Falling for Fall

I’ve been known to fall for a scam, fall head over heals in love (although it’s been a really long time), fall all over someone I’m trying to impress, taken a fall, and I’ve definitely fallen short on more than one occasion. All that falling aside, I truly love fall. Autumn has always been my favorite season. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the northeast where Autumn meant loads of color, fiery oranges, bright reds and sunny yellows. Maybe it was Upstate New York’s crisp and tasty apples (I’m still biased even after 30 years in Washington State). Or maybe it’s that anticipation of starting something new. I loved shopping for new school clothes (what girl doesn’t?) and even buying new notebooks and writing in them for the first time.

I still get that feeling when September rolls around. While others mourn the end of summer, calling it quits after Labor Day, I relish these still sunny days and Harvest Moon nights. I no longer buy new school clothes, but I do enjoy window shopping and observing the local girls to see what fashion trends are hitting our Seattle streets.

It was about the first week in September when I noticed the word of the day on http://www.refdesk.com/ was impuissance, as in "powerlessness revealed by an inability to act (like a deer in the headlights)." I stared at the screen while this word sunk in and even stung a little. "Wander Woman's life was frozen in a state of impuissance, as she was unable to put any of her hair brain ideas into action."

Suddenly in a frenzy of action-taking command, I registered for several classes this fall, ordered a couple of books on how to do something or other and made yet another deal with myself to accomplish something...or other.

Beginning Salsa was one of the classes I started in early September. I've been wanting to take lessons for some time, but scheduling, cost, and committing always seemed to get in the way. This time, I just made it happen. As it turns out, it's really not very expensive at all. Besides being a fun activity, I was hoping I'd tone up the old nagging core and maybe meet some new people. Not that my old people aren't terrific, they are. So I guess I mean men. Yes, meet some new men to dance with me.

I'm only five lessons in and having a good time. It's a lot more complicated than imagined. Not too surprisingly several of the men are a bit awkward, robotic and have two left feet (sorry, fellas!) but the instructor is very patient and hot...er, I mean talented. Maybe it's his talent that is distracting me and I'm the one with the two left feet. I can't keep my eyes off the instructor when I'm suppose to be dancing with my partner, i.e. looking my partner in the eyes so I can follow his lead.

Contrary to what I had imagined, there are more men in the classes than women. That's a switch. Furthermore, there is no particular type noted. There are all ages, sizes, ethnicities - it's really quite refreshing. Of course there are the older, soft shoe wearing fellas that seem to gravitate toward me. Luckily we rotate partners throughout the lesson so we can learn to dance with different people. Good idea.

One of my partners (I'll call Ted) was counting out loud, which is encouraged at this stage, but it went like this as Ted was building up to a cross-body lead, "one, two three, and five, six, seven....it's coming, it's coming...one, two, three, and five, six, seven, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming...." Oh boy, you can imagine what I'm thinking. We are still just dancing, right? Just as a suppressed smile was beginning to spread across my lips, the hot and talented instructor yelled "Rotate partners!" Whew, thank goodness, who knows what was going to happen back there with Ted. I knew Salsa was a spicy dance, but honestly!

In any event, it's fun and funny and a good workout, or at least it will be once I actually learn to dance. And so far, I haven't fallen on my derriere - yet.

Happy Fall!