Step Up

I was putting some clothes away at work and I walked by one of the numerous graphics like you do. I was in then men's athletic section so I wasn't too familiar with the section in general, let alone the graphics.  But I saw one on the side of a fixture that caught my eye because the male model looked really familiar to me for some reason.

I thought it may be one of the stock models the brand uses frequently so I had seen him in other ads before. But I've never payed that much attention to Fila so I knew that couldn't be it.  So maybe I had seen him in a movie or tv spot recently.  And then after mulling it over for a bit, it suddenly dawned on me where I had seen this model:

He was the male lead in Step Up 3D.

And no, I am not ashamed to admit that is where I recognized him from.  And, it also explains why he couldn't act either.

Known For

Because I wanted to avoid the middle school shuffle as our first dance, and Mike isn't the greatest dancer known to man, getting him to agree to take a few dancing lessons was not hard.  When we showed up for our first lesson, the very flamboyant receptionist squealed when he saw my shoes. 

We are not the first couple ever to take dancing lessons for our wedding, otherwise they wouldn't have as many lessons packages as they do.  And these dance studios have a decent amount of clients in general, so it's not out of the ordinary for them to not really know someone too well there.  But, when we walk in, and I have my pink shoe box with my fabulous pink wedding shoes in there, they remember me.

And I have to admit, I LOVE being remembered for my fabulous shoes!

Fred Astaire

Mike is a man of many talents. Dancing, however is not one of them.  He's not bad,  but he's not exactly Fred Astaire.  Anywho, by the time I realized this, I was way too far gone in love with him and just planned right then and there to take a couple of lessons for our wedding to avoid the middle school shuffle first dance.  So when there was a groupon for a few dancing lessons, and that the deadline to use it was right before the wedding, I snapped 2 of those up in a second.  And then once I committed to my shoes (more on those in a minute), I decided that I better book these lessons so we would have time to practice.

Tuesday we had our first lesson, which was fun.  Though I think I had more a little more fun than Mike.  He was fairly tense through the whole lesson because he was concentration so, so hard.  He can learn the steps and follow the beat, but I think he's more nervous than he's telling me (I can read your body language dear. After all, I have to learn how to follow you.)

But back to me. We walk into the dance studio and I'm carrying my shoes in their box.  The very flamboyant receptionist is super excited to see them, and asks if it's ok to take them out of the box while the groom is right there. I have no qualms about Mike seeing the shoes since they give nothing away about the dress, say sure and hand over the box.

He lifts the lid, pulls back the tissue paper and squeals "those are fabulous!" 
I didn't want to say this in front of him, but as we were getting in the car to go home, I say to Mike: When a gay man tells you you have fabulous shoes, your do indeed, have very fabulous shoes! 

Dancing Feet

I did something I don't normally do when it comes to shoe shopping for my wedding shoes: I bought them online. After giving up on trying to find a cute heel in a wide option, I decided to go with simply fabulous.  Which I got. In pink. Because why the hell not?  Well, anyway, they arrive and I'm super excited because they are a: my wedding shoes. and b: super cute. But at the time I was too tired to try them on and prance around because I had just gotten off work.

A few days later I remove all the tissue paper and get them on my feet. And they feel....interesting. They don't feel bad, but they do feel like something. There's a strap near my arch and it's not something I usually wear. But the heel is a great height for me (3", not too tall and I can walk all day in that), they are pink and fabulous, and when I put them next to my dress, they work. (I would tell you why, but that means I would have to describe a key element of my dress and since my fiance reads my blog won't share any details  Not that he knows what I'm describing anyway.)

Anyway, long story short, I decided to go with the shoes. So I'm walking around the house in them trying to break them in a little bit (and I may or may not have been prancing around looking at my feet and singing wedding shoes! wedding shoes! to the dogs).  I also plan on wearing them to our dancing lessons later this month. (I jumped on that groupon in about 2 seconds. Mike is very talented in many areas, but dancing is not one of them).  It's highly practical of me to learn how to dance in them.

But actually, I don't need to learn how to dance in heels, because I can definitely do that. It's dancing in the heavy dress that I need to learn how to do! 
   

Glee!

"open delight or pleasure, exultant joy, exultation." Also it's a show on Fox.

I had been hearing a decent amount about this show, and that the people that were into it were really into it. But I never found out when it was on, and I had other shows to obsess over, like True Blood and Mad Men (and don't judge me, Keeping up the Kardashians).

So when my girlfriends started talking about Glee, I asked them if it was worth getting into.
Michele: it has singing and dancing!
me: singing and dancing!?!? Why DON'T I watch this show?!

Seriously. Why haven't I been watching this show?

Singing? Check. Dancing? Check. Stereotypical high school characters that I can't get enough of? CHECK! Consider me hooked and caught up as of 8 pm this evening.

