Ready to drop!

All shopped out! Took Sharon with me to Lord and Taylor to find a dress for competition. Yes, by this time next week it will nearly all be over but do you think I've been organised enough to get a dress yet. Course not. What are we looking for? Something for the Latin competition. Yelena still insists that I would have placed better last time if my dress had been more outrageous. So we want loud and bright and sexy and I have no money so cheap! Yeah, right. I had seen some nice red ones that I wanted to try on and a couple of black ones. No black. Why not? Oh we need something LOUD. So I ended up with a very sexy red number. Shows lots of cleavage...eeek...that should scare Chris!!! Picture this...cos I cant find a picture of what I bought....pillar box red, deep V at the front and another V at the back. Little capped sleeves, split....so they show arms when they go up but look slightly more demure when they're down. Fitted down to the waist, and then flaring out slightly to mid calf level. Completely plain although there are some funky seams giving it a slightly unusual look. We just took it to the studio for approval. Yayyy.....Yelena loves it. Chris is a little more subdued but he's always like that. And then Yelena appears with cute earrings a necklace that match perfectly. Fantastic...so now I don't need to buy an jewellery...just a big flouncy flower, if I can find one that matches the color and something for my hair. I can sleep soundly tonight. PHEW!!!!

Blogging in a vacuum

Hey, I can't see my blog? What's happening to me??? Booohoooo!!!

Good news: IRS refund should be in my account very soon. Wooohooo! That'll pay for the trip to NJ...let's just hope the snow's gone by then.

More good news: Had a couple of fantastic lessons with Gleb Markarov just now. Mmmmmm. Although I seem to smell of his cologne. A Russian trait it appears - spray stuff all over you at frequent occassions throughout the day. Too tired to go into details but ....we done good!!! LOL

Saturday Night

So eventually I dragged myself out the bath and got dried and dressed. Turned up at 7.30 for the WC lesson. Errrr...apparently noone bothered to open up til after 7pm so the classes hadn't even started. Sat and watched the Lindy class. Weird. He taught a totally different basic step to what I'd learned. Oh well. Eventually...like 8.30 or so they started WC. It was so basic it was painful. Finished that about 10 and then the pizza turned up. Woohooo. Think I must have left about 11..the music was mainly Lindy and noone was there to dance with. I just couldn't face it so I didn't!!!! Should have stayed in and had Chinese take-away instead......LOL. Paul was there...not seen him for months. Keep meaning to phone Julie but not got round to it so of course I felt guilty...should have called her Sunday but forgot. Ooops. Oh well. One day I'll do it.

Sunday

Spent the day as Rob's secretary! We put his resume together. Phoned me about 4000 times to ask me something. And then told me he was staying in a hotel overnight cos they were expecting 6" snow. Sorry...did u say 6". Well maybe a bit more. Honestly, if we got that much in Buffalo we might be a couple of minutes late for work but that's it. No big deal. Well, hindsight is a wonderful thing. They actually got about 2 feet of snow so I guess it was a good move on his part...plus the company paid. Hey, if they're gonna lay you off you might as well screw them while you can! He called me this morning but I can't tell you what he wanted....it was TOO EARLY for stuff like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trouble in Paradise

:-(

Happy Hallmark Day

Enforced romance. Dontcha just love it. No!!! All I can say is, it's good to have a day when eating chocolate is acceptable. Ha ha ha. What was there to celebrate? Hmmm....maybe Rob calling me first thing to tell me he's looking forward to seeing me and I'm a really nice person. Have you been drinking? No. Hmmm....what's bought this on? Nothing. I see. So coming to Buffalo then are you? Yes. I nearly fell off my chair. You near to Canada. Of course. So we can go and get some real Cuban cigars? Sure we can...when my passport reappears....had to send it off to get my visa stamped...could be months before we're reunited...I accidentally forgot to tell him that part!!!! LOL. But I did tell him I've booked my flight to Jersey. March 6th. Told Chris the flights were going for about $120. Two days later we're talking and he says he couldn't find them that low...it's about $200. I'm not paying that. So I went home and looked. $142. Phoned the studio to tell him. Off to bed now. See you soon. Book them. Then I had to have another look. Ooooh $129. Called him back. Why don't you book yours and I'll sort the others out. OK. Booked it and went to bed all excited. Last night (Valentine's Day dance.....) he tells me he looked and they were $180ish. So he's booked the rest of them. Honestly. When I say book now, I mean book now....don't leave it til the next day. Oh well, that's their problem. As for the dance last night. Very nice. Some guy from Rochester was there. Danced a lot with him. Got the last dance with him as well...sweet. He was good although he knows different steps to me and his lead was a little weak....just take some getting used to. Have to see if we can encourage him to come more often...need more men!!!! Came home with a little goody bag of strawberries and chocolates. Wooohooo. Shame noone was around to share them..... :-(

