I learned the electric slide sometime in the early 90s, when I was in high school. It was all the rage. There was this “dance club” that had teen nights about 45 minutes from where I lived, and my friends and I used to pile into a car, drive down there, and dance the night away. We all wanted to learn the “cool new line dance” that everyone was doing.

Kim, Jill and I were the dancers in the group, so we learned it fairly easily. Soon, we’d taught it to the whole cheerleading squad, and even incorporated it into our routine senior year. (Wow! We were so cutting edge!)

When I was a freshman in college, I took a phys ed class called social dance. We learned to waltz, cha cha, and jitterbug, and as we neared the end of the semester, our teacher (one of my favorite professors, Jan Hyatt) talked about the trend of line dancing, and how she wished she knew the electric slide.

“Um, I know the electric slide,” I quietly volunteered.

Next class, I brought in a tape with the music and proceeded to teach my whole class, and my teacher, the electric slide. I became known as “the girl who taught Jan Hyatt the electric slide.”

Recently, I overheard my brother and his fiancee talking about their upcoming wedding, trying to decide what music they wanted played at the reception.

“Oh, but your sister likes the electric slide,” I heard.

“Your sister is kind of over the electric slide,” I said.

Really. I don’t mind it. I don’t care if they play it at their wedding, and if they do, I’m sure I’ll get up and dance

It’s been well over ten years that I’ve been doing this dance…at high school dances, sorority functions, weddings…I don’t particularly like it anymore, but I still feel oddly compelled to do it. Mostly because when I see people line up to do it at a wedding, it is usually sorely in need of leadership. My point was proven over the weekend, at the wedding I went to with Rand.

The music came on, and I hesitated.

“Go on,” Rand said.

I sighed.

I took a position on the end, did the most basic version that exists. No fancy steps or turns. When it was over, I came off the floor.

“You were right,” he said. “Everyone was following you.”

It’s my curse.

NaNoWriMo starts today. As previously stated, I am going to participate, in an attempt to finish what I started last year. (Posted at my writing blog…I think I’m going to be making some stylistic changes…check there for details) So go ahead, nag me!

Ummm…scratch that part about it being at the writing blog…I’m sticking with the same story, but doing something slightly different with it, so I decided to start a new, anonymous place for it. It was going to be more work to try and change what I’ve already got written. I want to try to write the story in blog/journal form. If you want the link, email me and I’ll send it to you.

In order to help with my writing goals, I ordered a laptop today. Thanks to Thomas (and his, ahem, anonymous friends) I decided to go with the iBook. Woohoo!

Something funny overheard by Rand while working on the reference desk yesterday:

“Well, it’s not plagiarization if you citate it.”

Sadly, I’m not making that up.

Hrm…I should get some writing done. 🙂

Hey everyone! The annual Toasted Cheese Dead of Winter contest opens today…judged by me and Eden. Here’s the info, for anyone who’s interested. (feel free to pass it on!)

The contest runs Nov. 1 through Dec. 21. Winners will be announced January 31, 2006.

Stories submitted to the 5th Annual Dead of Winter contest (December 2005) should follow the theme: “The souvenirs/trophies of a returned soldier”

Word limit is 3900 words.

Remember: “Dead of Winter” (or DOW) is a supernatural fiction contest. You may use elements of horror, fantasy etc. but above all your story must have that touch of the “otherworldy” about it. For examples of what we mean, please read winning entries from previous DOW contests in our archived March issues.

Entries are blind-judged by Baker and Billiard. Decisions are final.

Winning stories are published in the March issue of Toasted Cheese.

Entries must adhere to Toasted Cheese’s regular fiction submission guidelines and to the chosen theme.

ETA: Please note that this contest is blind-judged, and I am one of the judges. If you read this blog and you enter, please do not tell me!

I made a very exciting purchase on Friday.

See, I’ve been wanting a pair of boots much like the ones pictured above for quite a while now. I haven’t been able to find any, because every pair I have ever tried on would not zip over my calves.

I understand that I am not, nor will I ever be, thin. However, I find it hard to believe that my calves are extraordinarily large. Muscular, sure, but nicely toned, and I would think normal. Apparently, I am wrong.

But on Friday, I went into a shoe store and found a pair in black that FIT! Yay! 🙂

Rand and I attended a Halloween-themed wedding on Saturday night, which was a lot of fun. A lot of people (including the bride, groom, and wedding party) were in costume. I kind of wish we’d brought the camera! We had a lazy, lazy day on Sunday.

I worked today, which was fun, because I got to see the kids all dressed up. I love to see high school students still in the spirit of this sort of thing. There were lots of witches and fairies, but still plenty of clever, original ideas. 🙂

Well, that’s it for me today. Happy Halloween, everyone!

