CU REC CENTER - Finally, went to watch CU Law's hockey team play. Naturally, they won. It's always nice running into classmates and it's even better when the event is good. Also, it's nice to finally keep my word about going. In return, Andy scored twice. Also, I think that 36 minutes is a perfect amount of hockey.
With 25 minutes to spare, I got a short post written. There'll be more quantity (and possibly quality) tomorrow.
BURKE PARK- It’s another sunny day in Boulder, Colorado. In February, today has an expected high temperature of 60 degrees. Last week, I said that I would try to write something every day. 5 out of 7 days I was successful. I wrote about my bike, going to watch Raw, dancing, salsa lessons, and D’Angelo’s album “Black Messiah”. So far, so good. I could look at the fact that I missed 2 days as a failure, or I could look at the fact that I had 28 entries all of last year and see my 5 entries this month as a resounding success. I’m making an effort to view the world as “glass half full.”
I’m writing this entry from Burke Park. Last year, in 2014, I would come here often when I needed peace of mind. When I was in New York, I would go to Washington Square Park for the same reasons. There is something nice about being outdoors, even for someone like me who doesn’t generally like it.
Of course, today presents a special challenge. It’s windy. At first, it was “cool breeze across the face” windy. Later, as I biked to the park, it was “guess I’m not going to read a book outside” windy. Now, it’s “laptop violently getting pushed across the table” windy. A lady just passed by and told me how brave I was to continue. Writing about race last year required some bravery. Discussing therapy required bravery. A minor blog post shouldn’t require bravery. I’ll show you what I’m talking about.
So you think you can dance?
I'm okay with dancing. What stymies me it's when I have steps to perform. Being told "Do this, at this time" frustrates and confuses me. Either way, I still want to figure out out, and for step 1 of that process, I took salsa lessons.
In college, I tried some ballroom dancing with varied amounts of success. I haven't tried it since. When someone brought up salsa lessons on one of the law school Facebook pages, I decided I'd try again. Last night, after work, I biked over and took a beginner lesson.
I enjoyed doing the lessons. I learned the basic step and then how to do a turn. There was another step that I was taught, but I couldn't figure it out. Either way, I enjoyed it and felt accomplished for my first time trying it out. Then they let us dance on our own.
Yesterday, I told a story seeing how much of a shy introvert I was in high school. Things haven't changed that much. Asking people to dance, even at a salsa dance class where everyone is there to dance, is difficult for me. Another actual problem there was that I had a limited set of moves that I could do, so things got boring quickly, since i'm expected to lead and all I have are 2 moves and one of them is rhythmic walking.
On the other hand, I enjoyed watching other more experienced people do it. While I was doing single-digit addition on the dance floor, they were doing calculus. I think that's how people who give lessons get you to come back. At first, you're frustrated. Learning to dance is difficult and the rewards are incremental. But then, when you see what other dancers can do, you come back for more incremental rewards until, in theory, you're as good as those dancers.
Now is the part where I'm I'm supposed to have a clean ending. I say whether I'll go back. I talk about some valuable lesson that I received. Unfortunately, I have none of that available at the moment. It was nice to go and maybe I'll do it again at some point. Until then, I'll just have to settle for practicing steps like Richard Gere in "Shall we Dance."
It's great that I have friends who have known me for more than a decade. In a lot of ways, I'm a lot different than the person I was when I was 15. The friend who I've known the longest, AK, is also the best male dancer I know. (The best female dancer I know is whomever I happen to be dancing with at the moment.) AK pretty much came out of the womb with rhythm. I've known him since first grade, and at every social, prom, or any event when music is on, he's the best dancer on the floor.
On the other extreme, to give an example of how I felt about dancing when I was younger, I have to talk about Junior Luau from my junior year of high school. When the music was on and there was a lot of fun to have, I was sitting at a table with a bunch of friends, petrified that one of my more extroverted friends might try to force me from my chair. For most of the night, I was successful. I was able to blend in pretty well. Then my classmate Nirmala started approaching the table. Of course, my friend Billy (in one of the rare times that he exposed himself as the evil human being that he is) yells over to her "Darryl hasn't danced in a while". Nirmala forced me away from the table and we danced clumsily and awkwardly for a song or two before I was happily able to get back to my chair.
There are a couple of things I should mention here. Nirmala loved dancing. A few months later, at a Halloween dance, even though I wasn't a better dancer, I was the one doing the approaching. I spent most of the next 5 years getting a crash course in "How To Dance Better" from AK and Nirmala. I wanted to get better. This may have been influenced by the fact that I was dating Nirmala by then. (As someone wise once told me, either you dance with her or someone else will) Since things worked out, maybe Billy isn't that evil and I've gotten more than my share of payback since, so we're even.
