up at the chandeliers I thought "This is a living the dream moment". I was completely happy to be where I was and doing what I was doing at that exact moment. It was amazing! I was pleased with my dancing, as we headed back to our seats I was greeted with approval from the people from my studio. John told me my dance position looked great and that he was proud of me. Big words coming from John!

First awards ceremony. I got third place in all three of my newcomer dances. I finished directly behind the girl Tim and I had researched. I was really really pleased with that placement. Then I did my bronze 1 heats. I did the same dances. This time I got a call back on my foxtrot. Which means I was in the top six out of eleven girls. I was pretty pleased with that as well! Second award ceremony and I didn't place but I felt very very good. Bronze 2 heats - no call backs. No awards. But I had lots of fun and didn't want to stop dancing. It was a great time! I was pleased to know I finished right after someone who was dancing at the open silver level.

I headed upstairs to change clothes and remove some makeup and head out to meet Carrie and Danno and company for lunch for Danno's birthday. I struggled a little bit with the quick change and had some culture shock issues. I headed back to the hotel and started getting ready for dinner. Saturday night is another gown, typically even dressier and an amazing dinner. After dinner, we headed down to the ballroom for some more competition. My favorite pro couple were there again competing a multi-dance latin comp. I was completely thrilled to be able to watch them.

Then there was the professional show. I had already seen this couple several times and I was not so thrilled. They do more lifts and tricks than actual dancing, so I was a little bored with them. The show ended and April started asking around for a camera. When I asked what she was doing she said she wanted to go take pictures with my favorite pro couple. I begged to tag along feeling fully like a groupy. We searched the hotel and right as we were about to give up, they came out. They were very nice (although I doubt how much they understood our talking) and we got pictures. We all did some very girly excited dancing once they left. I felt like a twelve year old girl meeting N*SYNC. This is the most star struck I have ever been.

Then we sat around and talked for a little bit and headed upstairs to our room. Normally I would have stayed up and talked, but I was wiped from all of the adrenaline and lack of sleep. I went to sleep around 3:30 AM, which was not too much later than the show ended.

Sunday Morning

I woke up at 9:00 AM and got dressed in pants! It was amazing to put on pants first thing in the morning. I headed down to the ballroom to watch the kids compete. They were truly amazing. I left the Radisson around 3:30 PM totally exhausted but not ready to return to the real world.

It is late and I am tired. I will write my overall reactions to the weekend tomorrow in a separate post. But this is the general results.