Saturday, February 06, 2010

Dance Your Face Off!

When I walked into the FSL at 2100 on my bday, there were large blue signs taped to the dance floor that said in Times Bold, "DANCE YOUR FACE OFF." Needless to say, Nate's phrase has become a recurring theme that we often utter down the halls or at dinner. Things always seem to happen for a reason, so I suppose in hindsight it was an extra good thing that I had such a wonderful birthday and was still pumped up from that unexpected high when I heard the disappointing news only a few days later that my Fulbright project to Iceland didn't even make it to the finals.

I spent 26 Jan trolling around Hilo with Chris, Nate and Danielle ... not a shabby way to bring in the double threes.  Since we were transiting from Hilo to Honolulu that night and US Customs required everybody to be on the ship, I knew that some friends were meeting up in the Union to celebrate with pajamas as the recommended attire, but I had no idea that Becca, Chris and Ali had gone to so much trouble. The theme was three -- there were three different kinds of chips, three types of donuts in lieu of a cake, and Mandy the bartender made a special "Courtney Cocktail" with three ingredients, which I'm guessing were rum, pineapple juice and cranberry.

I had been singing the Snuggie theme song off and on all day, and even did the dance a few times while walking around the Volcano National Park. When I went to open my present from the Field Office and they asked me to guess what it was, I couldn't believe that a piece of blue magic was really about to come out of the box, cleverly wrapped in a Tokyo map. It has the touch and feel of an airplane blanket, not quite the plush I had imagined, but boy oh boy is it comfy for sleeping. And if I were just a few inches taller, even better for dancing.

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