Dance Tales

There are certainly all types when it comes to folk dancing, but I'd have to say the common thread is that most of them are at least a little bit odd. Most are very friendly, also, but there are exceptions. For example, there's a grumpy old man in my folk dance group who has a tendency to be stubborn, demanding, impatient, and grouchy. He sometimes has a hard time learning a dance and will insist on the teacher standing right in front of him and doing it Slower! and Again! until he gets it. Then, if it still doesn't click for him, he throws up his hands in frustrated disgust and bails out. Everyone else just kind of shakes their head and ignores him. Thankfully it doesn't happen very often. I'm telling you all of this because at folk dancing last night, he and his wife were there and his wife was wearing a metal button pin that said, "Shut up and Dance." Hmmmmm, interesting.

In other dancing news, John and I have been doing weekly rehearsals with the group in preparation for doing a Romanian performance at this event. We'll be one of several dance groups putting on the show that night. We're doing four Romanian dances with a live band. It should be a lot of fun. Our first few rehearsals were to learn the dances and get all the steps down, then last week we started working on staging and choreography. That makes it even more fun. We have two more rehearsals, so hopefully everything will come together and we'll all remember to be in the right place at the right time doing the right steps with the right people!

An Answer At Last

I've always wondered about this.

Bumper Sticker

I spotted this sticker on a tow truck yesterday. It said, "If you don't want to run with the big dogs...then stay off the porch."

Now what kind of down-home, Texas-friendly, good-Southern hospitality is that?

Super Juggling

Here's some amazing juggling. (Click the yellow word "WATCH".) This guy is proof that juggling can be good exercise! I think he must have been born juggling. Who would've thought that there were so many different ways to throw around three little white balls?!?

Forsaken By My Voice

I nearly completely lost my voice on Monday and Tuesday, which is not a good thing for someone who answers the phone about fifty times a day! Nothing else was wrong with me, so I don't know why my voice went away. It did lead to a lot of not-so-symphathetic comments from my family and friends. It's further proof that both at home and at work I exist for comic relief. For example:


"What'd you do? yell at your brothers and sisters all weekend?"

"Are you sure you feel okay? You sound like you're dying!"

"Speak up! We can't hear you!"

"Can you laugh again? I like that little squeak!"

(this one from a sister reading a huge medical book) "I think you have either larynx cancer or a vocal cord nodule."


Thankfully, my voice is fine today, so that rules out larynx cancer, and also means everyone will have to come up with something else to tease me about.

Happy President's Day!

The holiday schedule at my work place is such that I have President's Day off. It's great, but it's also quite unusual. The conversation with my family went something like this:

Me: I have Monday off from work!
Family: You do? For what?!
Me: President's Day.
Family: What are you? a mailman?!?

Anyway, here are some fun presidental facts in honor of the day.

OK, I Have Another Question

What did the wise-cracking talking heads on radio and TV do for jokes before VP Cheney shot that guy?

Y?

I have a few questions today:

Why are dry cleaners Oriental and convenience store clerks Middle Eastern?
Why do people buy yellow Hummers? They look like a cross between a tank and a school bus.
Why does everyone seem to think I should be depressed on Valentine’s Day?
Why was there an old man wearing gold hoop earrings at Applebee’s yesterday?

Birthdays!!

My blog is officially a year old today! Wow, time flies. That's not the only birthday around here lately, either. Laura just turned seven. We actually celebrated last weekend, but I've been busy. Here are some pictures from our day. We went to the zoo and rode the carousel.
We tried to hatch eggs.
We came home and had a yummy, fun birthday party that was definitely heavy on pasta and chocolate. (not together, though)
There was even a one-eyed guest there. Or maybe she was a pirate? or an eye doctor?

The Case of the Disappearing License Plate

Strange things happen to me. This time, it's a license plate that just vanished. Maybe it fell off, but how can a license plate just fall off? Maybe it was stolen, but the screws were still there. What low-down prankster bothers to put the screws back in? I don't know, but that's how I came to be trekking down to the tax office Monday morning, then sitting in the parking lot at work putting new license plates on. I made sure they were screwed on tightly.

Sidewalk Art Goes Big Time

These are really sidewalk chalk pictures! The artist's website says the pictures are drawn in an elongated, distorted way so that as you walk down the sidewalk, you get to a certain angle and the pictures look three-dimensional. Amazing!