Hi folks. I know, my blogging has really trailed off. Lately, or in the year rather, writing has moved to the back burner. Sometimes I just feel like I don’t have the stories I used to. After all, San Mateo is no Shanghai…
Plus, with the job, the extracurricular activities, and Bubbey, there’s just too much other shit going on.
I had my 6-month review on Friday. It was pretty much the same as my 3-month, which is good. I’ve been pretty happy with my contributions to openspace.org (yeah, check it out!). Web work is so stimulating; there are always new tools to learn and try. And just so many people doing amazing shit. Have you heard of mobile activism? The Center for Biological Diversity has this really clever way of building their email/mobile list and of expanding their marketing outreach: endangered species ringtones. Have not yet downloaded my polar bear ringtone (no data service so I have to download then transfer via USB or whatever), but I’m thinking work may just have to hop on the mobile activism bandwagon. Yes, I’m a total poseur.
In other news, my brief trip to New Orleans triggered a new hobby. Late at night, John and I stumbled across America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV. Yes, I was up all frickin’ night watching the marathon. The show is similar to the American Idol (blah!) variety of programs (it is produced or whatever by Randy Jackson) but I gotta say, I’ve always had a fascination with synchronized ANYTHING, be it swimming, step, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (years ago they had a reality show on TNT). Anyway, I was amazed watching these peeps move. So the next day, I resolved to look into dance class. Yup. Ready for this? Hip Hop class. I know, are you on the floor laughing?
There is something about being over 30. You know how when you’re a kid (like under 10), you have this invincibility about you? Then you hit the teenage/adolescent years and all that goes to hell. You think middle school is going to fucking be the end of you… Well I’m finally over that shit. And now it’s like, if I wanna take hip hop, I’m gonna take it. Ok, I wasn’t that confident about it… but I was motivated enough to look up dance classes through San Mateo County Parks and Rec. Would you fucking believe that alongside tap and salsa and the waltz, they offer hip hop? So I signed up.
To be honest, I was really nervous about the first class. I mean, the max class size was 50 people!! And were they going to be a bunch of young, cool punks? I had no idea what to expect, but my god, boy was I pleasantly surprised. All around my age. All different shapes and sizes. All levels of fitness. Thank fucking god. I mean, I do still have a tad bit of competitiveness in me, so I didn’t want to be rock bottom. Understandable.
Anyway, the class is awesome. And such the workout. I haven’t sweat like that in ages. Sure, my moves suck. They are totally stiff and android-like. But I just watch the teacher and try to identify her secrets to fluid movement. That, and I try my damnedest to remember all the fucking steps. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And one…
Whenever I switch to watching myself in the mirror, I just crack up. Cannot help it. Need to just keep my eyes on the teach.
Still, to my credit, I’m actually keeping up with the steps. It’s the movements I need to hone. So it’s a fun new project. It’s works all kinds of new muscles (mostly on the torso). Teach says we can have a performance at the end of our 12 weeks if we want. I think we should wait and see. Just like I obsessed over my Board presentation, I practice A LOT in the privacy of my own home. John tries to give feedback, but what does he know about dance? All he can do is say yea or nay. At least he’s getting some entertainment value out of this. And he’s happy that now he can listen to hip hop when we’re in the car together. Man, I actually have to load that shit to the mp3 player so I can review the moves in my head on the drive into work.