By An Ton That
A few months ago, I ran into a friend of mine at a shopping mall. He and I used to get together with some other friends on weekends to play poker or just sit around and watch sport events on TV. Since Cam and I started ballroom dancing, I had given these friends a lot of excuses for not joining them at those weekend games. It seems they soon got tired of my excuses and stopped calling me, so when this friend saw me in the mall, he seemed very surprised to see me. Our conversation went like this:
FRIEND: "Hey An, how are you? What's happening? I haven't seen you for ages, anything wrong?"
ME: "Oh no, nothing's wrong. Matter of fact, Cam and I are having a lot of fun now. We are sort of getting reacquainted. I just can't find the time to play cards with you guys."
He threw a confused, weird look at me: "Say what??? What is more fun than playing poker?"
ME: "We do ballroom dancing, we dance almost every day now."
FRIEND: "Dancing everyday! Are you nuts? Don't you feet start to hurt?"
ME " Oh yeah! Sometimes they hurt so much I have to ice them so I can dance the next day."
FRIEND " Really? I can't believe it, you're so obsessed with dancing."
ME: "It's like exercising and some people would exercise everyday."
FRIEND "Yes, but they don't exercise until their feet hurt. When their feet hurt they'll stop and do something else, besides they do other things for entertainment. What do you guys do for entertainment?"
ME: "Dancing, what else?! We go out dancing every weekend. Cam's co-workers now stop asking what we do on the weekend. Instead they just ask where did we go dancing on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night."
FRIEND "I'll bet that you probably dance at work, too."
ME: "Yep!, I'm so guilty on this. I practice dancing in the elevator, rest room, hallway -you name it - wherever nobody's around to see me trying the "Three Step, Double Reverse Spin,...."
FRIEND "I wonder what people would think if they caught you doing that."
ME "Perhaps, they will think I have gone over the edge and might break down any minute."
FRIEND "Does Cam do that too?"
ME "I don't know, I don't know what she does at work but sometimes I see her doing the Latin motion back and forth from the sink to the stove in the kitchen. By the way, you didn't hear this from me. "
FRIEND "Sure, my lips are sealed. You two are so addicted! I guess the guys and I won't have any more opportunities to take money from you until your knees are busted"
ME "Yes, we're addicted but it's a healthy addiction. Dancing is the best hobby we've ever had and because of it we enjoy our companionship even more."
With that we parted. He headed to the parking lot and I turned around walked into the store looking for Cam. I found Cam was looking at black dress. When she saw me she held out the dress and said: "Look honey, I can have this dress altered to make it a nice Latin dress."
Everything she touches now, she wants to turn to into Latin dress. The dress from the top to bottom is about the size of two pieces of 8x11 paper put together and she wants to alter it! "There is not much fabric to cover everything, no need to alter it," I protested.
Although we addict to dancing but we still have our sanities, Cam didn't buy the dress!
So it seems dancing occupies most of our activities and most of the time, our minds. Our calendar is filled with dance dates. We've alienated some of our old friends but we've met more friendly, extraordinarily interesting, funny, happy people. Our social life is healthier. Dancing has changed our taste in music too. We listen to Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and many more. We even listen to songs that we don't understand the language. Every time we hear a new song, we try to figure out what dance we can dance with it.
Dancing is probably one of the best things that happened to us. Since we started dancing, Cam and I are spending more time together than before. Although we just talk about dancing and the subject never changes, the important thing is that we talk all the time. We genuinely enjoy sharing the same hobby. Whenever we walk on the dance floor all the problems in our normal life seem to disappear. Dancing has brought us a happier, less stressful life.
We are so addicted to dancing. It is a healthy addiction, a true life-enhancing addiction. It is priceless.
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