... And, Finally Back... (The Finale)

It's time to announce the winner of the 2013, Capital of Texas Pole Championship, Doubles Partners award. Ta dah! We won!!!!! The announcer says, "Lisa and Patrick," and for a few seconds Lisa and I are just standing there as if our ears were clogged. It finally hit, WE WON! What an amazing feeling! We walk up to the front, where we get showered with gifts, a trophy and sash. It was way too much to process. To be honest, I'm still not sure what happened right after that. I really think I was in shock the whole time. All that work paid off!

But how did we win, when no one was really clapping?

Well, as the night was winding down, we were getting stopped by so many people saying we did a great job, and how moved they were. Apparently, our performance was so emotional, people wanted to cry more than clap. Now, coming from the person who has been practicing to this song for so long, I felt zero emotion. I was damn near sick of this song.

So here we are... A title under my belt, and ready to take on future endeavors...

And, here is our winning performance:

... And, Finally Back... (Continued)

With two weeks before the competition, I started to feel the pressure. A lot of, "What ifs?" were swirling in my head. I started to think about what other people do to help relieve themselves of the pressure, and prep for such events that involve performing. I really didn't know what I could do to help me.

On a recent trip to the dentist, I was told that I had a cavity, more than likely due to the gobs of gummy candy I consume in a week. I'm not lying about this, I swear I eat more in a month than a person should have in a year. Finally, it hit me, "give up candy!" That's it! I would give up candy for the next two weeks, and treat myself once I had finish my routine. It was a perfect plan.

Competition day is here, April 6, 2013, the moment of truth. Lisa  and I arrive at the venue, and they had set up a huge room for all the competitors to prepare, warm-up, practice, etc. Lisa and I spend our time going over some things, using the spare poles to practice a few moves. It was a pretty productive use of our time, and then the other contenders start to roll in. Oh crap! These women, beautiful, strong, talented... They started doing some fancy tricks in preparation for their routines. Lisa and I look at each other with this, "well, let's just go out there and have a good time at least" face. Ha, ha, we knew our routine was more dancey, and less tricksy, so this just reaffirmed our doubts, we were not winning this one.

I would've thought the nerves would hit me, but they never really came. To be honest, all I thought about for the most part was the huge stash of candy I had hiding in my bag. The candy deprivation really worked! To hell if we won this pole competition, at the end of the night, I still win these bags of candy. That's all that was running in my head.

Performance time! We get our call to head to the side stage, and we wait as this amazing duo are just killing, getting people to cheer and holler. It's hard not to look, but I try my hardest to divert my eyes from the scene, because I'm sure it would've just been a mind spank to see what they were doing. It's finally our turn, we go up on stage, in front of 300+ people, and do everything just like we practiced. It went really fast, too fast, I didn't even get a chance to process anything. There wasn't much clapping from the audience, yet I wasn't bothered by that. I'm getting my candy! Where's my candy??? Seriously, that's what I was doing, thinking about candy.

I get my sugar fix, and we get to breathe. We hang around the theater patiently waiting for the awards portion at the end of the night. I wouldn't say we were eager to got up on stage for the awards part, judging by the lack of applause we had received. At the end of the night, we finally get called on stage for the presentation of awards. Lisa and I find our way to the back, hiding our faces. They had two awards to call out that evening, a "crowd pleaser" award, and the big, champion award. The crowd pleaser award goes to the amazing women who went before us, and I could see why, they had the audience making noise the whole time. I heard they were killing it!

And then...

...And, finally back...

Alright, people. I suck at keeping up with these things. I guess it's my job that hinders my time. I spend eight hours, Monday through Friday, looking at a computer screen. When I get home, a computer is the last thing I want to look at.

Let me recap you all on what's been going on. I'm still poling, and I love every bit of it. It's so sick that it's all I think about these days; just sitting at work thinking of a cool trick, or combo to try. I'm finally understanding a little more about how my body and balance works, and I think there's that moment I've been waiting for, where I can link the connection between my body and the trick. Whether, or not, I can do it is a different story.

Back in January, a very strong poler in the Houston pole community, Lisa, asked me if I would like to do a doubles routine on the pole for some open house, at a pole studio. To much regret, (not really) I was unable to commit because I had planned a trip to DC and NYC, and it would've been hard to practice with vacation on my brain. I'm saying not really, because I was still at a point where I was not feeling confident in my pole skills. I declined the offer, but asked to keep me in mind for future prospects, in hope she would never ask me. Ha, ha.

Lo and behold, in February, Lisa comes to me with the idea of doing a performance for a small-scale competition: The Capital of Texas Pole Championships, in Austin, Texas. With high hesitation, I accepted the offer, not knowing what to expect. I think most of my fears were pacified when she clued me in that this was the first year this particular competition was being held, and that it would be small-scale. I figured this would be perfect for getting performance jitters out of the way. Plus, this was a "two birds with one stone" situation, because not only would I have to perform in front of people, but also compete in front of judges.

For the following two months, Lisa and I worked very hard to meet between our hectic schedules to work on our routine. We had several ups and downs, omissions and additions, bumps and bruises. I even kicked her in the face at one point; sooooooo embarrassing. The competition was April 6, 2013, and as we got closer to the date more details started to emerge about our fellow doubles competitors, and the venue.

The doubles aspect is fairly new to the Texas Pole scene, so we figured we'd probably only compete against 3 other teams, or something like that. Turns out, including us, there were SEVEN teams, also including another co-ed team. To top off that terrifying news, we find out there were some serious teams we were being pitted up against. These are some real, serious girls going full force, who have so many gravity-defying tricks under their belt. After Lisa and I heard the news, we had that, "we are getting spanked" look.

We brush it off, and continue practicing, only to hear word that this first, annual competition, is getting bigger reception and they venue would need to change to fit more people. It turns out the venue that was originally planned for the competition was too small, and a bigger one was sought out, for 300 people! 300 people!?!?! I thought this was going to be "small?" Adding to the hurt, it turns out the show is sold out. This is supposed to be my first, ever, entry into the performance world, and it has to be in front of 300 people! Dear God what have I done?

To be continued...