Wandering Thought Wednesday

Last night at the studio, I was watching a new couple getting a progress check from OwnerGuy. As I’m watching, I’m checking to see if the guy was on time and, in my mind, I’m thinking his frame could be stronger. Of course, when you first start, the steps are all that matter. The rest comes later. It is why it is sometimes good to look at beginners. Not to be mean but it helps understand just how far you’ve come.

Speaking of that, I was also watching another lady on her lesson a little later. She’s caught the dance bug big time. I remember her saying she’d never do another routine after the first one. Now she’s signed up to do two at our Showstoppers on Friday.

Her instructor was working on getting her to move more and I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit watching them. The thing about ballroom is that there is always something to work on. I suspect most people walk into a studio associating steps with learning to dance. When they start to introduce other things, it can be an adjustment. It is all a package deal and it will make you a better dancer but sometimes you don’t see that until later.

It is part of the challenge of learning ballroom as an adult. For the most part, you’ve likely established some level of competence at work or in life and that makes it tougher to go back into the student phase and put yourself in positions where you are going to look incompetent. It is a necessary part of the learning process but not something we are used to. You really end up having to trust that your instructor (who is often younger than you are) really has your best interests at heart. And that just touches on the surface of the whole teacher/student relationship which is very complex.

Anyway, I wasn’t really laughing at her. It was more just relating to how she felt because I’m so familiar with that awkwardness when you want to scream at your instructor “You want me to do WHAT?”

We had our first real snow of the year although it only added up to about an inch. That’s enough to make getting up my driveway complicated. The first snow is one of those times when I’m glad I’m not working anymore. Still, I had my allergy shot so I needed to get out and do some shoveling. That’s when snow is not fun. I’m counting it as exercise for the day though.

Our three legged deer has not made a return visit so I’m left to wonder about his fate. We do have two yearlings that have been around the house for awhile. Yesterday, we saw them lying down in the wooded area behind our house. Normally, the yearlings stay with an adult but we see no adult. We don’t have any natural predators except cars and that may be what happened. At a year, they can certainly survive on their own but it is still a little sad to see these two smaller deer and knowing they have to make it through the winter on their own.

They do seem to be more skittish than other deer. Most of the deer we have around here have become adjusted to humans. So they mostly just look at you until they figure out what you plan to do. Get too close and they’ll run. These two didn’t seem that comfortable. Saw them flashing their tails as we walked by the window to look at them and they eventually moved on to a spot deeper in the woods. Unlike the raccoons who associate us with food.

Finished my Christmas shopping yesterday. Had plans to buy all my gifts at one of the museums in town but they weren’t allowing people into the gift store when we went to see the lights on the grounds. Stupid virus. That meant I’ve spent several hours in malls which represents the first time I’ve been inside a real mall since things shut down back in March.

Normally, I love walking through the malls to see the Christmas stuff. Now, I only do that on off times when it isn’t crowded. I never liked wall to wall people before the pandemic – now it is even more of a problem. But it just isn’t really that pleasant to have to walk around in the mask with arrows pointing you in the proper direction. And with certain stores limiting access so you had lines forming in places.

I hate Christmas shopping. Mostly because I want gifts that speak to me. A lot of it is just the same old stuff and I look at it and it just doesn’t fit with anyone. Plus you look at a lot of the same stuff from store to store and none of it jumps out. To be fair, I don’t buy clothing for anyone except my wife and only when she circles a particular item in a catalog. I’m not imposing my tastes on anyone else. That does take a significant number of things off the table in terms of shopping. I also tend now to not buy food items – kind of for the same reason. So it is just the pressure of having to pick something because I need time to get it shipped there. At least my wife is an expert wrapper so the presents will look nice under their trees.

And that’s really all I’ve got to say today.