This week has been a doozy. I had my last day of work/effectively lost my job on Friday--which was interesting enough, fairly amicable, and resulted in a free lunch and lots of people indignant on my behalf (which was kind of heartwarming). This is a bit of a problem just because I don't have anything lined up yet, and I was basically living paycheck to paycheck anyway. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to find something, or at least fill in the gaps as much as possible, in the interim, but I'm also hoping I can find some work soon. I'm sure there's another 10% or more of the population that's hoping the same thing.

Anyway, I've found that, even though I don't have a day job to fill my days, I've still got plenty going on. My newest dilemma: how do I manage it all? Between yoga and other healthful pursuits, school ramping up, freelance type of stuff, choreography, teaching, job hunting, and travel (EBC coming up will be my 4th weekend in a row out of town), I've got a lot to do lately.

I tend to schedule my days already, but the schedule is in estimates, not in absolutes. Then, when that day comes around, I have a few set appointments and fill in the in-between times with other activities I have to get done--but not always very efficiently. To-do lists help, of course, and so do incentives (window shopping or a brief break with tea and a book), but I can always improve. What do you do to keep yourself on track? How do you schedule your days, or do you find that it's easier to play it all by ear? I'd love to hear how everybody else does it :)

Monday morning I got back from ULHS--basically what is considered one of the be-all, end-all events of the lindy hop community. This year was the first in the event's history to be held in New Orleans, and the change was very much talked about all over the community.

Let's start with the easiest measure of event success: Did I have a fantastic time? Yes! I enjoyed all the time I spent with friends I don't normally get to see, and meeting some fantastic new dancers, and dancing in one of my favorite cities ever to my favorite style of jazz dance music. It didn't hurt, either, that everyone really seemed to be there for the purpose of having fun--it was a blast to see packs of dancers walking around the French Quarter at 3AM (some carrying Hand Grenades or Hurricanes, of course).

Probably the number one reason why ULHS was so enjoyable for me--the music. I couldn't sit still! Amy (the organizer) did a fantastic job of pulling together these groups of musicians like the Ultimate Lindy Hop Combo, who came together specifically for the event. Nothing is as inspiring to me when I dance as great music, and New Orleans jazz happens to be my absolute favorite, so I was just in heaven dancing to bands like the Palmetto Bug Stompers and the Loose Marbles. The registration price would have been worth it for the music alone, as anyone who was at the WWII Museum Saturday night dancing to the amazing sounds of "Uncle Jack's New Orleans Orchestra" could tell you. Such diversity! Such arrangements! And on top of it all, such soul!

Of course, in addition to the great music, I had lots of great dances with lots of great dancers! The quality of dancing at events like these is always so high, and whether it's out in the competitions or right there on the social floor, that is inspiring to me. I always end up finding myself using new variations and dancing differently when I am so inspired by those around me. For my own taste, there wasn't enough social dancing (or not enough room to do it), but I understand that in this trial  year in New Orleans, things happened with the schedule and the loss of some social dance time was just an unfortunate side effect of the way that the competitions were run. While I can empathize with this as an organizer, it's kind of a personal bummer because there were plenty of people that I wanted to dance with that I didn't even get to ask, and I really hit my stride/dance flow at the end of Saturday night, so the peak, dancing-wise, of my weekend went unutilized.

The competitions, as is to be expected, were filled with crazy-high energy. The crowd could not stop screaming, and the competitors would not stop topping themselves! I really enjoyed the fact that personal expression and individual style seemed to reign in the competitions this year--not necessarily at the expense of good, clean dancing, but just edging it out, points-wise--and I'm interested to see what this does for the lindy hop community as a whole in the next year or so. Since I started dancing, ULHS has always been an event that defines and initiates trends in lindy hop, and I don't expect this year to be an exception. Here are the competition winners, that I can remember:

