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9 april 2002

so i had to make an unfortunate trip to the mall because i was about out of candles. next to the candle store was lane bryant (they sell clothing in women's sizes 14 and above.) however, their front window mannequins? they were my size (i measured pretty closely with my hands and a shoelace) and the store staff pins the clothing tightly to them. incidentally, i wear a size 10. don't let these people lie to you.

springing and hip hopping and stuff

Denizens! I have to tell you that I get a lot of mail over a lot of stuff, but I've never gotten as many responses as I did to this weekend's announcement. How kind you are! It's nice to know that my friends, too, have responded with such faith and excitement. It's as if they always knew it, too, and were just waiting for me to make the decision. Makes it all the sweeter.

I know it's Tuesday, but here's my (as usual) late reminder to spring ahead one hour if you haven't already. While I love spring, I don't do the time change too successfully. Today, my head was a groggy mess. I wouldn't have even known of the time change unless Ian had called me on Saturday afternoon. Maybe I should watch more (or some) tv, I dunno. Blagh. If last year is any indication, I'm going to be bleary-eyed for a week. One stinking hour. What a rip.

So today, I took my first hip hop and salsa dance classes at Javier Villareal's new studio on Fourth Street. If you live in the Triad area, give him a call at 336.724.6028! It's open seven days a week with afternoon, evening, and even late evening instruction. The benefits of being cool and taking these neato classes? Consider this:

• You dance in sneakers and whatever's comfy. No expensive shoes or special outfits.
• Thirty bucks pays for as many classes as you can drag your butt to for a whole month. I pay more than that each month at the Y!
• Javier gets right to it. Today, I learned a hip hop and a salsa routine, and fast. Given, I dance a lot, but I am not what you would call a natural dancer. Any dunderhead can pick up this stuff in time.
• It's good exercise.
• You're supporting downtown redevelopment and a local business owner. That ought to get your toes tapping right there.
• Last (and certainly not least), you might run into me. Maybe that's not necessarily a benefit, but I'm friendly and don't step on toes and maybe we could all go out for drinks after class. So yay.

So now I've got this major hankering to go salsa dancing, especially since he showed me some kind of fancy stuff. Javier was real blunt about this particular dance form. He said that in Hispanic culture, the point of salsa is to make the woman look good. This is the man's goal--to make me look good, baby! How can you not love this?

Hip hop dance was very cool, too, because he's teaching me the real deal--not some modified jazz or modern. This is the stuff you see in clubs, which is very loose and attuned to the music. I sincerely hope that his studio takes off. It's just such an original (and economical) concept that I would think appeals to all ages. Get a few of those downtown bankers in there on their lunch hour, you know?

This week is shaping up to be most cool. I'm visiting with Anne Kesler Shields in her art studio tomorrow, and may possibly design her a webpage. Ian and Emilie are hosting their Dining for Friends party (this is a local fundraising effort for HIV/AIDS organizations in the Triad). And while I don't attend much anymore, I may go to the poetry slam finals this week and watch our best poets slam off for the team that goes to Minneapolis in August. I thought about road-tripping up there, but only if I can also get tickets to Prairie Home Companion.

Now come over here and let's boogie.