Dancing Queen

It's good to be home, though I have more to do than I have time in which to do it. Today Steve and I flew to Muncie in the Bellanca and met up with Nathan and Chuck there. Our goal at Muncie was thwarted, so we had to fly on to Eagle Creek, where unfortunately the Bellanca broke down. Fortunately we could hitch a ride back in the Baron, after a stop at Huntington to see the progress on the T-6. Its wings are on, and they let me hop up in there, where Nathan pointed out some of the differences between the "G" model we've gotten to fly so far and this "D" model that is being built. Chuck took some photos and I'll post them once I grab them from him. :)

When I was getting the Bellanca ready to go, there were a couple of guys painting on the hangar door. I asked if it was okay to move them so I could get the plane out, and they said that would be no problem. Then one said "Are you going to take that plane up all by yourself?" I just smiled and said "No, I'm waiting for my husband." Why not, it was true. :)

This is probably only funny to me, but I'm writing it anyway. When we were eating lunch today, I heard the "rest of the story" about coming home yesterday. See, I called in on the radio that I was 10 miles to the west inbound for landing at Kokomo. Shortly after that, Nathan called in that he was 10 miles to the northeast inbound for landing at Kokomo. I tried to beat him in-I kept the power up, kept a tight pattern, considered using a different runway, but I figured I would lose because the Baron is a faster airplane than the Saratoga. I did in fact lose-he was turning off the runway as I was coming down final. Today I find out he figured I would try to beat him in, so even though he was really about 13 miles out, he "floored it" so to speak, and dove down just to beat me. Nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, is there? ;)

Anyway, we got back to the airport later than anticipated from our journeys today, and as soon as we landed I had to leave and run home and get Kaylee. I threw her and her ballet and tap clothes into the car along with comb, pony tail holder, bobby pins and hair spray, and we made a dash for Western High School where her full-dress recital rehearsal was. It started at 5:30 p.m., well, it was supposed to start then. It really started some time after 6:15 p.m. I took a bunch of pictures, which I will work on putting up soon along with the Ozark photos. Kaylee made me smile, because she has that big scrape on her chin and two big scrapes on her knees, making her look like a less than delicate or ladylike ballerina at first glance. And yet she got the outfits on and did her thing on stage, and did it with a good amount of grace. The tomboy ballerina. As I was trying to fix her hair in that annoying bun, I was having trouble, and the lady next to me looked over and said "I see I'm not the only one who has never done this to her own hair or anyone else's before." No! :)

While I was sitting in the audience waiting to take photos of Kaylee, there were two women in front of me and one to my right. The one lady was the mom of a girl in Kaylee's ballet class who also went to school with her last year. The lady to my right asked if I remembered her, and our daughters were in gymnastics together last year. Then the lady right in front of me turned around and told me she'd fixed Kaylee's hair back stage (thank you!) when it fell down a little, and said that Kaylee had mentioned something about her mommy's plane needing fixed, and asked if I flew. I said yes, and she said "You didn't fly a Pizza Hut plane, did you?" I kind of blinked and then said that yes, I used to fly it for them until they sold it. She then said "You flew my parents and my children once. At an event at a little airport called Glenndale." She said she'd asked around about me before letting them go up and was told I would be a safe pilot. I smiled and said my usual, that I want to come home safely just like everyone else, and do my best to make sure that happens. I just found all that kind of funny; there are definitely roots and connections here in Kokomo now, in many places.

The rehearsal itself went just fine. Long, but fine. We were there until quite late, something like 9:20 p.m. or so, and we left before it was over because Kaylee's parts were done and we could leave. I took a few photos of people and kids I don't know, just because it was kind of fun and interesting. They did a "Thriller" dance remake for one routine, with adults, and it actually came out pretty good. My only complaint is that it seems like this year there is a lot more sensuality or sexuality present in a lot of the dances. Last year, the most "explicit" thing was "Love Potion Number Nine" and she was dressed just fine. This year there's a girl in a full black fishnet outfit with a red satin underlay thing and it looks like a negligee. She dances to "Nothin' but a Good Time" by Poison. The teenagers several times come out in shorts or outfits that you couldn't wear in public, and they do a lot of moves that left me not very comfortable thinking about my daughter doing. Even some of the tweens were doing some stuff I raised an eyebrow at. One reason I liked this place was the family-friendliness of it. It wasn't THAT bad, but it was...a little much sometimes.

Last year we all noticed a little blonde girl who could *really* dance. I spotted her right off this year-she has her own routine this time, not surprisingly. She's taller, looks older, and can still really dance. Kaylee was watching her, without me saying a word, and Kaylee turned to the girl next to her and said "look at her; that girl has some moves." While I'm not sure where that phrase came from, it was accurate.

Kaylee did well on her part of the rehearsal. The tap routine to "We'll have fun fun fun till my daddy takes the t-bird away" and the ballet routine to "somewhere out there". Like I said, I got plenty of photos and I finally got them up Here for Tap and Here for Ballet. :)

We got home late, I threw in a pizza as the fail-safe back-up dinner, and sent her to bed, to start again tomorrow!