What is the worst word to apply to this convention…
Regret… And lots of it…
- I regret not arriving until 1am on Saturday morning…
- I regret having to leave by 5pm on Sunday evening…
- I regret letting something so awesome slip my mind so carelessly…
- I regret not being able to stay up beyond my 4am self-imposed bedtime on Sunday morning…
Lots of regrets because the weekend of the Fabletown and Beyond Convention was…
SO INCREDIBLY AMAZING!!!
Odd isn’t it? I love giving surprises to other people but I really can’t stand surprises myself.
So what brought this on? Well recently a small group of friends and I put our heads together to plan out a surprise party for another friend who needed a bit of a boost.
Without going into details said friend had gone through a difficult time in their life and is slowly going into an upswing. We wanted to give said friend an additional boost in this upswing in hopes that he didn’t lose the momentum prior to this difficult time.
They were surprised, happy, and humbled (their words all changed around) with what was given to them and it gave all involved a warm, fuzzy feeling inside to know that we have done a good deed…
But naturally I started thinking: “If someone were to throw me a surprise party of some sort how would I react?”
Every time I asked myself this question I always come up with the same answer:
How often do we post about some of the crazier thinking that have been going on in society nowadays? How often do we comment about something going on in the world and how crazy and silly and stupid it is and move on with our own lives…
Better yet in the smaller scheme of things has anyone found themselves in the position of persuading a group of people as to why what they are considering is wrong and detrimental to the grand scheme of things and what would be the best course of action in the long term?
Yep… been there… done that… once… about seven years ago…
I was working in a completely different company from what I am doing now and the position that myself and six other groups members were a part of was on the chopping block and we were going to be folded into another group with our responsibilities shared to the larger whole. Meaning what we spent years specializing in was going to be shared across a group three times the size. Higher risk of error, higher risk of causing a major dent to the detrimental of the larger populace.
So my group was scheduled for a meeting with the administration to explain and plead our case. I originally had planned that day off for personal reasons (potential-beau at the time was visiting from out of country for he lived in the Netherlands) but after coaching the other members of my team various arguments, points, and reasoning as to why what the administration was planning was detrimental… it came to pass that the group would be stronger with myself there as opposed to away.
For the Chef’s Table that occurred last night the theme chosen was Ballroom Dance styles… courtesy of moi. 
So what were the dance styles that people were allowed to pick out of the hat? Well they include:
- Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Tango, Argentine Tango, Foxtrot, Quickstep
- Rumba, Cha Cha, Paso Doble, Samba, Jive, Swing (East Coast or West Coast), Mambo, Bolero
- Polka, Two Step
Why not Salsa? Too easy… that would have been waaaaaaay too easy. Besides the Salsa is sometimes known as the lazy man’s Mambo because the Salsa hits on the down beat (1 and 3) whileas the Mambo hits on the off beat (2 and 4). Yes, I am that kind of a geek… so sue me…
But not really sue me.
So I managed to pick the one dance that I claim to be weakest at: Samba.
And I also managed to pick the course that I would have a gloriously difficult time with: Soup!
Salad would have been soooo much easier.
Whenever someone in the dancing world shouts “Samba” the immediate connection is the Brazilian Carnivale… aka one big massive party. Which led me to having a party in your mouth… which lead me to fireworks… aka Pop Rocks!
Right, a recipe that uses Pop Rocks… I am so getting shot.
I think I am burned out… at least when it comes to blogging on Pure Dancing With the Stars.
Well I kind of knew that when I wasn’t interested in working through the spreadsheets during the off season in favor of doing more personal stuff. But I think what did it was when I didn’t even have the Pre-Season Elimination post started and the start of the season was a day away, that was when I knew.
It’s not that I am overwhelmed… I am never overwhelmed, I love to keep busy and having a million plus one projects on my plate so every moment of my life is kept busy and if something else were to fall through I could sift through all the umpteen number of projects and work on something else.
I think what is doing it is that I am focusing more and more on being creative as opposed to analytical.
Two months ago, myself and a bunch of friends got together on the West Coast to celebrate the birthday of a mutual friend. There was two contingents showing up in the Magic Kingdom which included one from Chicago and another in the Los Angeles area.
To say I had fun is an understatement… I truly enjoyed myself… however, I also became ill during this trip and as thus was in bed half the time as well. Ah well.
So how am I to break this down? Well between Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure there is a lot to go through… so I guess I will try it this way…
- Part One: This will deal primarily with what happened pre-Disney Birthday Day. Arrival, hotel, planning, hanging out… etc.
- Part Two: Will be devoted to what was done during the big birthday day, what we did together… what happened when we all splintered off… etc.
- Part Three: Disneyland. Anything not covered in Part Two from Disneyland would be covered in this particular post
- Part Four: Disney’s California Adventure. There were a couple of moments that myself and a friend ventured off into DCA since she was only going to be around for a day. So this post would be devoted to whatever I was able to do outside of Part Two (which is a lot).
- Part Five: What I Missed. Regrets, things I wanted to do that I didn’t get to do, or things I wanted to get but didn’t for various reasons. This might include the supposed trip to L.A. that never happened.
Yeah… it is going to be rather lengthy series and I probably won’t get to everything right away… but the hope is that I will be able to sort through all the photos and have all the videos uploaded so that I could actually get this going.
And since a few people that missed out on the trip are looking for details… well here is my perspective, but for starters if you missed the original post here is a little something that came out of the trip: Men’s Musical Pants… *evil cackle*
During the summer of 2012 I was helping a friend organize her thoughts for possibilities of a cabaret show based on the various men in her life. She was in only one major relationship in her life and she ended up marrying him, but she always found herself in other situations that dealt with men while in college and thereafter.
That got me thinking, if I was as beautiful of a vocalist as she was what songs would I use in the cabaret show of my love life… Or lack of one? I have had my fair share of ups and downs when it came to men… Most of the people I surrounded myself with were men… But considering my major of choice was that really any surprise?
Take that a step further: of a conversation a friend of mine and I had about wishing that our lives were just one big musical how would that sound like? What moments in our lives would we just break out into song for? A massive soundtrack of my life so to speak would be the better way to describe it.
Well… ironically enough, I have been to a few weddings where one of the party favors that the guests were allowed to bring home with them was a CD of various songs that the happily married couple put together that they felt best describe their life. So I decided to conjure up a list of songs that would make up the story of my life up to the current moment in time. Each song below is a defining moment in my life when it comes to my interactions with relationships… Unfortunately for you I won’t tie the songs to any names, what’s the point?
Since I am a huge show tunes fan I will provide two lists… One that involves the mainstream / pop / radio songs. The other would be strictly show tunes. Unfortunately for you, you are not going to be able to see who or what each of the following songs would pinpoint in my life… but that is the joy of it, no?
So here are the list of songs… in no particular order: