The Dancing Queen...

...noticed she has a sore back an is quite tired to boot.

Saturday night, during the weekend escape to a different civilization...I found myself out dancing the night away. This was after eating most of the day away (including fantastic Thai food and these chocolate stuffed strawberries Claudine made that were to die for...) and relaxing on the balcony at the Hotel Indigo...usually this time of year would be too hot even with all the misters, but the weather has been positively cool in Arizona, so we were looking forward to being a bit warm, the truth be known.

Oh...and the dancing.

The dancing was half the reason we had our escape to begin with...we were on a quest, a mission to dance. We are big dancers. Always have been. Back in the day (ahem) we use to dance for hours whenever we would get the chance...never drinking (drinking always hindered my personal groove thang, and dancing was more important to me) We went clubbing in Scottsdale, actually within walking distance from the hotel (who knew) and there were a lot of places to choose from. Near the hotel, there was a place called Dr t...right next to American Junkie...all loaded up with tiki torches and everything (Amy loves herself some tiki torches) and we were thinking of heading up there, but the group we were with were confused because the only place they knew of was called Drift. But, honestly...as we drove by the sign said Dr t. Claudine kindly pointed out that it may have only said that because the I and the F were burned out of the sign.

Oh.

She said it really s l o w so we would get it.

Ho-hum...

But we didn't need to be observant to dance we just wanted to boogie.


We ended up at The Martini Ranch, even though there was a place that you could ride a mechanical bull for free...but Amy wouldn't go for it (even though it was her birthday, can you believe such a thing? I mean...it would have made a great photo for the blog) We also passed on Geisha A Go-Go...which apparently is an establishment full of rooms your party can go into so you can sing Karaoke to each other. This does not in any realm sound like fun to me, or most anyone in the group (there were only 5 of us, maybe if there were more, or we were Asian?) so on we went. The Martini Ranch had a bar with an 80's cover band in it and then a whole other dance club.

I'm not one to dance to live bands, preferring DJ's...so we bypassed the crowd of mostly people our age (and I was a bit astounded to see how old everyone looked...I mean, I guess I look in the mirror every day, so I don't think I've aged that much? Rats.) and upstairs to the dance club. This was full of much younger people...and scantily clad club girls whom were pole dancing. I've been to a lot of clubs in my time...in a lot of different places in the world (I also use to go to Raves seeing as I'm part of that generation) so this was not shocking to me...as I've seen some interesting things in clubs in my day (which I will not recount here) (there was a rather fascinating point in the night when one of the gals was girating around the pole and kind of looked like she was sitting on Amy's head...you know? If you were in the right angle? Again...would have made an interesting blog photo)

Things that have changed in dance clubs since I've last been:
(besides being much older)

*The music was fun...and the DJ was proudly using a Mac to spin his tunes...he mixed a lot of different music during the night, but his transitions from song to song were a little rocky at times, and I felt myself searching for a beat to cling to, while Amy and I shot quizzical glances towards each other. He also didn't play a lot of any one song...just bits and pieces. I kept thinking how much Rozzilyn would probably have enjoyed it though, because it was a lot of the songs she loves.

*Right now the styles are short and mostly nonexistant. And I mean so short and nonexistant that I felt horribly overdressed in my knee-length skirt and at one time joked that I should run back to the room and change into the halter top I was going to wear the next day...Yeah, that short.

*The girls also danced with their large name-brand hand bags slung over their shoulders. They didn't even put them down or opt for a smaller bag or have their dates hold their ID and money. This seemed a little cumbersome to me though because I'm usually in charge of all my stuff and try to find the smallest bag I can to use when I got out, and after getting whacked with handbags all night, I think maybe it's a spacial thing. Sometimes it's hard to stake your claim of personal space on the dance floor and keep it...so perhaps having a large expensive handbag to whack people with helps?

Things that have not changed in dance clubs since I've last been:

*People often stand around bashfully looking at each other (which makes no sense here since I had already seen most of the girls underwear by this point...have I mentioned that things were short?) and it usually takes a couple of brave soules to join a few other brave souls that are dancing...and those are usually Amy and I?

*There are usually more women than men dancing.

*No matter what I'm doing or where I'm at, people use this space as a thoroughfare. Sometimes I wonder if I'm invisible.

It felt fantastic to be on a dance floor again though moving my body and having fun...that is, until the DJ announced that everyone should grab a shot and we'd all take a shot at midnight.

I don't do shots. I can't drink that fast usually...I would have a hard time with a shot of water.

But midnight?

Seriously?

That was when I checked the time, and noticed my back hurt. And I was tired. Which made a lot of sense seeing as we'd been dancing for several hours straight by that point. So, I made my way back to the hotel so I could go to bed and rest about 1:00, only because something in me was turning into a pumpkin (that and I was afraid I would either start limping at the club or fall asleep...and a bouncer already joked with me about yawning. He was also my age and shot me a sympathetic wink and a smile) I sat on the balcony for a while to just rest and review the fun evening (until some girl came out and had to talk about Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion to a man who was interested in more than her cigarettes) so, I decided to go back up to the room...which is when I noticed that my hotel card didn't work.

Apparently it had been demagnetized.

And my name wasn't on the list of persons who were in the room...so they held me hostage (the general managers words, not mine...) in the interest of safety, until they realized that I would soon fall asleep in the lobby bar...and they called security and I described a bunch of stuff in the room to him to make sure it was really me staying there. It wasn't a horrible experience, just one that I found quite funny in the end...and it would never make me not want to go back to Hotel Indigo. After all everyone was very nice, and I did get to rest a bit and got an expensive bottle of water gratis out of the whole thing...and then I slumbered the rest of the night away...


Only I still feel like I haven't slept in days.

I honestly can not believe I feel this old...I mean. Come on. I work out four days a week...I hike...I'm very active.

I am also very sore and very tired.

But, I'm happy to say, as tired as we are, at least we looked good (for whatever age we are) and we've still got it...

even if it's a little more covered up.