Girls LTD

Morning Everyone,

It’s been a rough couple of weeks; so yesterday, when I was invited to go partying; I jumped at the chance. I needed to cut loose. It was gang night at Party Central. Most of the dancers were from a crew called the Raptors. Sounds tough but really they are some of the nicest people I know. They are a great group of special people and I was privileged to get to hang out with them.

The party started slow: simple food and conversation but after a while the DJ began to lay down some tracks in the dance hall and the crowd slowly migrated in his direction. I stood on the periphery clapping. The girl I had my eye on didn’t want anything to do with me; she always plays hard to get when I’m around. Plus, she was being hit on by some player who couldn’t keep his hands to himself. At one point, when I’d had enough of Mr. Player, I danced my way between them. It wasn’t long before he moved on to a different target.

In a couple minutes, I was joined by Cale; a guy I’ve met at the bowling alley a few times who likes to tell me how I can be a better bowler. Not sure what draws him to me but he is drawn. We stood around watching a few people dancing. The party had yet to kick into high gear.

When the DJ started playing the YMCA that was my cue to break the ice. Cale was not so inclined but I knew he was watching. We kept chatting and watching more and more people begin to dance. He asked me who was singing Jailhouse rock. I told him Elvis and he said, “Oh yeah”. Not sure he’d heard of him before. For the simple reason that I knew who Elvis was; I was out of my league in that crowd; because even Cale knew more songs than I did. When the Funky Train song came on he gave me the eye that seemed to say, ‘I want to do this but the only way I will is if you go out there too.’ The girl I had my eye on was in line so pretty soon we were doing the Funky Train. It derailed several times but nobody seemed to care.

Pretty soon I had moved closer to the action. It wasn’t long before I heard: “Everybody clap your hands.” Hearing that fortified my desire to go to more Minor League baseball games because that’s the only placed I heard that one before: Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. I’ve got a fever and the only cure is more cowbell. It was the first funky line dance of the night. I failed miserably.

I tried again to dance with the girl I had my eye on but it was short lived; so I danced with her friend, Kiera. An older woman asked Cale to dance but he refused. But it wasn’t long before my own dancing must have let him know it was alright for guys to dance because I saw him on the other side of the room dancing with another friend, Jackie.

I was really rusty on the Chicken Dance, not my forte. I’m more of a rhythm and blues, funk kind of guy. But this was a younger crowd and so I had to play the hand that was dealt me.

Don Dixon has a song called Girls LTD and the chorus says: “Most of the girls like to dance but only some of the boys do.” That is not the case with the Raptors. I’m pretty sure it was 50- 50 on the dance floor; there is a slight chance there were more boys than girls cutting a rug. As usual, I was the only non-special man busting a move.

Eventually it began to get late and so I told Cale I was going to go but then the DJ said the Cuban Shuffle was getting ready to play. Cale exclaimed, “I love this song”. So I threw my coat on the floor and got ready to learn funky line dance number two. I muddled my way through the first verse; Cale was doing much better than me. But then I eyed a couple of young ladies to my right who actually knew what they were doing and so I moved over by them and pretty soon I was in the groove (except when the dance caused me to be in front of everyone; then I was dancing while looking over my shoulder). Pretty soon I was doing the Cuban Shuffle with the best of them. At the end some mother high fived me and said, ‘You did good”.

When the Cuban Shuffle was through I put my coat on for the second time, shook hands with Cale and told him “thanks” for hanging out with me. Then another mother, Cales’ mother to be exact, the older woman who had been soundly rejected as his dancing partner earlier, came up to me and asked me who I was with. I looked around the room, pointed to the girl who had been rejecting me all night and said, “I’m Anna Grace’s grandfather.” She thanked me for hanging out with Cale. But there was no need to thank me; I was glad he had hung out with me. I needed to be able to cut loose for a while.

I don’t know when I’ll get to spend time with the Raptor’s again. I may not see them until spring when they will all participate in the 2012 Olympics. I will miss them. I’ve been hanging out with them down at the bowling alley almost every Tuesday this fall.

As I made my way through the hot sweaty crowd, the girl who’d been rejecting me all night gave me a look that said, “Now it’s ok” and so we briefly busted a move together. I was glad.

As I turned again to go, Alex, a sharped dressed young man in his fedora, tie and vest said, “Goodnight Grandpa Grace.”

I think I’d like that to be my name on the other side of this veil of tears.

As I was driving home two things became clear to me: First, I need to get out more, out of my head and out of the house. Second, I realized that we all have special needs. It’s just that most of us keep it a secret while others don’t have a choice. May God’s grace touch us all where we need it most.

Grace and Peace,

Brad