Swirlies: [MSN Spaces] "So who's the girl?" "Which girl?" "The one that's been hanging off your face all weekend?"

The title was a snippet of conversation with Kyle from Hot Koko on Saturday night. I thought it was amusing.

Wow! Where to begin?? I guess I'll go with the usual chronological order. I'm warning you now, this is going to be long.

Friday.
Holly came by and picked me up to head out to Swing City. I was excited, because the Flying Saucers were going to be playing live! At Swing City! With a big dance floor! The Flying Saucers are an awesome local swing band that plays Monday nights at Swan's. (Read "I could use about 17 hours in bed..." for my description of the Swan's dance floor.) Add to that the invasion by Hot Koko, other Vancouverites, and even a 'Pegger (Winnipegger), and we have a great recipe for fun!
After the first set by the Saucers, Hot Koko did a little performance for us. That was great fun, as usual.
During the third set, a multi-purpose jam was held for Angele (off to Europe), Amanda (coop in San Fran), and me (birthday, duh). Birthday jam to a live band on a big dance floor, with lots of visitors and LOTS of energy?!? SWEEEEEEEEEET! I think my personal highlight of the dance was when I hit my Matrix Drop in perfect sync with a dip in the music, while dancing with Kyle.
Not because of the perfect timing and how good I looked (if I do say so myself

), but because of the cheering section I had when I did it!!

Speaking of dancing with Kyle, before the jam started, I was fully expecting more guys than girls to steal me during the jam. Something about so many local leads knowing I can follow too. That and having more guys steal the guys in jams being a rather common thing here. I was relieved when the final count came out in favour of the girls... though only by a few.
Fast forward some and eventually the energy hits critical mass for a spontaneous jam circle to start up. There was some great energy in the circle! Matt and I busted out our flying Charleston swingout entry. I was really pleased with how well it worked, considering we haven't done it in several months. Imagine two guys running at each other from opposite sides of a jam circle, meeting in the middle in mid-air, (ideally) doing a 180° before landing, and going into Charleston swingouts. Yeah, we're insane, but it works!
Fast forward some more and to the end of the night. Last song. Holly and I were dancing and closeby were Angela and Rajeev. Partway through the song, Holly and I were doing some side-by-side Charleston. Rajeev noticed and mirrored us. Classic setup for a partner swap (or Combat Charleston, which we also did for awhile). We swapped and I danced with Angela while Rajeev danced with Holly. I could hear the song coming to an end, so I quickly swapped back to Holly to finish off the last few eights and dip her. All four of us were walking back to our tables and Angela says "It's a good thing we swapped back for that." I replied "Yeah, but we ARE swingers..."

To finish off the night, a bunch of us headed out to the QV cafe... or as sav likes to call it, the Sperm Cafe. (The logo looks like a sperm.)

