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5 – 6 – 7 – 8 — UPDATE! Woo Hoo! Dancing is upon us!
Isn’t that CUTE?!?!
Get it?
“5-6-7-8” as in the count off which dancers use to start dancing and then…
…TahDAH! “Update” Woo Hoo.
I think I shall keep it and use it as a standard “Quickie” header for a four point update post.
Whatcha think?
Five…
You may have noticed a theme in the last few posts and a flurry of activity…
Yes, you have correctly noticed that I’m kinda freaking about about MONEY! It is because I need it and I don’t have it.
Why? Well we are in the Fall.
And “Fall” is when I have to do an oil change on my truck, a tune up on my truck, get my truck inspected and pay the annual registration taxes/tags to the State. It is also when my AAA (American Automobile Association) membership renews each year.
AND it is one of two times a year (every six months) when my auto insurance renews.
And this time $#@#$@@##$@@!!!!! Progressive, which is otherwise a pretty good insurance company, RAISED MY FRIGGIN INSURANCE RATES FOR NO APPARENT REASON other than the money sucking fat cat capitalists want to GET EVERY LAST penny out of people like me who live below the poverty line!
Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!
Yes, I’m stressed. And I need money, so I’m trying to sell some stuff and yes, I’m begging for donations (which no one has ever actually done…) sigh
Want to be the first? The donate button is always over there in the right hand column…
Or you can buy a cool design from my online store: TxCowboyDancer Designs
And check out “My Online Garage Sale” — There will be more stuff added to it over the next little while. Most of the stuff will be dance related in one way or another. — No, I can’t have an “actual” garage sale. The complex I live in has rules against that kind of thing. SIGH
Six…
2010 Worlds – Line Dance World Champion! — Yes, that’s me in the top spot! Graduating into the Advanced Division!
However, the “once a year bills” are not the only money stressor.
There is a bigger one that is directly related to my long-term goals of getting fit and healthy.
(By the way, I use big words – once a gain my spell check had no idea what a particular word was. In this case — what a “stressor” was. I had to add it to the dictionary on my computer.)
I admit defeat. There. I said it. I will never ever “exercise” for the sake of “exercise.”
I hate exercise. I will. NOT. Do. It.
But I do love to dance!
Dance is not exercise.
Dance is fun.
Dance is passion.
Dance is what I miss MOST from “before” my health went to crap.
Dance is what I love to do — which my body “thinks” is “exercise” but which my mind and my heart sees as “fun”
Cycling is the other one, but DANCE has the potential to also enable me to MAKE money eventually and dig myself out of this financial hole that I’m in because once I get to a certain level of fitness, I can start TEACHING dance again! So Dance gets priority over cycling.
And, “dance” is what will help me become physically fit and healthy again! Who Hoo! Woot even! and YeeeeeeeHawwwwww!
But for now, at the outset, Dance is also a money-stressor. sigh
Why? I’m glad you asked. 🙂
I need choreography…
One thing that is adding to my stress levels is that I need money to pay for Choreography.
As part of my (1) return to dancing and competition dancing and (2) as part of my efforts to become fit and healthy, I want / am planning to / strongly desire to compete in Showcase Line Dance next year.
I can choreograph, but my choreography, compared to a talented professional choreographer is like a child’s finger painting compared to a Picasso or Monet.
I have only begun to play around with choreography and that is what my choreography looks like – a beginner’s efforts.
And folks you don’t “win” at Worlds with choreography that looks like a beginner’s efforts! A major portion of the scoring for Showcase Line Dance is the quality of the choreography!
I need the help of a Pro!
I have my first choreographer lined up. She has agreed to do it for $80 per hour. She is an amazing dancer and choreographer with years of experience. She has even choreographed for Hollywood and Broadway!
She thinks it will take 3-4 hours do to it which means that I need between $240 and $320 to pay her for the choreography.
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Line Dance Coaching Special for Worlds Attendees!
I’m available to teach/coach at Worlds!
©2012 TxCowboyDancer Designs
If you are a ProAm competitor or a Couples Competitor and have been thinking about doing line dance as well, then your timing is most excellent!
I am offering a special rate of $30 per hour to anyone attending UCWDC Worlds in Nashville. I’ll be arriving on Dec 30th and will be there the whole week of Worlds through January 6th.
To see my complete list of coaching services check out my info page.
You can contact me by clicking the “contact button” up above which will take you to a short form which will send me an email. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook, and Pintrest. You can contact me through any of those as well.
Everybody should line dance!
Line dancing is fun! But, if you need more reasons, let me share. *grin*
Here are some reasons why you should add line dancing competition in addition to your ProAm or Couples competition. Read the rest of this entry
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Sometimes life gets in the way of living…
Ah… the proverbial path littered with “good intentions”. I know thee well. It’s been about two weeks since I’ve posted.
First some housekeeping: I’m still trying to get back into the groove and routine of being on Jenny Craig. Notice that I said “trying”. *sigh* More on that in another post. Second, I’ll try to catch up the weekly progress photos and charts this weekend. I took the photos and I have the data but haven’t had time to post them yet. There is no real visible difference yet in the photos and alas, my net weight remains almost the same. 😦
The big news and the reason I’ve been not blogging is that I’ve had drama in my life: things going on at work, a couple unexpected car repairs and, dealing with the realization that I can’t afford to do ProAms at the UCWDC World Championships in Jan. Ugh. Bleech even! Paatooie! With all that, I’ve not had a lot of time for the blog.
I haven’t talked a lot yet about dancing here on the blog. So a bit of background for those of you who are not into the sport of Country Western Dancing: “ProAm” is a concatenation of two words: Professional and Amateur. The ProAm division is where a Coach or “Professional” dancer teams up with a student or “Amateur” dancer. Both dance together on the floor during the competition, however, only the student is judged in the competition and receives a score. The Pro’s job is to be on the floor with the student, dancing, and try to make the student look as good as possible and to help them out, if possible, during any glitches…things like the student forgetting what comes next in the routine. Not that has EVER happened to me! If you believe that then send me your credit cards and your bank account routing number so that I can deposit a kabillion-zillion dollars into your account. 😉
Anyway… I do digress at times don’t I? Moving on… So, when I say that “I can’t do ProAms at Worlds”, this… Is. A. BIG. DEAL!. *sigh* Read the rest of this entry
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Once more dear poundage, “Unto the breach…”
It Lies!
With apologies to Shakespeare, here I am once again charging, or should I say waddling, forward. It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog so here is a quick update:
As I went into the UCWDC World Championships of Country Western Dance in Jan 2011, I weighed 238 lbs, a loss of of 37 lbs from my heaviest weight of 275. Yay me! I made it through the deadly months of October, November and December with its land mines of savory treats and communal eating. I made it through the stress of preparing for the World Championships. I was on track and although I had plateaued, I was at least *not* gaining weight.
I did pretty good at Worlds: 1st place (and a brand new World Championship title) with my dance partner in Couples Diamond III and 2nd overall in Couples Crystal III. Yay! I placed 2nd overall in Advanced Male Crystal Line Dance and Advanced Male Diamond Line Dance. Yay! I placed 2nd overall in Male Pro-Am Crystal and Diamond and 5th Overall in Open Male Pro-Am. Not too shabby.
I came back and… Read the rest of this entry
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 