One last swing

Monday night was my last night of swing dancing. Technically, I’ll still be in town on the 30th, but it will be two days before I leave and I have a feeling I’ll have more to worry about than swing dancing with a bunch of people I don’t know that well.

At first, I was feeling lazy before class and I just wanted to hang out in my room and play games, but I had been doing a bit too much of that lately. Plus, Seth had mentioned Maureen the last time we hung out and I thought,”Man, she was always really nice and we had good dancing chemistry. I should say goodbye before I go!”

So, I did it. I trecked down to Pigtown, to the old church where the dances are held, and scooped my dancing shoes out of the trunk to have one last dance with everyone. It was great seeing everyone one last time. Liz, Maureen, Cathy, Tom, Katie, Seth, and a bunch of other people were there. Rebekah didn’t show up that night, but I would have to chance to see her later in the week.

Of course, after I had been dancing for a little while, word spread that it was going to be my last night. One of the girls from the Lindy classes kept saying we should tell Michael so I could have a jam, but I think it was Seth who was the eventual impetus for it.

So the time comes for the jam and it’s early – 10:30 – and I had wanted to get a little more practice on my swingouts. Ah well! Now or never.

Michael gets up on the stage and looks out at everyone, grabbing the microphone and swaggering.

“So I just found it that two people are leaving us here after tonight. What’s wrong with you?”

*crowd cheers*

“I forgot their names, though. Who are they?” *points at the audience*

At this point someone shoves me forward, and on the other side of the ring, Cara Lichtenstein comes forward as well. It was her last night too! Apparently Seth set it up so neither of us would realize. So I’m about to dance with some other girl and Seth is about to dance with Cara, but she says “Hey, I should dance with Ryan!”

So there we were, these two kids who had dated when I first got back from Japan, saying goodbye to Baltimore and the swing dancers together on the same night. Some coincidence! We danced for maybe 20 seconds, then other people started to cut in. My only complaint? The song should have been faster!

I danced with Maureen, Katie, and Cara, and some other people I didn’t know that well. The end had come! Will I keep dancing in Hawaii? With surfing, yoga, martial arts, Japanese, and Physics to keep me busy, who knows!