On getting the snarkiness out

The past two days were icky ones. Really smelly patients. Hectic and annoyingly busy patients and parents. Three transfers cancelled … and that was just in the room of four that I worked in. Ick.

After work I had to wipe myself down just to get the ick off. Changed. Primped a little. And was on my way to Lindy Groove for some dance therapy. Was so sensory overloaded that I made the trip in total silence. Not even the voluptuous repetition of “Prepositions and Other Useful Words” in French.

Up at LG, I put my things away, and sat for a minute or two in the usual spot, chatting with PlumbCheery.

A woman sat next to me and said, “Excuse me, I need to get to my water bottle.” No problem, I thought. We all deposit our things along the periphery, and need to retrieve things once in a while. So, I started to turn so she could reach past me. At which point she maneuvered me out of my seat and took it over. I had to laugh, and I shot her an amused but questioning glance, which earned me the reply of, “Oh, I put my sweater here to mark my seat.”

To which I archly (and piquantly, as you may imagine) ruminated, “Oh, I didn’t realize we were reserving seats now.” And went off to dance with PC. It was rather bizarre. At LG, there are no “reserved seats.” There are people who tend to sit most of the night, but that really just defeats the purpose of going out to dance, now doesn’t it. There are tables for birthday celebrations (which are free, and which come with a grocery store cake), but even those usually devolve as the night wears on.

Anyway, as we were about to start dancing, I asked PC if I’d been really obnoxious. Actually, I stated, not asked. He gave me one of his cheery smiles and said, “Well, I understood why you said it.”

So, straight away after the song, I approached the woman (who is probably my own age … fancy that, I’m a woman) to make amends. Turns out that she comes from tango dancing, where seating is apparently more rigid. Seems she is relieved to be switching from milonga to lindyjam. We both laughingly made our apologies and parted with good will. Hopefully she won’t spend too much time in “her” seat.

I should probably note that tonight was LG’s first ever lindy competition. The first place couple (I don’t know their names) were good. Entertaining and good musicality. Even if I’m not a Savoy fan. Second place were Nick Williams and Kristin Sorci. And they are good dancers (for those in the know, they are the ones who trained the Dmitri and Donyelle for the lindy routine on SYTYCD), but didn’t really sparkle tonight. Personally, I would not have ranked them. And in third place were Jeremy Otth and Sarah Whatserbucket, who are not regular partners, and were entertaining, but not great. Really, Julius and Holly should have won. And they might have, if Julius hadn’t fallen on his tush while doing a slide drop. Even now I can’t help but giggle. Also of note were Katya (getting every break with a bang) and Gio and MaeLae (for the swivels with the lead slides … they were hot).

Got home and was still amped up. Watched Grey’s Anatomy and Men in Trees before I was relaxed enough to shower and climb in to bed … about 0300. Sometimes it just feels good to return to my nocturnal roots. And thus was the snarkiness expelled.