Day Two, February 11: What you love. This one's about your favorite things, or pick one thing and wax rhapsodic on it.
What do I love? I've been brainstorming on this one for awhile... impractical shoes, deep fried foods, swimming pools, wildflowers, good novels, dive bars, really truly terrible novels, wint-o-green lifesavers, writing, talking, cigarettes, good cocktails, bad wine, the internet, my apartment, nightswimming, my fern, the cat (I guess he's a "who"), telephone calls that last for hours, new cute clothes, a good tofu stir-fry, my car...
There are a lot of things to choose from, but none of them really seem like What I Love. I mean, I can write a whole long essay on anything really, especially on anything I even like a little. But we're going to do with spontaneous dance parties, because there can just never be too many spontaneous dance parties in your life.
My sister and I used to have them pretty frequently at home... she made mix tapes, and there were several volumes entitled "Ultimate Dance Mix Number ___". Then there was another series of "Bl@u Girls Groovy ______ Music" (wake-up, drivin', cleaning, &c).
So, the wake-up music would come on in her room across the hall and we'd both be quietly rocking out to the Indigo Girls and suddenly, a dance party would break out in the hallway while we were taking turns with the full-length mirror. And if you think that the dog and Mom weren't dancing with us, you clearly have no idea what my teen years were like.
At camp we'd have them... I remember LB and I had a cabin in 1997 who were particularly into Spice Girls. So, as a reward, whenever they accomplished anything, like we would just make up ridiculous goals for them, we'd let them have a Spice Girls Dance Party in the cabin during our next downtime.
Or there would be music wafting overhead from the dining hall way on top of the hill, and you'd suddenly feel like your life had a really terrible soundtrack picked by crazy fifteen year olds. Then you'd run into other people and it's time for a dance party!
We also had formal ones during meals. Like, all the sudden in the middle of breakfast, a voice would come over the microphone saying "Sixty Second Dance Party!" and then there would be music and the vast, vast majority of the camp would jump up and start dancing (or my unit at least, the older kids were sometimes too cool to dance during the middle of lunch).
We also had slightly less formal ones during meals featuring both singing and dancing. "There are pineapples! Let's go stand by the fireplace and sing the push pineapple song!" "There are sausages! We have to sing about the sausages!" "It's Monday! Hurry up and finish your cereal so we can sing!"
And the short, informal dance parties have continued through my life, although as I get older, more and more often, I'm the only one who can find the inspiration to dance in the living room to anything with even just a little bit of tempo.
But really, what's more fun than a spontaneous dance party?
