Missed opportunity

What are the chances? On the Saturday after the Republican convention Sarah Palin was in Albuquerque. (Regional humor: Everyone here calls Albuquerque "Alba-qwirky.") And darn it, I missed her. I am so bummed out. Anyone who was there had to have gotten their tickets before they knew about Palin. Since we weren't too keen about McCain we didn't even think of going. From now on I'm keeping my eye on their campaign calendar and I'm hoping they come back through New Mexico. Boy howdy, I'd like to shake Sarah's hand. Or run a 10K with her. Haha! (That's from a news headline. I don't really run.) I could even go to El Paso if need be. Here's the McCain/Palin Calendar. Oh yeeeah, I know you'll want to bookmark it to see when she comes to your town!

I'm watching the political headlines and they're fascinating! How will Sarah do on the interview?

I'm dancing on Wednesday and Friday nights from 5:00pm to 8:30 with a half hour break in there. I sure do work up a sweat. My teacher wants to take a video of me doing my dance from beginning to end. I think I might have her do it for me on Friday. She's been so nice. She has a smoke machine and she said I should do a practice run on Friday and then sometime we'll go to the senior center and I can dance it with the smoke machine. Ooooh, that might be neato.

There were three of us dancing tonight. It was an emotional night at the end. As we were saying good-night to each other one of the girls (I say girls, but we are women of course) began to explain how she was glad the teacher was teaching and that when she took the class last year she felt so good when the teacher explained how to move and how beautiful each woman's body was and how we should take time just for ourselves by taking a class.

This is one of the things that draws me to the belly dance. It's a dance made for the female body and it doesn't have to be a thin body. It doesn't have to be a tall, lithe, body with a small head such as you need to be in the New York City Ballet. It doesn't need to be a quick body such as you need for flamenco. The movements can be executed well by women with narrow hips or wide hips, generous bust or no bust, young or old. Weight is irrelevant.

The student went on to explain that at the time she attended her first class last year she was contemplating suicide. She said the class helped her to not do the deed.

Isn't it amazing how people are going through such devastating times right before our eyes? And we can't tell. It doesn't show. You just never know what the person next to you is really going through.

So I spoke up and said how our teacher truly has a gift for seeing the strength and potential of each dancer. She does. Some teachers just teach steps and moves and choreography. This teacher does that but she also has a special sensitivity required to develop the individual dancer. I've noticed that about her. It's gotta be some kind of a gift.

I walked over and hugged my teacher. Then she hugged the other student. Then I said, "Group hug." Ohhh, I know, how corny. I was thinking in my mind of the group hug icon we use sometimes. Even when I'm not at my computer I'm thinking of my computer! And I was compelled to kiss the other student on the cheek since we were cheek to cheek already. I don't know, it just happened. It was soft and I didn't get any spit on her. I didn't tell her that I had once jumped off of a bridge and that I understood the depth of her despair. She looked at me and her eyes welled up with tears. I stepped back and smiled, excused myself and went home.

It was a good night dancing.