I was gonna...
Blog. Yep, on my way home from work, I decided I was going to catch up on my blog'n. Well, I was at work from 9a until 9p today. I stuffed face & collapsed on my futon. Sleep will happen soon. That was a lot of time at work. All on the computer. What he heck am I doing here right now?

The joys of spam.


ATT:Dear,
I am Mr Phillip Nnanna, Bank Manager of
Orient Bank of Nigeria, Lagos Branch. I have urgent and
very confidential business proposition for you. On June
6, 1999, an American Oil consultant/contractor with the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Barry
Kelly made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve
calendar months, valued at US$25,000,000.00 (Twenty-
five Million Dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, I
sent a routine notification to his forwarding address
but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and
finally we discovered from his contract employers, the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation that Mr. Barry
Kelly died from an automobile accident. On further
investigation, I found out that he died without making
a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next of kin was
fruitless. I therefore made further investigation and
discovered that Mr. Barry Kelly did not declare any kin
or relations in all his official documents, including
his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank. This sum of
US$25,000,000.00 is still sitting in my Bank and the
interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at
the end of each year. No one will ever come forward to
claim it. According to Nigerian Law, at the expiration
of 5 (five) years, the money will revert to the
ownership of the Nigerian Government if nobody applies
to claim the fund. Consequently, my proposal is that I
will like you as a foriegner to stand in as the next of
kin to Mr. Barry Kelly so that the fruits of this old
man's labor will not get into the hands of some corrupt
government officials. This is simple, I will like you
to provide immediately your full names and address so
that the Attorney will prepare the necessary documents
and affidavits which will put you in place as the next
of kin. We shall employ the service of two Attorneys for
drafting and notarization of the WILL and
to obtain the necessary documents and letter of
probate/administration in your favor for the transfer.
A bank account in any part of the world which you will
provide will then facilitate the transfer of this money
to you as the beneficiary/next of kin. The money will
be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio
of 60% for me and 40% for you. There is no risk at all
as all the paperwork for this transaction will be done
by the Attorney and my position as the Branch Manager
guarantees the successful execution of this
transaction. If you are interested, please reply
immediately via the private email address below. Upon
your response, I shall then provide you with more
details and relevant documents that will help you
understand the transaction. Please observe utmost
confidentiality, and rest assured that this transaction
would be most profitable for both of u! s because
Ishall require your assistance to invest my share in your
country.Awaiting your urgent reply via my
email:phillipnnanna@uboot.com
Thanks and regards.
Mr. Phillip Nnanna.

Not So Annoying Club Challenge Tryouts.
Anne did things better than Bill did - a Jack&Jill format. Only thing was that Marcus was the only leader who wanted to do it. So, the tryout was kind of like a birthday jam: Missy, Macy, Steph & I all took turns dancing with Marcus. The representatives were chosen by the audience cheering. I took 2nd to Missy where the cheer levels were really too close to call.

Since I didn't "win", I went around asking dancers that I respected about what they thought of my dances. I got some good things to work on. Bob told me that he just favored Missy & has liked her dancing for a long time - she didn't do a lot better than me in his eyes. Brian, on the other hand, really thought that I should've won. I'm a very solid dancer & nobody can get me off my center. He didn't see any reason for Missy to win.

Too bad he wants to buy a house instead of doing a routine with me. *sigh*

...by the way, I wasn't disappointed with this club challenge tryout, in case you couldn't tell.

Annoying Club Challenge Tryouts.
I thought that the cool thing about the club challenge would be that I wouldn't need my own partner to try to represent. Wrong. Bill decided that you needed to have a partner picked out before dancing - not a Jack&Jill format. I already have the problem of not having found a strictly partner - now I get smacked again for it?! I asked everyone in the joint - they were either already representing another club, too high of a level or didn't compete. I almost got to do it with Marcus, but he wanted to give his strictly partner a chance first. I mean, I didn't expect to beat Bob & Lynne with Marcus, but I expected to have done better than his strictly partner.

I should stop pointing fingers & complaining so I can move on with my life. I was still annoyed, though.

What do you get when you search for Tootsie Rool Midgees on Google?
Apparently, lesbian porn sites. I don't know this first hand, I heard this from my mom. Yeah, that was an interesting conversation... ;-)

Y'know, you don't always have to be productive...
We had finally gotten back to Marc's place & I ended up taking a nap on his couch 'cause I'd barely slept in the car the night before. I chilled there for a while after waking up & just talked with Marc about random things. I was complaining that when I went home, I wouldn't be doing anything more than screwing around. He told me that I didn't always have to be productive. I've never really thought about that before.

I ended up leaving his place 'cause I decided that I wasn't going dancing that night (after 2 nights of great dancing & crap rides home, I didn't want to risk it again) & got home early enough to watch Dance Fever. Unproductive but relaxing evening. It was a good switch.

What else would I do on a Saturday night?
Dance, of course, right? Well, that's the way it started. I met Brian & Marc at Marc's place so we could carpool down to middle-of-nowhere CT for a dance hosted by Corey & Erin for Jason & Katie where John & Anne would be doing their routine - got that? :-P Anyway, we got there for the dance, it wasn't a huge turn out, but I had a lot of fun. Lots of good dances with lots of people.

