Last night I drove about an hour to my friend's house where she, her boyfriend(? dating partner person?) and I drove another 45 minutes to Cowboy Up in Mendon. I was ready for it. I was wearing jeans and pointy-toed cowgirl boots. I had my bonafide dressy cowgirl shirt in my purse in case it got chilly, which it never did! And I learned pretty quickly that a teal tank top was not the best idea. Renee and John were both wearing dark shirts so you couldn't see the sweat. Now why didn't I think of that? Oh, right, because I thought line dancing was a low-key kind of dancing.
HA!
At the beginning of the evening they teach a couple dances to the newbies. We missed the first one because we were eating but Renee and I ran up to learn the second one. Well, I ran and convinced Renee who never line dances to come with me. It was an easy enough dance to catch on and the instructor kept repeating the moves relentlessly. I was starting to get bored when the instruction ended and they fired up a song. That's when I realized how stinkin' fast they dance these easy moves.
Over the course of the night, whenever we could see people dancing the one set we learned, Renee and I would hop up on the stage and join in. Then, if another dance looked relatively simple and I was feeling it, I'd jump in and learn it on the fly. Thankfully, Friday nights are not as crowded as Saturdays so there were fewer people for me to run into when I did that. People were pretty nice about hollering out the next move when they saw I was bumbling along half a pace after them.
Before long I was one giant ball of sweat. It was great.
Now, you know how most public places have a "That Guy" who is either obnoxious or just plain odd? This place has an odd That Guy. No one really knows his name, but they all know who people are referring to when they say, "Oh my goodness, That Guy is here." He dresses like a serious cowboy and wears a very wide-brimmed hat. That alone isn't a big deal, but his dancing is hilarious! I was told to watch him because it would be entertaining. He sort of does his own thing when other people are dancing. No one is quite sure if he learned these other dances somewhere else or if he just made them up. Apparently he used to go out and dance solo but now he has a following of four or five guys who jump up there with him. Some of his moves are hilarious!
One of That Guy's followers, a nice fellow named Matt, came up to me during one of the very rare slow songs and asked, "Darlin', would you care to dance?" I figured sure, why not? I was sweaty and gross but he was, too, so it wasn't a big deal.
A couple hours later, I was a totally disgusting sweat bomb slouching at a table and drinking guzzling water when That Guy was suddenly standing in front of me, head cocked under his very wide-brimmed hat. In a startling deep voice he said, "May I have this dance?" I grinned, shoved my water on the table and hopped up, "Sure!" How could I not? I glanced at Renee and John as I left the table and had to look away quickly because they were both staring at me wide-eyed and biting back grins.
When I returned, they were both wearing wide smiles. I leaned down as I walked around them to my seat and said, "Josh." John looked confused, probably wonder if I had forgotten his name. "What?"
"His name is Josh and he's a sweetheart." They cracked up.
By midnight the dancing was still going strong but the three of us were winding down. We did one more easy dance that even Renee joined in. That Guy warned me when one of the steps was going to speed up. See, he's a sweetheart.![]()
After that, we left. John drove us back to Renee's house. I hopped in the car and headed home. Somehow or another I managed to end up in the back roads of Eau Claire during a wicked storm. I thanked God for the GPS and watched the lightning show as I drove home, where I stood on the back porch for a minute, watching the sky and turning my face to the rain. If it had been dumping buckets I would have booked it indoors but it was a gentle rain that contrasted with the sizzling bolts of lightning making contact with the ground. It was pretty awesome.
I just found out, while typing this, that a bolt of lightning hit the field near our house! I'm totally going to go out there and see if I can tell where it hit! Cooool! *runs off*
HA!
At the beginning of the evening they teach a couple dances to the newbies. We missed the first one because we were eating but Renee and I ran up to learn the second one. Well, I ran and convinced Renee who never line dances to come with me. It was an easy enough dance to catch on and the instructor kept repeating the moves relentlessly. I was starting to get bored when the instruction ended and they fired up a song. That's when I realized how stinkin' fast they dance these easy moves.
Over the course of the night, whenever we could see people dancing the one set we learned, Renee and I would hop up on the stage and join in. Then, if another dance looked relatively simple and I was feeling it, I'd jump in and learn it on the fly. Thankfully, Friday nights are not as crowded as Saturdays so there were fewer people for me to run into when I did that. People were pretty nice about hollering out the next move when they saw I was bumbling along half a pace after them.
Before long I was one giant ball of sweat. It was great.
Now, you know how most public places have a "That Guy" who is either obnoxious or just plain odd? This place has an odd That Guy. No one really knows his name, but they all know who people are referring to when they say, "Oh my goodness, That Guy is here." He dresses like a serious cowboy and wears a very wide-brimmed hat. That alone isn't a big deal, but his dancing is hilarious! I was told to watch him because it would be entertaining. He sort of does his own thing when other people are dancing. No one is quite sure if he learned these other dances somewhere else or if he just made them up. Apparently he used to go out and dance solo but now he has a following of four or five guys who jump up there with him. Some of his moves are hilarious!
One of That Guy's followers, a nice fellow named Matt, came up to me during one of the very rare slow songs and asked, "Darlin', would you care to dance?" I figured sure, why not? I was sweaty and gross but he was, too, so it wasn't a big deal.
A couple hours later, I was a totally disgusting sweat bomb slouching at a table and drinking guzzling water when That Guy was suddenly standing in front of me, head cocked under his very wide-brimmed hat. In a startling deep voice he said, "May I have this dance?" I grinned, shoved my water on the table and hopped up, "Sure!" How could I not? I glanced at Renee and John as I left the table and had to look away quickly because they were both staring at me wide-eyed and biting back grins.
When I returned, they were both wearing wide smiles. I leaned down as I walked around them to my seat and said, "Josh." John looked confused, probably wonder if I had forgotten his name. "What?"
"His name is Josh and he's a sweetheart." They cracked up.
By midnight the dancing was still going strong but the three of us were winding down. We did one more easy dance that even Renee joined in. That Guy warned me when one of the steps was going to speed up. See, he's a sweetheart.
After that, we left. John drove us back to Renee's house. I hopped in the car and headed home. Somehow or another I managed to end up in the back roads of Eau Claire during a wicked storm. I thanked God for the GPS and watched the lightning show as I drove home, where I stood on the back porch for a minute, watching the sky and turning my face to the rain. If it had been dumping buckets I would have booked it indoors but it was a gentle rain that contrasted with the sizzling bolts of lightning making contact with the ground. It was pretty awesome.
I just found out, while typing this, that a bolt of lightning hit the field near our house! I'm totally going to go out there and see if I can tell where it hit! Cooool! *runs off*