45/365 Adjustment

45/365 Adjustment
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
A dancer makes some last minute adjustments to her ballgown at the California Open ballroom dance competition in Irvine.

There is a whole micro-economy around competitive ballroom dancing -- from the instruction and competition, to makeup and hairdressing, to costumes and footwear, to the photography and video services.

I don't personally believe in dancing for competition -- for me, it's all about the joy of moving to the music -- but I'm still often impressed by what these competitors, from pre-teens to octogenarians, are doing on the dance floor. (Although I did witness at least one collision during every dance of the amateur division qualifying heats that I saw.)

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And hey, I guess I should acknowledge that it's Valentine's day. I'm not really a fan of the holiday, myself -- I don't like the idea of conforming to some societal (and frankly, commercially driven) notion of when I'm supposed to do something special for that special someone. Even now that I have a special someone. (And boy did I hate this crap when I was single.)

But all that being said, I'm kind of sad that I'm away from the SOOTTAD today. I was in L.A. for work all week and am spending the weekend visiting my folks because things were too crazy to visit over the holidays. And family time is good, especially when you live 3000 miles away. (The decision was even given the SOOTTAD stamp of approval.) But the SOOTTAD has so much awesome that every year this time comes around, as much as I dislike the holiday, I want to at least have a nice quiet evening at home together.

Home soon. Love you.