A Road Less Travelled

Yesterday was a crazy day. Due to circumstances beyond our control, which partly just means it didn’t get realized until too late, Go Play Peoria and the Reformation Day Faire were on the same day. So naturally we proceeded to devolop a complicated plan involving two major events, two vehicles, and nine people, three of whom can drive.

Not having any official responsibilities at the Reformation Day Faire, I got to skip the early exit, and leisurely left the house around nine to head to Go Play with just myself, two boys, an entire costume change for the Reformation Day Faire including different shoes and a blanket to use for a shawl in case it was cold, and just in case, a craft project and my medical terminology textbook.

Go Play was its usual fun with a discussion of the ins and outs of playing Battlestar Galactica, a game of Sabetour (in which I tied for first), and two games of Dominion (in both of which, I think, I came in second). Things were just really starting to gear up when it came time for me to head over to Ref Faire. Theresa was there to take over ‘watching boys at Go Play’ shift, and I’d decided that I wanted to get to Ref Faire in time for the outside events starting in the afternoon.

A brief excursus here into the subject of my new haircut: I just got my hair cut very short, for me. It’s a few inches past my shoulders, with swept to the side bangs. I spent the first twenty to thirty minutes at the Reformation Day Faire fielding “I LOVE your new haircut!” comments. Part of me honestly enjoyed the attention I don’t usually get, and part of me started to find it just a bit ridiculous. For those who are wondering, yes, I like my new haircut, no, I didn’t freak out about getting that much cut off, and no, I probably won’t keep it. I got my five minutes of fame for a having a ‘cool’ hair cut, and I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, but (I think) I’ll be ready to head back toward being a person with long hair by time I’d need to get it trimmed.

I spent most of my time chatting with people I haven’t seen in a long time, or with people I mostly know through the internet, punctuated by hanging out with old friends on the security team (or chatting at the registration desk) and getting the inside scoop on what was going on.

I re-discovered something about myself, which is that I really prefer to be working behind the scenes over getting the apparently seamless presentation. I ‘got’ to help out in the kitchen a bit, and serve the salad for the spaghetti dinner the church put on. This involved keeping salad served up in bowls as fast as people could come take it, helping two people with food allergies, and telling multiple people that the salad in the bowls already had dressing on it. At one point I was falling behind and running out of salad, so I needed some help to keep up with the salad consumption, (obviously, involving time pressure and dealing with people, both of which usually just stress me out) and at the end my feet and back hurt, even if that makes me a wimp compared to people who were on there feet for 17 hours straight that day. And I have to say, I loved it. I’m filing this away under ‘trying to figure out what I’m good at it’ and will try to make sense out of it later.

Pretty soon it was time for the dance. The rational part of my brain had decided long before dancing in a long flowing dress in a crowded room wouldn’t even be fun and I really just shouldn’t bother. As the dance got closer it started to get shouted down by the part of of my brain that was jumping up and down saying, “Dancing is fun!”. There was even a contemplative part of my brain positing that I just didn’t want to dance because I was pretty sure I would never find anyone willing to dance with me anyway, so it was safer to just decide not to. I ignored that theory, but still somehow found myself in the corner full of other girls, (opposite the wall lined with guys, as the room had somehow magically segragated itself…) watching the Virginia Reel, and clapping along.

The next two dances, however, found me discovering that having old friends on the security team is not just useful for finding out what’s going on, but excellent for finding dance partners when they’re taking turns actually being security and dancing. Good thing too, because I have a sneaking suspicion I would have gotten (very politely) yelled at if I’d very rationally managed to avoid dancing altogether…

And so the crazy, fun, busy day closed with me turning over a Lee Ann Womack song in my head:

“I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance….I hope you dance.”

Life has been rough for me lately, not so much because life has been rough, but because I’ve been emotional and confused and hurting. Well, I can still point to the same reasons that I’m having a difficult time with life, but over the last couple days I got a minor but much needed attitude adjustment. I experienced a few small but striking moments of providence in my life, and I got one beautiful, crazy day.

And at the end I got the choice to dance, and I did.