Pep, Vim and Verve

Friday, September 4, 1998
One year ago: Fire for Fire

My entry of a year ago talked about Wally's return from Burning Man. Last year Labor Day was a week earlier, so he was already back, instead of being in the midst of it as I suppose he is right now. My timidity about attending this event was evident then and still exists.

At work, people were torn between the natural tendency to look forward to a three-day weekend, and a mini-milestone that needed to happen today. I was eager to get out of there myself, with Vanguard, a monthly party of science fiction fans, and Bumbershoot, a great big arts festival, both happening this weekend.

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I sent some mail to Adam about dance happenings this weeked, and thanked him for taking my advice-giving and enthusiasm in the right spirit. He said something about how if he saw me and I wasn't smiling, he'd know the universe was out of joint! I wonder, do I come across as preternaturally cheerful and perky? If I'm at a dance, I'm probably enjoying myself, so a cheerful expression isn't out of place there.

A man I'd been out with a few times wrote to me a while back, "Glad you are having such a good time." This really made me think that I was sounding overly peppy in what I was writing to him. I was trying to tell about what was happening to me, since he doesn't read this journal as far as I know. I do enjoy my life, and I think I'm blessed by having good genes so I'm not subject to the depressions that some folks have trouble with. But I wondered if my life was sounding so full that I was making it seem there was no room for other people in it.

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I chose an entry from this journal for the Journal Collection for August, where online journalers can select an entry that they think is the best from their respective journals. I picked Saturday, August 22: Living Traditions. I think it was very self-revealing, with the contrast between my brave talk about asking folks to dance and then my non-asking at the actual dance, and it includes a very funny incident with a DJ berating me as an old nerd because I thought the music was too loud.

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I went to the Savoy Swing Club Friday night practice, then walked from there to the Russian Center with dance buddies Mark and Holly. They are about my age and also live on Capitol Hill. We were suprised to see that the hall was dominated by high school kids, a swing dance performing group from Bainbridge Island, all in swing costume. I danced with several of the guys. I wasn't going to let twenty leads I'd never danced with get away! Their performance was great! They were very energetic and stylish. I was amused -- when Hep Jen arrived, late in the evening, she matched the group, since she was wearing a short black skirt and white blouse just like the girls were!