Good to be home

It is so nice to be home.  We left for Durham on Friday for 2 days.  My daughter had a dance competition this weekend and although she didn't have to dance until Sunday morning we kept our Friday reservation and just decided to "hang out".  It was a nice ride up (only 2 hours) and the weather has been great since Thursday (70's and now 81) and we checked in to a beautiful hotel ....Tara (kid) was so thrilled with the room because she felt like she had her own space.  Our room was basically a two room layout (1 king bedroom and a pull out in the sitting/kitchenette area) and we were divided by folding doors.  Boy was it nice to finally have some privacy and NOT sleep with a 9 year old.  Of course the first thing she wanted to do was hit the pool.  I said hold on, cause we need to grab some dinner first.  We found a little pizza/sub joint up the road and watched some of the Carolina game ( I am so NOT a Carolina fan...I say GO DUKE or NC STATE).  Tara's teacher is a UNC-CH fan and so being at that age, my kid has joined on the bandwagon.  She even had me buy her a (ugh) shirt.....told her I was NOT gonna be the one to wash it....I even had her believing that I was actually "allergic" to that color of blue (lol).  Getting back to the hotel, I mosied on down to the bar and ordered a drink and talked to one of the other dance mom's.  Her kid had forgotten her bathing suit and we had 3 so I said "take one of ours".....so I called up to the room and said "grab that one, suit up and come on down".  So here they come....my hubby loves to hang around the pool and talk with the ladies...and I'm just as comfortable hanging out with the "guys" (I grew up with boys and was a tomgirl anyway)...so it was a good trade off.  I still get the mommy duty later on of washing up the kid and getting her ready for bed.

Saturday my crew didn't wanna budge as early as I did, so I took off to a local breakfast buffet.  Now, here's a story for ya, short, but, well, you'll see.  I get in to this buffet, and there is another dance mom, her mother and the 1 year old kid.  Her daughter is already on her way to the competition with another mom, and the little one has sooooooooooo made a mess under and on the table as most toddlers do.  The waitress made a fuss over him.  My waiter was prompt andnot so talkative (yay!).  Anywho, this mom has grabbed a couple (3) boxes of cereal and a banana "snacks for later" (buffet right??) and says "see ya there".  As their waitress was cleaning the 2 tables beside me (one is there's) she comments to my waiter "two in a row....I swear I'm gonna quit" and points to these tables.  Now I'm eavesdropping anywhere I go so I pick up on the fact that she is talking about the fact that both tables left with out tipping!!!!  HELLO!  A messy toddler....come on! and the waitress was nice to the kid.  Geeesh, when my kid left a mess I certainly tipped and tipped pretty good because of it.  So the lady was going on about it to my waiter.  I dug around and gathered up a couple of dollars.....found the waitress and handed it to her.  She said "what's this for?" and I said "I know the lady & kid and I noticed they didn't leave a tip".  There's my good deed of today.  Can you believe the gall of some people?!  I know it was a buffet and you get your own, but .....when there's a mess, someone has to clean up and wait staff aren't paid the big bucks. OK that's my soapbox on that one.

My family calls "where are you" and I pick them up and we head to the mall.  Just wandering around, strolling through stores.  Not on any particular time schedule.  My daughter spies some things in Limited Too ( I REFUSE TO PAY THOSE PRICES!!!!)...so I get a couple of long sleeve clearance T's for the fall.  I understand all about wanting to wear name brands (that's why I shop Ross' too!!) but geeesh not when those thin t-shirts are $25 friggin dollars.  The ones I got were $6.99----my style!  Once in a while I will splurge....but I am all for the clearance racks.  (And there is a store in Myrtle Beach where everything is 50% off the ticket price....I got Tara a bathing suit last year for this year for $5....Nautica originally $40.  I mean, come on ---FIVE dollars.)

So now we're tired of the whole mall thing and she wants to hit the pool.  Tara and her Dad suit up, Tom fixes his cooler of drinks (for the ladies) and they head out.  I fix my glass and head down to meet them.  After a while I go into the bar to talk with one of the dance Dad's (he and I went to College together too)....he works for a company that does some of the cabinets for my boss.  We're having a grand old time watching the end of the UNC - Boston College game and I'm making "loser" noises as the clock counts down.  Carolina loses by 3 points and I'm being obnoxious.  We head up to the room to shower and get ready for dinner and once I'm there I start raggin my kid about the loss.  Boy did she take that bad!  Dad is trying to tell her that it's just the way it is.  She will not even talk to me....until it is time for me to make sure she has all of the shampoo outta her hair.  Off to dinner......Chili's - 15 people - laughing our heads off............and I end up with an overnight guest.  Try getting a couple of psyched up 9 year olds to go to sleep cause they've gotta get up at 6:30am to get ready to go to the competition.

And boy did 6:30 roll around quick.  We don't dance until 9:40am but we're required to be there 2 hours before to get ready and make sure everyone has enough time to practice.  Plus you never know what kind of traffic you'll run into on the way.  We grabbed a quickie at Burger King and Tom dropped us off while he went back to the hotel to load up.  I must say...he is a great Dance Dad.  I tried to talk him into getting and wearing one of those rhinestone studded "Dance Dad" pins but he gave me a stern NO!  Tom has previous experience at being a dancer's dad since his 2 girls both were dancers.  (They live in NY--the oldest will be 30 in 2 weeks!! and the other will be 23 in April.)

The girls looked and danced great.  Tara's jazz group won the Gold First Place and highest score and her Lyrical got High Silver (I saw some of the mistakes from behind the stage - hmmmm).  Last month the lyrical was the overall winner, so it just goes to show you that it doesn't matter, sometimes you just don't have a good day.  We were able to get a couple of action pictures printed up before we left....they were nice poses....and since we're not allowed flash photography, it is good to be able to ..ahem...purchase these.  Another dance another dollar and closer to the poor house.  Thank goodness this is a payweek!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh............home, finally.