Dancing fun!

Swing 3 sure is fun! Tonight we continued to work on our triplestep, plus we added the outside turn and inside turn, and a couple more moves in the Shim Sham.

Many of us suffered from the giggles as we tried to do the Tacky Annies without falling over, and as usual Tina was trying to lead with the best of 'em, despite her opposite gender and less-than-average height. It's OK, Tina; you're already leading happy vertically-challenged follows like me.

It sounds like some of us are going out to Swan's tomorrow night? But it's my dad's birthday so I can't promise I'll be there right at 9, since I am cooking him dinner.

Yes!

Jody asked me to marry him, and I said yes!

(It's now been a week, and all the immediate family now knows, so I can finally post this.)

I am beyond happy, and still rather overwhelmed, as is he. There's a lot to think about and plan, and I am looking forward to so many things that were previously only hoped for.

Everyone wants to know when, and the official answer is:
We don't know yet!

I surprised Jody with a ring of his own, which we should be getting from the jeweler's soon--they should have been back from sizing today but that didn't happen--sad. Mine is very special, a five-stone diamond ring with a dainty white gold band that was his grandmother's. I'll try to get a picture next week.

Meanwhile... I guess I get to move up in the alphabet-- not that there's anywhere else to go! :)

So this is the new year...

and I don't feel any different.
--Death Cab for Cutie's "The New Year"

It was a very busy Christmas, what with family and many of Jody's friends visiting. My best friend went away to New York and my sister worked a lot, and try as I might, most of my friends could not find time to even have a coffee with me. But I did do a lot of fun things, including:
-Dancing at Bootleg Boogie
-Bodyworlds 3 at World of Science
-Perusing several used bookstores
-Beading earrings and bracelets
-Tea at the Empress
-Walking on the breakwater and seeing a pelican and whales and seals
-Eating, eating, eating
-Baking cookies to give to aunts & uncles
-Reading, watching movies, just to relax!

It was a very nice holiday, and after spending several days in a row around lots of people I felt lonely in a house all by myself.
School had decided to start extraordinarily early this year (today!) and it is rather sad that half the money which has found its way into my bank account will go to tuition and books. Blech. But today I went to the mall to redeem gift certificates, and ended up with a DVD of the new The Producers (really funny), and Body Shop stuff, AND a Gap denim jacket that was on sale for an incredible $9.99! There was no tag on it so no one else had bothered to ask how much it was, I guess. But it fit me perfectly and I've been looking for replacement jean jacket for months on end, so I asked and was pretty much bowled over by my good luck. Yay! :)