March 2010

Mar 31, 2010

March 2010

Current mood:blissful

Wow, what a busy week this is. Life at the studio is a bit wild this week. Everyone is preparing for the Maryland Dancepsort Championships and there's positive energy all around the studio. Two close friends of mine will be joining us at the competition this weekend, Sara Brown and Jon Woodruff. The three of us had all danced together on the William and Mary College team years ago, and it's the first time we'll be back on the dance floor all together again. Roxi and Jon will be dancing rhythm freestyles, and Sara and I plan to dance both bronze rhythm and bronze smooth.

Outside the upcoming competition, life seems to be going very well. It's such a stark contrast to last year when Roxi and I made the miserable journey to The Blue Ballroom. Seeing that it's tax season, I'm still trying to figure out how much the botched move to Delaware cost. In all we spent at least $~x@$%^&, when you consider the costs of moving up, paying for rent in Delaware and the mortgage in DC, along with the costs of rentals, the move back, and the periods of unemployment we endured as a result of the transitions. It's funny, Roxi and I have a much stronger relationship after our challenges at the Blue Ballroom in Delaware. It makes me realize that life lessons can run at a very expensive price tag!... Lol, no more on that subject for today... there's so much more that we're thankful for, and much more deserving of blog time...

For example: Cherry Blossoms! It took photos out in front of the house yesterday.








Today is March 31st and peak bloom is predicted to occur on April 1st, just two days before my brother, Chris' s birthday. It seems like peak bloom falls around April 3rd every year, give or take a day. Since I moved to DC, I haven't had many opportunities to do the tourist routine, but Roxi and I did enjoy spring fever at the National Cathedral last year, something that I hope to repeat this year. Our favorite spots in DC are the gardens at the National Cathedral, and the DC World War I memorial. The World War I memorial is a gazebo type bandstand constructed in 1931 as a tribute to the District's Fallen.



There is no National World War I memorial, which is truly unfortunate, considering the vast number of memorials we have in DC. I'm hoping for a nice spring day that the two us us can enjoy out on the mall. I doubt we'll have the opportunity, but there's always wishful thinking.

Most of my sunny days off will be spent happily, on the Mr. Henry's Patio. Spring weather made it warm enough to work outside two weeks ago, but then we had a freezing weekend. Roxi and I both remain at the dance studio 7 days a week, and continue work at our primary jobs, respectively. We will be taking time off for a giant family vacay to Florida in April, the week will be action pack, seeing how large a group we have going. We're heading down with the entire extended Thurley family and plan to spend every minute with 10 of the kids. I don't think I've ever traveled with most of my extended family at one time, or at least not since the family has grown so much. I keep wondering how Roxi will handle a vacation with my entire extended family...maybe she won't consider it a vacay, but here's to hoping that she'll have fun. We plan to leave for Florida a few weeks after the Maryland Championships. Meanwhile the Russians will keep guard over the condo in DC.

In other exciting news, Roxi and I just began a regular coaching schedule again. We've discussed competing again sometime in August, but we may just wait until November and try competing at the end of the year.