The Hazard Chronicles

 A couple of years ago, Lindsey was invited by a friend to go to an Irish Dance class. The other mom offered to give her rides, and it was easy for us to just shrug our shoulders and say "sure," without really even knowing anything about it. Irish dance? Like, clicking your heels and the stuff of the Lucky Charms guy? Ok.

Since then, the friend that invited her has moved on to other things, but Lindsey has stuck with Irish through it all. And somehow, even after years of doing this, I have still never really watched her do a full dance routine. There haven't really been any recitals or anything. At the end of the year, the teacher usually puts together a montage video of everyone dancing, but watching it on tv isn't the same.

But then it was announced that the dance school (really, just someone's backyard shop-turned-studio), would be entering an actual, real life competition, and that a select few kids could go. Lindsey was ecstatic and determined that she would be one of them. And she was.

That competition happened this weekend. We drove down to the Missoula county fairgrounds in Montana and it quickly became apparent that I had no idea what I was in for. As soon as I entered the building I saw kids and teams everywhere, leaping around like little forest animals, doing their hair, tying their special dance shoes, and getting ready for their moment in the spotlight. The periphery of the building had vendor booths with Irishy things, and there were food trucks on the lawn ready to serve up our lunch. Some of the parents (mostly moms) were coaching their kids. Some of the parents (mostly dads) looked as out of place as felt. After a while, the announcer's voice came across the loudspeaker for the first groups to get ready. It was about to start. Then a foursome (Quartet? Four-hand? Four-leaf-clover?) walked stiffly onto stage, signaled they were ready, and the music began. 

It was actually really, really cool. The mixture of the music, the atmosphere, the movement...the energy...it was just kind of neat. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I know I came away taking Irish dance a little more seriously. The traditional-ness of it added to the feel while at the same time creating a common playing field of sorts for the dancers. The interactions between teams and individuals was always encouraging and fun, and never really competitive. In short, I was genuinely impressed.

As for Lindsey's team- they won first place in their category, and "most creative" overall. The other team from the school won second place in their category. So yeah- not a bad showing for the competitive debut of a new school- especially since the dances themselves were choreographed by the students. The teacher should be proud. Lindsey was very, very excited to be there. And I really enjoyed watching her in her element. Good vibes all around.

Outside of the dance comp, we are still doing a lot of spring cleaning. I got the garage and my gym looking a little better, and we got some garden boxes for the back yard. Rachel and I are also a part of this little landscape project at the church, and we made some progress there, which is fun to see. Evelyn and Adalie actually spent the weekend down in Moscow at a Jazz thing and said they had a good time. They have a concert later this week at North Idaho College that we will go and watch, so that should be good.

Anyway- here are some photos. Have a good week!