I am SO BRAVE

I just went to the Ellington Hall Friday night swing dance party BY MYSELF scary scary scary but actually it was fine. They start off with a lesson, and there's about sixty people there, and it's fun because a) you're guaranteed a partner, since they put everyone into two concentric circles that just rotate around one another, b) there's a hilarious variety of ages, from 11 up to about 70 (not a ton in the mid-thirties, sadly, but meh, you don't go to these things to be picky) and c) you sort of get to know people a little bit in the lesson, so by the time the dance party itself starts, you don't feel quite so horrifically shy about finding partners. The only guy who asked me to dance was someone I actually semi-knew from forays into Internet dating who I like, but he's a little strange and also a fantastically good dancer, so I didn't feel I could inflict myself on him more than a couple of times. Boo: I did not get asked to dance by anyone else (all the guys who are beginners seem to be very tentative about asking people to dance, and all the guys who are really good go for the girls who are really good (natch)). But then I thought, the hell with it, and so I started marching up to random dudes and dragging them out on the floor, and ended up having a reasonably grand old time. Also I love love love old swing music. They played Aretha, and the Dusty Springfield song, "Son Of A Preacher Man," and "Frankie and Johnnie" and Nat King Cole, and all sorts of lovely oldies without any schmaltz at all. So points for me for being brave.