Dating a non-dancer

A fellow lindy hopper asked me if it was hard to date a non-dancer.

The swing scene, at least my local scene, is chockablock full of singles. The man behind the major swing organization in town says he likes it that way because once people start marrying off, they stop coming to the dances. Most hardcore lindy hoppers will not date a non-dancer. The few that do, stop dancing as often, if not altogether. Is it hard for someone, a previously self-described lindy-addict, to date a non-dancer?

No. It's not hard for me. "Of course," I explained to my friend, "I would give up dancing for this guy."

There was a pause on the other end of the line followed by an "Oh wow!"

I think many of my friends would be like...oookay. So you'd give up dancing. Whatev. It's just dancing. But, for those who refer to themselves as lindy hoppers, the dance becomes so thoroughly part of your identity that to give it up is completely unthinkable.

Until priorities change.

I surprised myself the night I casually mentioned to Mike, "Yeah, I'd be open to dancing someone who doesn't dance." (mentally, I added: only if that someone is you!) 

Someone will probably come along one day that you realize means more to you than that dance and it will be surprisingly easy to back off a little from the hardwoods. I haven't given up lindy hopping. I still love to dance, but I love Mike way more than I love any swingout variation with any dancer in the world.

I was hardcore for only a year and I'm glad I had that time. I got to go to ATLX5 and CHEX2. Nick Williams once asked me to dance. I've made so many friends who share a love of Jesus and lindy hop! I'm grateful for that. And now I'm very grateful for a man who knows how much I love to dance that he puts himself aside and trusts me enough to dance with other men once a week. Who will sway with me in the kitchen when a slow song comes over the speakers. While we don't share like hobbies, we're on the same page with the big stuff that's actually important.

Anyway, if you love your hobby more than your significant other, they may not be the right one for you.

life outside

I have done more than just video games in my spare time. Mike and I went to the pool today, which is such a nice thing to do in the hot weather. Going to the pool is so relaxing without three kids to chase around!

We're going back again later this week to get our tan on. 

Fable

I have no work this week because the kiddos are at the beach. It's been a good week so far and a ton of it has been spent playing Fable II on Mike's xbox 360.

Fable 2 is due back to Blockbuster on Thursday, and I wanted to beat it before it was due back. It's such a fun game for someone like me to play. It's very user friendly. I can't fall off cliffs, there is a gold dust trail that usually tells me where I need to go (but I can explore without it!), safety is on and so you can't kill townspeople unless you mean to. The game aims for me and makes killing beetles/hobbes/bandits and other enemies very easy. Also, it's very sims-like in that you can get townspeople to fall in love with you, get married, and have kids.

For anyone who plays the game that may be curious about my hero:

• She is good and pure to the max. Halo, flowing blonde hair, and a golden retriever baby.
  
• She wears the full noble lady outfit except for the hat. Well, the hat was donned for a little while before it was decided to be ugly.
  
• Dog's name: Sizzle.
  
• Married Alex from the quest and has 2 children with him Amy and James. (The kids are pretty different. Amy's favorite expression is the fart and James is a tofu-loving serious type. When I do the fart expression she thinks it's super funny, but he hates it.)
  
• Preferred method of fighting: will spells (time control, zombies, flame...in that order) followed by picking people off with the best crossbow money can buy.
  
• Chose to bring back my family & pet with my one wish--I had to have that dog back.

I beat the game with my good character, played a few more quests, and then started over. Off to make me an evil character. Not too much development so far: I named my dog Roxanne, rented out my gypsy home, and did a few quests.

Now that I've beat the game, I'm a little less addicted, but I'm still enjoying it. I still have a few wishes in mind, like getting 8 perfect rounds in the Crucible or remembering to invest in the Westcliff pub with Barnum this time around.

I like it so much, though, that I might try to find the game on eBay for cheap.

Okay, I'm done geeking out.

Epic Dune Climb Race

Mike and I spend a few days in Michigan at the beginning of the month. My uncle got married and there was lots of family and friends to see and/or meet. We also spent time with his family on the opposite side of the state. It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun together. :)

One of the best parts of the trip was the day before the wedding. Mike and I went to the Sleeping Bear Dunes with my mom. We made all the stops on the scenic drive and got to see these crazy huge sand dunes and the beautiful waters of Lake Michigan and Glen Lake. (Way prettier than any South Carolina lake!)

Our last stop before leaving the park was the Dune Climb where visitors have an opportunity to climb up one of the very massive sand dunes. My mom gracefully declined and took pictures for us.

Since I have posted anything in so long, I'd like to shower you with pictures of the epic dune climb.

Here we are ready to race up the sand dune behind us. This gives you some initial idea of what we were getting ourselves into. See the people on it? See how tiny they are?

And we're off laughing and racing to the top of what is listed as the park's "most strenuous trail."

Running up a sand dune is very, very, very difficult. I'm lagging behind.

Think we made it to the top? We didn't! You can't see from the bottom, but the dune climb continues over a mile until Lake Michigan. We looked and saw that it kept going, and kept going up, and decided we had seen enough sand. 

Love this photo! It's a close up of us at the top of the first hill. What you can't see is that both of us could hardly breathe. We may have not made it all the way, but we had fun!