Plot Twist

I got sick again. Maybe a complication from the antibiotics called thrush. Maybe just some virus. The doctors at the ER weren't sure. Maybe it was related to the mold I think I found in my sink. Maybe it was related to the dirty tires I had in my apartment for months. I don't know.

What I do know: I was sick for over a week, lost even more of my scarce vacation days, and lost 25% of my body weight. I used to weigh 160. Now I weigh 120. This is mostly my fault: I waited too long to see a doctor (hence the ER visit) and I ran out of food in my apartment and the medicine they gave me at the ER caused light nausea. On the bright side, I learned that someone of my age can have a sustained heart rate of 120 BPM for days and its not a problem. I also learned that tylenol hangovers suck.

I don't know the full medical ramifications of being so light now, but I am weaker and prone to lightheadedness. So far, I have managed to avoid any more blacking out in front of stores that call paramedics, although I did have a close call. I saved myself by chugging some gatorade as soon as I bought it. I am so skinny now that the jeans that I spent so long to find (because it was hard to find jeans for a skinny person like me) are now too big. I don't even want new jeans. I don't want to find how few stores carry jeans that fit my new stick figure.

I've been stuck at home for way to long--so long I actually hate coming home at night--the only reason I do is I hate working late even more. I can't go climbing or play volleyball or half of the other stuff I wanted to do. I started a new salsa class session thing at the place across the street. So far I haven't learned any moves I can actually use social dancing.

More bad news: Mardi Gras, the celebration of drunken debauchery that I wanted to experience, is coming early this year, and I probably won't make it. There was only one person I really wanted to go with anyway, Adam, and he can't afford it either.

However, on the bright side, I went to Century Ballroom tonight for a little salsa. It was overrun by way too many men snatching up the girls as soon as a song changed, but I still got some good dances in, as well as one crappy one, and one dance that I thought was good but the girl never smiled. One of the good dances was with a hot girl in a green dress named Katie who smiled a lot. I was planning to stay all night and dance with her a few more times and find out if she was interested in some combination of ice cream downstairs, drinks at some bar, or microphone-less rock band at my place...but my legs started to hurt so I left. I felt pretty good about the night though. My moves are starting to come back, from whatever deep part of my memory they were buried under. Most of them I still can't do, but at least I remember them. And I did bring back this one move we called the "philly favorite." The only thing you, as a reader, need to know about this move is it involves spinning a girl from her hip. And that is awesome. I also brought back the double hair caress into an inside turn from her hips. That one involves even more hip touching. Also a lot of the girls there were hot. I don't remember there being that many hot girls at Century. Maybe tonight I got lucky--relatively. There were still a ton of men. Boo men. I am still seeking an experience to rival the time I showed up to Brasils (a salsa nightclub in philly) and there were at least five super attractive girls that could dance, and almost no men in the place to dance with them. There was a dearth of male dancers, you could say. I basically had a queue of girls waiting to dance with me. That was the night I had to leave to go celebrate this girl Sarah's birthday in a pseudo Irish pub. I kind of wish I had stayed a little bit longer. Perhaps, though, a night like that could happen here.

So...despite a sort of major setback, I can still dance, and dancing is not a bad way to meet people. In fact, back in philly it was how I met Danielle, who started throwing monster parties with tons of people, at one of which two girls gave me their business cards, which I gave back because I was so incredibly oblivious. However that, and a bunch of other embarassing moments I just remembered, won't happen again. Like the girl at Kevin's party, or the girl at the pizza shop in Camden...ugh.

Also, I've been without a motorcycle for so long that my hatred of rain has faded. In fact, its actually quite pleasant. I will, of course, loathe rain as soon as I start riding again, but we don't know when that will be. Oh man and those girls in the car that started talking to me at that traffic light...why didn't I offer one a ride? I miss philly.