What can I say? I used to dance all the time in the lab back in NY. I'm just a dancing fool - I would dance in the clinic with my patients (balance and gait training) And during my lectures, my students and I would take dance breaks. Kept everyone awake, including me - nothing worse than the teacher falling asleep during class! I have a thing for cheesey 70s disco music and, of course, salsa! So there I was, doing my thing ... getting down to Celia Cruz, when I shoulda been studying for tomorrow's midterm. I thought everyone had gone home for the day, but I was wrong!
In all fairness, I'd been studying for hours, and really ... ya just gotta love the lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq2sEY9Sk3k
"Rie, llora - ya cada qual, se llega su hora" - roughly translated, whether you decide to laugh or cry, your time's gonna come.
If I have a choice, I am going out laughing.
And anyway, my butt was numb - if I sat at that desk any longer, I was going to get a pressure ulcer!
Life is so different from what I expected - and it's not necessarily a bad thing, when it all comes down to it. It's nice here, and it's difficult - BUT when I allow myself to breathe deeply and escape the panic, I think I am actually starting to like it.
I sometimes think I am afraid to be happy. As the music played, I vividly remembered being in St. Maarten during winter vacation, whirling around in the sand with my crazy brother Jack as salsa music blared in the background. Unbelievably, 3 months later, he was gone. No one expects to bite it at 46, not when there's no history of any serious health conditions. Anything can happen.
But big brother and Celia taught me well - "Aggarate fuerte" - grab tight, and don't let go.
OMG - I miss him terribly, but mostly because he was so damned funny. And to think, I had almost forgotten how to smile. Jack would have been so disappointed in me!
So, my next assignment, assuming I pass this midterm tomorrow, is to teach the tiny little chickies I work with to shake their non-existent asses. I cannot possibly survive the next four years in an office without occaisonal salsa music!
Azucar!
