USO 2016 Update #7 - Thanksgiving At The Open!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have a holiday just for saying Thank You! That's awesome!

So here's a HUGE thank you to every West Coast Swing dancer, ever!

Thank you for being so impossibly, fabulously, determined to dance!

No shoes? No problem! We'll dance in socks.

No floor? Won't stop us! We will dance on carpets, concrete, or cow patties, we don't care!

No partner? We'll dance with a door knob.

No music? There's always music, as long as "Call Me Maybe" is stuck in your head.

No local dance? We will drive through sleet and hail, through blizzards, four hours one way, for three hours of fun.

You can't stop us - we are more intrepid than the US Postal Service. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will keep us from our dancing!

You know how teachers say "Together we have 15 years of combined knowledge?" I wonder how many years we West Coast Swing dancers have of "combined fun?"

A lot of years.

So on this Thanksgiving Day - a huge thank you to every person, here and gone, who's ever walk-walk-triple-stepped. Thank you, thank you, thank you for contributing SO MUCH FUN to life on the planet!

This might be the biggest Open ever - we keep hearing that.

There are 24 Koreans here! Last year 3 Koreans ... this year 24!  Half of them arrived on one flight, the other half a little later on a second flight. How much fun is that? Flying together, all the way from Korea to the United States! For West Coast Swing!

In the elevators last night: 15 loud Brasilians; and Aussies, Frenchies, Russians, New Zealanders, Brits, Singaporeans, Canadians, and a New Yorker!

Last night's dance in that corner ballroom - a blast!  Was the floor a little larger than last year? Felt that way. A little less canned-sardines, more boxed-chocolates. Great energy! Everybody hugging everybody. Routine trials run all through the night - couples, teams, pro-ams. Verrrrrry supportive audience of fellow competitors. Terrific music by Jack.  Pretty dang excited energy around this place.

Jack and Jills already in progress - Prelims and Semis all day today, followed by Pro-Am routines after dinner break, and all Jack and Jill finals afterwards.

Happy, happy, Thanksgiving everybody!

May you eat too much, and watch LiveStream!