On My Immune System, Dancing, Long Talks, Muse

Lets all give a great round of applause for my immune system which managed to fight off all kinds of illness for my first month and a half. I can't say for certain that I am sick, but it sure feels like it. This is pretty routine, though. I think I remember getting sick either in February or March last year. I can't imagine I picked this up from someone. I haven't been around anyone sick. I think whatever germs are invading my body were lying in wait in some inconspicuous location. So far its mild nausea, aches, fatigue, and chills. Maybe this little morning stint will be the worst of it.

Oh well. Whatever doesn't kill you...

Moving on.

Lets all remember back to our days as youth. Us LDS folk remember (vividly in some cases) the many youth dances we were encouraged and in some cases made to attend (I'm talking about YOU youth conference). There are plenty of young people who enjoyed these get togethers. I was in the category of girls who felt uncomfortable dancing to fast songs and rarely got asked to dance slow songs. I was often just sitting there feeling like I was lacking in something. So my last Youth Conference was the last LDS dance I ever attended. Last year, in an attempt to encourage good clean fun in the woods, Bear Brook held many dance parties. I went to some of these. And danced maybe twice (only because I was forced).

But now I want you to take this information and forget everything you ever knew about me. As a long time "never dancer", I shocked myself this weekend.

I attended an LDS dance function. It was called the "Cabin Fever Reliever" dance. Was it well attended? No. Was the fast to slow song ratio about 1:2? Yes. Did I dance? YES. Did I have fun and make some new friends? Yes, indeed. I did. I got there and was at first determined to do my usual sit down and watch everyone else dance/be anti-social and leave early thing. But an older sister from my branch who came to help with refreshments introduced me to her granddaughters right off the bat. Jamie (my age) and Hannah (19). The first thing they did was ask if I wanted to dance.

GULP.

For a split second, the usual "No thanks, I don't really dance" hovered on my lips. Immediately after that, I heard myself say "well, I am a HORRIBLE dancer, but why not? Let's get our dance on!" Despite the lameness of the phrase "get my/your/our ____ on" I was taking my uncomfortableness by the horns, looking at it in straight in the eyes, and saying "Forget you. I am going to have fun tonight."

So I danced. Not well, and not OVER exuberantly. But I danced. I did many of the "group dances" including the Macarena (how did that dance ever become popular??). I also dd the twist and had fun doing interpretive dance for the song Fireflies and I'm Already There (that song made me think of dad, of course). I made 5 new friends and had a GRAND time! I stayed the whole time and then went to Denny's with the 5 other girls I was dancing with. Yes, I got home at 12:30am (the 1.5 hour drive from Bangor to Owls Head was rough. I wasn't sure I was going to make it) but I had so much fun!

It's easy to have fun when you allow yourself to (My new motto. For YOU Juli, I did put it on my blog.)

Next thing. I finally had a long talk with Bonnie. Nothing all the serious. Just a chance for us to talk about how things are going. I learned that she doesn't like being around people in the morning which is a good thing because I don't really like interacting in the morning either. I also learned that for those of you who are ever going to visit, she would rather you found a hotel to stay in rather than sharing the house with a person or two so they can stay for free. I learned a couple other things, not much more than I already knew. We are going to have bi-monthly meetings and I am going to make a chore chart. I was as honest as I felt I could be about how I feel about Sadie and how I feel about it right now. How I felt it would have been nice to have given it a little more time. How I am still sad about it and will be for a while. How I know it's her house and she has a right to live in it the way she wants and I respect that. All those things. Oh! I also learned that she is very particular as to what is visible to her eyes in the kitchen. She can't STAND people's kitchens that have things out of the cupboards. What that means for me? Not much, just that I can't put my tortilla chips on top of the fridge behind the weird wooden tiger where no one can see them. SHE knows it's there and that's all that matters. No biggie.

And finally, I was going to post something about how I feel towards St. Valentines Day this year, but I am feeling sicker and sicker. I really need to go home. So V-Day 2011 will have to wait until later.

So I will end with saying that I am glad Muse won something last night at the Grammy's. Though I do think it's weird that Matthew Bellamy threw into his acceptance speech that he "thanks his pregnant girlfriend."

Okay, going to go home and sleep this illness off. I have to go to this Americorps thing tomorrow and I want to be feeling better by then.

Happy Valentines Day everybody.