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Party at Earl's Place
Friday, January 8, 1999 After work today, I zipped home, took the bus downtown, and had a grand time at the Rush Hour jam for the first time in several weeks. A group of lindy hoppers from Tacoma were in town for the evening, to attend the Swing Kids dance being held at the HUB. Anne, Hyper Dan, and I had a blast dancing with them. We went up to the food court in Westlake Mall afterwards, Dan puzzling the others by recommending "soup in a bowl!" "What else would it be in?" they wondered, until he realized that he was omitting the part about it being a bowl made from a loaf of bread.
At one time I'd thought about going to the dance as well, because I've really enjoyed my previous times dancing at the University dances, in May and October. But I thought I really should go to the party I'd been invited to by my buddy Earl Ryan, to show support. I needn't have worried that he wouldn't get a good turnout; there was quite a crowd visible through his front window when I arrived. There was a good spread of food, with a turkey roasted (his first!) by "Up and" Adam. Various kinds of cheese, dips, snacks, rugeleh cookies, and so on, all were being noshed on, while David F. made lemon drop shooters in the kitchen. Many members of the Seattle Lindy Hop scene were there. Mark and Holly exclaimed when they saw me, "We should have all carpooled!" since we live on Capitol Hill. This party took place in the Kennydale Hills, south of Bellevue on the East Side, but it wasn't too long of a drive. I enjoyed looking at people's photographs from SONW. Earl showed Anne Livingston and me his collection of cassette tapes of eighties groups. She was howling with laughter, but we didn't get any of these tapes played during the party. I hadn't brought my dance shoes (I decided I'd gotten enough dancing in at the Rush Hour Jam), but there was quite a bit of dancing going on, out on Earl's deck. Lots of folks put the blues-y grinding we learned at camp to good use! There were a few friends of Earl's that weren't dance people, including one family, parents and three kids. The middle child, a young boy of about six years old, was remarkable! When we were sitting around in the family room, he would casually walk into the center of the room, do a back flip from a standing start, then mock-coolly walk to the edge of the room and slouch against the wall with arms folded. So funny! This happened repeatedly. He was also in the middle of the dancing, doing "Riverdance" style mock step dancing. When the inevitable happened and he was kicked in the stomach (by accident, of course!), he ran inside the house and cried for a few minutes. He was back in the thick of the action very soon, though, none the worse for it.
We gathered around to watch some videos that Earl has made, one of a night at the Russian Center in December (I'm in this one) and some that he made at dance camp. This was fun, but it magnified the annoyance of watching TV while someone else has the remote by about ten times. I hadn't seen any of this tape, so I'd have been happy for it just to play without interruption. Other folks wanted to just fast-forward to the "best" parts. There were lots of funny bits, including footage of the late night dancing on New Year's Eve, with everyone totally exhausted and woozy. When most folks had moved into another room, I did watch myself on video. Well! I was happy with my dancing, but getting used to seeing myself on TV will take some doing.
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