The ride home was another story. On the way back to the highway, we ran over some boulders that some "cool" kids decided to put in the middle of the road & blew out the right two tires of Marc's car about 24 hours after the last time I was sitting on the side of the road. So 2-3 hours later, we were finally on the road in the tow truck to bring it far away 'cause there wasn't going to be anywhere in middle-of-nowhere CT open on Sunday that had service. We finally Marc's car to a place that would have service in the morning & got dropped off at a hotel. No vacancy. And nobody else would have any vacancy either 'cause it was race weekend (I have no clue what race it was). We walked around for a bit & ended up sleeping in Marc's car for the night & being there for when the place opened. The steel rims had been dented like crazy & one couldn't even be banged out. We ended up going out to breakfast when one got banged out & stuff.

Yeah, a ride that was supposed to take 1.5 hours ended up taking 12. Two nights in a row of awesome dancing & crap rides home.

Not so voluntary naps on the ride home.
No, I didn't fall asleep at the wheel - I'd stopped at a rest stop as I was feeling close to head jerking action. Soon after the rest stop, my alternator died. I called home & it was an hour before dad came & picked Allie & me up. We napped while we were waiting. Dad ended up getting a new alternator & fixing it for me before I needed to leave the next day. We were at least in NH before it decided to go...

Jack & Jill went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water.
I brought Allie with me to Larry & Heidi's dance 'cause it was the last local J&J comp to get into the finals. She competed in the beginner level with John H. & took 4th out of 5. I was sooo proud of her!

I competed at the intermediate level. I took 4th out of 13 or so with Bob. We had a lot of really fun & awesome dances. We had to dance around 5 times 'cause the judges were having so much of a problem deciding who was the best. I got mad props from the judges about my dances. I don't remember what my marks were 'cause it was so long ago.

So yeah, fun night of dancing & a bunch of dances with Marc so he could try to make up some new toys.

Amazing what a piece of paper can be worth.
I paid off one of my loans - all in one payment. So, multi-thousand multi-hundred dollar payment. On my check, I started writing the dollar amount out the same size I normally write my checks. My writing got progressively smaller the farther to the right I went. It was really depressing, but at least I got rid of my unsubsidized stafford. *sigh*

It's all relative.
Y'know, I don't really remember what I was going to write about for this title. I know it was about dance, but that's about all I've got. My B.

"Wow, the rain isn't sticking to the windshield..."
Sure, rain doesn't usually stick to windshields anyway. This time was different. It had been raining pretty well on the ride to Arlington Elks - a bit under an hour ride. I didn't really need to use my wipers at all. The raindrops decided that they wanted to be on their way & didn't bother me at all. Allie & I found it quite funny. Well, maybe that was more 'cause I said the rain wasn't sticking...

The neverending work day.
Since I'd called in sick to work last Monday, I worked forever on Wednesday. I even came in an hour late due to exhaustion from dancing so late the previous night. I got in around 9:00, didn't really take a long lunch & left at 8:30. I only left 'cause Eric told me to. I wasn't exhausted or hungry, I could've stayed a lot longer. Just when it was getting to be near the end of the work day, the stuff I was working on started working & I was figuring it out. I logged 11.1 hours. It was crazy.

Is there such a thing as perfect?
Last Tuesday, I brought my sister Allie (grr that Bonnie ended up feeling sick) & Dee, a WPI intern from work, to Bill's WCS class in Arlington. The two of them did really, really well, I was very proud of them. I danced with them quite a bit throughout the night. Dee even had guts enough to ask other people to dance with her a ton. She told me there were a few times where she dragged Allie to some people & asked them to dance with her. Yay for Dee. :-)

On top of the fun dances with them, I had a gijillion awesome dances with people. Sooo many of the guys that I consider to be really good dancers were there & I danced with all of them. I was having so much fun that I lost track of time & we ended up staying until the very end. But yeah, it prolly wasn't a perfect night of dancing, but it was pretty darn good. Lots of amazing dances with amazing dancers. I didn't want the night to end. I wish there were more nights where my favorite dancers all showed up in one place for dancing.

Sick is a relative term.
Monday, not yesterday, the day after I got back from the reunion, I called in sick. I really was well enough to go in to work, but I was quite exhausted from the weekend. I also thought about going in late even though I'd called in sick. Then I got a really bad headache & layed down in the dark & ended up falling asleep.

When I'd gone into work the next day, the guys busted on me that I took a sick day so I could sleep in. So, it's pretty much true, but the drive did suck a lot of energy out of me. I didn't even get anything productive done around my room at all like I'd originally hoped. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Mi familia. (31Jul03 - 03Aug03)
The annual family reunion for dad's side has come and gone once again, the weekend before this past. It was really great to see everyone. I mean, the screaming 5 & 8 year old cousins got on my nerves a bit when my uncle was playing, err, terrorizing them, but it was all in good fun. I wish that I could've spent more time there with everyone. I was saddened that my cousin (who I always want to call uncle) couldn't make it with his family. His wife is over in Turkey, maybe?

Maybe sometime in the near-ish future I'll be able to take a full week off & spend a lot of time with that part of the family like everyone else does. We'll see. I'm rackin' up vacation time every day I'm at work.

Spy Kids 3D.
It was actually a pretty good movie. We got 3D glasses thingies, though they bothered my head when I had them on for a while. We went to see it 'cause of my cousins, 5 & 8 year old boys. The good thing about being off the diet was that I could have a ton of popcorn. :-D

The special effects were pretty neat, and I enjoyed the movie up until the end where it got cheezy. The credits were funny 'cause they showed a bunch of bloopers. It included the main character doing something with people dressed in all green like the background & falling over. Cute & funny movie. :-)