Summer Slaps Back

Because we are in the hottest time of the year, our fall break was short. I saw something the other day although I can’t remember all the details since I just briefly scanned it. But it was a map pointing out where you can frequently have high humidity. To be fair, we are on the northern end of that band and those who live farther south experience this with more regularity but we do get our share.

Today, they’ve issued a “heat advisory” because the weather service really has nothing better to do. You can step outside and feel how thick the air is and just know it isn’t going to be comfortable being outside today. I don’t do all that well with the high dew points. Kind of makes it harder for me to feel like I’m breathing comfortably. But this is why they made air conditioning.

Had some strong storms go through yesterday. Kind of expected given how much moisture was around. Of course it knocked our power out although I’m not sure it was storm related since it was flickering before anything hit. Our power company got bought out by a bigger firm many years ago and I kind of feel like they haven’t done anything to upgrade our equipment so we randomly lose power from time to time. It was actually a good thing that the storm moved in because it dropped the outdoor temperatures and we could open the windows and not roast inside. The good thing is that it was only off for about an hour or so. Inconvenient but not a major thing.

There is another group formation planned for the Showcase in November and we’ve just started working on it. They are actually doing a men’s formation for the first time (as well as a ladies formation) but I’m not joining that one because the practices are on Saturday and I make it clear that weekends are for me. It does mean I’ll be at the studio on Monday nights again for the next several months.

The Showcase theme is the 80’s which is a little generic so the formation is obviously going to be 80’s music. Funny thing is that I’m looking at the other dancers there on Monday night and thinking I may be the only one who actually remembers the 80’s. I’m guessing a lot of the students weren’t even born until the 90’s as well. So they’ll be playing dress up to a decade I lived through. Seems odd.

We do have plenty of couples who are older like me but they seem to stay away from the formations for some reason. But it is interesting that we continue to have a fairly large group of younger students. Some are wedding couples who find they love dancing and just keep going. Makes me wonder if it isn’t some kind of “Dancing with the Stars” effect. It did start in 2005 (just looked that up to be sure) and it was a popular show at the time and maybe it just triggered an interest over the years. Anyway, I guess I’ll just be the “elder” for this formation.

I’m having some thoughts around ballroom that haven’t fully coalesced yet. I’ve always been my own worst critic and I’m someone who needs external validation but then doesn’t fully trust it either. And the truth is that you can get all the praise in the world and it won’t mean anything if you don’t believe in yourself. It comes down to what I want out of dancing and how will I know when I’ve achieved something when there really are no good signposts. Thoughts in progress.