Thursday, March 29, 2012

Eloise at the Plaza

When Meg and I went to Lancaster a few weeks ago, I read the fine print and discovered that there was a 10 dollar breakfast that was included with our room charge. Excellent. Saturday evening, after the competition concluded, we found a breakfast menu in our room. It had instructions to make our selections and hang on the door by 2 a.m. Done! We happily made our selections and slung the menu on the door knob.

The next morning, we were awakened by a nice young man toting this tray of breakfast goodness. Yum! Good omelets, coffee and fresh fruit. We snuggled up and dug in.



Here is Meghan, unknowingly enjoying her first Room Service Breakfast, which was not, in fact, 10 dollars. Guess I didn't read the fine print closely enough.


Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Dance Part Dos




Dance Weekend Again!
We were in Lancaster for Dance Educators of America.
This past weekend, we were in Pittsburgh.

View from the 14th Floor of the Station Square Sheraton.


It was a great weekend, except for the hubbub surround this person, who shall remain unnamed:


If you know who she is, you'll understand. If you don't, just be glad. She may be a perfectly nice person for all I know; I don't watch her show, but selling your studio's t-shirt and autographs of you and your dancers was a little . . . gratuitously obnoxious. If that isn't an accurate description, well, it should be! Manuevering around the lines and crowds surrounding her, and her entourage, and her moms, and her dancers was a small pain. But on to MY dancer! 'Cause I'm sure that's what you want to know about in your interweb browsing adventures!! Is that enough exclamation points for you?!!!?! No? Tough shit!!!!!

Sorry, got carried away by the drama. Let's put her on the Gateway Clipper and send her awayyyyy.



Drama aside (or intended, I suppose, but good sense won out), I did want to get t-shirts made that said "Not that kind of Dance Mom", but I did not want to incite any violence in the elevators. There is already enough violence, oddly, on these elevators; moving hordes of dancers, costumes, props, random dogs, and parents up and down 15 floors is too much for 4 elevators to handle.
On to the real show.

Picture I Got:
Rock on, Mom.

Picture I Wanted:
Aww, cute!


Picture I Got:
Ethan, please smile so it looks like you were thrilled
to spend your Saturday at a dance competition.


Picture I Wanted:

Yes, I, Ethan, am thrilled to be here! Teenage girls rolling on the floor to
anguishing music is AWESOME in my twelve-year-old book! **
Yes, she is standing on a bench in order to tower over Ethan.


~~~
Meghan and her daddy. He's not so sure about this dance thing as his baby gets older,
but he did enjoy her dances. His eyebrows went up and down a lot,
and a few times he looked at me during other studios' particular numbers
and said, "Inappropriate. Absolutely not."

Agreed, Daddy. Agreed.



Obligatory Ribbon Shot with Overly Adorably Obnoxious Child.

Grammy takes a picture of MeggyPeg.
As soon as I took this, I remarked on her pose
and got an eyeroll and a "Muuuuhther". Sigh.


Awesome shot of a Real Dance Mom and her kid who loves to dance.



**Yes, I am aware that his opinion about watching girls will most likely change in the next few years...


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Downtown Lancaster


No buggies in downtown Lancaster, but lots of fun window shopping and cool old buildings. Nothing was open except this awesome coffee shop, but I did get a few phone pics in.

We stayed at the Lancaster Convention Center, which was a great hotel, both to stay in, and for the dance competition. There was actually a gun show going on down on a another level, and never did the gun show peeps know there were twinkly dance numbers going on above them. It's a big venue.

Across from the hotel, there is a traffic roundabout which surrounds a war memorial for the veterans of Lancaster. These pictures don't do it justice, it was impressive.






This building was on the site of the old town square, and there was a large plinth with plaques describing the marketplace in colonial times.



This theater/opera house looked similar to our own Mishler Theater in Altoona.



Interesting looking brewery - took the picture so I would remember to go back to it on a future trip.



Lots of neat brick work and trompe l'oeil.





Even found a neat performance/street artist.....



Wait a second!!! I think I recognize that artist!



Monday, March 5, 2012

Dance Part Uno



Dance competition time!! That time of the year when I grit my liberal feminist teeth and stick fake eyelashes on my 10 year old!! Yay!



Here is the before:


Here is the after:




Hmm.




Here is Rocky Balboa:



Here's Princess Eugenie:




Here's a dance-obsessed kid with two platinum ribbons and a gold ribbon.
Amazing how some eyeliner and green eye shadow can spur a kid on to glory.