1. Not only is that an amazingly funny picture of Heather and I, it leads me to a couple stories.
The first, I guess, will have to describe the picture itself. It's actually really simple. There is this band called the Scissor Sisters (I actually know nothing about them) and way back in September 2006, my good buddy Cy blogged about them and posted that picture on his blog - I simply copied that picture and put it on mine last night. I guess when they were more of a big deal, you could actually go in, put pictures of anyone you knew into their system, and those faces would go onto the bodies of those figures and do a dance to a song of theirs. I tried to do it again by going to their site, but that was to no avail. Kind of a bummer. Still a funny picture though :)
But it also led me to remembering how Heather and I used to take swing dance lessons (if you're wondering how I could ever get there from that picture, I guess it's just the fact that the figures danced. . . or at least that's what I'm going to say!). You see, back during the summer between our junior and senior years (I think. . . yeah, that sounds about right) Heather and I decided to take the aforementioned classes. We had gone to see Aimee's dance recital that spring and there had been some "Swingers" (not the keys-in-a-fish-bowl kind, but the dancing kind. . .in case you were unsure!) and it looked like so much fun! So I said "Hey that looks like so much fun." (I'm pretty consistent, you see.) And that got me into a world I never thought I'd see myself in.
We began taking a once-a-week class at Desert Stars, the studio that Aimee calls home so often during the week. Our teachers were a middle-aged hip couple named Paul and Lynette. For one, I have to say that Paul looked like a cool, buff version of Uncle Rico from the god-forsaken movie NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (o yeah, I don't like that movie. . .). I think that helps with the story, but I'm not sure why. . . Either way, we started this class as one of probably 6 couples. It obviously started off extremely rocky, seeing that I was born with two left feet. O, and I have no rhythm. Turns out you need some of that to get good, so I worked hard at not making myself look like a complete idiot. Over time, we got better (Heather was a natural - it was really just about getting me comfortable with doing any form of movement in front of people that did not include a basketball) and eventually we were one of only 3 couples who went consistently. We got good. Then we got even better. And then we even entered into a Swing Contest (I'm not kidding) at this place in Palmdale. We took honorable mention, if I remember correctly, just because we were so nervous about what we were doing. But it was all leading up to our most public display of dancing and one that I swore would never occur. . .
During our senior year, Cy and I hosted an annual talent show called the ToKnight Show (get it? our mascot was a Knight. . .). Usually the hosts just kinda strung along some banter in between the "acts" and tried not to cause the show to drag on too long. But Cy and I had wanted to host it since our freshman year and when we got our opportunity, we jumped at it and ran with it all the way. We wrote an entire script (with the help of our friend Justin, who also acted in our play-of-sorts) for a time-traveling adventure starring two scientists (Dr. Brown - me - and Dr. White - Cy, a Filipino. . . pause for laughter. . .) who had created such a machine. We went to all sorts of eras and associated the acts that we had with the time periods we were in (Example: a Rock band during the Prehistoric age. . . give us a break, we were high schoolers!). Well after the intermission, I claimed that I had just taken a trip to the 1950's and learned how to dance, invited my "assistant" (that would be Heather, who played the lovely Sandra Dee) out, and cued up the swing music (a song entitled "Nosey Jose" by Bull Moose Jackson) that we had listened to hundreds of times, practicing our routine. We then danced in front of several hundred on-lookers and. . . it went amazing. We nailed almost every step right on the beat and got a great big hand upon completion. What was special about it was that no one knew we were gonna do it and no one even knew we had been taking lessons, so it was a huge surprise! Great fun all around!
I do miss being good at something like swing dancing, and Heather often brings up the fact that we should go back and take lessons again, but it's too difficult since we live so far apart. Maybe one day. . . I'm serious. I would love to get back out there and be as good as we once were. I fear that I would not be nearly as good and would struggle with that, but I think we would pick it right up. . . just like riding a bicycle!
And that's about it for tonight. . . check back in tomorrow night for the story starring a shopping cart! Let the guessing begin!!!
Until later,
1 comment:
You should try and upload that video of us dancing at the tonight show. I haven't seen it in forever. Good times ;)
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