Showdown (fast competition) Winners: Chance Bushman (New Orleans, LA) and Joanna Lucero (Austin, TX)
Jack and Jill First Place: Vincenzo Fesi (Como, Italy) and Alice Mei (France/New Orleans, LA)
Jack and Jill Second Place: Sara Deckard (Denver, CO) and Dax Hock (Everywhere-ish)
Jack and Jill Third Place: Thomas Blacharz (France) and Ria DeBiase (Sacramento, CA)–this is the only one I’m not sure about
Solo Jazz Winner: Ramona Staffeld (New York, NY)
Solo Blues Winner: Dax Hock (Everywhere-ish?)
Blues/Slow Dance First Place: Peter Strom (Minneapolis, MN) and Ramona Staffeld (New York, NY)
Blues/Slow Dance Second Place: Todd Yannacone (New Orleans, LA) and Alice Mei (France/New Orleans, LA)
Blues/Slow Dance Third Place: Chance Bushman (New Orleans, LA) and Giselle Anguizola (San Diego, CA)

Now, of course, I'm re-energized about dancing and also sapped of all my physical energy because I overtaxed myself in New Orleans :) Did you go to ULHS this year? What did you enjoy (or absolutely dislike) about it?

"For this week's post, I'm feeling kind of music-y. At the moment, I'm in New Orleans for ULHS--only, it's Saturday afternoon, and I'm procrastinating on a test that I have to complete before the weekend is out, instead of watching prelims and dancing at the French Market. The event thus far (one day in, for me) has been amazing, as expected. The organizer really pulled together some great musicians and bands, the quality of dancers here is through the roof, and the combination of the two has produced great energy and relationship between the dancers and the musicians. That's one of those things that is so amazing to be a part of, but that rarely happens, because the environment has to be just right to facilitate that interaction. Well done, Amy!

Anyway, in the spirit of New Orleans, I wanted to let you all know about a band that I'm currently digging on, called The Jazza Band. There's little information out there on them, but they have a great street/New Orleans jazz type of sound, with plenty of uniqueness to set them apart. I think one of my favorite things is that they play versions of some great songs like Diga Diga Doo and Undecided, but they play them at tempos and with an energy that makes them accessible to dancers of many different skill levels.  Check out this version of Washboard Wiggles, off the Jazza Band's album New Orleans--I played it recently at an exchange to start off a DJ set, and the whole room enjoyed it enough to applaud afterwards. Never had that happen before, but I think you'll understand after you take a listen :)

Washboard Wiggles: http://www.emusic.com/samples/m3u/song/11282378/17451778.m3u

You can find the Jazza Band on emusic, here: http://www.emusic.com/artist/Jazza-Band-MP3-Download/12043160.html
They also have a myspace pagethat you can check out, here: http://www.myspace.com/jazzaband

Note that the formatting of this post may be a little bit weird; I'll fix it after my site editor has decided to stop being a jerk :(

Technically, this past week was a week #5, which doesn't actually fit in my blog plan. So y'know what? I'm just going to talk about how my week went. And then I'm going to post this late since I didn't get to finish it when I wanted to.

I can't lie, this past week has been pretty fantastic, despite having to slog through it all. It feels like it's completely dragging, but the byproducts have been worth it, I think.

Thing #1: Econ--We had our first test in my macroeconomics class this week. I've been doing pretty well with the material in the class so far, and it's new territory for me since the only math-type things we dealt with in my engineering classes were more letters than numbers, and involved an insane amount of calculus. We got the results of the tests back on Wednesday. I have a 97% average in the class! This is big for me, given all the crap I've gone through with school in past years. It's awesome to feel academically successful after having struggled so hard to reach mediocrity before.

Thing #2: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, FREE, in town at Live on the Green (an outdoor concert series sponsored by a local radio station). I knew I wasn't going to make it in time to see any of the other acts, but I did manage to find parking and get to the venue in time to see Sharon Jones perform, and it was SO WORTH IT. She is a complete performer, and knows just how to work the crowd's energy. I went to the concert feeling that I wouldn't stay long because I was so tired, and left ready to dance all night. If you ever have the chance to see Sharon and the Dap Kings live, DO IT. I hardly think that needs to be said.

Things #3-17: Miscellaneous goodness this week, too. Feeling skinnier this week (y'know, just one of those girly things), doing well with work, a little bit of dance/choreography work, and plenty of good things in planning stages for me, school/dance/otherwise.  On top of it all, a dress I've been wanting from one of my favorite stores, Modcloth, went on sale for almost 50% off, so I squeezed it into my budget. Woo!

A week that drags by is pretty much worth all that goodness. I could stand a little more sleep, but otherwise things are well. Who doesn't like having a good week?