Sunday, March 31, 2013

An Introvert's Extroverted Adventure


There is this problem with Facebook.

When you have a birthday, everyone knows. 

People you didn't know you knew know that you are having a birthday.

No, this is not going to be a treatise about the breakdown of privacy due to our share-everything culture, and, yes, I am perfectly aware that with the click of my mouse, I can change the fact that Facebook shares my birthday with the world. 

Instead, this is a blog about the hilarity that ensues when a closet introvert suddenly ends up at the celebratory mercy of her more extroverted friends.

Yes, I would be the closet introvert (are there any walls nearby where I can flower?).  My friends – who might remain anonymous, but probably not – are definitely the extroverts of the party.

My story begins early last week when Facebook rats me out to the world.  One of my girlfriends seizes on this opportunity to drag me into the middle of the Salsa spotlight and convinces me that Friday would be a great day for me to go dancing at Club Viva and do the birthday party dance thing.  And really, how could I refuse?  With all of the craziness of the last month, I hadn’t seen her in weeks.  It would only be for one night right? 

Friday rolls around, and I find myself in a new dress and my fancy dance shoes (as opposed to my preferred socks) at Club Viva.  Some odd combination of it being a light crowd at Viva and it being my birthday meant that I met a lot of new people and got to dance with some new people – both guys and gals.  (I don’t care who I am dancing with, or which role as long as we are all having fun.)

The bartender whipped up a variation on my favorite drink for me.  What can I say, I like my water straight up.  I discovered over the course of the evening that if I had wanted to, I could have gotten seriously smashed on other people’s dime.  The last time I went to a bar for my birthday was when I turned 21, and I had forgotten all of the very few rituals that I was vaguely aware of surrounding drinking on your birthday.  The hostess asked if I wanted to do shots for my birthday.   Some other gal who I’m not sure I’d ever met before asked if I wanted to do drinks.  Both seemed somewhat disappointed when I declined.

As the evening wound down, the “Birthday Dance” commenced.  This is a rather wild bit of party magic – reminiscent of belt tests at my old BJJ school.  As the celebrant, I am at the center of a circle of potential dance partners.  My Salsa instructor started as my partner.  The music started up, and I danced with him until another partner stepped forward to claim me.  Around and around it went, some partners stepped into the circle when they wanted to dance, others were handpicked by the current dancer.  At one point, Club Viva’s owner, stepped in to be my partner when the current dance partner wouldn’t give me up to the next person.  Around and around we went, until I had no idea where my feet were supposed to be, and then the music ceased.

In all, it was an awesome way to celebrate my birthday -- even if my friends wouldn’t let me find a convenient wall.

One of the culprits of the story:  http://www.mylatinrhythms.com/

1 comment:

  1. Where is the cupcake? You are a beautiful birthday girl.

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