Fiesta Latina and Speed Crafts

Arranged to see my friend Sophie yesterday to catch up, we hadn't see one another since Christmas, and although blogs are a fantastic way to catch up, its not quite the same as seeing someone in person. After trudging around open air markets for the greater part of the afternoon, with absolutely NO success in finding earrings of an especially high twinkly factor (as well as being massively HUGE), we decided to call it a day and head home. So, just before dinner we had this crazy idea that we could make a miniture teddy - certainly if we collaborated on the affair, but clearly was this the best activity to be engaging in just before going out of an evening? Well, after dinner we RACED to get this little peppermint coloured fleecy teddy finished (we've decided to call him Colgate) becuase we were going out.

Adventures in Salsa have never been so interesting. And I'm not even going to mention having to fend off the sleasy men all evening. However, feeling confident enough to fend them off means that I'm left feeling like I've finally graduated to the world of grown-upness and all its adolescent insecurities are slowly starting to melt away. When I say melt away, I mean more scream loudly till you burst out laughing and then tell them to shut up. I've always had a complex about being the fat girl with glasses, the one to be avoided at all costs, you know, the one who was always the side-kick that everyone felt happy to chat to, but no one ever fancied or wanted to date. Those days be gone! Hurrah! And I finally see the world through clear tinted specs:

No one knows what they're doing. Everyone lacks confidence. Everyone is scared of people they don't know. Everyone in any given salsa club (I tend not to go to any other types of club) thinks that the girls dancing on the floor are ultra gorgeous because they are slim and becuase they are dancing with the cute guys who are good dancers. The good dancers are guys only tend to ask you to dance if they know you... but the truth is, they don't do it becuase they think you're not a good dancer. They do it becuase they're lazy and they are just as embarrassed asking someone they don't know to dance. There is always a scattering of girls around the dance floor looking nervous or just wishing someone would come up and ask them to dance. After a while they get bored, but they're too scared to just jump in there and ask blokes to dance, so they leave early - and they leave disappointed.

What I've learned is that you've got to stop worrying about what others think, becuase they are more preoccupied with worrying about how they're going to look appealing enough to be asked to dance. I've decided to stop wasting my time. I've come to dance, so I'm going to make opportunities. I'm going to ask all the good guys to dance and see what happens - hopefully that means I'm actually going to get to dance in any given evening! Isn't that the main objective when you go out salsa dancing?

So the moral of the story? Stop waiting for people to ask you to dance, get on that dance floor and shake your booty... Goes for things in real life too...