saving seats, foul language (you ain't heard nothing), results, & the boys are coming!

These shoes were not made for running,
but it was a short distance from the hotel to
 the venue and I had no problems - other
 than a drip of ice cream on my dress
 that almost led to blows . . . 

After my short jog in my pretty dress and orange sandals, I found the girls at our row of seats.  I put Curly's dress and the camera bag on one of the chairs.  We still had plenty of time before the announcements would begin.  I told them I was going to the bathroom to clean a drip of ice cream off my dress.  I would be right back.

I stopped to talk to another mom from one of our former dance schools.  Then I returned to our seats.  The girls were a bit frazzled.  They had been standing in the isle ADJACENT TO OUR SEATS chatting with friends when this couple came and sat down ON TOP OF OUR THINGS on our saved chairs.  Curly looked at me wide eyed.  ‘No problem,’ I assured her.  ‘We just have to explain that these are our seats.’  

The rude bastards would not budge.  I stood there blinking at them.  What in the world?  They were older than me.  I pointed out that my girls had stepped into the isle to say hi to a friend, but that our things were on our seats.  

‘No saving seats,’ the man said.  I told him, ‘Yeah, but my girls were here all along.’  Then he told me that he had been coming to this competition for years.  Well bully for you - I have been too.  

I said to him, ‘Well welcome back - I have been here for years as well, now get your ass off of my camera bag and move along.  You are actually sitting on my stuff.  I was here and I just went to the bathroom to clean ice cream off of my dress.’ 

Still no movement.  More muttering about not saving seats.  I wanted to say, if you have been coming here for years as you claim, then you know that people always save their seats and you should have showed up earlier. 

How cool was this logo?

I refused to move and was hovering right in front of them.  I started to raises my voice and said a few more aggressive things in their direction, like:  ‘For Christ’s sake you know these were our chairs and my kids were right here the whole time, just get up off of my things!’  I tugged and pushed at the fellow in order to free my camera bag from under his butt.  For real.  They got up in a huff and grumbled about my foul language.  I assured them they had heard nothing yet, but if they stuck around they would be in for a real shock.  

Mini and Curly were unsettled by the whole thing.  One of the girls in Curly’s dancing class had been hanging in the isle chatting with the girls.  She told Curly that she thought I was a badass.  When the situation dictates, I am not going to hesitate.  

Curly went on to place 20th and was very excited.  20th in the nation is nothing to sneeze at.  She noticed once the results from all the judges were posted that her hard shoes seemed to be her lowest score.  Always good to have something to work on.  Also, always good to be DONE.  

We walked back to the hotel happy and laughing and chatting about the results.  Then Mini said it:  ‘Oh gosh, the boys come tomorrow!’ 

I don’t think any of us were quite ready to give up our HGTV and our spacious hotel room to be invaded by 4 brothers and Coach the next day.  We would add another room, but there is still never enough space.