Category Archives: Dance
This has been a good week!
Where to start? So much news to share…
One of the hardest things about writing and/or blogging, is deciding on just what to write about and how much to write. Ideas are always popping into my head. I have a post-it note program on my Mac that I use to jot down ideas about topics as they occur in an attempt to stay organized.
Sometimes I even start a post then save it as a draft to finish later. We will not even begin to discuss how many of those I have saved in draft mode waiting for me to return and finish the post… sigh
And then I have a week like the one just past, so chock full of stuff that it generates even MORE ideas!
“Whateva shall I do? I feel faint with the stress of it all…”
[using my best Southern Belle / accent]
[Hmmmm…I think I need some liquid fortification…]
“Oh waiter! YoooooHoooo! A chocolate martini! Stat!“
…..ssssslllllluuuuurrrrrrpppp…. Ahhhhh! That’s better.
Now, where was I? A lot happened this week.
Since I have been accused of digression in posts past, I am determined to turn over a new leaf. Plus, that chocolate martini is gonna get warm if I don’t make this quick. 😉
Therefore, for the ultra-minimalist crowd:
It has indeed been a very good week!
There.
I’m done.
What? You want more?
Tsk-tsk-tsk You guys should know better than ask me for “more” — Brevity is not a strong point of mine… but I’m gonna try.
How’s this then?
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5 – 6 – 7 – 8 — UPDATE! Woo Hoo! Dancing is upon us!
Isn’t that CUTE?!?!
Get it?
“5-6-7-8” as in the count off which dancers use to start dancing and then…
…TahDAH! “Update” Woo Hoo.
I think I shall keep it and use it as a standard “Quickie” header for a four point update post.
Whatcha think?
Five…
You may have noticed a theme in the last few posts and a flurry of activity…
Yes, you have correctly noticed that I’m kinda freaking about about MONEY! It is because I need it and I don’t have it.
Why? Well we are in the Fall.
And “Fall” is when I have to do an oil change on my truck, a tune up on my truck, get my truck inspected and pay the annual registration taxes/tags to the State. It is also when my AAA (American Automobile Association) membership renews each year.
AND it is one of two times a year (every six months) when my auto insurance renews.
And this time $#@#$@@##$@@!!!!! Progressive, which is otherwise a pretty good insurance company, RAISED MY FRIGGIN INSURANCE RATES FOR NO APPARENT REASON other than the money sucking fat cat capitalists want to GET EVERY LAST penny out of people like me who live below the poverty line!
Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!
Yes, I’m stressed. And I need money, so I’m trying to sell some stuff and yes, I’m begging for donations (which no one has ever actually done…) sigh
Want to be the first? The donate button is always over there in the right hand column…
Or you can buy a cool design from my online store: TxCowboyDancer Designs
And check out “My Online Garage Sale” — There will be more stuff added to it over the next little while. Most of the stuff will be dance related in one way or another. — No, I can’t have an “actual” garage sale. The complex I live in has rules against that kind of thing. SIGH
Six…
2010 Worlds – Line Dance World Champion! — Yes, that’s me in the top spot! Graduating into the Advanced Division!
However, the “once a year bills” are not the only money stressor.
There is a bigger one that is directly related to my long-term goals of getting fit and healthy.
(By the way, I use big words – once a gain my spell check had no idea what a particular word was. In this case — what a “stressor” was. I had to add it to the dictionary on my computer.)
I admit defeat. There. I said it. I will never ever “exercise” for the sake of “exercise.”
I hate exercise. I will. NOT. Do. It.
But I do love to dance!
Dance is not exercise.
Dance is fun.
Dance is passion.
Dance is what I miss MOST from “before” my health went to crap.
Dance is what I love to do — which my body “thinks” is “exercise” but which my mind and my heart sees as “fun”
Cycling is the other one, but DANCE has the potential to also enable me to MAKE money eventually and dig myself out of this financial hole that I’m in because once I get to a certain level of fitness, I can start TEACHING dance again! So Dance gets priority over cycling.
And, “dance” is what will help me become physically fit and healthy again! Who Hoo! Woot even! and YeeeeeeeHawwwwww!
But for now, at the outset, Dance is also a money-stressor. sigh
Why? I’m glad you asked. 🙂
I need choreography…
One thing that is adding to my stress levels is that I need money to pay for Choreography.
As part of my (1) return to dancing and competition dancing and (2) as part of my efforts to become fit and healthy, I want / am planning to / strongly desire to compete in Showcase Line Dance next year.
I can choreograph, but my choreography, compared to a talented professional choreographer is like a child’s finger painting compared to a Picasso or Monet.
I have only begun to play around with choreography and that is what my choreography looks like – a beginner’s efforts.
And folks you don’t “win” at Worlds with choreography that looks like a beginner’s efforts! A major portion of the scoring for Showcase Line Dance is the quality of the choreography!
I need the help of a Pro!
I have my first choreographer lined up. She has agreed to do it for $80 per hour. She is an amazing dancer and choreographer with years of experience. She has even choreographed for Hollywood and Broadway!
She thinks it will take 3-4 hours do to it which means that I need between $240 and $320 to pay her for the choreography.
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New songs added to two UPDATED pages: Songs for the Tush Push
UPDATED Pages here on my Website / Blog
Folks have been sending in more and more songs that they use in their local clubs to dance the Tush Push! Keep them coming!
Well, I’ve add them to these two pages. Some new songs added to each of them. Hope you enjoy it! Woot!
SLOW SONGS for the Tush Push
..
