Recovery Friday

I did not make it to the gym on Wednesday as one of those home owner things got in the way. I was planning on going today to make up for it. Then, I went to my dance lesson and studio party last night and talked myself out of it. This morning, I was up and I got ahead of a few things I wanted to do and my mind starting thinking “we could still do this”.

Then I took stock of all the various pieces and parts that were sore or tired and realized my mind was writing checks my body couldn’t cash. (Yes, a throw back to Top Gun). My 20’s (and if I’m being honest, my 30’s) are pretty far in the rear view mirror so bouncing back takes a little longer. There is this little part of me that thinks “slacker” but I need to stop listening to that part because that was part of the reason for the shoulder issues I had earlier this year.

JoNY was back from her sudden illness and so we went back over the Argentine Tango. Some of the parts that seemed confusing when the coach was doing them turned out to be easier than I expected. There’s a part that is tricky where she stands on one foot while I’m walking around her using my momentum to turn her. It sort of requires me to be slightly bent in both knees and we know how much my knees love that. Again, I can do the step but there is a price to be paid for doing it. Still, if we can pull it off, it will look cool.

Stayed for party despite the creaky knees. At one point, I was going to sit out a hustle but one of the relative newcomers asked me to dance so I had to give it a go. Ended up dancing Waltz with her twice even though she hadn’t done much Waltz. At the end of the night, she thanked me for being patient which always makes me a bit uncomfortable.

I know my own dance journey. I remember the pain of learning new stuff and I know what being at the beginning of the journey feels like. But I’m convinced that newcomers don’t see that. It is almost like they think you came into the studio as a perfectly formed dancer and that you never struggled. Or maybe some just assume that since you know all the advanced “cool” steps that dancing more basic stuff is boring. And I’m sure that there are some advanced dancers that are “too cool” to dance with beginners. But I think that is the minority.

Most of us dance because we love it. And we all started from the same place and we all remember how it felt. So, as a beginner, you don’t need to apologize for anything. We dance with you because we love to dance and it is fun. End of story.

Oh, and another dancer and I were talking with this lady after party and the subject of Showcase came up. She talked about comfort zone and how doing a solo was way outside her comfort zone and we both just kind of said the same thing. When we said we both still get a little nervous before doing a solo, she was a bit shocked. See, we aren’t all the different. Wish we had ice water in those veins but standing on a floor with all eyes on you and with just you and your partner as the DJ announces your name is going to get the nerves going a bit. I think the one thing that we’ve probably learned is that no matter what happens, you keep smiling and dancing like nothing bad happened.

Well, today probably won’t be a total day of rest. Rocco assumes that any day I’m here is walk day and we are still having cool fall like weather so I’ll probably take him for a walk in a bit. That gets me moving but isn’t a lot of stress on parts that have been stressed a bit this week.

I know some people are cat people but I’m firmly a dog person. For me, there is just something about having a creature that is always happy to see you. Like this morning. I got up at my normal time and he followed me out to eat breakfast. Then, I put him back in the bedroom where he can nap until my wife gets up. When she opens the door, he came out to find me so I hear him coming up to my office where he peaks in with his tail wagging as if to say “so glad you’re still here”.

And that kind of made me think of the poster shown above. Its a little ironic because I think dogs would make the worst possible poker players. Like when Rocco sees me and the ears and the tail just move on their own. No way these dogs could do a poker face.

So I’ll leave it there for now.

PS – I just remembered something from last night. For some reason, they were playing “Never Going to Give you Up” last night at the studio for this couple. Then I had to explain Rickrolling to JoNY. Sigh, kids these days don’t remember internet classics.