A New Woman

As is usually the case when I overcome my fears, I have yet again survived. I’m a new woman. I’ve entered a new phase of my life! First of all, country dancing is ridiculously fun! To be tossed around like a rag instead of the whale you feel like you are, and spun until you are so dizzy you aren’t sure who you are dancing with, compares to none else!

I must admit that I was dreading going out tonight. Sometimes I feel so old when the thought of leaving to go out at 9:00 leaves me exhausted before I even get out the door. I sucked it up however and stepped out into the snowy night to pick up my new friend. She is young and full of energy and does this often. It’s good to be around people like that because if nothing else, you at least fake that you are like them! Fake it till you make it right?

The drive down town went just fine and I had a good time getting to know said friend a little better. Upon our arrival, the anxiety hit me like deer innocently standing in the road; alive one moment, and dead the next. Imagine my surprise however at seeing a familiar almost immediately. Remember the guy I just told you about last week that looked me up and down and told me how good I was looking? Yeah, the strange guy from my mission. He was there. He is everywhere. Stalker?? Doubtful, but you can never be too careful about such things. Anyway, we said hello and chatted for a few before I excused myself to rejoin my friend.

Almost as soon as I did rejoin her, she introduced me to one of her guy friends who took pity on me and taught me some basic moves. Wow, it was worse than I thought. I am seriously not a good dancer. Besides, this type of dance really requires a lot of trust…something I think that I lack a little bit. Anyway, as time went on, I like to think that I relaxed a bit. He assured me that I was better than lots of people and we went our separate ways. I tried really hard to suck up the complete mortification that I felt and move on.

Not much later, another friend of my friend also took pity on me. He took me to a quiet room though and worked with me for quite some time. He was pretty good and helped me to really perfect my technique and gave me some most helpful pointers. In fact, awhile after I returned to the dance floor, the first guy grabbed me and took me back out onto the floor. Such a nice kid! I felt about 100 times better than the first dance as I loosened up and just had fun! I let loose and flew around that dance floor only stepping on his foot once and maybe possibly biting his armpit?? (I told you I wasn’t a dancer!) Good times…I was finally starting to get somewhere though.

Let’s not leave out however, that between my instruction and my successful dance, my old mission buddy grabbed me for a slow dance. We just danced like most people do on a slow dance but it was rather awkward for me to be so close to him and dancing, strangely. The best part was when I was done my friend said that she had danced with him earlier and she was sorry I had to because it was pretty bad. She didn’t realize it was the weird guy from my mission that I had told her about in the beginning. It was pretty funny. In his defense though, he really is a good guy and quite nice…just different and definitely not for me so don’t start getting any ideas okay!

Anyway, just as I was gaining a little confidence, this other guy grabbed me onto the floor and before I could explain my lack of ability, he just started throwing me around like crazy! Finally, when I stumbled, I explained that it was my first time. He said, “that’s okay, I’m a teacher.” Great! Some teacher though, he just kept throwing me around faster than lightning. As it turns out, I had no idea what I was doing and any previously gained confidence was flushed down the toilet in one quick power flush! Ah, oh well. You have to start somewhere right?

The only other guy that I danced with that night was this crazy, weird, little Mexican man. He was actually pretty creepy and just kept wanting to dance with me. I guess he wanted to be my hero and teach me how it was done. It may have been slightly better if his hands weren’t so sweaty. Gross! We danced two dances in a row and he wanted another but I told him maybe later. As it turned out, he wasn’t as good as he thought and may have even led me into another couple who kicked me in the head. Nice. Thankfully when later came I was on my way out the door with my friend. I told him maybe next time.

So, overall, I survived. And, to my chiropractor brothers, who needs you? I just got quite the lumbar adjustment from several dips tonight. Well, there was definitely a lot of cracking happening in my back anyway. Even as I sit here, I feel the soreness of just those few dances gathering in my body like maggots on a rotting corpse. I keep telling myself I’m too old for this! I guess it’s good to stay young. I’m pretty sure staying single keeps you young longer. Some days I would just like to surrender though. No worries, not yet!