I am fortunate to have a group of friends who are pretty much up for doing anything random. At any time. In any neighborhood, borough, or state. With these people I have ventured to a beer garden in Queens, a Portugese steak house in Elizabeth NJ, a half marathon in Tennessee, sporting events in every stadium NYC has to offer, and many many more interesting and crazy places. But nothing really quite compares to the night we went to some strange land in the Jerz to a honky tonk to, ohhhh yes, country line dance. Inspired by the large contingent of Coloradoans in our crew, we made a journey to the Colorado Cafe in Watchung New Jersey. This required that we take a train to Hoboken NJ, then drive 30 minutes. That is dedication, folks.
Let me just say that though I grew up in rural podunkville PA, I had never been to anything even remotely like this place up until that night. I was truly shocked at the size and sheer number of people who were there just to line dance. All. Night. Long. And since we missed the first half hour where they teach people one of the dances, we were basically just jumping in feet first (no pun intended... ok, yes, pun intended) to try and pick up these dances. And who even knew that such a great variety and number of line dances existed? Every single song had a different dance. And for some there were two- a couples dance in a circle around the outside, and a line dance in the middle. Seriously intense. And clearly these people did/do this on a regular basis, because they all knew ALL the dances. Again I say, seriously intense.
As a side bar, my Massachusetts-born-and-bred roommate Kathy is obsessed with country line dancing, and I can't even explain how excited she was about this night. She talked about it incessantly during the days leading up to it. She donned her cowboy boots and literally the second we walked in the door, she was out on the floor. This is a girl who, while not shy and certainly not unfriendly, is definitely more reserved in social situations, particularly those involving large numbers of people she doesn't know. Seeing her there in that environment was one of those great moments in a friendship when you open a door into a completely different room in a different house in a different state of person's life. It was awesome.
And then there was the guys. With 10 of us there in total, and 4 of them guys, it was a nice blend. And these particular guys, once warmed up a bit to the idea of ACTUALLY dancing (I think they thought they might make it out with just kind of standing around drinking), were totally into it. And so it was actually pretty great, because we had partners all night long who weren't of the gray-haired handlebar mustache variety. Across the boards, we embraced our naivete and just jumped right in, doing our darndest to pick up each and every dance in the midst of people spinning all which ways all around us. And can I just say... wow, what a genuinely sweat-inducing activity. Maybe because I had to put so much energy into every dance just to be able to even keep up, but it definitely got the blood flowing.
Oh, and did I mention they had a bull-riding thing-a-ma-jig? Yeah. This place was for real.
So, some pictures to round out this blog about yet another random and crazy adventure from the world of Spangles.
This would be the dance floor. It was pretty awesome.
My Colorado friends who loooove to line dance.
Neil is a special boy. We really do love him.
These two crack me up. Like woh.
Team Awesome.
Who would've thought that a night at a random Jersey honky tonk could be so much fun? :)
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