Ragtime Ball

The thing that struck me most about the Ball last night was how few people I knew there. I mean, I know I graduated two and a half years ago and new students are showing up every year, but still, it was really sinking last night. And it was crowded enough to make it difficult to find the people I did know to dance with them. It was kind of sad.

But there were lots of good things about the dance, too. I did have some nice dances throughout the evening, and I enjoyed the performances. I never quite got used to Tina in a pink dress for Danse Libre, but she did an excellent job nonetheless. I thought Decadance and Swingtime were a lot of fun, too. And Jessica showed up from San Diego, which completely surprised me and almost capsized the dance I was in when I noticed her arriving. It was wonderful to get a few dances with her again.

The set up was a little odd this year. They only had the one room this time, but they put down marley in the outside corridor between the locker rooms and had extra dancing space there. That was really weird. At first I thought they weren't going to have music out there, since the band inside seemed like it would be loud enough to reach, but then they put on recorded music. To me, that was just a horrible mistake. It was far too close to the main room to have separate music going. When I take a break to get some fresh air or a drink or something, I like to keep listening to the band, and not have something else forced on me when I step outside. Of course, I have an extreme pet peeve about overlapping music, so that didn't help. But I guess it helped with the crowding a little bit, to have the extra space.

Anyway, I'm trying for another writing-full weekend here. If I can get another few thousand words in today and tomorrow, I'll hit the halfway point of my novel a day early, which would be really cool. I did a big chunk already this morning, so I just have to keep the ideas flowing.