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Saturday, May 9, 2009

Shakin' my groove thang!

okay - for those of you who were drawn in by the title - I really hate to disappoint, because it's not actually MY groove thang that's a-shakin'...  my eldest son recently turned 14, which means he has the privilege of attending - DANCES - sponsored by our church.  

Yep - that's right, the higher ups are trying to get my son to get over his cooties fear.  If I were being honest I would tell you that he never had such a fear... but I am fully in denial here and am going to go with "and his mother is the only female who he's ever hugged".

This being such a momentous occasion in his life we celebrated  -  in traditional C family style - by mercilessly teasing him.  He was ready over an hour early...  we really couldn't help it!

ManOfTheHouse showed him a little of the Deacon Two-Step to give him some confidence (well, he's confident that he's got more moves than the old man...) and I related a story to show him the importance of paying attention to the girl you are dancing with - small talk and all that. 

Then I got to thinking...  now that I've shared the story with my son (who rolled his eyes) and my husband (who wasn't shocked) and my parents (who were here for a few hours on their way to Vegas - and who also weren't shocked) - I just KNEW that you all wanted to know what kind of a person I was at age 14...  so that when I come here and complain in a few weeks about some moronic thing my kid did - you can throw it back in my face :)

Sooooo...  once upon a time when I was 14 I went to something called "Youth Conference" with a bunch of kids from church - between the ages of 14 and 18...  speakers, food, flirting... you get the picture...

The culmination of Youth Conference was a dance - dim lights, loud music, and groups of girls standing around wondering if the groups of boys would ever notice that we'd spent 3 hours on our hair and make-up....

There are about 3849 girls in a circle with me when Cheerleader Girl (CG) runs up and starts whispering that Hottie of the Year (HY) is going to ask one of our group to dance.  Really, this guy was THE popular guy - and apparently thought he was popular enough that he needed to be uber-selective about the girls he danced with... turns out the whispering was probably because of WHO he was going to ask...  because I was more of a "fringe" popular girl - and I think that really CG was just a tad annoyed...

Oh well, HY does finally come up and asks me to dance... so I say yes, because well, he's HY and I (being a sheep) fully acknowledge that.  

The trouble with being popular... everyone wants to talk to you - so about 30 seconds into our dance (a fast dance thank goodness... this would have been WAY worse on a slow dance) he starts chatting with random Other  Hottie while they ignore us girls...  he actually turned his back on me...  

but the surprise was on him, because by the time he turned back around (about 10 seconds later) I was GONE - he was dancing out there all alone...

Hmmm... I wonder why I never got beyond "fringe popular" after that...

10 comments:

Heidi said...

Well, good for you! The Spouse and I were just talking about good ol' Elaine and her crazy dancing--fun to get a gander of it here.

val of the south said...

When we moved to Utah last year they gave my then 14 year old son a dance card. He came home and asked me what it was for!! I couldn't wait to be 14 and go to dances - my son obviously takes after his father who doesn't dance!

I hope you're having a fabulous mother's day!!

Melinda said...

Oh so many good memories from youth dances--I LOVED the dances!! Loved your story, you sound like my kind of 14 year old! haha I could stare at that Elaine widget for hours I think...

LC said...

Ha. That is one of my favorite Seinfeld scenes ever!
I'm glad you ditched the guy!
We never danced one on one to fast songs, only slow songs. Lame.
Wouldn't it have been way more fun to dance in the '50's--or back when they actually knew how to shake that thang!

Chelsi said...

Shame on him! And, good for you! I wish I could pretend I would have had the courage to do that sort of thing when I was 14. Not me... Too timid. But also not even fringe popular, so not HY would ask me to dance.

Anonymous said...

I still remember songs I danced to with certain H.Y.'s.... I'm a sentimental, old fool...

We have a ward tradition for 14 year olds, where we put together a Stake Dance Survival Kit. We collect all kinds of things, like breath savers, hand sanitizer, deodorant, a "Dance Partner" (usually a dollar-store cartoon figurine of Ernie, for girls, or Belle, for boys), candy, random stuff, and a $10 itunes card. This is a big hit for the kids, and lots of fodder for parental teasing!

Homer and Queen said...

Oh memoriesof that first Saturday Night Dance! Well OK...it was so long ago for me I don't remember that first on but I do remember them! (Kinda)

Heather B said...

Ah, I can hear REO Speedwagon and Chicago right not! "And I can't fight this feeling anymorrrrre..." Unfortunately, we don't too many of them-there stake dances in these parts! Our stake center is two hours away--that's a lot of driving for the privilege of standing around drinking some watered-down punch... No wonder I can't seem to get my son interested. Now back in my day...

Megz said...

How could you not spy on T as he entered this monumental time of life? I'd love to see some footage of that!
I hope he had a super time and that his hair didn't get too messy.

Shelle-BlokThoughts said...

WOW... I really don't miss those days. I always got asked by the guy that was to shy to ask the REALLY pretty girls...

Yea, that was me, the friend, the easy to ask nice girl! :)