Jobs and What That Means for Dancing

Not that many of you readers actually care about my personal life, but here's an update:
I graduated from college on May 14th (yippee!), only to realize that I was jobless. I remained jobless for three weeks until I signed on with a temp agency and found a 2 month full-time position that pays pretty well verifying information over the phone. Not my first choice, but hey, a job is a job and I am grateful.

Then...Do you remember my post about Patty and the Buttons? They play on a weekly basis at this great place called Aster Cafe. Aster provides more than great jazz, as they have great food, great ambiance, and the workers are fantastic. Last Friday I found out that I might have a chance to get a job there, Saturday I submitted my resume, and on Sunday I was hired and started my first shift. I am pumped about getting this job!

But here is the downside: I am now working both a full-time job that I have committed to working until the end of July and I have this gig at Aster...and all this work means much less dancing. I started on Sunday, it is now Wednesday night, and I can already feel the "must dance itch." So much so, that my legs just had to Charleston in the break room, hoping that nobody would walk past.

Here are my worries:

Photo by Ben Hejkal

• I've made progress in the past few weeks, especially from all the great feedback from Peter Strom and Stacia Martin at Uptown Swing, and I'm afraid I might lose that progress and then some.
• Will I be able to reach my goal of learning the Tranky Doo in the next month?
• When will I be able to dance next? Next week feels like eons away, let alone a month.
• Will my employers let me have the time off to get to The Rhythm is Jumpin and Twin Cities Balboa Festival? Will I be able to dance well at these events if I don't get practice time on the dance floor before? (I made a goal for myself last summer to start competing more, even if just to get the experience. Well, I made progress this past spring while I was at Heartland Swing Festival and I would like to keep on going with that progress.)
• I would like to go to ILHC this August and to Herrang next summer, but both are so expensive. As it seems now, my only chances to really dance this summer are at a few events, such as The Rhythm is Jumpin (and remember, I'm itchin' to dance and compete). Do I spend the money on a number of smaller dance events or try to save my money for ILHC and Herrang in the future? Anybody want to sponsor me? If I had time, I would offer to clean your house, but sadly I don't.

My outlook is this: I can't guarantee much about the future, but I can make the most of my time. I think I'm going to try to download a YouTube video of the Tranky Doo onto my iPod and utilize the time I have during my lunch break (thank you Jon Tigert for continuing to inspire me). It may not be lots of dancing, but hey, it's a start!

And readers, feel free to comment/reflect/discuss and follow this blog! I want to know what you like and don't like about the blog or the new ideas you bring to the table. You're feedback is welcome...even from those of you in Denmark!

Just Dance

Here he is dancing with Carla Heiney.

I am very much a curious person about people I know or have heard about. I like to know about their lives and find out what they like and who they are. My whole point in telling you about this is that facebook suggested I should be friends with Jon Tigert, whom I have met but don't really know. But my curiosity kicked in and started perusing his page and found the link to his website, which led me to his blog, which I then read. 

One of his posts was about how to get better at dancing and I very much agree with what he had to say. You can read the post for yourself here. If you're too lazy to do that, here is my quick synopsis of the post: you can get better at dancing when you learn to dance by (and may I suggest, for) yourself.

Jon writes, "So you are wondering how you can become a better dancer, even if you don't have a partner, or you can't afford classes.
Get off your butt, stop reading blogs and watching videos, put in your earbuds and just dance."

Just dance. Amen to that!