One week ago, I woke up in Edinburgh with this view from the window.
Liam and I were there for University of Swing, and I was so delighted by the snow and these buildings that I had to stop on the way to class and take pictures despite already being a little late ... I just couldn't not.
I had such a lovely weekend. I took classes as a lead and MY GOD do I have some thoughts on that! I'll save them for a longer post later, but let me just say, I'm NEVER taking classes as a follow again. So many revelations. In the evenings, I had some fabulous dances with some lovely people, made finals in both the lindy mix & match and in the solo jazz and actually placed third in the mix & match, with Adam as my smooth, musical, responsive partner! So much fun.
Best bit about the comps though? The feeling I had after both the prelims and the finals. After the solo jazz prelims, I said to Liam: "I did so well! I did amazingly well! That was my best! I don't care if I make finals!" And I really meant it. And then, after the finals: "I don't care if I place! That was so much fun!" (Well, it was fun until they played Jumpin' at the Woodside and I wanted to kill someone.) I'm not disappointed at all with not placing in the solo jazz; I'm really happy that I placed in the mix & match, but that wasn't the point. Having fun and dancing, that was the point. Can you believe it? I never thought I'd get here. I want to pursue always feeling that way about comps.
This is the only photo of dancing I took the entire weekend (as it's nice to get a break from that when I'm not working), but it's a good one, as it shows a little bit of my favourite part of any dance event ever: when it gets late and quieter, and there's space on the dancefloor, and I'm comfortably tired and giddy and everything is light.
And the music to the above photo and feelings was a perfect DJ set by Vincent.
- - -
On the Sunday, I had a dash of that disgusting PMS, which once again snuck up on me from behind and turned me into a crying mess huddled in a corner of the venue, feeling homesick and lost. (Obviously I didn't know at that time that it was PMS - I never realise while it's happening - I think it's all real and that I'll never be happy again). But Liam took care of me and I was okay after a while.
Extra shoutouts to Rob for asking me to dance and giving me super fun, super connected dances just when I needed it the most! (NB: I had stopped crying at that point. It would have been weird if he had seen me in my crying mess form and just asked me to dance, not asked how I was doing ... :))
Sunday after party at a whiskey bar! What else. It's Scotland, after all.
I had beautiful, interesting conversations with Cat and Liam.
This is mine and Liam's fabulous host, Frida. Thanks for having us, Frida! It was perfect staying with you!
When the whiskey bar closed at 1, we moved on to a pub across the road for some more drinks. I was pretty much asleep at that point, after a long and intense weekend the tiredness caught up with me, and it was the perfect ending to this lovely event.
Close To Me | the Cure
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