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Dance From the Center

Capital Swing 2006

Darren, Jordi, Thuy, Jennilyn, and DavidJenni and I spent President’s Day weekend in Sacramento attending the Capital Swing convention. I took my first shot at intermediate Jack & Jill since winning first in the novice division at BridgeTown Swing 2005. I graduated from being in novice for almost three years, and like moving up to middle school, the excitement of new opportunities and higher expectations rattled my stomach. I used to be at the top, and now, I’m back to the bottom. The best thing about being at the bottom is that there’s only one way to go—upwards.

Categories
Clearing the Cache

Rebecca St. James Concert

Rebecca St. JamesFor Christmas, Jennilyn got us a special gift to see Rebecca St. James live in concert. She remembered that I told her that I’ve never been to a live concert before and picked up two tickets to one of our favorite artists. It was a wonderful time of worship and listening to several artists’ stories on how God speaks into and through their lives.

In addition to seeing Rebecca, we got to listen to Jayden and the Barlow Girls. They were all very talented. The light show provided a fun opportunity to take some pictures and the music played loud. Thought-my-phone-was-vibrating loud.

One thing that tickled our funny bones was when the Barlow Girls asked everyone to take out their cellphones and make them glow. They called it modern-day fire-safe lighters.

See all the pictures from the evening.

Categories
Clearing the Cache

Nice and Smug

Jenni and I received a card recently from a lady in Seattle. She also enclosed twenty dollars for us to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It was such as kind gesture, and we really appreciated the encouragement to continue dating during our marriage. Our benefactor is very generous and nice. A wonderful blessing.

A mystery too. She has always been extremely kind with me, even though I barely know her. She welcomes me warmly everytime I see her at dance conventions. She gave me a nice dance shirt one year I went to Easter Swing. Why the kindness? I wonder if it was because I overheard someone speak kindly of her and I asked her to dance at some point. If so, it amazes me what a little kindness can do.

Categories
Picture This

Chinese New Year Performances

Two girls performing routine

My parents, Jenni, and I visited the Portland Convention Center to see the festivities for Chinese New Year. There were many performances with children, musicians, and martial arts experts. The children were amusing and entertaining as they performed routines in colorful costumes. The musicians played traditional Chinese instruments like the two-string cello instrument, Chinese zither, and mandolins. I enjoyed the martial arts toward the end because they were impressively fast and the weapons they showcased looked dangerous to wield.

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Daily Rice and Chicken

Random Stuff

David and I have been busy with the Portland Swing Dance Club. David has been working on a new membership database system for the club, as well as redesigning the club website, and planning board meeting agendas, etc., etc., etc. Lots to do! I’ve been doing the few secretary duties, as well as coordinating all the volunteers to run the dances, and the bigger job, our workshop weekend we put on a couple weeks ago. All is going well. We have such a great community of volunteers!