Now, at 25, things are a bit different. I try to dance to everything, whether the.music is hip-hop, swing, or even EDM (MOAR JUMPING, MOAR FISTPUMPING). I'm excited about any event where there might be music. Whether dancing in the middle of a circle, battling classmates, dancing on tables in Breckenridge (that was fun), and the classic "trying to get an attractive girl's attention". I definitely enjoy dancing a lot more now than I did back then. I'm still nowhere near as good as AK, though.
I was pretty disappointed by most of the music that was released last year in 2014. There wasn't a standout rap album. No other genres really had an album that really stuck out to me.
Luckily, in December, Black Messiah by D'Angelo was released. In a major way, it's the opposite of In the Lonely Hour. Where in the Lonely Hour exudes vulnerability and immaturity, Black Messiah is a mature album dripping in... confidence. I've listened to songs from that album almost every day. Every week, I have another favorite song. My favorite song was "Prayer", at first. Another week, my favorite song was "Sugah Daddy". This weekend, my favorite song was "Really Love." Now, I've given up because the whole album was so good and any song in the album could be considered the best, with the possible exception of “1000 Deaths,” which lyrically does nothing for me.
One of the things that pops out immediately is that the musical choices that are made for the album almost always work. Black Messiah is an album that you want to listen to with your best speakers. The album features great drums, Spanish guitar, and other instruments. I'm pretty sure I also heard a gong at one point of the album. It's obvious that a lot of work went into making the album. His live performance of "Really Love" on Saturday Night Live sounded great, and I assume that his live performances of the songs from this album are just as good.
Disclaimer: This album is largely “baby making music”. Use caution (and protection) when listening to this album.
If it isn't already obvious, I absolutely loved listening to this album. For those who like arbitrary ratings, I give this album 5 September baby showers out of 5.
I'm glad people appreciate this bizarre little project. One of the problems with writing every day is to try to have something to write about. Luckily, a couple of things were in my favor.
First, I'm a huge wrestling fan. I enjoyed it when I was younger and thought that it was real. I enjoy it now that I know matches are scripted and choreographed. In some ways, it's more impressive.
Second, WWE Raw was in Denver this week. Raw, for those who don't know, is wresling's weekly exhibition. Every Monday, Raw is broadcast live from a different city. This week it was in Colorado.
Third, thank God for snow. Every month or so, wrestling has major events (formerly known as pay-per-views). Usually the episode of Raw that comes after a ppv is really good. There's a lot of fallout from the last ppv and preparation for the next one. The last ppv "Royal Rumble" was last week and it ended controversially. The episode of Raw after the Rumble was scheduled to be in Hartford, CT. Of course, it snowed on the east coast last week and that resulted in the cancellation of Raw. So, as a result, the first Raw after the Rumble was in Denver.
So, today I bought a ticket to watch Raw. The seats weren't great, but I was in the building, and that's what mattered. It was my first time going to the Pepsi Center by myself as well.
Without getting involved in wrestling minutia, I noticed a couple of things from my night.
The pyrotechnics are deafening.
The slaps are loud enough that I could hear them clearly.
I'm not sure if the Denver crowds are a lot less loud than their New York counterparts, but I have no evidence to the contrary.
One of the things that really stuck out to me was something I didn't know happened until it was too late. For those who don't know, I'm hearing impaired. For the last 20 years, I haven't been able to hear out of my right ear. As a result, I have trouble with deciphering the direction of a sound, even when I can hear it. If someone's on my right side saying something, and I'm not expecting it, they may as well not exist. While I was watching a match, a lady talks me on the shoulder and tells me one of the ushers had been trying to get my attention. Of course, the lady was on my right side and there were a few kids between us, so it took me a while to figure out what she was saying. By time I caught what she was saying and got up, the usher was gone. Of course, it's not the first thing that I've missed because of my hearing. Won't be the last, sadly.
But the night went well. The show was great. The matches were predominantly good. Seeing some of the "behind the curtain" things, live, was also fun. It was nice going out on my own.
Thanks for reading. I don't think I'll be going anywhere tomorrow night. So we'll see how I'm able to find content tomorrow night.
Wheels.
I spent my law school career taking buses, walking long distances and getting the occasional ride from someone. When I first moved to Colorado all I had was what I could fit in a couple of suitcases. I didn't have a ton of money. I didn't have a car. Like most things during my first year, I found a way to make the best out of a rough situation.
During my first year internship at the public defenders office, one of my classmates let me borrow his bike over the summer. It was great. For the next two years, I said I would buy a bike and never actually did. I had a couple of problems (including my apartment flooding, forcing me to move out) and I never was able to buy it.
After the bar exam, I finally bought a bike. It's a used green bike that I've grown to love. It has helped me to get around a lot faster, especially on the weekends when the buses run less frequently. Boulder, CO has a lot of bike routes which make getting around a lot easier.
It's nice having wheels. It still isn't as nice as having a car, but my bike gets me where I need to be. I'm glad that I have it.
