If I focused all of my mental ability...

There is a swing dancing movement in Rochester. Sarah and I have wanted to go for a while. Last night it happened. A student ID and $7 will buy a 45 min. group lesson and 3 hrs of live music and dancing.

We arrived late for the lesson. I learned how to move my feet, hold my arms, and spin my girl and then the lights dimmed and the band began. We retreated to the far corner of the dance floor. I tried to concentrate on my very basic foot work. If I focused all of my mental ability I could do something that resembled an east coast step and clumsily spin Sarah. It was hard to focus. The dance floor was filled with spinning, pulsating and vicarious characters. Most could have been my grandparents. The band’s lead singer looked like the driver from “Driving Miss Daisy”. Their jazz flowed off of the stage and seemed to make the crowd come alive. By the end of the night we were swinging with the best of the first timers.

And then began the trip home. Rochester is a navigational night mare. We combined my nose, the GPS, and Sarah’s map reading skills to get from the rainy streets and into the country side filled with sleepy towns. In the sleepy town of Geneseo we met a local representative at the stroke of midnight. He asked a lot of questions: “where are you going? Where are you coming from?” He was kind and gave me a keepsake to remember our visit. He said that if I didn’t want the keepsake I could plead not-guilty and appear at the Geneseo Village Court on February 6^th. I have been driving for 7 years without a keepsake, so I decided to keep it. So much for a year of Jubilee!