‘On Medicine and Cognitive Biases’

This is in response to Kyle Barbour’s posted link about Medical/Cognitive Biases and Errors in Logic.

Here is the original article:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/01/29/070129fa_fact_groopman?currentPage=all

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I had never been close to anyone who underwent a major medical procedure, until my friend Jaredan suffered severe injuries to his face and skull after being pistol whipped during a robbery of his home in April.  It was then that I realized things like the importance of having an advocate to double check on everything that is going on – from medication to surgery – and also the reality of the lack of mental logic associated with interns and doctors who only have ‘book smarts’.
Three big instances stand out to me:

1) Jaredan’s cranial/facial reconstructive surgery was supposed to be on Tuesday, but due to a cerebral spinal fluid leak (out of his nose!) on Monday they opted instead to put in a lumbar drain (needle in the back) to drain some of the fluid and ease the pressure on the sinuses and cranial space.  The hope was that the leak would seal itself up. (It did).  The surgery was rescheduled to Saturday, but at 3am on Tuesday he was suddenly woken up and taken to be prepped for surgery.  His very alarmed brother who was staying in the room called their friend Erin who was acting as J’s advocate since Day 1, and she ended up calling the doctors and hospital and everyone she could to figure out what was going on and keep Jaredan from being put under.  It turns out that they forgot to erase his surgery from the schedule, so although the doctors knew they weren’t operating, the rest of the staff did not.  Due to the drugs, pain, and general exhaustion, Jaredan did not think to contradict anyone, and would have been put under had it not been for his brother and friend.  Thankfully they were able to pull him in time, and everyone was finally able to get a bit of sleep that day.  Why everyone else thought he should have surgery despite the lumbar drain goes against logic.  Someone in the hospital should have questioned why he was still on for surgery despite the change in his condition.

2) The resident who put in the lumbar drain was SEVERELY LACKING in bedside manner.  Apparently he nervously waved the giant needle around in the room, asking people, “Is this the right one?”  This needle goes into the spine, mind you, by nerves that if damaged, can cause paralysis.  Even while heavily drugged, Jaredan was NOT happy about seeing or hearing this, especially when his leg started tingling when the resident hit a nerve.  Thankfully he eventually put it in the right place, and it had the desired effect.  **I am not sure why this man has yet to be reprimanded.  One day the reckoning will come, I reckon….**

3) This SAME resident was the one who pulled the 50+ staples out of Jaredan’s scalp.  Jaredan mentioned to me before his appointment (we saw the guy after a fire drill at the hospital) –  ’look, that’s the resident that put the lumbar drain in’ – and we whispered about how we hoped we wouldn’t encounter him again.  No luck.  The man had a really gregarious manner, talking about how his girlfriend lives in the neighborhood where the attack occurred, and WOW he didn’t expect THAT to happen, all the while snipping the staples out as though they were being taken out of (unfeeling, non-human) stacks of paper.  I thought, ‘ok, maybe he’s trying to distract Jaredan from the discomfort’, UNTIL he got to a tougher staple and to our dismay, PULLED the scalp over half an inch away from his HEAD, and as it turns out, reopened the incision that we had taken great pains to keep intact!  Of course this was also very painful to Jaredan, but the man continued jabbering on, and finished up and tried to leave.  I was shocked and tried to ask him about future care, like applying neosporin or mederma, and tips on how to shower, and the resident basically just said ‘oh it should be fine’.  I am still furious with myself for not yelling ‘HEY!’ at the resident when he callously pulled on the scalp, the way I would if a dog were to grab my hand and try to tug on it.  The fact that I had to tell him to get a tissue to put the staples on should have been a big red flag…

I think that it is not only the doctor who can have lapses in mental logic, but also the patient, who inherently feels that they have no place questioning what an obvious expert is doing to or telling them.  I understand now why an advocate is so important – a second set of eyes, ears, and logic, who can ask the questions that the patient doesn’t, and make sure that even if the many staff members are not on the same page, someone DOES know exactly what is going on – they can be instrumental in preventing medical errors.  Because you breaking down is a far more serious situation than your car breaking down when you trusted your ‘mechanic’.

