Dancing With the Stars

I must admit, my DH and I are big fans of the US television show, Dancing With the Stars. Last night was the finale, with my favorite dancer emerging as the winner! Kristi Yamaguchi has consistently been perfect in her dancing routines, just as she was in her figure skating. And she makes it look so easy! I predicted she would win from the very beginning.

There has been a lot of buzz about her locally, since she and her family live right here in Raleigh, North Carolina! Hubby Bret Hedican is on the local NHL Hockey team, the Carolina Hurricanes. My husband has experienced a Kristi-spotting in the Chick-fil-A near his office. He could not believe how tiny she is. Apparently the family has their Raleigh house on the market, and are planning to move to California.

With all the excitement of Dancing With the Stars, my husband and his partners jumped on the bandwagon for their latest client appreciation event. Last night we had a wine-tasting combined with ballroom dancing lessons in a country club ballroom. The instructor and his partner performed three dances: rumba, western swing, and tango. Yes, she changed dresses for each dance. Nothing approaching the daring tummy and torso-baring of an Edyta or Cheryl, but she looked lovely! Then the couples who wanted to try got free dancing lessons. It was fun to watch, and the couples who tried it made admirable progress in just a short time. We stayed on the sidelines, but might try some lessons in the studio.

This all takes me back a few decades. I started taking ballroom dancing lessons in sixth or seventh grade. All the eighth graders in my school in New Jersey took lessons on Friday nights. By the time I was old enough to go dancing, we moved to North Carolina, where "shagging" to beach music was about the only dance in town. After I got married, my husband and I took lessons from my parents out on their patio. I neglected to mention in my recent tribute to my mother that she and Daddy were fabulous dancers-ballroom, square, and round. My husband is a good dancer, but just doesn't like it. The only exception was when he played trombone for Raleigh's Little German Band, and he would do the polka with me at break time. That's after many beers, folks. Now it's mostly one slow dance at weddings to appease me. I'll take what I can get!