she's feising and I'm home

The more nervewracking (sp) part is over. This is a new first time ever feis, that filled up quickly. Apparently there was a desire to feis in January, even with January typically being the coldest month of the year and this feis in Pennsylvania (west of Philly).

Many in M's Irish dance school are there, or, well, whom she knows and likes to hang with and/or support. There are also a few dance friends from other schools, just not as many as this IS a few hours away.

M left me a pair of bubble socks for the laundry earlier this week. What the heck -- is this -- mold? Ends up, the various shades of green eye makeup she had for while wearing her former solo dress, had ended up breaking apart and coloring a lot of formerly white items in her feis bag. Lovely colors, that yes, look like moss, or mold. It washed out, and I'd put them back in her feis bag, not realizing that's how they got dirty in the first place. Thankfully, this pair stayed clean, even while the others were fully green and, well, moldy looking lol. We didn't know until Friday afternoon that she was going to this feis, with mere minutes to pack her up.

Ice, sleet, wintery mix, all sorts of precipitation varieties were scheduled for yesterday through the night around 3:00 a.m. or so. Nicely, this venue is located off of highways, the weather was fine enough this a.m., still thin swirls of ice on some car windows here early a.m., but fine enough; M and I texted about 8:46 a.m. They were pulling into the parking lot. Good. Her competition was scheduled to be the third one in on her stage, and this should have, did, allow for sufficient time (the feis started at 9:00 a.m.).

Last night, she'd texted me, YEAH I FOUND MY INHALER. M's good, higher Rx one, had gone missing since a gig. Ugh, not good. I did find her chamber in her feis bag (usually kept with her dance shoes). L's mom had promised M could use L's inhaler today, but it's dosage isn't as good, and the chamber really helps her out. That M's main concern about her dancing this morning was not asthma related, is great.

So I waited, anxious and eager, I suppose, really wishing I was there to share with her, and watch her. Yes, I like hanging with the MAIDs (and DAIDs), and seeing the other dancers, too, but primarily, of course, I want to see how my daughter's doing. Even with her friends, and their MAIDs (a couple potential DAIDs), and opf course, M's half-sister's Mom there, who took M to this feis. It was good to hear she did as fine as I knew she could. Just, just, well, not being there was hard, especially while her particular competition was going on.

At 11:28 a.m., M was able to text me: "Finishd n stages r runnin well. [TCRG] said we did well [meaning her and L] but wit duct tape my hard shoe wuz muffled. [Cboy] lookd amazin."

So, great:)

They're likely finishing up lunch about now. Not sure if this feis is doing champion level awards throughout the day, or all at the end of the day. I'll find out, just, phew. The hard part is over. She hadn't really wanted to go, not feeling so great earlier in the week, etc. I'm proud of her:) And, I'm real happy that the biggest thing for her was not that she "died" (asthma problems), or other things, but the muffling of the sound of her hardshoe (hornpipe) dance.

basically, M did really well

"We are so proud of you," said M's TCRG, and "Figures Teacher," aka, FT, after M had danced her Round 2 (reel).

Yes, me, too:) No matter how M placed, or even if she recalled, I was so proud of her for having danced so well for herself.

For the dancing competitions part, M had to dance a hardshoe, Round 1 hornpipe, which she was nervous for, then a softshoe, Round 2 reel. She recalled!!!!! the last competitor # called for recalls, which means that she had to go on to Round 3, or I should say, she got the honor of going on to Round 3. That took forever; she danced third to last out of the 62 dancers who recalled and now danced their set dance one at a time. Unfortunately, her good dance friend, L, did NOT recall. So often, their place very close together in their competitions, so this was not expected that one girl would place / recall, and the other would not.

Ultimately, M placed 43rd out of 124 competitors (134 dancers were registered, but, for example, one of their dance friends had a stress fracture and could not compete). This is fantastic for a first time solo Oireachtas competitor.

Their 8-hand team, well, it looked real good and was danced cleanly. No recall.

Their 4-hand team, WOW! the four girls were so excited, bouncing up and down, arms linked, while team numbers were being called, and theirs was not. They danced up in age group as one girl is older, with a total of I guess 44 teams (I think 46 were registered). They actually got 4th place. That is awesome:)

Their dance drama accomplished what TCRG hoped for -- a great team feeling to end the Oireachtas with, and good show entertainment for the audience. It was good, and fun, for the audience and all of the dancers. Unfortunately, a technicality had them place third out of three, but oh well. They all proudly and happily went onstage for their earned third place medals.

Ultimately, it's all good (except wishing L had recalled, also).