You Know the Routine

First off: aside from some super-exciting lightning storms, last night's weather did no damage in my immediate neck of the woods, and I consider us very fortunate. The devastation in other parts of the state is just amazing and scary. Damn, nature, you humbling!

Now for a little feature I call "So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) Corner" - from here on out I'll mark it with little asterisks so you know where you can skip. I am nothing if not considerate.

**I was feeling very encouraged last week when they chose to focus mostly on talented dancers and different styles instead of "ha ha look at the freak!" trainwrecks. Last night, they pulled that whole ridiculous Ringo Starr's daughter madness and I was not amused. And I have to say I'm not in love with the krumper who dissed Russell. Don't nobody be talking bad about my Russell! I like Jason Gilkinson a whole lot as a judge, he's genuine and constructive in an Adam Shankman way (I adore The Shank), but Robin Antin? Gross. She's gross in every way and adds nothing. Where is Mia Michaels? There are Mia people, and anti-Mia people. I am a Mia person. Nobody's a Robin person, am I right? Are the Pussycat Dolls even alive anymore?

I still don't quite get their criteria for who goes to choreography vs. straight to Vegas. It's mad inconsistent. But dancing. I just love dancing and any time it gets a light shined upon it on mainstream TV, I'm willing to sit (or, ok, fast forward) through a whole lot of crap to get to the good stuff. The best part is that the top 20 will be revealed next week, which is a refreshingly quick pace compared to prior years. Let's get on with the goosebumps.**

In other news, I'm way overdue making one of my favorite lists of the year: the summer to-do list. And so...

TO DO - SUMMER 2011

-take the family on the Harbor Walk and get some seafood on the water
-eat a b-load of ice cream
-resume running and yoga
-update my wardrobe
-get a pedicure more than once
-go to a couple of kick-ass weddings
-see my hippie friends in Maine
-make a cauldron of sangria, already
-go on some (any) dates with Mike
-go camping
-keep writing: here, fiction, and in my all-but-orphaned paper journal 
-make it to Portsmouth and to the Cape at least once, preferably to Wellfleet/P-town and hit the Beachcomber
-eat on the patio at Oleana
-learn how to play cribbage once and for all
-make it to Fenway Park once
-enjoy the hell out of the warm weather with HR and all the "firsts" his second summer will bring.
-launch my "summer song" series on the blog.

Maybe I'll write up the tally at the end of the summer. Of course, I can cross that last one off right away. Mind you that my selections may not have anything to do with summer directly, but they remind me of summer in some me-relevant way. I'll begin with a gem from the hazy, no-responsibility, cruising-with-my-girls days of 1991.