So You Think You Can Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance....

Many of you have been waiting for my re-cap from my long anticipated Saturday night. The evening didn't quite turn out as expected. Let me first begin by saying that the concert itself was fantastic and it was amazing to be able to see the dancers live. Now onto the not so good details. The concert was in Tacoma about and 1 and 30 minutes from here so my friend and I left in plenty of time to hit dinner and the show. I had a discount card for The Melting Pot and since neither of us had been there before, we figured we might has well have a real girls night out. The show was scheduled to start at 7:30pm and we arrived at The Melting Pot at 5:00pm just to be informed that without a reservation there was no chance in %$* that we could get a table. Being that there were no other restaurants anywhere near our location, we opted to sit in the bar. Thankfully this is a smoke-free area and after some time of waiting we actually got a little booth off in the corner to sit in. Our waitress was totally swamped and as a result pretty much ignored us. We had been there for over an hour by the time we finally got our salads. Our main dish only came out 10 minutes before we had to leave. This is very problematic at The Melting Pot, as your meats come out raw and you have to cook them yourself. The main reason we wanted to try The Melting Pot was for the chocolate fondue of course, and sadly we were left with no time to spare! I shoveled the food into my mouth as quickly as I could. I didn't feel so great afterward. It's just not natural to ingest that amount of food in just a couple of swallows, but there was no way I was going to let a $24.00 plate go to waste! It was do or die. The worst part is our waitress took almost 15 minutes to prepare our check. Had I been armed with that knowledge before, chewing would have been an option. Grrr, my extensive efforts to emulate the speed and skill of a world champion hot dog, or pie eater were in vain! Lets just say she got a really crummy tip! I waited tables for three years and even on my worst and busiest nights, my customers were still taken care of and often compensated for the inconvenience.

We got out of the restaurant at 7:25pm and ran to our vehicle. Because of our extreme tardiness we didn't have time to look for a great parking space and had to fork over $20.00 for our spot, ouch! Once we finally arrived at the Tacoma Dome we were very disappointed to see how ridiculously far from the stage our seats were. I think my nose is still bleeding! I'm totally ticked about ticket masters photo of the seating chart--quite deceptive. The good news is despite the horrible restaurant experience and the terrible seats the concert itself was fantastic. The energy was enormous, the dancing better than ever, and all of my favorite routines from the season were showcased. Chelsea and Mark stole the show with their moving performance to Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love." It was so great to see my favorite dance of the season performed live!

Will I go again! Heck yes, but I'll have much better seats and I won't be stopping at The Melting Pot before the show. I only bought tickets two days after they were up for grabs. Next time around I'll set an alarm so I can log on the moment they're available for purchase. Here's the only photo I have from the evening. I didn't take my SLR with me, and am kicking myself for leaving it behind. I had my old point-and-shoot in my purse and got this horrible pic. Against my better judgement I'll share it anyway.

On a more positive note: my mind works in a funny way and disaster seems to spell out "vivid memories" for me. If nothing else the experience won't be forgotten!