Everybody Cut Loose

I'm a dancing fool. People who know me in real life are probably guffawing right about now. That or thinking "Boy, you think you know somebody."

I've always liked to dance. I took tap/ballet as a child and when I was about 6 or so I actually approached my teacher and asked if I could do a solo routine at the annual recital. Can you believe the chutzpah?

At any school dance I was always one of the first on the dance floor. Not the first, but one of the first.

In college a friend invited me to go line dancing. I scoffed, teased him unmercifully, but went along. And had a blast. Turns out I'm pretty good at it. I even went out the next weekend and bought a pair of cowboy boots because you just can't do the dances as well without some slick soled boots. I went every Thursday night for at least a year and I loved it so much that I wanted to quit my job and dance all the time. Once, my friend Jimmy and I won 2nd place in a country cha cha contest.

And then, about a year before Bubba was born, I got an itch to try some new things. I tried Yoga (harder than you'd think and not at ALL relaxing for me). I tried Tai Chi (not really my bag, -- my step dad hilariously calls it Yahtzee). I tried Belly Dancing (would have loved to keep it up but my schedule didn't really jibe with the lessons). And then I discovered Hip Hop Cardio at the YMCA. And I fell in love again. With hip hop dancing. Yes, me, the least hip hop person you can imagine.

Our teacher started us out with a basic routine and every Monday we'd add a new move. Everybody in the class was pretty good and after several weeks we looked pretty polished. We could have passed for a low0rent version of the Fly Girls (or Fly People, technically, since there were a couple of guys in the class -- though I wouldn't vouch for their "orientation.") But then one night as I was doing a turn I felt really dizzy. Weird.

A week later I took a positive pregnancy test, and well, that was it for me and hip hop cardio. I probably could have kept it up, but there was a fair amount of spinning and the dizziness had thrown me. I was a very nervous, newly pregnant woman, afraid that if I fell I might hurt the baby.

And I haven't really done any kind of dancing since then. In fact, my body hasn't done any kind of rhythmic motion at all. Other than, you know, walking. And lately I've felt an urge to dance. To move.

So if you come across some crazy woman dancing down the street, it's probably me. Just cross to the other side of the street. Or come and dance with me!