The last dance of this years Snow Ball happened late yesterday afternoon. As is often the case the last few dances of the last day of dancing were some of the best. By the time the music ended after the last waltz everyone one was so happy and so very tired. Hard to believe I actually got up at 8:00 in the morning. Especially after such a great night of dancing on Saturday. I came back to the trailer after 4 hours of dancing that evening and simply collapsed. So much fun, such great music and so many fun and pretty women to dance with. When my head finally hit the pillow around 1:30 in the morning it hardly seemed possible that I would be able to get up and do it all over again.
   And yet there I was at 10:00 a.m. looking for someone to dance the 1st dance of the session with. For those who have never contra danced, it should be noted that most people change partners after each dance. It is also nice that anyone can ask anyone else for a dance, so both men and women can ask someone for a dance. You don't have to actually agree to dance with anyone, but it is usually polite to do so. It also makes sense since there isn't a lot of reason to turn anyone down, as you will generally be dancing way more with the other people in the line than you will with any particular partner. And yet, it is also nice to dance with good friends as partners if you can swing it. I generally just wing it and dance with who ever says yes to me or asks me first. I get to meet lots of new people that way, plus, if she isn't a great partner for some reason you only have to dance with her for a very short time.
    Needless to say, it also helps that there are generally a few more women than men at any particular dance, so finding a partner for me is usually not a problem. Indeed, the only problem for me this weekend was in trying to find some time to take a break once in a while to drink some water or go to the bathroom. In any case it was a terrific couple of hours of dancing yesterday, the only problem was that it always seems that it ends way too soon.
    It is always a bit of a let down once a dance weekend has ended. For me it is always a struggle since I am a pretty well defined introvert. It seems like a bit of an anachronism that a self professed introvert would even consider going to a dance with 200-400 other high octane people. But for some reason it works for me most of the time. It just means that at some point I will have to go somewhere and decompress by my self. Sometimes that means setting a dance or two out once in awhile, and sometimes it just means not dancing much during the day during weekend dances. For me it meant turning down a couple of very nice invitations to lunch and dinner with friends yesterday and then going someplace where I could just sit and become human again.
    So it rained sometime around 3:00 this morning. I know this because it was noisy enough on the top of the trailer that I woke up. Good thing I guess since two of the roof vents were open an inch or two and needed to be closed up. What really interested me though was that only a few minutes after the down pour started I could feel my sinus passages closing up and found myself starting to cough again. Most people think that a good rain would help people who have allergies, but it is usually just the opposite, in that instead of washing everything clean, it just stirs all the dust and pollen up and back into the air. Lucky for me though it didn't last very long.
    I am lucky to have a campsite here at Fort Desoto that backs up to one of the wash/bath houses as they also have a coin operated washer and dryer at each one. So I managed to get a couple of loads of laundry done this morning. Now I'm good for a couple more weeks or so.
    I'm headed out for a movie this afternoon, wanting to go see 'American Sniper' so as to see what all of the controversy is about. I imagine my feelings will be stretched in several directions.... but that is okay. I would maybe worry more if I could only see one side of this argument.
     What isn't up for argument however is how much fun this weekends dance was, so here is a video of one of the dances. Filmed by a friend who strapped one of those small video cameras to his head, it is somewhat disconcerting to watch at times as he is well over 6 feet tall and the swings can be quit fast at times. What you can't miss however is the look of sheer fun on everyone's face. Enjoy! 

Seth Tepfer calling with the Stringrays 

 Florida Snow Ball 2015 in Gulfport

            








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