Most people don’t have to have a multi day hospital stay in their lives, wish they had an advocate, or have to suffer through bad hospital food.  And because it’s such a different environment from the real world, where things seem to be much more regulated and people come in to do weird things to you every few hours, it doesn’t seem like anything can be normal.  But that’s not true.  If the circumstances allow it, you *are* allowed to have people bring you the food you’re used to, or cook for you so that you don’t have to eat the hospital food.  You *can* Skype with your friends and family who can’t make it to see you, so that they feel connected and can support you.  Bringing in creature comforts to make sleeping easier, or so that you are not freezing when you go to the bathroom barefoot, is totally okay.  Having people ‘take care of you’ is great, but Normality is the most comforting, and sometimes that can make all the difference in recovery.

Jaredan was so fortunate to have so many friends and his family helping him, caring for him, and sending him hundreds of well wishes this entire time.  I really feel for those who are not as blessed, since, even with all the support, there were some hiccups along the way.  Just the same, I can only hope he makes a full recovery, and that his vision returns to normal and that there are no future complications (or stitches accidentally left in his nose).  (I now understand where all the storylines for ‘Scrubs’ come from!)  I can’t wait to see him finally dancing again for the first time, at All Balboa Weekend!!

Half-year Update on Plans and Goals

Future Dance and Travel Plans for 2011
July: Had to cancel Herrang due to financial difficulties, Still competing at Camp Hollywood (Lindy Strictly, and Jack and Jill divisions)

August: ILHC (DC) and Montreal????, Lindy on the Rocks (Denver) and YELLOWSTONE?!?!, Visiting SF

SFLX (Sept), Showdown (Oct), Lindy Diversion, AustinLX, and EBC (Nov), Killer Diller, Lindy Focus? (Dec)

Life plans for 2011:

Maintain a regular cooking and eating regimen (Cooked twice with the roommates, eating regularly and only noticed hunger related stress twice in two months)

Move to Encinitas (or?) and keep 1 or 2 houses in UTC (Living in North Park, rented out my room and still kept both houses)
Start and maintain a pilates regimen to protect my body (Starting tomorrow July 12th)
Job by mid-April (Still interviewing and it’s July =( )
Be debt-free by 2012 (Very possible if I have a job and continue to live as frugally as I do now) (Just got my unemp. back, which will help!)
Get rid of a lot of stuff – garage, room, house (sold about 50% of my For Sale stuff)
Re-start being active with my dog – running/flyball (taking Jessie to the park more often, Flyball after CH)
Start spending more non-dance time out of the house – be it outdoors, in rock gyms, or in coffee shops (Temporarily living in North Park! I can walk to everything! Went to Vertical Hold twice so far!)
Continue happily being open-minded about life, people, and what I want, to maintain my simplified sanity and protect myself from cynicism and negative projections (having lots of good convos with people to keep this up)
Purchase a new laptop that allows me to play music AND browse the web simultaneously (purchased an iPod Touch for my bday!)
Compete with at least two different people this year in Strictlys (competing at Camp Hollywood with Sam)
Start teaching swing dancing regularly in San Diego, with the goal of teaching one out-of-town event by end of 2012 (taught a 4 week Charleston class with Aaron!)
Maintain a budget for more than 2 months (financial situation has improved but planning is only at 20%)
Post more frequently in this blog (haha, no)

Addressing an age old social frustration

In every type of social group, there often evolves a social strata that happens purely because people are not alike, and it’s just how it goes.  When a hierarchy doesn’t happen naturally (or unnaturally), there are times that a social group can fall apart and cease to exist, like in a lazy team with no leader.  When there is a collaboration or proper understanding between people, a group where there is no hierarchy can exist.  But when that’s not mediated, and you just get a lot of strangers put together with no stringent rules, you can get a naturally forming hierarchy and all the frustrations that go along with it.

This is illustrated by a question submitted to Bug’s Question of the Day: via Scott Blevens

“I’ve recently seen a few dancers who are trying to become better competition dancers start to sacrifice their social dancing for the sake of becoming a better competition dancer. Examples would be not dancing with less experienced dancers or doing moves that are over peoples heads constantly through the dance to the point that they leave very frustrated.  ”Do you feel your social dances are affected when you focus on becoming a better competition dancer?”

Since few follows commented, I will put in my 2 cents.

“Do you feel your social dances are affected when you focus on becoming a better competition dancer?”

For me, not in the ways given as examples.  I totally agree with Miranda’s take on the situation, from a lead’s and follow’s perspective.  I also agree with the point that sometimes you do just want to dance with your friends, esp if they are from out of town.  Read the full comment thread here: via Today’s question….

