Tangential Love

Today's abbreviated morning dance party was to some krautrock from Neu! (many thanks for introducing me to them, Matt Meeks)  Wikipedia taught me a thing or two about them today.  Their music seems to have influenced some pretty amazing artists--Bowie, Iggy Pop, & Stereolab, to name a few. I had to cut dance time short this morning to make an acupunture appointment, but I got a solid 10 minutes in to a tune called 'Hallogallo'.  As repetitive as the song was, I never really grew bored of it.  I liked the how the driving rock beat served as an anchor that allowed the guitar to kind of wander off & find its way back, & then stray again.  The beat felt solid & confident, Rolling Stones-ian.  My hips snapped back & forth, & my shoulders followed suit.  I did a lot of rockin' out rythmic nodding, as well; & I'm usually not that agreeable in the morning.  My hips grew more adventurous as the song went on, with some circles & a little thrust action--ala Garth in Wayne's World to Hendrix.  Perhaps a little sexier, as I called on some tips from my Cardio Burlesque exercise video.

All in all, I headed out the door in a pretty good mood.  And acupuncture helped solidify that.  I loved my acupunturist gal today, even though she & I had no flow to our whispered dialogue whatsoever.  She would ask me a question & I'd begin to answer, & then she's pipe in, thinking I was done, realizing--nope, not quite.  Then there would be a three-mississippi pause, when neither of us was sure who should speak.  Then we'd start talking at the same time.  Luckily, both of us seemed to be amused by our graceless conversation skills.  It sort of felt like learning to kiss, minus the angst. 

My  very favorite part of the appointment was about 20 minutes after the needles had been put in.  Generally, I become very relaxed during acupuncture & travel to some zen place where I'm not asleep, but I'm not awake either.  Or I actually doze off.  Today I felt calm, but undeniably awake and alert, so I was looking around the room at paintings, ceiling fans, & pillows.  Suddenly the acupuncturist appeared from across the room & I instinctively snapped my eyes shut, as if frightened that she would find me anything less than in a tranquil coma.  I immediately realized how idiotic this was & opened my eyes.  Then the whole thing seemed extraordinarily hilarious, so I closed my eyes tightly & concentrated really hard on not laughing out loud & disturbing my fellow acupunturees.   

After acupuncture, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting my best friend for lunch at Outpost, & I was thoroughly delighted by her sleep-deprived silliness & the urban slang she has consciously picked up from a new friend.  Uber lovely afternoon, all in all.

I briefly descended into some PMSy, achey jointy, oh-the-hopelessness-of-it-all state around 4:00, but was lifted out of it easily by this guy named Dion.  The greatest thing in the world to do on Valentine's Day is to mercilessly tickle Dion, I've decided. I love that he sees us as the sort of couple who will not stoop to celebrate Valentine's Day because it's so trite & commercial.  But I think he wanted to make sure I was on the same page (I was) because he did some hilarious thinking out loud.  Some of it was on-purpose funny, & I think a bit of it may have been accidentally funny.  You sort it out.  Here are a few separate, loose quotes I decided to make into a single Dion monologue: "Baby, do you want to do anything for Valentine's Day? We're not Valentine's Day people, are we?  It's not a real holiday. How about I make guacamole for Valentine's Day?  Let's have sex tonight.  Or wait....should we not do it on principle, because it's Valentine's Day.  We'll do it, but we won't tell anyone!!!"  End scene.

Holy shit I love that guy.

Later on I taught a water aerobics class that only one gal showed up for.  It was laidback & fun.

After class I stopped by my parents' house for a visit.  My mom had a little Valentine's Day care package for me: a little vase with a single red rose & a bag of chocolates.  My mom is about the sweetest person in the world, I'd wager.  She told me she had bought a dozen roses for my dad, but didn't sign the card.  She just put them in a vase & when he asked who they were from she shrugged & said there wasn't a name on the card.  So far Pops hasn't figured out that the flowers were for him & from mom.  I wish this were a cute little story about my mom lovingly teasing my dad & my dad being adorably clueless. But it's more a story of a marriage that is far from perfect, & a wife who knew that this was the only way there would be flowers in the house on valentine's day.  The dynamics of a marriage, of a family, are complicated to say the least.  But in some ways, everything is sort of simple.  People need to know they are loved & appreciated.  Whatever heavy burden you are carrying, from time to time, set it down.  The weight will be waiting for you when you're done showing the person you love how much they mean to you.  I have plenty of my own demons that I battle every fucking day.  But I know that I'm not going to let the bullshit raging in my head keep me from showing the people I love that they are loved.  That is never going to be something those close to me have to guess at.  And I think that's a decent first step to.....something.  Happiness?