Atlanta 2013 – Update #1

Ooooh, love the new room renovations! Haven’t been to Atlanta for a few years – they’ve fixed up the rooms! Spacious, chic, outlets all over for laptops/cameras/ipads/boomboxes/phones/chargers/electric blanket (yes, I brought my electric blanket to Atlanta Georgia), double bathrooms, A/C that actually works …

This is the famous atrium hotel, 14 floors, exposed balcony hallways up to the skylight, glass elevators – I’ve written before about the excellent spying and gossip opportunities (and enough scandals, funny stories and history to fill an entire college semester.)

Nice weather today – sunny, windy, moderate – pretty day. They’re forecasting cloudy and mild for the weekend – no tornadoes, no hurricanes, no superstorms. Good! That means no flight problems with everyone coming in.

Got here last night, unpacked, boom! out for the night. Dragging three psychotic suitcases onto nine – yes, NINE! – escalators plumb wore me out. Except for breakfast in the club lounge (now closed for the weekend – it’s meant for business travellers) I haven’t even ventured out of the room yet.

Missed the dance last night but hear it was smallish but fun. Shag DJ early, then Cher, followed by Louis for late-late-late-late nite. LeAnn tells me they weren’t expecting a huge crowd last night – they knew by the number of hotel room-nights. Thursday night not too many room-nights. Tonight and Saturday? Completely sold out. Michael and LeAnn told me the number as of SwingDiego – 1,300 I think? (I get zeros wrong – maybe it was 13,000? 3,000?) – which they say might be more room-nights than any other event. Not because Grand Nationals is the largest event but because here you don’t find eight roomies packed in together, sharing beds and floor space. In Atlanta they don’t like sharing. Even married couples get two rooms.

No just kidding. Not all married couples get two rooms.

Today is nice and relaxed, Novice/Inter pro-ams and Shag Jack and Jill only things on the schedule.

Opening Ceremonies at 8pm followed by Juniors routines at 8:15, Carolina Classic (aka Shag,) and Showcase at 11pm!

Want to see it? Thumbsup is streaming live all weekend! Watch here.