US Open 2012 Update #1

US OPEN! 30TH ANNIVERSARY! 30 years of Opens – hard to believe!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends! We have just wolfed down dinner in the hotel restaurant (quick plate of pasta for me, turkey and mashed potatoes for Genieboy) and are on our way back down for Jack and Jill finals. Today’s been Jack and Jill prelims (Novice through Allstar) and pro-am routines. Two heats per division, about 15 couples in each. Competitors’ meeting this morning at 11:30 for JJ contestants – nothing more than a quick announcement about staging and when to show up.

We arrived late last night (Wednesday) to find the lobby FULL of dancers from around the world who had arrived earlier in the week (or last week, for Swinging New England in Boston.) Someone said this is like the the soccer World Cup – Brazil is here, a big Russian contingent, France, UK, Australia, I’m sure many Asian countries will be represented …

Getting here was was confusing: No traffic on the highway, instantly found a parking space at the airport, no line at check-in, one person in front of us at security, plane took off five minutes early and landed a half hour ahead of time, no traffic on the 405 during rush hour driving down from LAX, no issues checking in at the hotel. This, on the day before Thanksgiving, with TV and radio reporting massive travel delays and chaos like hasn’t been seen in years. Something *has* to go wrong, right? All this good luck is making me nervous not knowing when the axe is gonna fall.

Major rhinestoning going on in rooms all over the hotel. I’m buying stock in rhinestones.