Things I Learned Today*

1. How to remain cool when navigating the treacherous waters of Verizon customer service, trying to figure out why I am being charged hundreds of dollars a month for a hotspot that I returned in July after my sojourn in Hedgebrook that I thought was taken care of but that I apparently didn't according to the Verizon people and now that I've switched to T-Mobile am being punished with the most incredible round-abouts and garbled technology talk that took hours and hours and is still not resolved even though I had to go to the actual Verizon store as well and take it up with them. 
2. Gratitude that I don't live in a concealed carry state because surely, if I hadn't learned #1, I would have been hard-pressed to not just go ahead and "settle things" Texas-style
3. How to "dab," a dance move that Oliver told me about, demonstrated and then judged harshly with the utmost scorn and mockery when I attempted it (see photo above). Oliver has no idea that I actually do have a sense of rhythm, and while I wouldn't profess to like the music that goes with this dance move (at some point he screamed over the jarring cacophony that whenever the pounding bass line dropped, I was to DAB!), it's not that far removed from the Hustle or the Bump, both of which I excelled at in my day.

Reader, what did you learn today?








*First World Problem Solving

The morning after

The world is changed on the morning after dancing until the late hours the night before. One of my closest friends celebrated her 50th birthday last night by throwing a karaoke party with a 1970s theme. I put on some sparkly blue eye-shadow and wide-legged jeans, carried a pink Goody comb that I have miraculously saved from my childhood, and danced, literally, the night away. There was onion dip and potato chips, green bean and tuna casserole. There were meat-loaf sandwiches and crab dip with Triscuits. There were Leaping Lizard drinks, and I had several. At some point, I broke out clog dancing and later, when we recounted it, I nearly wet my pants laughing. So, it's a beautiful morning and my heart feels so much lighter this morning that I can only attribute it to the dancing and friendship and laughter from last night. I highly recommend a karaoke machine and some music from the glory days to right the world.

Summer, Day 32

I refuse to show you me dancing to Apache, but trust me: I'm good.