characteristic #6

I love plaid pajama pants. Flannel in the winter; lighter weight in the fall and spring.

New best song ever

7-ish clicks through suggested videos, starting from a Zero 7 song a friend posted on Twitter, I found this.



The video makes me happy too.

I actually like a youtube comment

"Well, Not Exactly, but next time he's Alone With You, he'll give you the Satisfaction of explaining everything."  Sounds kinda hot.

(It's not a bad song either, by the way.)

Quick list of thanks

My swing buddies (Sloan, Ellis, and Robert).  And of course, our lovely friend and Rum Bar bartender, Zack.  Those blues dances that are completely magic.  Coffee.  My new friend at work, Stephan.  The unbelievably wonderful west coast swing community.  Going to Baltimore Fall Blues Summit.  Being able to go home to my family pretty much whenever.  Working at a company full of truly wonderful people.  Having my weekly dances to always look forward to.  Adding to my fledgling circle of swing dancer friends.  Wawa.  Seeing people with dogs on the sidewalk.  My favorite cafés to hang out in.  Jimmy John's deliciousness.  Sleeping in on Saturday.  Discovering new beers I like.  Keeping in touch with David.  Discovering fusion dancing.  Meeting people from out of town who want to get to know me more.  Having a bit of "me time" in the morning bus ride.  Boots.  That I found a place to live in Philly with near-zero stress.  That I got a job to start right after I graduated.  A comfortable bed.  Visiting my brother at his college down in South Carolina.  Learning PHP and Drupal.  NK happy hours.  Music, in so many kinds and ways.

Being so happy, and often - sometimes I can't completely take it in.

characteristic #3

I have a thing for goatees.  I think I'm the only girl I know who does.  But really, it's true.

I'm in love with blues dancing

Given the way I jumped headfirst into dancing blues and still have nearly zero lesson experience, I probably do not possess the legitimacy to speak about it thus.  I probably still frustrate the good leads with whom I am lucky enough to dance.

Disclaimer done.

Blues dancing is just about the most wonderful experience in the world -- yeah, I'm in love right now.  The unfamiliar observer might deem it incomprehensibly inappropriate: picture two people whose relationship could fall anywhere from couple to complete strangers, dancing in a close embrace...  But that's it.  Five minutes of escape to a separate world, just you and that person, surroundings ceasing to matter.  You rock, sway, and swing in slow, fluid motions.  The pauses and the subtlest movements enmeshed with the music are moments of near-breathless, perfect tension.

At its best: it is rapture, a taste of heaven or maybe of being in love.  I practically cannot dance it without eyes closed.

...This description is either a pretty good one, or will sufficiently creep out whoever reads it to the point they'd never want to dance blues with me.  Heh.

"why do you dance?"

(excerpted unedited from an online conversation I had tonight. this is my spontaneous answer.)

i've liked dance (in general, not just ballroom) for years
i love music...
the expression in it means a lot to me
uh..
when i first tried ballroom, in social lessons, somehow i got hooked
and i'd come home thinking, nothing makes me happier than this, wow
and i like the interactive part of dancing with a partner
experiencing the music together
and i guess there's always the fact that, well, i get to dance with guys, haha
as for the competitive part
i guess mainly
i want to have fun
but it also motivates me to look good while dancing (ie. technique)
and if you dance really well, it feels good. the flow and connection and the like
being in sync with the music

I love

falling in love with a new song at first listen

a good hair straightener

long dangling earrings

thursday afternoon with the whole weekend ahead

massages

graphics, designs, and interfaces that are pretty, or slick, or creative

when i successfully follow a guy leading me through a step i don't actually know

salsa parties at Take the Lead

bedgasm (definition 1)

foosball games at Dow Jones. there's nothing like them.

meeting awesome friendly people

shoe shopping

fuzzy socks

cuddling

laughing

long deep conversations

communicating with real people on twitter

the muscle burns after rock climbing

for that matter, climbing a route i didn't think i'd make it through

not waking up to too-early alarms

interesting photography

geeky jokes

bathing suit shopping

chick flicks/romantic comedies

big sweatpants

hugs

pretty fonts

gorgeous weather (warm, sunny, fresh...)

writing a good blog post

great smiles

the view of the city (Philly) at night

the programmer's moment of glory (when you find that key to fixing everything after hours of deep debugging and reworking)

receiving text messages that make me smile or laugh

plaid flannel pajama pants

taking pictures

dancing

...

Heaven (Ian Pooley)

Last night I was doing some reading for psych (since the week has been crazy, and I felt like I hadn't done reading for that class in forever) and listening to Pandora, to which I've turned these days since Ruckus went out of business. Since I've spent the majority of my Pandora listening time developing my "light trance and such" station, I have learned that Pandora tends to play mostly my "thumbs-up" songs for awhile, but if I keep on listening for a few hours, it'll start to throw in new ones that I haven't heard before. So I'm just sitting there in my big round green chair, reading and taking notes, when the song that comes on catches my attention. I don't think the station has played it before, but I know for sure that I know it, and I also know it's a Hed Kandi song. (I went on a Hed Kandi streak for awhile, second semester of sophomore year, and collected maybe 20 or so songs on YouTube from various mix albums... I haven't listened to much of that music recently, though.) After a minute I get up to see which one it was, and it turns out to be an instrumental version very similar to the one I actually know (video above).

I can't help it - I fall into the feeling of the music. Whoever decided to put this song on a Beach House album had the right kind of thinking going on. Suddenly, sitting in my room at Penn in the winter, all I want is the heat, the sun, the utter laziness, the brightness, the sand...of summer at the beach. I want to stretch out on a towel, "working" on my tan, enjoying the feeling of freedom brought on by near-nakedness. And I want a boy with me. I want to go down to the water together, I want to be all shy the way I am about the cold water, I want him to splash and tease me and then hold me in a gesture indicative of warmth - more symbolic than actually helpful. I want to ride and dive through the waves together, and hey maybe he can teach me to bodysurf, since I've never really been able to get it. And when we're tired and happy, we'll go back and lay down to dry in the sun. We'll move closer, and we'll close our eyes and kiss - because even if other people see us, we've got our own world right now.

length of post is not in proportion to enjoyment of subject

Today was the first day of this quarter of the social lessons run by PLBD. I think I forgot how much I really like dance. When I go, I'm friendly, I chat with people, smile a lot, joke around... A lot of it's probably because I can't help but be in such a good mood there. And there's almost always a bit of awkwardness mixed in, especially in the earlier weeks when we don't know what we're doing, and we don't know each other, etc. But that helps cuz most of us are in the same boat. And for some reason, people that dance just seem to generally be friendly. I get to move, to music, with someone else. Plus Garincha is just so completely awesome; he is funny and makes it so much fun with his personality. I just love it. It makes life good.

Oh yeah, and today, we danced hustle to What is Love and Pump up the Jam. somuchfunnnn :D

I need to go social dancing moreeeee.

This is addiction.

i love this song - My Red Hot Car, by Squarepusher on the album Go Plastic:



^ [player courtesy of Fruitunes]

i love the step file someone wrote for it. it may be my absolute favorite out of all songs i have played. i also play too much stepmania...



and i actually do love the little red civic my family has...

ps: a friend's interpretation (thanks David)