the quest 2020

the next morning i woke up just before my alarm went off, and then i laid there debating whether or not i really wanted to get dressed and hit up the sunrise yoga class.  i remembered that i'd made it "instagram official," and so i decided to do something good for myself and go.  the bean had mentioned perhaps coming along, but when i nudged her to see if she was up for it all i got was a sleepy smile, a grunt and a wave of her hand.  heh.

i was greeted by a smiling cast member who asked me to sign the register, and then she pointed over towards an empty mat that was already laid out for me.  there was a small group of ladies and teenagers that were there together, and so i just sat down and waited for the class to start.

it was a very easy 30-minute session that helped to get me stretched out a little, although i didn't even break a sweat.  oh well.  and the wide open doorway behind me allowed the stench from nearby smokers to waft in which definitely didn't help get my zen on.  the smell got stronger as the class went on, so i was happy when it was over and i could leave.  bummer.

i hadn't ventured over to this side of the property before, and so i wandered over to check out the toy story-themed area.  it's really cute.

by the time i got back to our room, the bean was awake and getting ready for practice.  coach had called a quick session down on the grassy field just to run through a few pieces of the routine, and so we headed down when it was time and met up with the rest of the team.  i don't usually stay for practices because i know parents hanging around can be a distraction, but because this one was a 15-minute quickie i just stood off to the side and waited.

when they were done, we decided to head over to the food court for some breakfast to go.  i figured it was probably better for us to take it upstairs to our room rather than sit in the crowded dining room, and that way we could just relax while we ate.

i was pretty excited to finally get my mickey waffle:

and then i had the bean take her shower so that her hair could dry before it was time to head to the coach's room (conveniently right next door to us) for hair and makeup.  they'd asked for clean, dry hair with the ends curled and so i'd brought my airwrap styler that doubled as a travel blow dryer.  since the bean's hair is already naturally curly i just used the large barrel to dry, and it ended up looking like this:

there was a good amount of time to kill between hair & makeup and when she had to be downstairs fully dressed in her uniform, but she still had schoolwork to finish.  while she worked on it i found my team mom friend and her husband hanging out just outside the door with the coach's husband, and so we stood there chatting and laughing with drinks in hand.

when everyone was all together and ready to head over to the arena, we walked through another section of the property i hadn't yet seen - the "love bug" section.

my friend had asked me if her son - also one of the bean's oldest friends - could hang out with me while she did her job helping to oversee the team.  we sat together on the bus to the arena and talked about random stuff, like how he was looking forward to "distance learning" - where the teachers were coordinating classes during the school shutdown using video conferencing - mostly so he could see what their houses looked like.  hahahahaha!  and he was most amused by the pull-out footrests at the bottom of the seats on the bus.  it was fun, and as the bean said later, we had some great bonding time.  heh.

it didn't take too long to get to the ESPN wide world of sports arena.

everyone immediately took advantage of the photo ops, and the team got together for a quick tiktok dance.  the bean, as always, rushed to find a spot in the waaaaay back where she wouldn't be seen.

a safety warning from the arena:

and then it was time for the team to go inside to do their warm-ups.  the competition had been altered for everyone's safety, so audiences were only to be allowed in while their team was performing.  we were given a line-up time and wouldn't be able to enter the arena before then.  and so with time to kill, the bean's buddy and i made our way to the ESPN cafe to grab some food.  it was nice and cool in there, so we just hung out there until it was time to line up.

somehow, we'd missed the announcement that we could line up 15 minutes before the performance and when we didn't see any of the other parents i panicked a little.  with some assistance from the staff we were able to push through the other folks waiting for their turn to enter and found our group lined up and ready to go in.  sheesh.

it was really weird to enter an empty arena and not have to fight for seats.  the two of us were easily able to snag seats right in the center front, with no one blocking our view.

and because we were the only people in there, we had to be extra loud to help keep the girls pumped throughout their performance.  they did a great job, getting through the tricky routine with no one falling or any other snags - or, at least, that's how it looked to me.

once they were done we were ushered out of there immediately so that the next group could go in.  we waited outside the gate for our girls to come out, and cheered loudly for them when they appeared.

normally after a performance, we'd take our seats and watch the rest of the teams while waiting for the awards ceremony to start.  this time, awards were being televised on the varsity.com website with no audience permitted.  and so we headed back outside to the bus stop to get back to the hotel.

we had a couple of hours to kill before gathering again downstairs to watch the awards presentation together, so the bean was able to knock out the rest of the assignment she was working on.  she was telling me all about the behind-the-scenes stuff during their performance, and while i thought it'd gone off without a hitch it turns out i was dead wrong.  there were a few mistakes made throughout, along with an entire stunt that was completely skipped.  luckily both of the groups involved missed it and so unless you knew what the routine looked like you didn't realize anything was amiss.

when the team's category was called, everyone got quiet and listened intently.  fourth place...not them.  but they did take third place, which was a little disappointing for them after all the hard work they'd put in - and yet we were all still super proud of them for exactly that.  it turns out that they'd scored a 93, which sounds high unless you're talking about cheer competition.  and the biggest bummer was knowing that if there'd been a day two as originally scheduled, they could have put in work to alter the routine and hopefully earn a higher score.

gaaaaaaahhhhh.