So in my zest of all things Glee, I've watched the last 5 episodes on Hulu and I've been obsessively googling YouTube clips of the song and dance numbers. The only problem with YouTube is that it's such a dangerous time suck. And I have no will power and fell head first down the internet rabbit hole. So In addition to Glee, I've also watched Kristen Chenoweth (love!) clips not related to the show, Indina Menzel's 2004 Tony acceptance speech (little choked up), Matt Morrison's video diary on Glee (cutie-cutie), and a medley from Hairspray at one of the Tony awards.

I wish life had more singing and/or dance montages. It would make class super fun!

Cougar/Manther

Turns out, the term cougar and a panther are interchangeable. And if a woman dating a younger man is a cougar, then a man dating a younger woman needs a term besides "happens every day." So my friend coined the term: manther, and I love it.

For my own knowing, I figured I should probably figure out what my personal minimum cougar and max manther age are.

If I am to be a cougar: the minimum is 1/2 your age + 7. So 26 /2 = 13, + 7 is 20. However I am bumping that up to 21, simply because I don't want a boyfriend to like me simply because I can buy him beer.

If I am to date a manther: I'm applying the same math only in reverse. So 26 - 7 =19, X2 = 38.

So there you go, it's acceptable for me to date someone 20-38. That's a whole legal person difference.

I want to be a ballerina

(DVR is awesome by the way). I finished my ballerina movie last night. Sadly, I was disappointed. Most of the dance sequences were filmed in the dark. Quoi? you ask. All the "hot" dancing sequences were too dark to see anything, and that's the whole reason I'm watching the movie. What, you thought it for the stellar dialogue? Oh noes. Next time I watch it (becasue you know I will) I'm just going to mute it through the talking parts and make up my own lines. I'm much wittier then a ballerina. Well, I don't know if that's true, I'm sure there are witty ballerinas out there. But they should stick to dancing and never act (at least on camera w/film in it. Especially with film in it). And really, screw being a triple threat people, that's just selfish.

All is not lost, my love of dance movies is unwavering. And if nothing else, it did accomplish one thing; I now want to be a ballerina. If only for the tutus.

Dance off? Yes!!!

Step Up 2, The Streets has a dance scene IN THE RAIN. If you grasp how awesome that is, you are undoubtedly my friend. Does it have a thought provoking plot? No. The best dance sequence ever? Yes (top 5 at least). I will watch any movie with a dance sequence. Case in point: Center Stage 2, Turn It Up. It's the made-for-tv-movie sequel (8 years later) to the real movie Center Stage!
The gist: girl from wrong side of the tracks (Detroit, the whole city is wrong side of the tracks) goes to the Big Apple and finds meaning of life through ballet.

Add: snotty ballet school, cute boy ballerina (who used to be a hockey player? Bonus, he has an accent just so we know how dreamy he is), prima donna antagonist (who's b*tchy demeanor is used to disguise her deep fear of loosing prima donna spot) and a hip-hop dance club. Liberally sprinkle dancing montages (there were 3 (3!) in the 45 minutes I saw alone), and you have yourself an awesomely bad made for tv movie, and my undivided attention.

I didn't get to see the end last night (oh nos!) but something tells me the pinnacle of it is a ballet performance infused with hip-hop oomph. Wrong side of tracks dancer gets into snotty ballet school, cute boy's undying love, and prima donna's respect (who always secretly respected wrong side of tracks girl, but could not show respect until proper dance off).

I'm totally dvr-ing it.

Da Club

I went out dancing a week or two ago. Maybe it's becasue I've been out of the dating scene for the past 3 and a half years, but I seriously forgot how high the creep factor was in there. It's like the black lights go on and the icky comes out (like csi-oh gross). And it's not just the guys, the girls are just as bad. Just becasue there is a pole, does not mean people want to see you up there. Black light isn't forgiving, muffin top is never sexy, even when you do have props. (It's bitchy because it's true) And the boys... well, number one, they're boys. Is there a troll convention going on? Who the hell moved the rocks you lived under? And what's with the aggressive? Dude, I walked away from you mid come-on, what part of that means, chase me, chase me! You know what also doesn't work? Standing a half inch away from me and leering at my chest. Neither is calling me a "sexy ass lady." (snort) Seriously, buy me a drink first. Not that it will get you anywhere, and I won't drink it due to the roofie possibility. Because yes, you are that type of guy. But if you are going to be that huge of a pig, you can waste your dirty money as a form of punishment. Smother on all the praise you can dirty boy, I'm not about to make out with you in the bathroom line.

But then again, I wasn't going there to meet my future husband (I wonder how he liked my letter?). I went to dance and have a good time with my girlfriends as a quick pick me up. And becasue my recoil factor was on high that night, it just shows me that I still have standards. And that was enough of a pick me up. That and trampling on a troll's mojo.