Life's To-Do list - Latin Dance - Check!

This Sunday we will be going for our final dance class. The class is called “Nightclub Survival” and it's funny we registered for it in the first place. With our clubbing days dwindling fast and our friends being gobbled up by suburbia or discussions of suburbia, homes, and thus impending poverty, (which is best done over dinner in a reasonably priced restaurant or in one of our apartments – no cover fee), classes for nightclub dancing seem to be so out of place. But let me tell you why I thought this was the best class for us. It promised an introduction to various types of dances – Salsa, Swing, Cha-Cha, Slow 2 step, 4-count Hustle....and most of all, it promised to help students find their sense of rhythm. Big promises. “They obviously haven't had my hubby as a student before” I thought as we walked into the really beautiful studio on our first day.
“But he loves me and so he's doing this for me.” I thought.
“Let's get this started and done with, evil blackmailer” he said.
Reality sometimes sucks.

See I love dancing and some real love for dancing is required when you sign up for classes and end up being paired with oafs who step on your toes all the time or guys way shorter than you or even being made to dance with girls. Tried slow dancing with another woman? It's creepy (surprisingly dancing freestyle with another woman is great fun). So I thought being able to do this with my man would be this great experience and after much coaxing and unabashed blackmailing, we registered for this 7 week course. The nice big lady (Why are all dance instructors so fat? All that dancing is supposed to do good things for your body, non? But the grace with which she carried all those pounds, sweet Jesus) was the most patient of teachers and she tried all kinds of methods to get my hubby into it. In all fairness, there wasn't a single step my man did not get down but something was awry..It was the much promised Sense of Rhythm that was oh-so-missing. We ploughed through Salsa, Swing, Cha-Cha...the basics were all under our belts; though the whole time it felt like an army drill. He counted under his breath and it did not really matter if there was music playing or not. Nice-lady and I were resigned to this fact and her sweet sympathetic smiles towards me multiplied with each class. UNTIL WE CAME TO THE 4-COUNT HUSTLE!!!! Lo and behold, we were doing the outward turn with a hand-change pass and suddenly I feel my man getting into it. We did the turn and followed up the rock-apart-recover with yet another impromptu one. He even added a little push with the right hand as he swung me out while drawing me in with his left. All done with a flourish which had Mrs. Galahad and me beaming non-stop. She bustled around him telling him this and that and it was like we had all seen the light. We moved on to a disco wheel and things were pretty crazy after that! We practiced it last night and as the music playing was the opening score of 'The Shield' it was slightly different but we were definitely there. It all felt very cool. One day we will dance in our kid’s wedding and my hubby will bow, kiss the hem of my skirt, thank me and tell me I was wonderful to have shown him the light. Be still my heart...

As everything comes with a price I have been persuaded to be his “Assistant” in his latest project – Stained Glass work. We had parted ways in a little antique store in the Outer Banks to do our own scouting. When we walked out a couple of hours later with a beautiful old stained glass lamp (my find) and 4 Spiderman comics from the 1970s (his find, obviously) he had that contented look of having fared better than I had. But since our return, the man has grown increasingly fascinated with stained glass and our dinner table conversations have circled around glass-cutters and glass grinders for weeks now. So we are going tool shopping this weekend and he will be setting up shop on our deck soon. If we make it beyond the preliminary stages without cutting our wrists (which need not happen only by accident you know), I will let you all know.