Perpetual Intern-hood

So, all summer I have been looking forward to the end of August because then my summer job would be done, I could go back to Utah and have fun (while studying, of course). Well... things have changed slightly in the past 48 hours. I'm still excited to go back to Utah on monday, I'm still glad that it is the end of August, but my job isn't really ending.

On Tuesday my boss Terry kind of jokingly asked if I could work remotely while I was in Utah. That got me thinking and so I asked her if we could work something out so that I could continue to work for Avanade while I am in school. She asked Nick (who is my current manager) to double check some things and it turns out that I could be used remotely. She said that as long as I can connect remotely and everything works alright, then I can continue to work. However, if it interferes with my studies then she doesn't want me to continue. They understand the value of my education.

So next week, when I get to Utah, I need to test the connection and see if i can access all the databases and files to make sure that I can work. If so, then I will have a job. If not, then I will work for the Dean's Office in the School of Education, which is all set up. I worry about having to say good-bye to the Dean's office because i wanted to go back and they are kind of counting on me. But Avanade will be less hours, felxible around my schedule and higher pay. I will be able to make room in my schedule for a dance team as well as dance classes and i will be able to drop an 8 a.m. class. We all know that that will be joyful! It seems perfect, as long as it works.

Since this has been my 3rd summer at Avanade, there have been jokes that I am the Senior Intern, and Super Senior Intern. Well, i think now I will earn the title of Perpetual Intern.

Ballroom Pictures! :)

Here are a few more pictures from my day in the glam of the ballroom world. I think I did well in covering the fact that I was sick. :)

Yeah, I was having fun! It was a great day!

Either don't be a dancer or don't be a clutz. You can't be both and have life be okay

Now I love dancing, so of course I would rather not be a clutz than a non-dancer. However being both just causes problems and leaves me with a bum foot.

History: My freshmean year of college I fell out of a tour-jete in ballet class and landed directly on top of my left big toe, like I was trying to land the jump balacing on the point. Needless to say it hurt. A lot! I had done that jump a million times so I didn't understand why I should injure myself like that. But I impacted the bones and my foot really hasn't been the same since. I started wearing a boot around to immobilize it because that is all you can do can for a toe! After a few weeks it started getting better.

I came home in May and the first weekend home I fell down the stairs, rolled over the top of my left foot/toe, adn broke the joint where the big toe meets the rest of the foot. Once again came the boot. My foot has been swollen a little ever since then and you can clearly see on the joint where it was broken--it is a more pronounced bump at that point.

You would think that two years later I would have issues with this stupid toe. Well, i thought wrong. At my ballroom competition last weekend i was walking around or dancing or something and i felt a pop on the underside of my foot, same toe joint. I remember thinking "oh, that's probably not good" but it didn't hurt then and I had a competition to get through. But my foot felt okay. It wasn't until a few days later that I noticed my toe-joint area was noticeably swollen and it was uncomfortable to walk to work this past friday morning. I didn't think a lot of it. I went in on Saturday to get one last lesson in Cha-cha before I go back to school. I explained to my teacher about my foot and she told me to not dance in my heels, but to go flat. well about 30 minutes into the lesson something in the toe area moved and i could not longer dance. it hurts to bend my toe like i am trying to walk. So I am back in the boot and need to go to the doctor to see if i caused more damage to my toe. It needs to get better soon though because I have my ballroom team auditions in three and a half weeks and I need to practice before then. I am babying it as much as I can and trying to be good, but I don't have time to be off my feet. Grrr! Yeah, being a dancer and a clutz does nothing good.

Seattle Star Ball

On Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, I had the opportunity to participate and compete in the Seattle Star Ball at the Sea-Tac Hilton. It was so much fun! I had never competed in a Ballroom Competition other than DanceSport at school, so this was a new experience and an amazing one!

Mom and I arrived at the Hilton at about 1:00 in the afternoon so that I would have enough time to get ready. I spent that time going back and forth between the ballroom and the dressing room, asking for hiar advice, plastering my head with gel that was more like paste (honest, it came out of the tube and I thought is was Elmer's glue or that paste you use in Kindergarten. Same consistency too, and I put it in my hair! Yuck!), getting my make-up done and practicing with my teacher Elliott. I competed in the Pro/Am division so I danced with my teacher for all my dances. In the afternoon I danced the waltz, tango, and foxtrot each two times. I don't remember what order my awards came in, but I received two first place awards, and four second place awards. I was a little disappointed at first to be honest. I had hoped to do a little better, but I was doing my best to keep my spirits up. No one wins their first competition out right. What would be the challenge in that? All of the students also got a statuette for participating. It is a beautiful statue of a dancing pair and it is pretty large too.

There was a break between the afternoon and evening session and then it was back to the dressing room to put on more make-up and wear the expensive yellow dress I rented, and practice more with Elliott. In the evening I competed in the closed scholarship competition. It was a multu-dance competition so I danced all three dances- waltz, tango, forxtrot- right in a row. I had a semi-final of this round so after I danced I had to wait and see if I made it to the final round. My masters coach, Natasha, said that we were in the top three from what she saw, so that gave me hope. At that point though, i was so happy and having so much fun that Finals would be great, but weren't mandatory for my enjoyment. As it turned out we did make it to finals and I was so excited. My night/day was made. We danced again in the final round and ended up placing fifth overall. I was delighted! While the money would have been nice, given to the top three, I felt perfectly content knowing that I had made it to finals. It was an awesome day! It was my first, hopefully not my last, day in the glam of the Ballroom World!

I will post more pictures when I get them, but I didn't want to wait too long. :)