Dance!

I suppose I should write something about this weekend. There's enough material to choose from.

This weekend was AC/DC, the annual Advanced and Challenge (AC) level square dance event in Washington (DC).

Flush with my new paycheck, I paid $350 for a hotel room for the weekend when I could have simply commuted. Still, one of the reasons I like to have a room is so that I have a place to retreat to when I need a nap or just to have some time by myself. That, and it's nice to have a place to drag men to after I club them over the head!

Still, one paycheck and I'm already throwing money around. I'll have to watch that.

Anyway, I had a marvelous time. This was my first square dance weekend since last May, and it was a fabulous feeling to be back. Square dancing is full of casual intimacy, to borrow a phrase from fritterfae — After every square dance tip, we thank everyone in the square with a hug and sometimes a kiss, and I love to give hugs!

I haven't been regularly going to the local C2 dances during December and January, so I wasn't feeling particularly confident about this weekend. However, if you don't dance, you will never cement your skills, so I dove right in.

It's a fact that if you regularly dance C2 an average of an hour a week, then a square dance weekend offers a chance to get a lot of floor time that represents weeks of your normal pace.

I didn't dance as much as I could have. I dance a little over an hour on Friday, then skipped out for dinner for a man of recent acquaintance. I ended up spending the night with him and didn't start dancing on Saturday until the lunch break was over at 2:30 p.m. I did dance the rest of Saturday and Sunday, however, so I got a chance to polish my C2 skills.

Another skill I got to polish was the tactic of identifying someone in another square who is dancing the same position you are and looking to them when you start to founder.

At the beginning of the weekend, I knew that I wasn't comfortable because I was concentrating so hard that my face was expressionless. I usually have enough brain capacity left over to at least smile or something.

At the end of the weekend, I was feeling much better and I did manage to maintain a pleasant expression while dancing.

The hardest hour was in Sunday morning, when Ben Rubright was calling. The pace was so quick that I characterized it as a C2 hot hash. Despite that, I put in a good showing, quickly correcting almost every mistake that I made. (it's too soon for me to be making no mistakes at all!) Watching people in other squares was often the only thing that kept me from breaking down the square.

I'm really looking forward to convention this year!

Role play

A very interesting thing happened this weekend. Friday, I spent the night with a man who called me "daddy". That's the first time that's ever happened.

Saturday, I spent the night with a man that I called "daddy". That's the first time that's ever happened, too.

All of which makes me feel like a walking Rorschach test. What did these men see in me that resulted in such different encounters? What did I see in them?

One thing is certain: at thirty-eight years old, I'm still exploring my own sexual responses. I'm still finding new things about myself. I suppose the most important thing I've learned is to be willing to let go of preconceptions and not let myself get into a rut.

Pun not intended, really.