Saturday.
2PM wake up call. 2PM? Well, sort of. It still felt early, though. Holly and I arrive at the studio for the Hot Koko workshop just before 3:30, the scheduled start time. I say good morning to a few people during the warmup songs. Morning? It sure felt like it was morning. The grey overcast sky felt very morningish. Only waking up recently didn't help either.
Anyway, the workshops got underway, with the first being the standard of covering the swingout to get a baseline. Monica and Walker taught this one. Next came Leo and Lisa, who taught us some entertaining variations and moves. After this, we broke for pizza. Mmmm, pizza.
Nearing the end of the break, most of the Hot Koko members were in the studio, dancing around to Maroon 5's This Love. There were definitely some entertaining (and questionable) moves being done, especially coming from Leo, Walker, and Kyle. Little did we know that we'd be doing the same, only moments later, as a warmup.
Onto the third workshop! Solo Charleston with Stephanie (that girl has about 150,000,000x more energy than anybody I've ever seen!) and Gabe. After learning a Charleston routine, Maroon 5 was played again. Charleston to Maroon 5? Yep. The scary part was just how well it worked!!
A short break later and we were on to the fourth workshop. Kyle enlightened us with his musicality wisdom and philosophy, including a break for Story Time. We did one exercise where one person would dance to the piano in the song being played, while the other would dance to the vocals. During one of these, Dave (of Dave and Tina) and I were 'dancing' together. We were doing slow-motion/Matrix-style fighting to each of our parts of the song. Kyle stopped the other students to watch us move to the music. Heh.
As Kyle's workshop drew to a close, so did the workshop part of Saturday. We threw all the Hot Kokonuts into the centre and had a teacher jam for them. Always a great way to thank a dancer.
So with the workshops complete, the time was near for the Slumber ('Slumming') Party/Dance. A short break for things to be setup and people to get ready/rested and the music was started. Sara showed up in her jammies (after her last final exam) and was rather disappointed that nobody else was in their's. She then went about (while firmly planted on one of the couches) trying to get other people to change into their PJs. She managed to get a few. I changed into my shorts (I left mine at home), but they could pass for jammies with the pattern on them. Chris eventually reappeared with Chelsea in tow (they had gone off to shower and change and get supplies). 'Reappeared' doesn't do justice, though. In walked Chris in his bathrobe. Thankfully, he had a wifebeater and pants on. In his hand, he also had a blinking LED drink glass. I have a rather amusing picture of him posing for the camera, bathrobed with blinking drink in hand.
I had a couple funny incidents with Christabel through the night. The first one, she was trying to stretch out her tired back. I obliged, enlisting the help of Justin (the 'Pegger). I grabbed Christabel by her armpits, while Justin grabbed her legs, and pulled.
The second incident requires a bit of explanation. The other night at Swan's, Christabel was talking with Sara and the topic came up that Christabel's ears weren't pierced. (sav, did you know this?) I looked over and was like "What? Your ears aren't pierced? Wow, I never noticed." Apparently, neither are Tina's. (I'm a guy, I'm not always observant of these things.) I related this story to Holly the next day and after a bit of conversing, we knew what I had to do... if only because I'm one of the few guys that could do it and *not* get slapped. Ok, back to the slumming party. I was dancing bal (balboa) with Christabel at one point. Bal is a rather close dance. You're usually looking over each other's right shoulder, and if you turn your head toward your partner, your partner is liable to end up with an ear full of nose... depending on relative heights, of course. My opportunity was there, so I turned my head and went to clomp (no teeth) on her ear to verify that she did, in fact, not have pierced ears. Unfortunately, I missed and got a partial mouth full of hair, instead. Christabel started laughing (desired effect) and I explained what I was doing. I told her that I knew I could actually get away with something like that and she agreed. As Christabel explained it, I give off the impression of being the harmless nice guy, so I can get away with things like that. On an interesting note, a previous girlfriend also said a similar thing of me. She thought I was harmless and was going to 'cultivate me as a dance partner'. She was a little surprised to find otherwise.

The fun didn't stop there, though. I had a little fun with my camera, playing with the slow shutter. I got some pretty cool shots with the blur/ghost effects of movement. There's one with Andrew and Christabel dancing where their torsos (ooh, 'torsi' is also valid) are still relatively in focus, while their legs are blurred with movement. Very cool effects.
And to cap off the evening, Maroon 5 was played and the warmup routine was done. The Charleston routine, with the proper song, was done earlier. I took a video of it, but unfortunately, it was too dark. All I managed to capture was the sound, a small red splotch (exit sign), and the occasional dark splotch moving in/on/through a dark background.

Sunday.
Morning. Actual morning. Too much morning left. WAAAAY too much morning left. I rollerblade home. It was a semi-decent day. The sun was mostly out, but it was still a little chilly in shorts. That went away once I got going, though. The Goose (Galloping Goose Trail) can be a nice skate. Well, except for the trestle bridges. Those are evil on rollerblades. Those and the inconsiderate bastards that basically run you off the trail by taking up BOTH lanes, instead of sticking to their side only. Idiots, you CAN'T fit two bikes side by side and NOT kill (or seriously maim) oncoming trail users. MOVE OVER!!!!

So anyway, I got home and was informed that my sis-in-law (Ev) had gone into labour and went to the hospital at about 2AM! No baby, yet, though. Not much to do at that point, but get some food and 'chill'. At about 1PM, my bro (James) called. Nope, still in labour. More waiting. Finally, at about 10:30PM, James calls again and we're off to the hospital. About nineteen hours of labour later, Tyler (my nephew!!

) was born at 10:22PM, April 30th, 2006, weighing in at 5.09lbs! Man, he is a cute little guy! I can't wait to see what great things are in his future.

I'm an uncle! More importantly, James and Ev are parents!
Wow, if I get this excited for a nephew (first one, mind you), just imagine what I'll be like when I have my own kid.