latin lovers

i am super-sick today [i have been in bed, all day] and i realized i hadn't shared my Valentines surprisingly good news: i went salsa-dancing on Valentine's night.

i have never been salsa dancing before, not to mention, that i have never felt really all that comfortable dancing at all. as a 5'7" pale white girl, i've always felt like

1-i make dumb faces when i dance
2-i don't know what to do with my hands (like Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights)
3-i feel like when a man dances with me he can see how inexperienced and nervous i am.


well, i met a friend through a website, and yes, that sounds lame, but he's just a friend, and for the sake of my blog, i want to call him the Workaholic. seriously, this guy works all the time. but he also enjoys getting out and going to bars and other social-esque places downtown.

so because i don't really know anyone here in town besides my roommate, i told him that yes, i would go with him to a club downtown on Valentine's night and go salsa dancing with some other girls he knew. i picked him up, and he helped me navigate to the nightclub, and when we got inside the place was packed.

there were tons of guys there, and tons of girls too, but really, there were like groups of guys there. it was a little unnerving at first because i didn't know what i was doing, but at the same time, it was awesome to feel like there were men who had their eye on me. the Workaholic didn't really dance with me, which suited me fine, because although i think that he could be crush-worthy, he doesn't take any relationships seriously and he is too preoccupied with work.

i learned the basics from a really nice guy named Aaron who helped me get them down-pat. after i felt comfortable, some of the girls that had met us there took my hands and drug me out to the dance floor. i tried to let loose, but it was really hard at first. i've never really done the club-scene, never done the bar scene, i don't drink at all, so i can't foresee letting all my inhibitions go.....never done........and then it hit me:

i was like, i'm doing new things now, i'm perfectly capable of being good at things if i give them a shot. so i tried not to think about how tall i was in the heels i was wearing, or how white my arms looked in the air when i had them up during my dancing, and i tried to cut loose and have a good time.

by the time that my friends were tired of dancing to a particularly long song, that lasted for over 10 minutes, i got a bottle of water from behind the bar, and downed half of it, and by the time i was done with it, i'd gotten a tap on my shoulder by a really gorgeous latin guy with gel in his hair and a grin on his face. he asked me if i wanted to dance with him, i nodded.

he took my hand and led me to the dancefloor, with me glancing over my shoulder and all of my friends looking at me with goofy smiles on their faces and 2 thumbs-ups from the Workaholic. i danced with him, his name was Alex, he asked me why i was alone if i was such a beautiful woman. i told him that i had no idea why. and he held me around the waist, twirled me to the music, pulled me close, whispered in my ear, and when the song was over, i gracefully retreated back to my friends, ignoring my pounding heart and the tingles that i had all-over my body. it was amazing to feel wanted again, even if it was just for a song.