About a month ago, I decided to start seeing West Coast Swing again. Sure we've flirted before, but it never really turned into anything serious. For one thing, I've been with Salsa for so long that it kinda felt like cheating. So it wasn't her. It was me. I didn't give her the chance she deserved.
Truth be told, I actually *love* WCS. Always have. Maybe even more than salsa, but don't tell her that! While salsa can sometimes feel like a frenetic roller coaster ride, WCS is more like a flirty stroll in the park. Salsa is heart pumping hot. WCS is playfully sexy. Also, the smooth nature of WCS fits so nicely with my lead style. Rather than sometimes forcing me to be somebody I'm not, WCS actually embraces who I am, and brings out a part of me that I really like. It's a strange thing to say about a dance, but there it is. :)
Salsa es Caliente!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t76xT26sQ5w
West Coast Swing is SEXY (note: these dances are lead/follow, not choreographed)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTwsoAC7qDs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3toYxGlWxk
WCS makes it so hard to love her sometimes though. Salsa is everywhere in LA. I see her all the time. So do my friends. WCS makes me drive 40 minutes west on Wednesdays just for a 2 hour date, and 40 minutes south on Sundays for a 4 hour tryst. It really takes dedication to want to be with WCS.
WCS also tends to attract an older crowd for some reason. Maybe it's because she tends to hang out with the not as cool crowd like Texas Two Step, Nightclub Two Step, and that cougar, Hustle. Salsa keeps company with fun and ever classy ChaChaCha, "I'm easy anybody can dance me" Merengue, and of course naughty Bachata. That's why I tend to dance with lots of girls in salsa, and lots of girls' mothers and grandmothers in WCS. Sigh.
But I think I'm ready to take the plunge. It's time to go with my heart and not with my head. Salsa will always be there, and I'll keep seeing her occasionally... but WCS and I have an understanding. An unspoken connection. She gets who I am. Who am I to deny that?
Monday, October 19, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Filling in the Blanks
I was talking with a friend recently, comparing personal histories and whatnot... when I realized that there's still a few things I didn't know about myself. For example, I only had a vague idea of my life before the age of 4. Something about being sent to Taiwan a couple times... but I never really knew why, or for how long.
So I decided to fill in the blanks last night with my mom. Apparently, she brought me to Taiwan when I was three months old, and left me there with my grandmother and aunt until I was two!
Whaaa?!!
I can't imagine what it must have been like to be a brand new mother, and basically sending your newborn away for two years. That means my mom didn't get to see her only child's first steps or hear him say his first words! That's mind boggling. I also wonder what it must have been like to be placed in the position of having to send me away in the first place. She explained that with the hours she had to work (she was a nurse), she couldn't bear to keep waking me up at 4am each morning to take me to the baby sitter and leave me there until 5pm every day. She decided she would feel more at ease if she knew that either my grandmother or my aunt would be watching me 24/7, even if it meant sending me half a world away. So that's what she did.
[I'm wondering if there's more to the story than that. I also briefly wondered where my father was in all this that he couldn't help out with the baby... then quickly realized that this was my father I was wondering about.]
By the time my second 1.5 year tour of Taiwan ended, I was already five and a half. When my mom finally brought me back to the States for good, I had spent less than two years with her total. My very first memories are actually from that second stint in Taiwan, and i still remember that my mom was only a vague theoretical idea at the point. That the two women taking care of me were my grandmother and my aunt, but there was a woman out there in "Mei Guo" ("Beautiful Country" = what the Chinese call "America") who was my actual mother.
It was a strange concept to grasp for a five year old.
So I decided to fill in the blanks last night with my mom. Apparently, she brought me to Taiwan when I was three months old, and left me there with my grandmother and aunt until I was two!
Whaaa?!!
I can't imagine what it must have been like to be a brand new mother, and basically sending your newborn away for two years. That means my mom didn't get to see her only child's first steps or hear him say his first words! That's mind boggling. I also wonder what it must have been like to be placed in the position of having to send me away in the first place. She explained that with the hours she had to work (she was a nurse), she couldn't bear to keep waking me up at 4am each morning to take me to the baby sitter and leave me there until 5pm every day. She decided she would feel more at ease if she knew that either my grandmother or my aunt would be watching me 24/7, even if it meant sending me half a world away. So that's what she did.
[I'm wondering if there's more to the story than that. I also briefly wondered where my father was in all this that he couldn't help out with the baby... then quickly realized that this was my father I was wondering about.]
By the time my second 1.5 year tour of Taiwan ended, I was already five and a half. When my mom finally brought me back to the States for good, I had spent less than two years with her total. My very first memories are actually from that second stint in Taiwan, and i still remember that my mom was only a vague theoretical idea at the point. That the two women taking care of me were my grandmother and my aunt, but there was a woman out there in "Mei Guo" ("Beautiful Country" = what the Chinese call "America") who was my actual mother.
It was a strange concept to grasp for a five year old.
My first passport, issued at 2 months old for my first stay in Taiwan.
Baby pic taken in Taiwan.
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