Didn't go to Swing this morning. Firstly I overslept. Mmmmm. Secondly I couldn't walk! Oooops. Drugged up again now and preparing to go do more damage this evening. Not sure I want to go. Sharon was umming and ahhing about it all....which probably means she won't come. Booo. She kept saying "you know everyone there, you'll be fine". I know but sometimes at Jackie's dances I get a bit funny. Not sure why, after all I've been going for a while now and people are usually very friendly. Just something about it.....well I have 4 hours to dry my hair so I think I'll probably make it.....we'll see....maybe something better will appear in the meantime.....??????

8 Minute Dates

No, not me. Someone I work with. He was featured in the Buff News yesterday cos he'd been on this dating thing. All I can say is if he's the best that Buffalo can find to write about...I'm moving!!!!!! Uproar in the office cos they quoted him as saying something about he doesn't like the trashy look of the women you get in the Chippewa bars......!!!! It's one thing to do something like that, and I have to admit, I did it once in Manhattan. It was horrible. A load of total jerks. Enough to put me off men for life (but it didnt!). But to gloat about it and to be so proud that you tell everyone you work with....uuughhhhh.

Congestion Charging

Read this and try not to laugh. If you drive into Central London during certain hours you will have to pay a fee. And how is the fee paid? Well you have to do the honourable thing and own up....and then pay up. If you don't eventually they'll track you down and fine you. This is being introduced because the traffic speeds have reduced to less than 10mph for the first time in...well..almost history! Red Ken thinks the way to stop people driving in is to charge them. What he didn't bother to do is sort out the Tube and bus system so that they can cope with the number of people that want to enter London each day. I started commuting to work when I was at school....just two days a week for my evening/Saturday job. That must have been about 16 years ago. The Underground service was lovely then....lots of trains, prety frequent, no worries. Admittedly it's been a while (2 years or so) since I've been there but I hear the horror stories from family/friends. They've gradually spent less and less money on public transport so that now the trains, when they run, are overcrowded and unreliable. Often they don't run the full length of the line leaving people stranded at stations nowhere near home. So now Ken expects people to all of a sudden return to the Tube? I don't think so. Maybe he thinks he'll get all this extra money from capturing photos of people driving in? Yeah, right. The article lists the various tricks to get round it...you think people won't try that? Or maybe sabotage the cameras? Or how about this? There was a case a while back of a driver that was photographed speeding. When the case went to court it got thrown out because they couldn't prove that a digital photo HADN'T been tampered with......! It's all too stupid. He should have introduced tollbooths if he really wanted to do it properly....although that would have cost money...which would be better spent on public transport than on causing more beauracy for some local government department to wade through. I can see the adverts now.....job available.....ability to wade through hundreds, probably thousands, of photos each day and check up on car registration numbers and then see which owners paid and which didn't!!!! Mmmmm...sign me up for that one!!!! And the bit that really annoys me.....there's a line in there about firefighters/nurses also having to pay!!!!!!! No way...that's ridiculous! So it seems the world is watching this with bated breath...yeah, just waiting for the moment they can burst out laughing......

