I was in Chicago for the weekend. Just a note for self-reference...
1)
SushiSamba Rio (504 N. Wells St) for pretty good sushi - the entrees were OK, but I would go back just for the friggin' decor. Turns out it's a franchise of sorts with other locations in NYC, Miami etc... Gonna hunt these down.
2)
Grotto On State (somewhere near the Knickerbocker) served what I would call the most authentic Italian food I've tasted since La Senso in Singapore - isn't it a little pathetic that despite the humongous Italian population, most can't do Italian to outdo Pastamania? We were coming off a really horrific dinner at the
Italian Village, and were practically developing Italian-o-phobia, but dinner at the Grotto saved us.
3) Queue up for
Garrett's caramel popcorn only if you have a LOT of time on your hands and you're well bundled up. It took me like half an hour.
Balls to Ballroom
So I'm done with competitive dancing as a newcomer - trial by fire at the Harvard Beginner's Ballroom competition, and another competition by the University of Connecticut.
As expected, I got my ass kicked by smug fuckers from MIT and Harvard. (I'm starting to hate these people. They're smarter than us by lightyears AND they dance better than us. Isn't there ANYTHING at all that these people are deficient in? Maybe a soul?)
At Harvard, I got a total ass-whooping:
- kicked straight out of American Swing and Foxtrot
- qualified for 3 of 6 rounds in American Rhumba
- qualified for 4 of 6 rounds in American Waltz
My Hispanic dance partner, Juby, and I have always thought that our forte was in American Rhumba and it baffles us to no end that our Waltz made it as far as it did. But anyway, the judges at Harvard were all screwy blind nuts, so who cares?
UConn was another sad story:
- kicked straight out of International Cha-cha and American Foxtrot
- qualified for 1 of 6 rounds in International Rhumba
- qualified for 4 of 6 rounds in American Swing
- qualified for 5 of 6 rounds in American Rhumba
- finished 6th place out of 88 couples in American Waltz...
Okay, reading the last bit, you've probably realized that I was in the FINAL and what's so shameful about being in the final when I still walk away with a prize at the end of the day? (albeit a silly little bookmark of a prize) I don't know... it just feels sucky to be 6th place when the final only had 6 couples, so we're like the worst of the best? Yeah, glass is half full and all that, but I still feel buggered.
Even with positive thinking on the waltz though, I was completely smashed to bits by my total failure in Cha-cha, and not making it to the final on American Rhumba and Swing. Cha-cha was supposed to be another forte of ours... and I totally fudged the fucking thing, I let down my partner with a total lack of concentration. Sigh. And we spent so long practicing for Swing until I thought I had the friggin' thing down pat... but guess not. And Rhumba... double sigh. Must have been bad posture or something.
I felt as if however much I practiced, despite staying behind longer than all the other newcomers on our team, it didn't pay off, nor was it going to be enough to beat the other competitors. Okay, I'm not discouraged but I want to know that I'm going to be able to get somewhere reasonable if I carry on competing...
We'll see.
