Journal
"A Van, a T-Bird and a Lindy Exchange"
11-20-04
Last night we took a group to the Knoxville Lindy Exchange. I wish we had all piled into Tony's van, but Kristy insisted on driving which made things kinda funny cause Tony had to follow and they ragged each other about it all night. I rode down with Kristy and back up with Tony. It was Kristy, Ponda and John in Kristy's car and Tony, Kyla and Wendyann in the van. Derick lived in Knoxville so he was waiting for us when we got there.
I kinda wish we didn't stop at Kyla's before we took off. If we hadn't I would have been scrunched between two cute chicks in the back of Kristy's car for the whole trip. Wendyann made the smart move of jumping into the much roomier van, and I was stuck half a seat away from the girl who I totally admire yet will be nothing more to than a dance partner (which I should be thankful for, cause she's a hella-good dance partner).
There were some absolutely incredible dancers there. When we got there, there were all ready a lot of people there, but the place wasn't really filled up. Within an hour however, the place was so crowded it was hard to find room on the floor to dance. Everywhere you looked there was a variety of dances. Although mostly Lindy Hop, you could also see 20's Charleston, 30's Charleston, Balboa and regular East Coast Swing.
Tony also made a lot of contacts for our group. I even saw Sue there, the instructor I learned Lindy Hop from back during a summer workshop. He actually heard about our Halloween Ball and was planning on coming until he got caught up in something else. He introduced himself to our entire group and even gave Tony some contact information for possibly doing workshops with us in the future.
It was a lot of fun dancing with so many different people. There were so many different styles and so much I picked up just by watching others. I ran into so many people I've met before in Nashville, Chattanooga, etc. (Hopefully next time I'll remember Wallie's name).
The exchange went all weekend long and there were people there form New Orleans, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta and various other places all around the south east. They had it setup so people who were coming in would be housed with host families. It's a great way to make a bunch of cool friends in the course of a single weekend, not to mention get really good at various dancing styles.
After the dance we ate at I-HOP before dropping Wendyann off at her aunt's in Knoxville and then heading back home. We didn't get back until around 2:30 or 3am and we were all quite exhausted. Kristy was talking about going back tonight, however I think I'll just stay here and try to get some of the endless amounts of work done that I need to be working on to graduate.
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