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I'm very big in Japan.
Feb. 18th, 2009 12:29 pmone of the greatest consolations of 2009 so far, I think, was Valentine's Day falling on a Saturday. Overall, I think the whole thing is kind of silly, but there's nothing like the sinking realization that every desk around you is covered with flowers/chocolate/Vermont Teddybear/ those dumbass Pajamagrams to make you feel like the absolute personification of a Cathy cartoon (Ack!).
So, okay, the "get presents delivered to you at work so you can show off" portion of the day gets a reprieve, but you still kind of have to figure out something to do at night. There's two "What I'm doing On Valentine's Day" categories, as far as I can see: I'M DOING SOMETHING VALENTINE-Y and I'M ACTIVELY DOING SOMETHING ANTI-VALENTINE-Y. Neither one's better than the other- you can drop a million dollars eating at the Russian Tea Room and giving expensive gifts only to have a fight with your lady/gent and have a shitty time, just as easily as you can run to the local dive bar to grab a beer with a bunch of likeminded friends and have the time of your life. Or vice-versa. (Being a cranky anti-everything, moping on your couch in your sweatpants eating a tube of raw cookie dough still counts as doing something, so you may as well get out. Or at least get drunk)
I'm pretty sure, for the first time ever, I did an activity that was neither Pro or Con Valentine: I went ballroom dancing with my mother.
...well, sort of. My mother was part of the band playing the gig (which is a quarterly event with the Ballroom Dancing Society, not holiday related), and she's still gimping on her crutches, so she wouldn't be dancing. But I went, planning to help her get on and off the stage, and if the rest of the event was lame, I could sit in the back with the brass section and sneak nips out of my contraband bottle of Jameson's.
I did that for an hour or so, critiquing the dancers on the floor, flask in my lap. Then I cut across the dance floor to go to the bathroom, and somebody asked me to dance*. On the way back from the bathroom, somebody else asked me to dance. Then somebody else. It was pretty fun, I must admit. Also, watching my mom laughing at me from the bandstand was entertaining.
Then I noticed kind of a funny coincidence. All the dudes asking for a turn around the floor were Asian. Chinese, Chinese, and Korean, if I remember correctly. It kept happening all night, except when I danced with a few 50+ members of the band on a break. I don't know, maybe Asian dudes have a thing for platinum hair with a pink streak in the back?
Most of the guys came with other friends or girlfriends, and just change parters to practice. The last guy I danced with was clearly there to get himself a wife. Sorry dude, I kind of require my future husbands to speak more than 6 words of English. Also, to not have BO. JingHua would not leave me be, so I retreated back up to the safety of the brass section and my flask.
Still, a marriage proposal, dancing, and liquor made for not that bad of an Valentine's experience. Also, I now have the added bonus of finally knowing my target audience- who would have thought I'd be so popular in Asia?
*I'm pretty fair at ballroom. I haven't taken lessons in a long time, but besides remembering "1,2 cha-cha-cha" and holding on to the dude who's pushing you around the floor, there isn't much to screw up. It also helps if I've been drinking a little, which I was.
So, okay, the "get presents delivered to you at work so you can show off" portion of the day gets a reprieve, but you still kind of have to figure out something to do at night. There's two "What I'm doing On Valentine's Day" categories, as far as I can see: I'M DOING SOMETHING VALENTINE-Y and I'M ACTIVELY DOING SOMETHING ANTI-VALENTINE-Y. Neither one's better than the other- you can drop a million dollars eating at the Russian Tea Room and giving expensive gifts only to have a fight with your lady/gent and have a shitty time, just as easily as you can run to the local dive bar to grab a beer with a bunch of likeminded friends and have the time of your life. Or vice-versa. (Being a cranky anti-everything, moping on your couch in your sweatpants eating a tube of raw cookie dough still counts as doing something, so you may as well get out. Or at least get drunk)
I'm pretty sure, for the first time ever, I did an activity that was neither Pro or Con Valentine: I went ballroom dancing with my mother.
...well, sort of. My mother was part of the band playing the gig (which is a quarterly event with the Ballroom Dancing Society, not holiday related), and she's still gimping on her crutches, so she wouldn't be dancing. But I went, planning to help her get on and off the stage, and if the rest of the event was lame, I could sit in the back with the brass section and sneak nips out of my contraband bottle of Jameson's.
I did that for an hour or so, critiquing the dancers on the floor, flask in my lap. Then I cut across the dance floor to go to the bathroom, and somebody asked me to dance*. On the way back from the bathroom, somebody else asked me to dance. Then somebody else. It was pretty fun, I must admit. Also, watching my mom laughing at me from the bandstand was entertaining.
Then I noticed kind of a funny coincidence. All the dudes asking for a turn around the floor were Asian. Chinese, Chinese, and Korean, if I remember correctly. It kept happening all night, except when I danced with a few 50+ members of the band on a break. I don't know, maybe Asian dudes have a thing for platinum hair with a pink streak in the back?
Most of the guys came with other friends or girlfriends, and just change parters to practice. The last guy I danced with was clearly there to get himself a wife. Sorry dude, I kind of require my future husbands to speak more than 6 words of English. Also, to not have BO. JingHua would not leave me be, so I retreated back up to the safety of the brass section and my flask.
Still, a marriage proposal, dancing, and liquor made for not that bad of an Valentine's experience. Also, I now have the added bonus of finally knowing my target audience- who would have thought I'd be so popular in Asia?
*I'm pretty fair at ballroom. I haven't taken lessons in a long time, but besides remembering "1,2 cha-cha-cha" and holding on to the dude who's pushing you around the floor, there isn't much to screw up. It also helps if I've been drinking a little, which I was.
