03/08/2005 Posted @ 09:39 PM PD/ST: "Getting My Groove On"

About 10 days ago, Birdie asked her readers for a favour. I couldn't find my groove. I tried but I just couldn't, it had been gone a long time and I wondered if it would ever come back.

I used to do weird and wonderful things like going outside and dancing in the first rainstorm of the season. Or talking to Car (okay, I still do that). It all went away. For some reason, I stopped saying and doing things that would make SisterR cock one eyebrow at me and then laugh because I was being goofy.

I love being goofy and silly (and stop with the Disney jokes wouldja).

I think maybe I started finding my groove again. Last night, it manifested itself in the silly things I said to the men at the Ritz Camera I took my film to. Things like, "I keep telling the world I'm coming but nobody believes me." Oh, and, "Are you guys peeking at my pictures?" When I got the "of course not" answer, I said, "Well, you'll be really bored." Which made them want to see them when the contact sheet came off the printer. I may have even been a little flirty but I am really stupid when it comes to that sort of thing so I'm not promising anything.

Today at work I played music I could "sing" along with. Where "sing" equals mouthing the words and dancing in the chair while I slid small accordion fold brochures under the flap of envelopes. It started with Clapton and by the afternoon, I had worked up to a full-blown groove thang. I was listening to Outkast's "Hey Ya" and moving my head to the beat and shaking my hand when he said, "Shake it like a polaroid picture." I caught myself before I yelled out, "I Am Your Neighbour!"

It should be noted that none of this activity actually did anything to relieve the pain in my muscles.

My co-workers got a big kick out of it and sweet little Taiwanese Ming who has only been in this country for five years told me that I was fun to watch and a good example of how to let loose. Oh, if only she knew. I let her hold on to the belief that I was a good representative of what Americans are all about.

Birdie, and Patrick, this one's for you: "One Two Three Four! My baby's true to me. I know this 'cause she told me so."