And now back to reality. Yesterday was tough....not! Microsoft came in and took us to lunch. JB suddenly looked at his watch in the middle of lunch. Shit! Wot? I have a conference call at 1pm. Someone's going to have to drive me back to the office. Ooooops. We finished lunch and returned.....JB's looking sheepish. I don't want to talk about it. There wasn't a call was there? Yes. Really? Yes....but it's tomorrow.....LOL And then he took us out for dinner last night...two meals in one day....great for the diet....!!!! Went to Mothers. Very nice. Introduced JB and BK (he's the married one that keeps making comments....one day I'm gonna scare the hell out of him by doing something to him!) to the joys of Cointreau. Drank too much (back on pain killers!) and ate too much but it was lovely.....mmmmm........Oh and he's invited me to a dinner party at his place.....although the date he suggested was when I'm gonna be in NJ so that won't work. Bring a date....hmmm...that could be a problem...not sure I have anyone presentable enough to meet the boss....wonder how he'd react if I turned up with a 20-something?!

There was a little hiccup in the day's proceedings though. Rob called me....I've been fired. No, stop messing around. I'm serious. Babe!!! Why? Whole department got laid off. Last day March 11. Oh no. Poor thing. Although he does have a cushy overpaid job so I'm not totally surprised. Think he was a little devastated. Can you be a little devastated? Probably not. Never mind. Too early for semantics. So now wot? We'd been joking around yesterday morning that if he got fired he could come and live with me. Only said that cos I know he'll never come to Buffalo! By the afternoon I think he was almost up for it....as long as it doesn't get in the way of my lifestyle! Now wot could he mean by that? Oh yeah.. I know......ha ha ha.......how to cure a bad back, sleep with a chiropractor (I'll save that story for another day I think!).

I skived off work today. Not done that since November. And I only remember it was then cos that was the day I broke the bed (!). I won't be repeating that today. My back's in a mess and they're talking about lots of snow...albeit a little further south but, hey, that's good enough for me. Just made the trek down to Walgreens to get my painkillers refilled. No more auto refills. Booohooo. Although she did give me 90 so that should last me for a while. If I get through all of those I probably do need to go back to the doctor.....so let's make 'em last...! Think I'll take some now and have a little nap....I can't believe I was living on these things for so long. Every time I've taken one in the last few days I've been floating round the room. Amazing how this stuff can screw you up.......oh well....a girl's gotta do wot a girl's gotta do!

My Back Hurts

We've been here before haven't we? Thursday lunchtime I just went into total spasms again. Why? Well maybe a little too much yoga. Or maybe a little too much Canadian *wink*. Hmmmm. It hurts. My sciatica's playing up. Feels like the knife's been stuck back in my big toe again! Owwwwww. Boooohoooo. Tears. Lots of them. So much so I had to resort to drugs yesterday. Sat in the middle of an interview feeling like I was floating around the room. Wooooohooooo. It's about 4 weeks to the competition and, once more, I'm in a mess. Well I suppose if it gets too bad I just won't go, which will be good financially but very sad in every other way. Meant to do to Swing this morning but I'm in two minds. The sensible thing to do would be STAY IN BED. Me, sensible? Errr...not really....but maybe just this once......hmmmm....I feel another bout of boredom creeping up on me......

And all that....Jazzzzz!

Oh I am such a sucker for big song and dance numbers. Went to see Chicago. FANTASTIC. Love it. Need to see it again. Love the way the plot and the musical were intertwined. Costumes fabulous. And it's so good to see dear ol' Catherine looking chubby! Wondered if she would have slimmed down before taking her clothes off....but, no! Wooohoooo. Queen Latifah was excellent. Even Mr Gere wasn't too bad. Now I can't stopping singing the theme song (playing in the background as I type!). We actually learned the opening routine for Chicago at swing class in the summer. This girl, who's name I can't remember, came to teach some jazz exercises for a couple of weeks. Decided to teach us a couple of routines from the musicals. Funny! Can't remember any of it now...except the part about rolling down stockings...which I can't do cos my back still won't bend at that angle!!!

And what was really exciting was the preview for The Quiet American. My parents told me about this ages ago and I've been wanting to see it but it didn't cross the pond. We had got to the stage of thinking it never would. It's about Vietnam but it's not very American-friendly so we decided that maybe they'd wimped out. And then the preview appeared.....wooohooooo!!!

Let it Snow

Preferably not on me! Looks like the UK got badly hit. And now everyone's up in arms complaining about the government not being prepared for the weather. Hardly surprising when they're too busy sending people round the world to fight a war.