Why I hate the Stanley Cup (and more!)

Really the only television show that I watch religiously is Law and Order. Any other show, I don't care if I miss. The last few weeks I've been reduced to CSI and other mediocre programs that rely on gorey shots of corpses rather than good plots to drive the interest of the mystery. bleh... hockey stinks and needs to be moved to a timeslot that doesn't interfere with the best TV show ever made (okay, maybe second- I Love Lucy is definitely the best).

I didn't have to worry about Stanley Cup, or Law and Order this weekend though, because it was the All Balboa Weekend in Cleveland!!! I have a lot of non-dancing friends who look at this and might be asking the question "What the hell is a Balboa and what the hell does it eat???" No fears,balboa is a dance! Click here to learn more about it. It has a super cool history (or as the swedish would say, it has a sugar top history.. I learned that this weekend!) but as far as dances go, it isn't one of my favorites. I like it slightly more than foxtrot, but much less than tango.. that should give you an idea of how much I like it if you know my dance patterns and habits (and if you don't, then you don't know me well enough to be reading my blog! Get outta here!) Despite it's low rankings in the heierachy of dance priorities, the weekend was a blast and I am so glad I went. I met people from all over the world, learned the eccentric art of contact juggling (which isn't as dirty as it sounds), and had a lot of fun dancing! And to top it all off, I got a free tee-shirt for being the tee-shirt whore of Get Hep... ok, maybe I was the tee-shirt pimp since I was selling them. I had a lot of ego-boosting dances; I like to think that I'm a superb follower, but it feels great to have a half dozen leaders tell me so in the same night. Maybe they were just being nice, but dancers aren't usually *nice* when it comes to things like that.... they're nice when it comes to "Oh nice dress" or "I love what you did to your hair" but to get a "You're such a great dancer!" compliment is a task, and it made me feel SO good about myself. I'm not really very good at anything else, besides understanding kids, and that's my career, so it's good to know that there's a hobby that I'm better than mediocre at.

Speaking of hobbies, on Wed. I am going to be stopping by my old dojo to re-enroll in karate. Karate was such a huge part of my life, and when Ian left me it was my family from the dojo that picked up the pieces. I am realizing that I made a big mistake in leaving them, and now that I work right down the street from them again, it will be pretty easy to get back into it. For those of you who don't know, I have my brown belt in Shotokan and Judo, and was scheduled to go through black belt testing this past February. Yeah, little Jessie Ullinger kicks ass. I also taught the pre-school classes, assisted sensei with the children's classes, and acted as a guidance counselor for the girls in the teenage class. I stood ringside for most of the kids' sparring competitions as well, which took a lot of time and travelling. I don't think I'll be that involved, since I don't really have that much time, but I definitely want to get back into training!