Solo Turtle

It's rare that I see a lot of work on Sundays in my business - unless of course you count Saturday night rolling into early Sunday morning. Yesterday I had a small contract for a sound system rental. I delivered it on time for 3:30. The couple renting the system were thrilled - not to mention very friendly. It just so happened that the food arrived at about the same time I did, so by the time I had their system ready to go I was being invited to sit down for a bite to eat!

Turns out that this fellow's Mom was the cook - and man, could she cook! They loaded me down with ribs, noodles, sauted veggies... and for dessert - candied yams!

The scheduled pickup time was 9:30, but we extened it to 10:00 because "cousin DJ" figured it would be an all-out party. I arrived at the hall about 9:40 in case things had settled down early - and they had. There was but one car in the lot. Turns out the hall custodian was the only one on site - packing away chairs and such.

So there I was. Sound system loaded, 10:00 PM on a Sunday night... and I was restless. What to do...

I thought to myself...

"Hmm... I seem to recall there's dancing at the Latin club on Sunday nights..."

I was greeted at the door by a young lady who picked up on the fact that I thought she was the door girl... this of course was not the case, we had a little laugh about it and I checked my coat. And my $6.00. I flipped out a $20, being courteous of course to ask if this was a problem. No problem. It might have been the fact that I've worked retail, but my first instinct was to quickly do the math and hand over 21, to make the change easy. The lady taking coats and money was obviously sharper than I. She said "There, you have $6 in coin in your hand!"

*sigh* OK... I'll get change tomorrow to wash the van.

Once inside, I noticed a number of couples on the dance floor - just enough to make it interesting and easy to watch. I love watching people. Everyone has their own thing that makes them, well, them. I recognized a fellow I'd seen a few weeks back when S. and I were there. He was busy not only dancing, but teaching. I had to remember to watch HIS feet, not the feet of the poor fellow he was instructing. Having said that, this "poor fellow" seemed to have the basic stuff down.

There was a tall Latino fellow - probably a little younger than I - who had it down. His body just seemed to flow. I could tell he loved to dance. He led his partner with ease - as if he were just "walking down the street"... but with an obvious love for dance. This fellow was dancing from his soul.

Now I don't do jealousy as a general rule - it's a wasteful emotion and it can eat away at you. But for a few minutes all I could think was "Oh, to dance like him!" Then, of course, followed the thoughts of how "clunky" I am.

I can sorta flow, but then I lose the step, the frame, the beat count. It seems I can do one or the other or the other. Multitasking is difficult.

I used to try that "rubbing you tummy while patting your head" thing.
I could never do it.

My Mom could raise one eyebrow up while lowering the other one.
I was more like Burt from Sesame Street.

Anyway, there I was watching people dance. I'm starting to get an idea of what separates a good dancer from an average dancer. I'm still nervous, and I think that's the first thing that has to go. How do you flow when you're full of nerves?

Experience. That's all I need.

So, as I sit here - being mindful of the whereabouts of my cat - I practice.

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