So I Think I Can Dance

We are having my company’s version of a layoff right now with more to come. This is always kind of scary especially when it’s not performance based but based on the role you currently have. If they are doing performance based cutbacks then that shouldn’t be a surprise to you but you never know what roles they are going to cut. Lately I’ve been interested in diversity or women’s initiative type program management jobs but these are the “fluffier” roles and tend to be cut first. I’ve always tried to stick to the roles that aren’t very specialized. Right now I’m a program/project manager. We will see.

Monday night I went to the final dance class of the series (cha-cha and swing). This was a 2-hour class that was combined with the Level 1 class (I am in Level 2). Taking a group dance class is always a gamble because it’s hard for a group class to match your current level unless you are a beginner. The Level 2 class was boring for me because I didn’t really learn anything new and I had to dance with beginner dancers. I don’t mind teaching some but I don’t want to pay money to walk the guys through the dance moves. Well, I thought Level 2 was pretty bad… combined with Level 1… it really sucked. Towards the end, the couples wanted to stick together which left 2 guys for 4 women to share and Mandy and I had to share a guy who was horrible. He held us too close which pitched us forward and I could go on and on with all the things that were wrong. I finally decided that it was Mandy’s turn to dance with him and then disappeared so she couldn’t find me to rescue her, which was cruel but required for self-preservation. After class, we commiserated and I was laughing so much I started crying. The class was going to field trip at a local club “Graham Central Station” and Mandy and I both agreed that our idea of fun did not constitute going to a club and dancing with some really bad dancers who were twice our ages. The teacher pulled me aside and asked if I would take her class again in the fall and assured me that she had a guy who was really good signed up to take the class but I don’t know if that’s good enough. I told Mandy that I wanted to dance with hot young guy, especially if I was going to be paying for lessons. So if I take lessons again, they will most likely be private. They are more expensive but I can learn a lot more in one hour with a really good male lead than I ever could in a group class.

I’m more advanced than the average person with ballroom, Latin and swing dancing but have a huge inferiority complex dancing with people who practice all the time and have been doing it for years so I am stuck in a dancing limbo… if I took private dance lessons, then I could gain the confidence to dance with some really good dancers and enjoy it… and not worry the whole time that they think I’m a bad dancer.

Right now I love the show “So You Think I Can Dance”. I was only able to watch bits and pieces of last year’s version because of conflicts but there is one show from last season that has been clogging up an hour of our TiVo for about a year. It has a 2 minute samba on it that I absolutely love. Fortunately Brian understands my love of dancing and does not push me to delete that show, even though we lost the Alias series finale from the lack of space.

In the interest of getting rid of my post-baby tummy bulge, I decided to up my Pilates regimen to 2x/week. Pilates is weird in that you are not sore from the class until 24 hours later and taking two classes a week with one day in between means that you do the second class with everything being sore. But I persevered through the class. I am also doing the ROM about 5 times a week and will probably do 6 times a week since my dance class is over. And finally I have increased my protein consumption during the day drinking protein shakes. If my stomach doesn’t decrease in size in the next two weeks, I will have to start walking a few times a week. As a very last resort, I will diet. I have never been on a diet in my whole life and the thought of depriving myself of anything makes me want to eat all these things that I wouldn’t even normally eat. Which is why it’s a last resort. Just talking about dieting makes me want to run to the vending machine to get a candy bar which I almost never eat anyway. That is how my brain works.

I got my car detailed for the first time ever and it’s just awesome. My car is 6 years old and I still love it and now it looks brand new. $125 is much cheaper than buying a new $30,000 car. We went to two birthday parties on Sunday. It was Jagger’s birthday at Chuck E Cheese and I took Jack while Brian went to the other birthday party with Ty. This worked out well because the other birthday party was for an adult and they don’t have kids and their house is a nightmare for parents because of all the nice breakable things at a toddler level. Jack had a great time at Chuck E Cheese although I made the mistake of giving him some HiC with water in it. He thought that was the best thing ever and didn’t eat anything else other than a cup cake. This is what happens when you deprive your children of sugar on a regular basis. They are slaves to it when they are around it. But he was really good and had a great time (Thanks Tracy and Jagger!). After we left the party we met up with Brian and Ty at the other party. I spent the next hour having sporadic conversations with the adults punctuating every other word with “No Jack!” or “Don’t touch that, Jack” or “No, I don’t want to go outside/inside with you.” I had a good time in the short time I was there. Unfortunately my stay ended with…

Kelly: What’s that? [Pointing to small brown glob on the floor, thinking it was a raisin or prune]
Joe: Poop. [Casually handing me a napkin]
Kelly: Sh*t. [Grabbing Jack and dragging him into the bathroom and using 25 wipes to clean up the horrific mess]

Jack never does this at home. Only at other people’s homes. In fact, the last time it was at Jill B’s house!
Finally I want to say that Jack officially does nothing I say unless it is coupled with threats of time out, taking toys away or just walking out of the room. This just drives me nuts because our lives would be so easy if he just did what we said!