My Columbus Day Weekend

I worked on Saturday and I don't really remember much of the rest of the day.

I was pretty moody on Sunday, and felt very lonely. I know part of it was me, but I felt like I was being ignored. I left church early in tears, feeling like I didn't belong. I didn't know what to do, so I called my dad. He gave me some good advice and had me feeling much better by the time I got home. I was still feeling too unwanted to join the ward potluck that afternoon so I stayed home and played with my puppies. It was nice to have a quiet day to myself.

Monday I woke up feeling quite happy. I had plans to spend part of the day with my friend JJ. I'm always excited for my adventures with JJ. We are both very smart individually, but put us together and we lose all common sense. Especially when we are sleepy. It's the Mormon version of being drunk I guess. :) We went to see Wall-E at the dollar theater. I saw it earlier in the summer when it first came out, but I enjoyed getting to see it again. It's super cute. Then we decided to stop by FHE. JJ didn't want to stay longer than the devotional and since she was my ride and the lesson was salsa dancing, I was fine with our plan to leave early and go hang out. But, her boyfriend Brandon was there and kind of messed that up for us. He talked JJ into staying to dance for "just a few minutes". I thought it was sweet that he wanted to dance with her. I have almost no rhythm, and my hips do NOT move, but I got the feet part down alright. Then, the teacher told us to pair up. I don't think I processed what she was saying until JJ walked up to this guy named Chris and asked him to be my partner. I was a bit embarrassed that I had to have someone ask a guy to dance with me, but she was trying to be mindful of the fact that guys aren't my favorite people. When I realized I would have to dance with someone, she said, "Don't worry, Chris is engaged. He's harmless."

I didn't care that Chris was engaged. He was going to be infringing on my personal bubble. I was going to have to touch his hands. (For those of you who don't know, this is one of my OCD issues that has cropped up in the last year or so. I've always had issues with people invading my personal space, but touching people hasn't always been a problem.) I didn't want to stand around like an idiot either, so I took a deep breath and I danced. I focused on counting the steps (OCD people find counting very relaxing...) and it wasn't bad at all. Chris already knew how to salsa a little bit, so he was a good partner. He was very patient and I realized I was just fine. Then, the teacher told us to switch partners.

Before I could panic again, JJ was walking towards me. I realized she meant for me to dance with Brandon. I really appreciated her looking out for her crazy friend. Brandon was fun to dance with too, but neither one of us really knew what we were doing so we just had a good time laughing at ourselves.

Finally the teacher released us to practise on our own or do whatever we wanted. A guy JJ knows named Josh (or John, but I think it was Josh) came over and was showing her and Brandon what to do. Josh is an excellent dancer and had them dancing like pros in just a few minutes. Then he offered to teach me. He made me close my eyes and just follow his lead. He said, "If you look at your feet while you are dancing, you'll dance into them." He was right. When I focused on him or when I closed my eyes and just let him lead me, I felt like I was floating. I could do the steps and the turns with something very near ease (my hips still didn't move though. Oh well, what can I say? I'm white...). I wasn't even counting anymore and when we were done I realized I had been dancing with a big sweaty guy and I was all sweaty too, and didn't care. BIG step for me to touch a sweaty person and not completely flip out. (Remind me to tell you about my problem with wet money sometime...)

I went home and tried to practise my new moves. They were completely gone. I guess I need a good leader to be able to dance.

I had soooo much fun last night. Even though it mostly happened by accident. I wasn't even going to go to FHE. But I am so glad I did.