I took my first trip down to Austin, TX just last weekend, for the Lone Star Championships. What a great event! Extra kudos to Scott (Angelius) and Tena (Morales) for striking just the right chord with the event.
I got in Thursday night and was super excited to dance at the Fed, Austin's weekly Thursday night dance venue (and the place where activities would be taking place for the rest of the weekend, too). Lucky me, I got put on the guest list for the evening by one of my friends who is involved in the Austin scene--those kinds of things (not paying for a dance) kind of mean a lot when you're STILL unemployed, like I am. I, like quite a few others, was only lukewarm on the band playing that night, but I still managed to have some fun dances with locals and others who were in Austin early for the event. It was nice to catch up and be girly with Sharon again, too, even though I had just seen her two weeks ago at Lindy Focus. Then Brooks, Jo and I spent a couple hours hanging out at the afterparty, watching Nick Williams absolutely nail the part of Danny Zuko in the karaoke version of "Summer Lovin", and joining in with the others for the most entertaining version of "Love Shack" I've heard in a while. Yay, B-52s!
Friday was pretty low-key, involved some bubble tea and a little bit of shopping with Jo and my new friend Gina, plus airport runs and a bit of food, kind of, and then Brooks, Jo, and all the rest of us staying at their place headed over to the dance to meet up with Beth and Yossef and really kick off the rest of the weekend's dancing festivities. Namely, a lot of dancing and competing, and not a lot of sleeping or eating, necessarily.
I said it already, but I want to say it again: super kudos to Tena and Scott for putting on a really great event. Through all the competitions (and there were tons!), I never felt like I was running out of time to socialize or grab a dance with someone. The overall relaxed vibe of the event was exactly what I needed for that weekend--games time included--and I'm super happy that I got to go. I would love to see a little bit of time set aside for competitors to speak with the judges, since the competitions are mostly focused on the lead-follow of dancing, but I understand how hard it can/could be to arrange that. So instead, I'll just review videos of prelims to see what I can pick out. Yay for Yossef winning 2nd place in the Intermediate J&J, too! He and Mallory Griggs looked fantastic out there, and I'm glad Nashville was represented. Next year, I hope we can have even more Southeast representation (outside of the usual bunch of me, Michael, Jaya, Beth, Yossef, Jeramie, and Amber). There are dancers in the Southeast, I swear!
Lone Star is definitely an event I want to go back to next year, and Austin was a lot of fun to visit. Besides having a whole bunch of my friends there (and them wanting me to move there), what I saw of the city was interesting enough to keep my attention. Other highlights include:

-Nearly never having a bad dance at the event
-Still being able to dance as much as I was inspired to, and being inspired to try new things
-Giant City Sextet! They were just what I wanted to hear
-Late-night Fluxx games with something like 8 people and 14 rules on the board
-The Invitational J&J silliness (see videos for proof)
-Creating the "bored stripper face" with Beth and getting it down to a science
-Meeting Wingy and Edmund, two of the most awesome orang
-Good brisket at the Salt Lick in Driftwood, TX with about 50 dancers,even if they didn't have macaroni or rolls, and what kind of BBQ place doesn't have macaroni or rolls
-Mumbling and grumbling about how "grumpus" is totally a valid word and should count for Scrabble points for team MeBeth
-Gin&Strawberries, even though the recipe is more complicated than you think
-Meeting lots of great new people/dancers (and non-dancers!) and getting to spend some time/dance with them
--And of course, getting more time to hang out with some of my favorite people

Obviously, I would highly recommend going to the Lone Star Championships next year. I bet you'll have fun!