A little break from training

Last week I went to California to visit my mom and brother. My mom is the ultimate tour guide, so for St. Patrick's Day we went to a really great outdoor mall called "The Grove". Only in So. California are there outdoor malls with a cable car running through them, kind of had the feeling of a mini-Disneyland for shopping.

The advertisement said, "Come to the Grove to see Dancing with the Stars Pro dancers, Derek Hough and Mark Ballas". So we did just that!!!!

We arrived one hour early to strategically place ourselves at the edge of the dance floor so we had the best seat. Well, to our surprise, the Dancing with the Stars pros were not there to dance, but to sing. We stayed and they were good, but us older folks lost a little of our hearing that night.

Another surprise was that in the audience, I saw a girl from Season 4 of
So You Think You Can Dance.
She looked so familiar to me, but I couldn't figure out why. I even thought maybe she went to my daughter's high school. Thank God I didn't say anything to her because it suddenly came to me that she was from So You Think You Can Dance.
I'll admit it, I was a little star struck because she's so talented and my daughter and I watched that show every week. Her name is Kherington Payne.

I thought that would be it for the star power in the audience,
but we ended up sitting in front of and talking to
Lacey Schwimmer who was also on Season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance and is now on Dancing with the Stars......
.....and none other than
Shawn Johnson!!!!
It was really fun to see and
talk to Shawn Johnson.
It's not everyday you see a Olympic Gold Medal Gymnast!




To end the evening with real class, Mark Ballas and Derek Hough were signing autographs and taking pictures after the show so we decided to go over there just in case Shawn Johnson was also going to take pictures. We waited in line with alot of 'little young thangs' to get our picture taken with Shawn Johnson, however when it was our turn, she was nowhere to be seen. We couldn't just suddenly bolt out of the line, so we went ahead and had our pictures taken with Mark and Derek. Hey, my kids would think it was funny, right?
Well, I felt really stupid and as you can tell by the uncomfortable look on my face. I also felt a little like a cougar (slang for a 35+ year old female who is on the "hunt" for a young & energetic male).

I don't make a good groupie and I'd much rather pose in front of a car!!!!