Swing, balance and CRASH@!

This past weekend was a blast for Passionfruit and I. We managed to get people to keep our children overnight; although they were our responsibility during the day.


Our weekend began on Friday night with a great contra dance. So many friends that we haven't seen in years were there. It was wonderful to see them and catch up on stuff. The ballroom was decorated in pink flamingos, palm trees and christmas tree lights lined the windows of the hall.


At one point I danced a dance as a woman. It was a terribly difficult dance that even very experienced dancers were having troubles. My partner and I met up with a couple of women dancing together. One was a rather new dancer and the other was a rather poor man or perhaps I should say lead. I made a point to ask the new dancer to be my partner in the next dance. I assured her that I am a very good man. She seemed doubtful. I turned to a long time friend (male) and asked him to assure her that I was indeed a fine man. Well she did find out how good I was including being able to steal a kiss from my Passionfruit when the men met in the middle for an alemand right.


Later near the end of the dance I was dancing with an old flame when CRASH, BUM, BANG! Screechs of terror, gasps of horror! The flamingo on the mantle came crashing down along with the mirror. The fiddler magically escaped injury when by all rights she should have been cut up horribly. There was glass under her chair; in her case for her fiddle and under the case. The caller was totally freaked and that was the end of the dance. I have never been to a dance where the dance ended so abruptly.

We ended up going to the after party. Passionfruit talked me into it. A dear friend who's had to deal with a ugly divorce threw the party. It was also the hostess' son's birthday. I had to go.

Saturday night my sister came and picked up the girls. We had a few hours before the dance. We chose to have dinner alone together instead of joining the large group. I told Passionfruit that we so rarely get time without the kids that it is really important to me to have him alone for a while. We went to a local Mexican restaurant and had a lovely meal.

Then on to the dance. Nothing terribly exciting happened like the night before. But it was really great to see people. One of my many old dance partners were there. I use to be a wild twirling woman but do to certain health problems I no longer can twirl 3 or 4 times. It was hard having to control those men. Jimmy used to love to see how many twirls I could get in before having to get back to the patterns of the dance. I remember one time I did 5. I so amazed him. Jimmy was my main partner that I had to control. I never did get a chance to tell him that my days of whirling like dirvish are gone.

The weekend ended with an after party at a friend's house. I had volunteered us to help with clean up. I got so tired I fell asleep on the couch in the sun room. Passionfruit woke me up at 2:30 AM to tell me it was time to go home. He had helped to clean up all by himself. I'm so proud of him.