Past, present, and future.

I've been thinking about what I want this blog to be. Those thoughts turned into if I even want this blog to be. I find myself turning to the blog when things aren't right in my head and tempted to post things I'll regret at a later date. My instinct (instinct isn't the right word and I'm too lazy to figure out what the right word is) is to use the blog to vent. But I can't vent here because many people I know in person know about this site and could read it at some point. Some people will get it, but most won't since they don't really know me. And if I can't post honestly and I continue to censor myself, then what is the point. I may opt to stop the blog, I may opt to stop censoring myself or I may opt to continue with the superficial type posts I've done so far and keep the deeper feelings out of it. Maybe I'll buy a journal and actually take pen to paper.

Dog teach dog

Most of the time, when Auggie gets a cookie (dog cookie) he'll drop it and look up at you to see if you'll give him another one. Wally, the amazing foster dog, has picked up this little trick.

Movement

Wally at top speed! This is one of the pictures I took of Wally for the rescue to put on their site.

Weakness

These are pictures of the Ocean Springs - Biloxi bridge, or what is left of it. Everything has weakness.

Noses

Some people need to be told exactly where their nose is, otherwise they'd never be able to blow it.

Something's fishy!

There is this overwhelming fish smell in the office that started about half an hour ago. The dude in the office next to mine cooks fish every other day in the microwave. Today was one of those days. The smell was so bad someone went around a few minutes ago spraying air freshner. Why in the hell is it called air freshner? It always makes things worse, it never freshens the air. It got so bad I went out to the hall in front of our offices. The smell had permeated the whole floor to the point that the other companies on the floor had called building maintenance to find out what the problem was.

Dancing Fever!

This weekend was full of dancing and home depot visits. I'll save the home deport stories for another time. I will tell you about the dancing, oh what dancing! We danced and danced and danced! The dance studio where we take classes has a dance on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month and this past Saturday was just one of those occasions. From 8-9, there is a dance lesson in a specific type of dance, and then from 9-11 is the dance. This past Saturday Sling Hustle was taught. Since we've taken that class and we've practiced enough that we haven't forgotten it, we skipped the class and showed up at 9 for the dance. We got there a little early and joined in the last few minutes of the class. Through the night we hustled, we cha-cha'd, we rumba'd, we swung (both single and triple) and ended the night with the manhattan hustle. Most people were gone by then and Kurt and I were the only ones on the floor. So far, the Manhattan Hustle is my favorite. I think its cause we know the most moves in it. Needless to say, we had a blast.

Then Sunday we took an Argentine Tango workshop. I've never had the desire to learn the tango (american or argentine), but Kurt was pretty interested in checking this out. We'd seen a couple dancing it a few months ago at one of the dances and it did look pretty damn cool. I always thought the tango was a little contrived, but that's probably due to the choreography of them in movies. The Argentine Tango was a lot of fun. Its the closest dancing position of any dance - you're right up against your partner. This was a bit tough since the top of my head barely reaches Kurt's shoulder. When the dance instructor was going around to each couple while we were practicing the basic tango walk, she demonstrated how I should stand in relation to Kurt - with my head on his chest. It beats looking at his shirt the whole time! We learned how to do the "tango walk", a turn, how to do a "flare" or "fan," and a grapevine. I hope they offer a class in Argentine Tango at some point, we'd be up for that.

Tonight starts the next 8-week set of dance classes. Tonight begins intermediate cha-cha/rumba (first 4 weeks cha-cha, second 4 weeks rumba). And on wednesday is beginner salsa.

One of the things I have learned with all this dancing is how to dance with other people. And how to be that close to another person who isn't Kurt. I am not comfortable being touched by other people - don't ask me why as I have no idea, I just know there have been a few occasions which have brought this to my attention. Usually a coworker putting a hand on my shoulder, or when an old roommate linked arms with me. It just always weirded me out. For the most part, I've only danced with Kurt, but occasionally the dance teachers like to switch the partners up so you get to see how leading/following styles differ. When we first started dancing, it was a little weird, but I've gotten used to it and rarely feel uncomfortable anymore. I'm always a little uncomfortable dancing with men who are my height or close to my height. I'm used to Kurt towering above me. There's also the men who just can't lead to save their lives. Or the know-it-all ones. There was this one guy who I thought had been taking lessons for a while until I danced with him and it was clear he hadn't. He was a decent lead, but not as great as he thought. And at the risk of increasing Mr. Swim's dancing ego, I always try to get him as a partner whenever we have to do the round robin switch ups. He's a good lead and is similar to Kurt in that he actually leads and doesn't only repeat the step or pattern that we've just learned but mixes it up. This is another interesting thing I've noticed about dancing, I cannot think or I'll screw up. If I start thinking about what I'm doing, I'll try to anticipate the next step, and 90% of the time I anticipate wrong. When we first started learning the tango steps, I found it easier to close my eyes. If I was looking around, I'd either get distracted watching other people or I'd try to use visual clues and end up getting off-step or off-balance. Oh, my, I've rambled on long enough about dancing. That's all for now.

Can You Swim Challenge

It just occurred to me that I should explain some of the posts going on here - mainly the last two. Can you swim? has started a challenge - those who accepted the challenge must express each word from a list Mr. Swim came up with in some way - picture, poem, etc. The initial challenge was issued February 11th, but I just now got around to posting my first entries. Just in case anyone actually reads this, now you know what's up with War and Sorrow.