I woke up several times, but convinced myself to go back to sleep, then finally got up at ten thirty, and I read the paper, realized there were cool pictures in the paper, took the old papers out of the recycling bin, searched through them for good pictures, cut out the good pictures, rinse, spin, repeat. Andrew was home as well, he didn't have his internship either, and he made the grocery list on Excel, cleaned the basement, and other random parts of the house while we were just hanging. At one point, he went upstairs, grabbed his hoodie, and declared that he was going out. Never left. It's hard to decide what to do if you aren't comfortable with the neighborhood.
Around twelve I got a text from Lindsay, who is our petty cash manager, telling me that if I get the list of kitchen supplies that we need ready, we can get it okayed by Kim and then get it when we got grocery shopping. I had no idea where to start, so I took everything out of its spot and put it on the counters, island, and table. Once I got to the lid-to-pot stage, I snagged a very willing Andrew to help sort. There ended up being seven lids that didn't have pots. What the heck?
There were also countless appliances that I had no idea we had, nor thought that the house would ever need--my favorite was the cappiccino maker, but we also had an electric wok, a coffee grinder, and so much more! Once we got through what we needed and what we didn't need, the duty was putting it back into the cabinets. The pots which were on top of the fridge were located into a cabinet with the level of shelf moved. Yay for no more ugly storage!
The box of extra lids, and excess cutting boards (unless the entire house is willing to cut up whatever is being made into dinner, I don't think there will ever be a need for seven cutting boards...), and whatever else excess that made no sense to be left around was rounded up into a big box and put in the back of the house car, for delivery to the intentional community or the thrift store.
After that process, which took a couple hours, Emily and I somehow convinced Andrew to come Contra dancing. The idea that it was basic pulled him in; even though I knew the original reason for him coming was to go dumpster diving. Emily described it as a controlled walk, and though I'd never been, helped with the mini lesson that insued at Mai Tri (an intentional Community; pronounced "My Tree"). Andrew, Emily, and I ate supper at the intentional community house. That was a great experience in itself. They had a tomato quinoa (which I've learned pronounced KWIN OH a, and Emily pronounces KWEEN i WA), some delicious banana muffins, and this cheese pizza that parts of it I was unsure of. The meal was scrumptious nonetheless, and the presence of nutritional yeast at the table, and the absence of a meaty main dish gave away the vegetarianism at the table.
I talked with them about my internship and peace studies, as uninformed as I am, and one of the younger guys wanted to hear about my experience after it was over, as he was working on lobbying that educators be required to teach peace studies in secondary school.
The contra dancing lesson was very informing--it's similar to square dancing, and eye contact is a big part of it, and as Ryan (or Bryan) described, it's a way "to bring touch back into our lives."
Then we drove back to Emily's house, met her roommate Kendra, who Emily invited to contra dancing, who came, and was very nice and fun. While at their house, I learned that Emily and her roommates are all pianists (! :D) and have a grand piano in the basement, which I located and played (although we could not locate and turn on the light switch) while we were waiting for Emily to change.
We drove over to the place where the contra dancing was located. It was in an old old amusement park, called Glen Echo, in the ballroom. We arrived a little late, paid our way, and I got a pin that said, "I'm a New Dancer." We watched for the first dance, then hopped right in. My first partner's name was Tom, as his name-pin said, and he helped me through the first song. It was a lot of fun. I had so many partners, but I suppose everyone does in contra dancing. I can almost remember all their names, but not quite. After Tom, there were several doubles of the people I danced with: Steve, Don #1, Don #2, another Tom, I danced with two Davids, and I don't remember many of my other partner's names. It was great fun. The dance that I didn't get the most was the one that ensued directly after the halftime break. I had been talking to this guy named David who had gone to Oberlin Conservatory for the recorder (I didn't know anyone learned to play the recorder after elementary school--needless to say, there wasn't much competition, and so I asked him to dance, but I just couldn't get the dance.
I accidently partnered up with some creeps who wanted to pull me really close. Oh well, you live and you learn. Besides, before we started, Emily and Ryan reminded us that you always have the choice to pull back. And so I did, with dignity. Although the guy never did get it. And dancing with the creeps always alerts you to the gentlemen of the dance, who I wanted to dance with instead.
I had a muffin and some yogurt for breakfast this morning.
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