number six: car dancing

do me a favor, while you're reading this post listen to florence and the machine. specifically, 'the dog days are over' or 'hurricane drunk.'


if you knew me in high school, you probably saw me dancing in the halls. without any musical accompaniment of course. side note- my first real boyfriend said that's what got his attention... knowing this always makes me smile. if you knew me at seattle university, you might have spotted me dancing on the island in the kitchen of 17th and jefferson. probably very sloppily. and if you knew me while at western, i could often be spotted shaking it to salt and peppa or a little britney with a whiskey sour in my hot little hand. again, probably very sloppily.

i don't understand people who don't dance. this means you, sarah paschall. who can listen to music, and is not inclined to lose all control? that's how i dance, without any sort of control. well, that's not how i always dance, but it is when i'm emotionally involved with the music. do you ever notice that? how certain songs you can just get completely lost in? those are my favorite kinds of songs, and i've met quite a few of them. some of the best memories i have are dancing my face off with scott morgan, at the wild buffalo, on funk mondays in 2009. fall quarter i'd put on my favorite jeans, leave my heels in my closet in favor of a pair of ratty converse i've had since 8th grade, and forget that i had class the next morning. it was amazing because i'd leave all my baggage at the door (and we all know i've got a lot of baggage) and just feel alive.

isn't that what they say music does- make you feel alive? let you get lost for a minute? i think somewhere over the past year i forgot that. i let myself start to believe that a dance floor was just another place where i might get some attention. i have the tendency to be an attention whore- i'll completely own that. but what i realized tonight while driving is that i've forgotten the joy that comes when you just dance your butt off and not care and really not want anyone to be looking. tonight i worked it out HARD when 'dog days' came on. like i probably should have pulled over i was dancing so hard. the feeling you get from getting entangled with a verse is something i'd lost until tonight. and it's funny how much someone so alive can forget what it feels like to really explode with life.

there's a difference between the two, and i hope you all explode someday soon. with love, and life, and joy, and grief, and passion. and i hope you all feel the weight that lifts when you get lost shaking your butt behind a steering wheel.