From: Miranda Dasu Longaker

“I don’t in particular know who you are talking about. They could be egotistical snots not worthy of what i’m about to say. But, I like to try compassion first.There is no magic formula that makes you a better dancer. It is a process that requires some trial and error. Often times, there will be growing pains. There have been times when I am working on one thing, usually to make everything else better, but it makes my dancing suck in some way or another. While I think the social floor is the greatest teacher of all, there are things that i could not work on socially with many people. So did it look like i was only dancing with my friends or that i was sacrificing my feel for getting the look? Probably. Did people judge what I was doing as wrong/snobby/rude? Probably. Was I trying to be mean, exclusive, better than anyone else? Probably not!

I will say this. There are lots of people who get stuck in an area and never work on it. If these folks you are talking about are really committed to getting better at their dancing, this behavior will probably be temporary. Only time will tell.”

ON TO MY POST! =)

This post address dancing behaviours at *local weekly venues*, not big events where I too will probably focus on dancing with everyone I haven’t seen in a while.

From a very technical standpoint:

1) In my opinion, I find beg/int leads easy to dance with and I can have fun at the same time since for their sake, I come with the mindset of having a ‘fun dance’ rather than a ‘well led’ dance.   I have been working a lot more on my ‘literal’ follow rather than my ‘intention based’ follow, so dancing with unexperienced leads isn’t detrimental to my moves, and I can still style most things.

However, as I work on say, ‘frame matching’ AND  ’keeping my arm less *perpetually* tense’, I do notice that I start habitually compensating as Andrew mentioned, because many beg/int leads around here tend to have a perpetually tense or ‘hard’ lead, and I circumstantially tense up to compensate or protect myself.  After too long, I do notice I have setbacks, and need to dance more with advanced leads to keep up the good habits.

2) At the same time, dancing with more advanced leads that I will probably encounter in competition, who are good at only using enough or whatever their version of vanilla is, is important for me because I need to be able to figure out how to adapt to that style too.   People who do a lot of led syncopations rely on me to be responsible for the skill of reacting fast and easily, and dancing with those people socially is often a good place to practice that skill.  We probably all agree on this.

To address the general frustration that I also understand and have experienced:

1) Sometimes people forget how to have fun dancing with less experienced people.  They are of the personality, admit it or not, that is very goal oriented, and their focus narrows on their goal, which is to be good enough for comp, which might mean working with whoever will get them to their goal.  It’s just how some people are.  Yes, those same people can learn how to have fun dancing with beginners again, but maybe not right now.

2) Some people forget how to dance simply.  They’ve worked so hard to be complex and interesting and all that, that they get too into their dancing and forget to consider that they are ‘talking’ to someone who is not as advanced in that language of dance.  Not being able to be complex can be frustrating and can kill the fun for some people.

The people who I admire, are those who have mastered turning on and off the ‘advanced and more abstract’ vs ‘still cool but more clarity’ modes, and make anyone look awesome!!!

3) Some people are just not goal oriented in the same way as #1, don’t care about competing or are turned off by the apparent bias/politics/snobbery/whathaveyou, and doesn’t know how to communicate with someone who is like #1 so that both parties can enjoy dancing with each other.  That’s ok, we are not all the same (Thinkers vs Feelers), in ‘real’ society we put up with this all the time.

I find that non-dancing activities after an event or dance is great because it gives people an opportunity to socialize without the dance social strata.

So yea!  It might be frustrating and sucky sometimes, but this is life, so I say, be more understanding, then find a solution or a way around it =)

ps Once again, this post address dancing behaviours at *local weekly venues*, not big events where I too will probably focus on dancing with everyone I haven’t seen in a while.

Epiphanies on interviewing and social interaction

On Social Epiphanies

I had a job interview last Friday (my first in-person meeting following two Skype interviews) for a Technical Support Specialist position here in San Diego, and was surprised to see how much my interview style had changed to match my new approach to social interaction.

Have I ever had a job as a Tech Support Specialist?  Nope.  However, the vague ideas about presentation that I had going into the interview were solidified as time went on – I could still confidently sell myself as someone perfect for the job, simply by making sure I directed the flow of information to focus on the *customer oriented skillset* that was barely obvious from my molecular biology heavy résumé (that they hardly had time to glance at).

Through swing dancing, I meet new people every week.  Through my job at Three Dog Bakery, I’d meet new people every day.  What I came to realize was that those strangers didn’t expect me to give them the time of day, to care about them, or in some cases, even acknowledge that they were there.  It was when I made the effort to genuinely reach out, and make eye contact that I saw that change come over them and saw some of the stiffness and projected judgment disappear.  Making that extra few seconds of eye contact at the end of dances or transactions especially seemed to leave people happy or cared for all the way to the end.  Customers who found out I had never done a retail job before this were especially surprised.

At first I had a tough time trying to establish rapport with these strangers who had all sorts of different personalities and expectations.  Traveling on my own taught me that presenting myself right off the bat as being genuinely friendly and accepting attracts genuine people, and often gives you a free pass into their social circles right away.  I was also glad to have been able to shadow my boss and learn the ‘language’ of retail business – make sure the customer is acknowledged, help is offered, questions asked to help tailor the purchase to their needs, advice and selections offered, and greeted on their way out even if they don’t purchase anything.   It was tough but I faked it til I could make it, and then it was more natural.  My goal was to be as genuine as possible, and make the customer feel comfortable interacting with me and not feel bad about asking for help or advice.  I also discovered that a lot of customers don’t really know what they want, and part of my job was to help them decide that they DID want something, and ensure post-purchase satisfaction.  I made a lot of bigger sales this way.

So, when it came to interview time, here I was interviewing for this job that I had almost no experience in.  It didn’t help that I had been unemployed for the past year, traveling around for dance, and working at a dog bakery.  That doesn’t make me sound very serious!   I was prepared to launch into my usual stuffy ‘you ask questions, and I answer them as professionally as possible’ mode, when I had the epiphany – that wasn’t what they really wanted!

My interviewer was scanning my résumé quickly, and asked that scary question,  ’Tell me about yourself’.  You know, the question that you can spend hours reading about and talking to career advisors to coach yourself on, but never know how to answer.  I started off with my usual biotech spiel, then it hit me.  They hadn’t had time to read my résumé, needed to buy some time, and didn’t have time for any literal BS about stuff I’d done that didn’t pertain to the position!  What they really needed was for me to sell myself, make them feel satisfied about their decision to bring me in, and hear about why I thought I was perfect for this job.  I have told my story to countless strangers and dancers, confidently justified why I wanted to take a year off and travel and dance, and explained what I wanted out of life in the future.  Every question an interviewer might ask me I had already answered to someone else! “Tell me about yourself?” That was easy!

I don’t think I’ve ever been so candid at a job interview in my life.

I basically started talking to everyone like I had already been working there for a month.  Even if they asked me to describe what I did at my previous positions, I would quickly segue away from what was on my résumé in favor of talking about the types of support positions I provided for the company, even though that wasn’t the main focus of my job.  I’d integrate personality traits into motivations for stepping into those roles, and offered stories about difficult situations that came up in the past and how I responded.  I fearlessly mentioned the Bakery and working dozens of dance events as motivation for realizing that I wanted to work in a Support type position so I could interact with more people while still 1) contributing to science and 2) not needing a higher degree.  Risking sounding arrogant, I even mentioned my personal reward system and how working in the lab didn’t fulfill my needs, and was really surprised to hear a number of people echo my sentiments!!

I also surprised myself by not being fazed by questions about why I had so many short term (science) jobs.  (HR especially got on me about this)  I used to be afraid to explain that I didn’t know what I really wanted back then, and didn’t quite have the turn of phrase to present it in my favor.  I knew they were worried that I couldn’t hold down a job, but this time I was able to give the confident and candid answer of, ‘so, what’s great about this skillset is that it allows me to do most types of DNA based research in a bunch of different fields.  I just hadn’t found the best fit yet.  I’m not afraid to be unemployed, and those temp jobs gave me the opportunity to try different sized companies and learn about their field…’

I even said to one person, ‘It wasn’t like I wasn’t paying attention to the job market.  When I saw this job come up in the listings, I sent my resume to my recruiter right away, and said, ‘I want this job.’      ‘…I am very grateful for the time off from science to work on dance because it became a significant time of self-discovery, and I think everyone needs that at several points in their lives.’

Wow, really?  Did I just justify my year of fun to the CSO?

On interviewing tactics

The key things I said to the man who would be my immediate supervisor pertained to ‘what I knew, what I wanted to learn, how long I expected the learning process to take based on my perceived learning curve and prior experience, and the fact that I wasn’t afraid to be right there with him through any crazy times.’  This was necessary to squeeze in (ie.cut him off) as otherwise the interview would longer than he had time for, and he would have felt the need to continue cramming in a lot of information about the position without getting to know me at all.  Wow!  I would have never have had the guts to do that before.  He was grateful when I mentioned that I mostly needed to ‘learn the language’ of Tech Support so I could do my job properly and stay cool even if I didn’t know the answer to something.  Yes!  Thank you TDB =)

The only interviewer who continued to ask me about my previous work and go ‘by the book’ was the HR person, who I felt the most compelled to put at ease and ‘take care of’ due to her stress about the crazy day (board mtg).  She was the 3rd or 4th person to speak to me, and I realized after the second question that for HR I would need to give different, brief answers, since she was trying to draw a picture of me that reflected 1)my employment history, and 2)the type of company I wanted to work for, rather than ‘experience that related to the job.’  She was one of the people I emphasized my transferrable skillset to (as described 3 paragraphs above), and she seemed satisfied, since science was not her background at all!

After graduation (in ’04) a job was a job, and I was this insecure greenie who seemed confident but actually sat quavering with the hope that the boss would somehow think I was good enough for the company.  My sentiment was that my interviewers came in with the mindset that I was just a peg to be put in a hole, and not taken very seriously – and it probably showed!
It wasn’t until last year that I became confident in backing my own product (me!) and being ok with talking to people at their level, even if they were the CEO.  I don’t care that much, I’ve danced with CEOs before and they were delightful!!  I started coming to a job/event with the approach that 1)each interviewer/organizer was dying to find someone to help them fulfill their goal or the company’s goals, that 2)I was potentially very important, and 3)I could quickly evaluate whether or not I would be able to fill that role, and answer them honestly.  Most importantly, I no longer worried about being pre-judged.  I even rewrote my resume to be more candid and focus less on my technical abilities, and focus more on, well, ME!  I think I finally understand what all those career sites were talking about!

I hope I get this job!!

Ultimately, I was pretty excited to hear that 1)the company was small to medium in size, 2)people enjoyed working there and got along with each other, 3)people backed the product (I asked), and 4)they worked hard and were excited about potential growth in the near future.  That’s pretty much everything I’m looking for.  After seeing the benefits of working for a smaller company that blows up from $3 shares to $28 shares, I definitely want to be on board when that happens!  It doesn’t matter if it turns out not being the perfect fit for me or if the company runs into problems (like my last company did) and we all have to, in an extreme case, find new jobs.  I’m no longer afraid of that kind of change and will take it on when it happens.  I’m excited to start a new page in my life doing something that I’m more convinced that I’ll like, and look forward to seeing what the future holds career wise and financially.

ps. Many thanks for my friends in high school and college, and my friends in the global swing community for helping shape, support, encourage, be a role model for, and push me to where I am today.  Thanks for all the laughs and good times along the way!  You know who you are! =)

On teaching, learning, and learning to teach

I have taken classes at many swing dance camps/events/venues across the country (and Europe and UK!) and have always gotten especially excited about experiencing, discussing, and learning about different teaching styles.  With every conversation I’ve had, I’ve gained new insight into how different instructors think, how a scene responds, and how people learn how to dance.  These conversations also have either validated or presented a new idea about the learning-to-dance process/timeline, and how different people approach this time-old topic.

I’d like to start compiling written discussions about teaching dance (of all styles, not just swing) but am not sure where to look aside from blogs on Rabbits and Toasters.  I am often concerned about ignorantly supporting articles that are kind of bunk (or disregarding articles that are valid but are ‘old school’).  I wonder if there is some camp/event/social gathering where instructors do talk about their teaching styles – maybe this is the stuff of conversation in people’s living rooms late at night?

Some recent readings and conversations:

Thanks to Matt Mitchell, for your insight on teaching in Cleveland

Thanks to Matt Turner, for introducing me to Swing Patrol in the UK:  (I like their description of the Advanced class, and that they put a min number of weeks of classes people should take before expecting to try the next ‘level’.)

Thanks to _??__ for posting the Beantown track descriptions – the Intro and Descriptions are really lovely and jive with me, and I like how they incorporate the motivations for wanting to be at that level.

Thanks to Frédéric Barbe for your insight on rotating partners in class, and for your article on learning styles
(English translation can be found here: Thinking, Feeling, Dancing, Learning )

Thanks to Mary Freitag, for your Thinking article, and others (on Dance epiphanies, and etc).

Thanks especially to Aaron VonderHaar, who is always able to take my complex and overthought conglomerations of ideas and pare them down to basic tenets, and then ask me the questions I need to ask myself to better understand what I am doing and learn to make a method out of the madness.

Plans for the Future

Dance Travel Plans (so much for not traveling as often…):

April: Bal Rendezvous (SD), Fleur de Lindy (NOLA), The Experiment (Wilmington, NC), DCLX (DC), Philly, Montreal, Fish Taco Blues (SD), SLO Exchange

May: London Swing Festival?, Montpellier SwingJammerz?, Camp Jitterbug or Montreal?  Likely none of the above if I have a new job (plus there’s Jas’s Wedding during CSC!)

June: All-Bal Weekend (Cleveland), Stompology (Rochester, NY), Montreal?, San Diego LX!!

July: Herrang weeks 2 and 3 (if my new job will allow for it), Competing at Camp Hollywood (Lindy, and possibly Bal divisions)

August: ILHC (DC), Lindy on the Rocks (Denver)

Lindy and Party or SFLX (Sept), Showdown (Oct), Lindy Diversion (Nov), Killer Diller, Lindy Focus? (Dec)

Life plans for 2011: 

• Maintain a regular cooking and eating regimen
• Move to Encinitas (or?) and keep 1 or 2 houses in UTC
• Start and maintain a pilates regimen to protect my body
• Job by mid-April (I’ll find out tomorrow!)
• Be debt-free by 2012 (Very possible if I have a job and continue to live as frugally as I do now)
• Get rid of a lot of stuff – garage, room, house
• Re-start being active with my dog – running/flyball
• Start spending more non-dance time out of the house – be it outdoors, in rock gyms, or in coffee shops
• Continue happily being open-minded about life, people, and what I want, to maintain my simplified sanity and protect myself from cynicism and negative projections
• Purchase a new laptop that allows me to play music AND browse the web simultaneously
• Compete with at least two different people this year in Strictlys
• Start teaching swing dancing regularly in San Diego, with the goal of teaching one out-of-town event by end of 2012
• Maintain a budget for more than 2 months
• Post more frequently in this blog

Where I’ve been in the last 14 months

2010

January: San Diego Fusion Exchange, Swing in the New Year (SD)

February: No events!

March:  Houston LindyFest

April: BarSWINGona (Barcelona), Den Bosch (Netherlands), Bal Rendezvous (SD)

May: Midwest Lindyfest (Minneapolis), NY, London, Montpellier SwingJammerz Festival, Den Bosch (Netherlands)

June: No events! (I wish I were in Herrang…)

July: Hot Mess (Philly), NY, Camp Hollywood (LA)

August: Lindy on the Rocks (Denver)

September: Lindy and Party (Phoenix), San Francisco LX

October: ULHS (New Orleans), Albuquerque LX, Lindy Diversion (Denver)

November: Mike and Casey Workshop (SLO), Catalina Jazz Dance Festival, NOLA, Austin LX, Dixieland Jazz Festival (SD)

December: Killer Diller Weekend (Seattle), CM Dance holiday party (Denver), Lindy Focus (Asheville, NC)

28 Cities for dancing and/or events in 2010!

January 2011: Dance Renaissance (New Orleans), Dax and Sarah are Back! (OC), Lonestar Championships (Austin)

February: Fantastic Four Weekend (San Diego), Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout! (Denver)

Upcoming Events:

March:  Le Hot Sauce (SF), Inspiration Weekend (OC)

April: Bal Rendezvous (SD), Fleur de Lindy (NOLA), The Experiment (Wilmington, NC), DCLX (DC), Philly, Montreal, Fish Taco Blues (SD), SLO Exchange

May: London Swing Festival?, Montpellier SwingJammerz? Probably none of the above (Jas’s Wedding during CSC!)

June: All-Bal Weekend (Cleveland), Stompology (Rochester, NY), Montreal?, San Diego LX!!

Pre-2010:

Camp Hollywood (06,07,08,09), Inspiration Weekend (08), SLO Exchange(09), ULHS(09), Lindy on the Rocks (09), SFLX (08,09), Swing In the New Year (09), Vegas Exchange (08), Dixieland Jazz Festival (09), Switzerland (08), Camp Jitterbug, Dax and Sarah Workshop in OC(09), Carla and Zach Workshop in SLO(08), Jean and Bromley Workshop in Tucson(08), Frankie Workshop w/ Max/Annie/Thomas in Phoenix (09), CA Guy Jam (09), CA Girl Jam (09), 24HR Dance-a-Thon (08,09),  Balboa Rendezvous (08,09), Damon Stone Blues Workshop in SD (08), SF BalFest (08,09), Utah LX (09)