The past month has seemed almost… normal? I know I am likely setting myself up for disappointment if I expect it to be smooth sailing from here on out, so my plan is to just enjoy everything I can while it’s available to me.
White Rock Traditional Jazz opened back up again this month and we’ve gone dancing there 3 weeks in a row. Prior to the pandemic there would usually be just a handful of swing dancers mixed in with the older folks, but that seems to have changed. The first week back, we had 17 swing dancers! Everyone has been great at integrating into the scene and the regulars seem very happy to have some new faces around.
Dancing to live music again has been so reinvigorating, and as a first foray back into social dancing, it has been especially enjoyable.
We also recently did a daytrip to Victoria for a solo jazz workshop. It was our first in-person dance class in over two years, and the instructors were our former neighbours who had last taught at the Balboa Saturday workshop I ran just before all hell broke loose.
They were not at all rusty because they are the only people I know who practice dancing every single day. I, however, felt very rusty. By the end of the workshop I was pretty exhausted, but it was fun to get back into things in a group setting. Plus, we also got to visit with our Victoria friends, which is always nice.
Then last week, Pearl Jam finally announced their new tour dates, rescheduled from April 2020. This is the info I have been eagerly awaiting for many months so that I could start working out our vacation plans.
When they first announced the dates, I was trying to figure out how to squeeze in as many of the 5 shows we had tickets to as I could and still be able to go to Ireland for 2 weeks at the end of May, but it was just too much. We decided to postpone the Ireland trip to another time and prioritize Pearl Jam.
At first, I thought I could decide which shows were most important to me, and maybe sacrifice one or two of them to save some vacation time and money, but it turns out I can’t.
In Oakland we have the best seats, so I don’t want to miss those shows.
In LA, it’s the best venue, so I don’t want to miss those shows.
And San Diego will be the first concert of the tour, after such a long wait, I definitely don’t want to miss that show.
This means we’ll be going to California for 2 weeks in May. We have a few days in between each of the concert cities, and we’re still working out the details on what we’ll do, but hopefully we’ll be able to hit a few local social dances along the way. Most things have not started up again yet, but I feel like they will be back in action over the next month or so and then we can sort out the details.
Here and now, there is also a bunch of exciting stuff happening. I just spent the better part of an hour waiting in line for donuts (and not for the first time this week), which doesn’t sound exciting, but breakfast tomorrow certainly will be.
I’m sure I mentioned Yum Donuts during the earlier part of the pandemic; I was ordering from them and picking up at their house some weekends. Now they have a storefront less than a block from my house. The whole neighbourhood is coming out to buy donuts. Doesn’t anyone work around here? I thought there would be no line up on a weekday.
This weekend is jam-packed with action too. Tonight we’re going to the first big swing dancing event of the new roaring twenties that’s happening in Vancouver. Two live bands!
Tomorrow afternoon we’re going to a musical at the Anvil Centre here in New West called Hey Viola! I just heard about it today but it sounded really good so I decided we should go. Here is the blurb from the website:
Hey Viola!, a musical exploration of Canadian Civil Rights hero, Viola Desmond. But who is Viola Desmond…? Other than the newest face on Canada’s ten-dollar bill. She is best known for her courage in refusing to leave the whites-only section of Nova Scotia’s Roseland cinema in 1946, a decision that made history, but she was also a feminist and beauty product icon. What was the fire within this successful black Canadian businesswoman that gave her the courage and confidence to stand up to systemic racial injustices in Canada?
And then on Sunday, of course, back to White Rock Jazz, which will be handy for working off those donuts.
Dancing In Irreverence 