Dancing Queen

All my life I have loved to dance. I could not wait to get old enough to go to school dances. Once I was old enough to go to a school dance I would daydream about those dances for weeks before and weeks after. School dances are some of the BEST memories I have from those days. I think that of all the dances I went to I maybe had a date for one or two of them. I never worried about having a date. I worried about how to get mom and dad to drive me to the dance and pick me up. Because I was FOCUSED on going to the dance when ever they had one.

Now I am all grown up and I can go to a night club when ever I want to go dancing. I also dance in the family room alone or with any one who happens to be at home. Some times them men in my life are willing participants in my dance and sometimes not, but I still LOVE to dance. The Tech monkey is now in 7th grade. I was SO excited that he was going to get to go to dances now. We could bond over who he danced with, what the girls wore to the dance, and which girl he liked. I had this whole vision in my head about how it was going to be. I was WRONG.

The Tech Monkey tells me he doesn't want to go to the dance at school. So I ask him if he knows how to dance. I already know that he knows how because I taught him but I am thinking maybe he is unsure. He tells me he knows how to dance but he does not want to go to the dance. So I begin to interrogate him as to how it could be that a child of mine could not want to go to the dance.  The Tech Monkeys response?  He completely clams up. I try in vain to discover the reason why he could possibly not want to go. I am completely confused. I think maybe I should force him to go. He is often a little shy about trying new things so maybe he just needs a little shove in the right direction. So I ask Agent Daddy. What I find out shocks me so completely that I walk around for several days afterward confused about how such information could be true. What is the shocking revelation that Agent Daddy shared with me?

Agent Daddy NEVER went to a school dance. NEVER. NEVER EVER. I know! How could this have happened? This is the man who went clubbing with me when we were younger, and dances with me in our family room when ever Sinatra is playing. How could I have married a man who didn't go to dances. Agent Daddy tells me he never went to any dances in Jr or High school. It didn't kill him and I should leave the poor kid alone. Well of course this cannot be allowed to stand. I call my girlfriends who have boys around the Tech Monkeys age. Some of them tell me their sons went to dances some of them tell me the son's did not begin being interested in dances until High School. There does not seem to be a rhyme or reason to why some boys want to go to dances and why some don't. I can tell you that I was confused by the whole thing. So I decided to just drop the whole thing and let him decide when and if he wants to go.

Just when I had stopped obsessing over the whole thing the Tech Monkey says to be out of the blue " My friend Ceasar wanted me to go to the dance but I told him no." So I start in with the questions.." Why didn't you go? You guys could have hung out. Don't you want to have fun?" But again he clams up and I get nothing. So I am trying to let it go and another week goes by and out comes the rest of the story with Ceasar. The Tech Monkey and I are riding in the car, and I am asking him about school and Ceasars name comes up because they are Debate partners and I am asking about Ceasar and why he didn't want to go with Ceasar and hang at the dance, because no I just cannot let it go and the Tech Monkey turns to me and says " I didn't want to got o the dance with Ceasar because Ceasar said he would "hook me up" with some girls he knows. I know the girls he knows and I didn't want to get set up." WOO HOO Ceasar! Everyone needs a friend like Ceasar. Hooking a brother up! But I tried really hard to pretend that this was not a revelation to me, and that I wasn't inordinately pleased, that Ceasar thought the Tech Monkey was worthy of being "hooked up". I reply real cool like " Okay. Well let me know if you change your mind about the next dance. I would be willing to drive you both if you want."

So now the waiting begins. I think having a friend like Ceasar could be good for my Monkey. It could go horribly wrong. But I perfer to focus on what could go right with this. Maybe Ceasar will finally win out. Who knows? But at least there is hope for a dance somewhere in the future.