On Dancing

If you don't know me and have just started reading this blog, you may not know that I am a dancer. I've been dancing practically since I could walk, and it's the one thing that I can do where I can block out every other part of my life.

But Dude is not a dancer. It makes him pretty uncomfortable and so we have some work to do in terms of our first dance.

On a tangent, I don't understand why male dancers are generally thought of as effeminate. Statistically speaking there are a lot of homosexual men in dance. But the whole concept of pairs dancing, where there is a definite masculine role and a definite feminine role... I'd actually argue that dance forces masculinity in men, at least when it comes to male-female pairs dancing. The masculine role in pairs dancing is always masculine, and when the masculine dancer's not, the whole thing looks odd and uncomfortable and poorly executed.

And on another tangent, it kind of bothers me that many American men I know look down on dance as a "gay" thing to do, like it's a threat to their precious masculinity. Dance is such a basic form of expression and those who do dance will tell you it's such a natural high to allow your body to be in sync with your emotions (often celebratory).

But I digress.

Because I'm a dancer I'm very very picky about how I'm perceived, especially with my partner, when dancing. So I've pretty much given up on Dude doing anything complicated. I am choreographing a simple dance to an upbeat, fun-loving song, and Dude will most likely be standing around while I do chaines and pirouettes around him. I hope my dress won't be a hindrance.

A win for everybody!

I Couldn't Really Blame Her, I Suppose

Last week my mom called me at work, in a panic.

"Did you think about the booze?! Do we have to bring some? Where are we going to get it?"

Wow.

I can't really blame her. She knows my disgust for weddings (she made me be a flower girl 7 times, for chrissakes) and so she assumed that like all tasks I don't want to do, I would procrastinate and scramble at the last minute.

So I laughed and told her that not only did I think about the booze, but also that it was the very first thing I thought about, and that everything is included in the venue price per head. Yes that means booze. Also the rentals and the linens and the food. (And by the way, could you please not call me about weddings at work, I work with all guys and they need to respect me. I love you I'll call you later, bye.) I've been to enough dry weddings to know that booze is a must.

We opted for a limited open bar with beer and wine and a specialty drink of iced tea with vodka. We were trying to go for a spiked sweet tea as a nod to Dude's southern roots, which I think would entail either bourbon or whiskey, but vodka will go down easier and will probably be preferred by most people.

Most wedding planning advice tells you to opt for a limited open bar because it saves you money, but interestingly enough, it didn't really save that much money. We almost buckled down and got the full open bar but like everything in wedding planning, even an extra $5 will be a huge hit when you multiply it by your guest list.