Dancing with the stars: LIVE!

On Saturday I packed 4 other people into my car and we headed off to Detroit. First stop was Saginaw to pick up Grandma P where we were surprised by the fact that Uncle Tom opened up his wallet and bought us pizza to munch on before we left. Very cool.

Second stop. Starbucks after we reached the highway by going past the "Wood" in the east side of Saginaw. Very scary part of town, many shootings happen there. So Starbucks was very necessary because I hate driving through that part of town and I just wanted another peppermint mocha. I also got my grandma a tall hot chocolate because she doesn't drink coffee and I could tell that she wanted a drink even though she said she didn't. So I walked out to the car, handed her the hot chocolate and she called me a jackass. I love my Grandma.

Third stop. Great Lakes Crossing. Seems like I've been there like every 6 weeks lately, but there's always different sales and stuff, especially with all the post-holiday clearances going on. Plus I went into the Bass Pro Shop for the first time, and that store is awesome! I ended up spending about an hour in there, got some new clothes, didn't get to look around nearly as much as I wanted to, but I got my mission accomplished in there.

After a few hours in the mall we headed down to the Joe. Now on this trip we not only had printed out directions, but we were trying out Glinda, Karen and Kelly's Garman GPS. I'm glad that we had both though, because Glinda was great for telling me how much farther to go, but sometimes she wanted to take whacked out ways, so we forced her to recalculate often.

Dinner was at Hockeytown Cafe, a favorite place, right across the street from Ford Field and Comerica Park. (What cracked out city planner planned that? There is absolutely NO parking in that area aside from an 8 story structure and a random lot a few blocks back.) Our dinner was a bit rushed so that we could make the show on time. Of course, the shuttle only runs from Hockeytown Cafe to JLA on nights that there are actually hockey games, so we had to walk the "couple" (read 5) blocks down to the people mover station, which only costs 50 cents to ride. All well and good except when trying to hurry and not kill my 82 year old Grandma with all the steps. But we made it to the Joe in plenty of time.

And oh my god. The dancing was amazing. Our seats were on the curve and though they were in the upper bowl, we pretty much had an unobstructed view, unlike the people who paid over $100 to sit in the front row and only get to see the dancers from the waist up because of the people at the table seats around the dance floor. But oh, the sensuality of the dancers. The skill. The costumes. It was all amazing.

Except for Wayne Newton. At least he didn't dance. But he either had vocal strain or was getting over bronchitis because he could barely sing. But while he was singing we had a romantic waltz to watch, so we didn't suffer too much.

It was just great.