Salsa

I can't believe it Saturday night already. This entire week has just flown.

A group of us went out for Thai last night. It was a new Thai place, although once we got there I realized that it was a chain... and that we'd eaten before at another one across town. No worries. The food was still yummy and company engaging.

After dinner, Mal, Drew, and I came back to the house. Drew and I watched The Grudge. Well, Drew watched all of it and I hid behind a blanket and told him to narrate during the really scary parts. I kept threatening to stop watching entirely, but it was like an accident scene- I just had to see what would happen. Er, hear... as I didn't really SEE much.

Today has been productive. I went to my second pregnancy counseling class. I've asked permission from the CCCU to host the last three classes at the Council offices and the VPs agreed that it was a good idea. The current room that we are training in at the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center is entirely too small. So, next Saturday everyone will gather at the CCCU offices and we'll train in our conference room. Yay!

The training session today was mediocre. I felt like most of it was pretty common sense. A lot of the verbage I had learned in college in my Communication classes. We focused on interpersonal communication. Although, I must admit that there were many examples in our manual that I was unsure of how to approach. It's slightly intimidating to think that there are going to be scared women who will ask ME for advice and answers five seconds after I tell them the results of a pregnancy test.

I know that there will be many times when the Holy Spirit's guidance will be all that I have. I'm excited and am anticipating my experiences there. My prayer is that my own spirit is willing to listen and respond as He would have me.

Mal, Drew, Dave (DC Dave), and I went to our first salsa class tonight. It lasted only an hour and the room was blazing hot. I was surprised that so many men showed up to the class. There were about 25 people, and only two single women (or at least two who hadn't found a man to drag with them). I couldn't help but wonder if the demographics of DC made a difference in the male ratio. Our instructor is Hispanic and claimed to go out every night to salsa. Maybe it's his way of doing homework?

The class went fast. By the end, I felt like I had finally gotten down the basic steps. The beginning of the class focused on elementary steps. We all danced in front of mirrors that span the length of the room. As I looked to my left at Mal and right at Drew and Dave, I quickly realized that my friends were picking up on the steps quicker than I.

Slight panic ensued as the instructor told us to partner up and that unless someone objected, we would be rotating partners for the rest of the evening. As I looked around the room, I quickly realized that many peoples' eyes were screaming, "NO!" Great. I thought dragging two of our own boys along meant we at least had two people we knew whose toes we could step on with few apologies. But, alas, not so. We formed a rough circle and began. Our "partner" dancing lasted for about twenty minutes.

I felt like I was participating in one of those "two minute date" arrangements, where a woman sits at a table with a man, talks with him for two minutes, makes mental judgements, and then goes to the next table until all have been visited. Phew. Except this was shorter than two minutes. We rotated in a time frame of about one minute.

"OK, rotate!" the instructor yelled in his syrupy accent. I moved to the next guy, still mentally noting what I or my partner had done wrong just ten seconds prior. My palms were sweaty due to the temperature of the room. After guy number six, I was already nursing a heel that had been stomped/ scraped (?) on by the guy dancing behind me. Wearing sling back heels maybe wasn't the best idea. I knew he was dancing too close! There were brief introductions before every dance. I retained half of my partners' names and the others have slipped into another land...

The hour went fast. It was fun and I've already accepted my "forgetful" fate. While the night's ending had been promising, I know that in a week from now my retained knowledge will be lacking. My muscles will have to be retrained. You can bet that next week I won't wear sling-back heels again. I'm thinking boots.