Featured photo at Tony Fabris’ website, from the late, late Saturday night/Sunday morning filk circle at OVFF:

That’s me, to the right of Rand, in my jammies singing something. (My guess is that I was singing along to Rand’s performance of Subversives, by Lowest of the Low…)

Tony is just one of the many cool people I met over the weekend.

You can check out the rest of Tony’s photos here, should you be so inclined. 🙂

Ok, computer people…I’m in the market for a notebook (laptop).

I don’t want to spend *too* much. (much as I love Rand’s PowerBook G4, that’s out of my price range…) I plan to primarily use it for writing, but of course, I’ll also want to be able to use it for email/internet, and I’ll probably want to be able to use iTunes.

What I’m not sure of is how much RAM I need, how big of a hard drive is necessary, and other fun details like that. What I don’t want to do is call and talk to a salesman, because of course they’ll try to sell me more than I actually need.

I appreciate the help!

1. Keith Knight rocks!

We saw him at the Cleveland Institute of Art, so basically it was me and Rand and a bunch of art students. Very cool. We talked to him a bit, and he signed a copy of one of his books (Passion of the Keef) for us. We also picked up a copy of his latest CD (he’s in a hip hop group called the Marginal Prophets)…titled Bohemian Rap CD. Hee! I mean, how do you not buy that?

2. OVFF was a lot of fun.

I got to meet some new people, all of whom were very cool, and see several fantastic concerts: Seanan McGuire, Michelle Dockrey, Riverfolk and Wild Mercy. Wild Mercy has a cool Celtic vibe…they even covered a song by one of my favoritest Celtic-type bands, Great Big Sea. (Own True Way) Awesome.

Every year at OVFF, awards are given in various categories. The nominated songs are performed on Friday night, attendees vote, and awards are presented at a Saturday evening banquet. I have to say, the nominees for best filk song were quite impressive. Tom Smith’s song “Rocket Ride”, an insanely catchy tune, was this year’s winner. I also really liked Escape Key’s “The Girl That’s Never Been”.

Rand gave a lyric writing workshop, which I sat in on. It was cool to see him in teacher mode. Very entertaining, and people really seemed to enjoy it. 🙂

And of course, it’s always fun to hang out with Joe Giacoio. Joe’s got a new CD out, which Rand got a copy of, and it’s great stuff. He never fails to make me tear up just a little. No Carla this time, though. Bummer. 🙂

Ummm…lessee…

3. Fleabag motels in Dayton=eeeeew.

Sunday night, we went to visit Rand’s brother and his family. I got to meet his wife and kids for the first time, and I really liked all of them. Cute, cute little boys. We spent the night at the “Relax Inn,” because we were too tired to search for anything else. Wouldn’t have been that bad but for the smoke smell. Let me be completely clear…this room didn’t just smell like it had been smoked in. It smelled like a family of three-pack-a-day smokers had lived there for ten years. Blech.

4. Henry Rollins rocks!

It wasn’t the most stellar of material, but man, can this guy entertain.

5. NaNoWriMo

I decided to sign up again, but I’m not exactly following the rules. I want to finish the thing I started last year, and my TC friends encouraged me to sign up anyway so that I could benefit from their peer pressure. Basically, I don’t care if I “win”, but I want to get back into the groove. I need a laptop, by the way. I’ve been hanging on to about half of my Woman’s World money, which won’t completely pay for a new computer, but will take a decent chunk out of it. Any suggestions?

Phew…I guess that’s it for now. 🙂

What can I say…life is busy. Subbing, teaching, grading…that’s about all I do.

I’m going to be heading out of town after my class tomorrow night, and won’t be back until Monday. Don’t miss me too much. 😉

Excitement on the agenda:

Friday morning in Cleveland, Rand and I will be seeing Keith Knight, a very funny and talented cartoonist. Of course, Rand got me interested in him, but I was the one who said “Oh my God, we HAVE to go!”

From there, we head to Columbus for OVFF.

Then, next Tuesday in Buffalo, we’re going to see Henry Rollins!

So hopefully, when I return, I’ll have some good stories to tell.
🙂

Thank you, Sister Jennifer, for reminding me…

Hello, all. F3 here. We’re in Q4 now and recruitment time is upon us once again. Never mind that we’ve never actively recruited – the time is now. We need people to sustain our membership commitment and these people need to be sought out. (“Memberhsip commitment” seems to work for PBS and NPR, so I thought we might co-opt it for private use.)

Please send along your ideas. Pendant keychains and “free beer certificates” have been forwarded (well, I thought of them, but only parenthetically), but we need more. More, we tell you, MORE!

Go here for the rest.

Check out this month’s Absolute Blank article over at Toasted Cheese…by yours truly. 🙂