drscott | Cleveland Square Dance Convention

Got home last night around 9 after two jammed flights (

excessor made me take the middle seat, that beast!)

We didn't have time to log in or post, so I'll probably never catch up on reading my friends list, and instead of a blow-by-blow account I'll just hit the highlights.

We got up around 4 AM Thursday to make our 6:15 flight. By chance, our friend and fellow ECR member Pete L occupied the third seat on our first flight, so we spent the time catching up with him. In Houston we changed planes and lost Pete, who was booked on a later flight. We arrived in Cleveland around 5, took the train to Tower City and checked in to the host hotel. Our room on the 10th floor had a glancing view of Lake Erie, and after cranking up the AC and unpacking, we joined

zzbear for dinner at a cheap-but-filling Chinese place on 6th. I hardly remember the trail-in dance.

Friday morning we tried to work out and discovered how small and hot the "health club" was; some cardio machines and dumbbells, and one cable machine supposedly useful for many different exercises. There was next-to-no AC and heat and humidity came from the hotel's adjoining atrium pool, so while it might be comfortable for swimming, it was deadly for working out. As a result, we just did short workouts and I used the frozen towels provided for cooling. I didn't bring enough changes of clothing, and forgot all of my shorts, so I wore my workout shorts most of the time for dancing.

It may have seemed sensible to have the opening ceremonies bright and early on the first day (rather than almost halfway through as usual), but it didn't work for us. We would have had to get up at the equivalent of 4 AM by our body clocks to make it, and we didn't even try. In previous years, I may have sneaked out of the Grand March early often enough, but I've never missed the whole thing. But at least we had enough sleep and breakfast to feel halfway human for the rest of the day.

It was great to reconnect with the Usual Suspects and meet some interesting new people. I am certain to miss someone(s), but we spent a lot of time with

zzbear,

bjarvis was his usual hyperactive and affectionate self,

kent4str always had time for a quick hug,

cuyahogarvr spared a few minutes to chat (all three were too busy with DC Diamond Circulate duties to do much else),

billeyler and

abqdan contributed both wit and acid, the unfortunately Sam-less

otterpop58 and

excessor enjoyed each other's jokes immensely (they really need to get a room), danced with/hugged (but barely got to talk to)

stormecho and Patrick,

apparentparadox,

anarchy_lime,

double_ohsteven,

discord35, and

deege.

Talked to but never danced with

greyguy_sf,

bearfuz and

placeintheheart,

allanh and Randy, and

raperez.

Didn't see enough of:

redsquared,

zipperbear,

bibliocub,

sfleatherbear,

squaredancing and

fuzzygruf, and

markens.

Met for the first time (that I can recall):

homorphus, who shared the tiny gym with us one day.

We did quite a bit of A (where we learned to look for stronger groups of dancers to help us do better, like the San Diego bunch) and a little Plus. Sadly, we're not that good but I think we're about average at A now - and I can think of several calls I still fluff frequently.

People started leaving Sunday evening, and it was quieter than usual the next morning. We checked out at noon and waited with

zzbear in the lobby until one. In a shocking incident,

dennisgomez was apparently whacked by a Virginia Hamm blow to the lower leg, a la Tanya Harding, and was being tended by Security medics while he filed a report.

This time Pete L was on both of our flights, and we had dinner with him at the Houston airport during our 1.5 hour layover; meanwhile,

zzbear's flight was delayed for three hours, but he finally took off as we began dinner and landed in DC as we boarded our last flight. Which seems unfair somehow.

It's great to be home. I didn't get many pictures, but here's a few: