Dance the night away
So…on the way home, I figured out exactly how long it had been since I’ve been on the dance floor. Ready for this? Yeah, I wasn’t…
Fourteen years.
This from a woman who used to dance at least 4 hours near non-stop every night of the week.
Ironically, tonight started out with a reason I would typically have crawled into bed – a massive headache in the works. But, for some reason, I was restless. I decided to head out to Graham Central Station – way the heck up north – and see what was what up there. At the very least listen to some music for a bit and force myself to be out in a social environment.
I’ve become way too much of a hermit the last few years.
I gave myself two hours from walking out the door to decide if I was bailing or not. Sounds like quite a bit of time, but it’s less than you figure when you realize it’s 30 min just to get there.
The first 45 min seemed like it was going to be a “sit around and watch people dance” kind of night. Which, really, isn’t that bad. It can be highly amusing, actually. However, out of the blue, a gentleman came up and asked me do dance. Shocker of shockers – it was a sober gentleman. Oh, yeah – I’m talking country dancing here – not the bump and grind and bouncing and whatever it is that people do to the other stuff. Yes, yes – I listen and dance to country music.
Oh my word. After that first dance, I thought I was going to fall over. Not just because I’m out of shape – I really, really am horribly out of shape; but, because it’s outside of Austin, so people can smoke there. I have issues with smoke. Not the smell or anything, though it’s kind of stinky…but, it causes my asthma to act up. Which makes my already out of shape body struggle even more to keep up.
However, the lovely guys there (seems I found the “dancers” corner somehow – where the serious dancers hang out) kept asking me to dance….and I was remembering how much I absolutely love to dance. I warned them it had been a while, and some dances I just flat out didn’t know. They kept asking me anyway – and helped me with good humour through the dance steps I didn’t remember.
After the first hour, my legs had gone numb and I had managed to hit my second wind. I had an utter blast and (had I wanted to deal with the closing time stampede for the door) would have stayed there until they pushed us out the door.
The real highlight of the night was when a couple of the guys mentioned they dance Wed, Fri and Sat at Graham and Thurs at the Broken Spoke and said I should come out.
As worn out and exhausted as I am right now – and as dreading how painful tomorrow is going to be….
I’ve not felt better in years. I definitely need to make this a habit.