FAST SONGS for the Tush Push
Be sure to VOTE for your favorite SLOW Song and for your favorite FAST Song!
And… I did a blog post a few days ago which gives a kind of “overview” or “introduction to the Tush Push.
So, if you have no idea what a “Tush” is or why you would want to “Push” it to music, well then this is the post for you:
Have you heard of the “Tush Push?”
See ya on the dance floor!
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Words, pictures, blogging, the hats we wear and the stories we tell…
I’ve been thinking…
Hey it has to happen every once in a while!
Seriously, I’ve been having this kind of firestorm going on in the back of my head when I eat, watch TV, fiddle on the net, exercise, plan for my return to the world of dance, sleep, tinkle…
Uhmmm was that TMI? It has been going on for about two or three weeks now and it came to a head (kinda sorta) in yesterday’s blog post.
There is lots of debris flying around in that thought typhoon: stress about my finances, the challenges that lie ahead, the reality that the road is going to be tough, that my life is about to change yet again, uncertainty, angst. Now toss in a new found political awareness and activism, frustration that the system, the environment, and so many factors seems rigged against people trying to better themselves.
A huge chunk of that inner thought tornado is the difficulty in conveying why when “I went to the grocery store and to my storage unit today” should be received by the listener with the same respect as someone saying “I just ran a marathon in record time.” — more on that in a later post. For now, please accept it as one tiny line of paint to be included in a much larger painting. A thread in a larger tapestry.
However, there is a center. A “core” to that whirling maelstrom inside my brain.
In every case, somehow it all comes back around to WORDS!.
And how inadequate they sometimes are. How easily they can be misunderstood and the meaning behind the words lost when they come from me to another person.
Words and the inadequacy of “words.” How they can either soar and convey with perfect clarity emotions and thoughts or they can plumment horribly and thud into the ground, like bricks falling from a workman’s scaffold, creating the most awful mess!
Arrrrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!
Here, on this blog, on any blog, the words are both the solution and the problem. How to use them? Which ones to use? Do I write about this or that? Share this bit or that bit? If writing about that bit then “how?” In what way? Get the idea?
Let’s break it down a little; use those words to illustrate:
Here I am in Dallas, sitting in my room (which needs desperately to be neatened, dusted, and cleaned up). Over in one corner is a shirt and a pair of pants that need to be thrown into the laundry hamper which is itself overflowing. On my futon are my pillows from last night, and the sheets from last night which really should have been neatly folded and put into the closet for the day, but weren’t. The futon is still in it’s “inclined” night-time sleeping position instead of being moved to it’s upright “day-time” couch position.
Right next to my desk I have a stack of three boxes and a stack of two boxes. These boxes are detritus from my storage unit which I’m slowly working through: sorting, selling on CraigsList, tossing in the trash OR giving away the enclosed “junk” and “stuff” to the local resale shop which benefits the LGBT community called “Out of the Closet.” Watch for the return of my “online garage sale” as I work my way through that pile and the much larger pile-o-clutter that I need to get OUT of my house!
I have a half finished diet soda on my desk (which I really swore I would not be drinking any more of… …I should be switching to green tea instead). My desk is as cluttered as my mind. Lots of stuff left in mid project, bits of this and bits of that.
Yer basic slice-o-Tony’s Life in fifty words or less…
About those words…
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The future is looking brighter…
Yes, I’m aware that it ain’t gonna be easy…
…but for the first time in a VERY long time I am optimistic that I will actually get fit, healthy and dance again! What’s that? Do I hear the teeming masses asking “But why do feel this way Tony?” I thought I did… 😀
Brace yourself, you’re about to enter Tony’s brain…. where you’ll see a chain of thought that will mystify and amaze you!
But first because I’m in SUCH a good mood, I’m going to give you the “short version” — I’m going to tell you the ROOT SOURCE of all this awesome positiveness:
The diabetes medications I’ve been taking for a little over two weeks now are working.
Which means I’m not as hungry all the time.
Which means I’m loosing weight.
Which means I’m feeling better, both physically and psychologically.
I’m moving more. I have more energy. This morning, I saw a number on my scale that I’ve NOT seen in a long time… [drumroll please] … 310 lbs! Yay me!
One of the most frustrating things over the past couple years has been working to get fitter and healthier and NOT seeing any friggin results!
Who knew that there was this underlying obstacle called “diabetes” which had to be dealt with first BEFORE my hard work would produce? Well, now I know. Now the meds are doing their job. Now I’m working at getting fit. And best of all… …Now I am seeing results. Life is good.
About that tour of my brain…. heh he he heh
I updated my Event Calendar / Schedule
You can clicky click on SCHEDULE any time up in the menu at the top of my blog from any page in my blog. Or if you are really not into scrolling you can click this awesome link I put here just because I like you: SCHEDULE / CALENDAR
I have spent most of today updating my calendar, looking at the events listed on the IAGLCWDC website, the UCWDC site, the ACDA site, and the World OutGames site, evaluating them, looking at the dates and considering costs, timing, etc.
Toss in a few side trips to AmTrack, to Southwest Airlines, Eurorail and American Airlines, well you kinda get the picture of what I’ve been doing since I got up: day dreaming about competing in dance again!
Well, not really day dreaming, exactly.
Let’s be generous and call it “long range planning” and “goal setting” and “motivational imagery.”
I love that last one… “motivational imagery.” Sounds cool don’t it?
Goal Setting
When setting goals you need two kinds: Read the rest of this entry
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 