Feeling young Again

As I mentioned in my first blogpost I picked up Salsa dancing due to a lack of tango. It started in Kansas City. My existence there was Teaching a class in Lawrence, KS on Monday, then doing nothing Tuesday, Wednesday there was the milonga that ended at 10:30pm taught again and dj and practilonga on Thursday (ended at 11pm) and spent the weekends roadtripping to Saint Louis.
I am not the person who likes to go home at 11pm and go to sleep wake up at 5am etc. Ergo, enter Salsa. I took about 3 classes at the studio I was teaching tango at on Thursdays then after the tango events were over I would go to the salsa clubs. Thus endth the history lesson.

Tonight in Minneapolis was one such night. I went to the practica at the Oddfellows lounge - ended a 10:30 - and headed over to salsa. As is par for the course at any nightclub they check your id's at the door. Tonight the bouncer had a very close look and noticed that my license had expired, he informed me that he could not let me in because of it. I inquired "does the fact that it is expired mean that my birthday is not what it really is?" He responded that there was some liabitly issue "...that if something were to happen to me while inside they would be liable because my license was expired." If you know me you know that it has been years since I had a drink, i was only there because I wanted to get some salsa dancing in. I asked "if you mark me so I cant drink will you let me in?" he complied and I got an x written on the back of each hand with an ovesize sharpie. It has been a long time since I wore the "underage stamp", it had a funny feeling - and that familiar smell of sharpie. Perhaps this is a path to eternal youth :-)

3am travel logistics rant

I am ususally very good about planning my trips, packing etc. This does not mean that this is all done in a linear and timely manner. For example: Wednesday morning I will be flying out of Minneapolis bound for NYC, I will visit with my folks for all of 2 days, go to DMV to renew my expired drivers license, pick up some winter clothes and the viola that I claim I will learn to play once I get back to Minneapolis. I spend the weekend at the Princeton Tango Festival where I will be DJing at one of the practicas. Tuesday I fly to Portland for the October Tango Fest. The following Tuesday I fly back to Minneapolis. I not sure what you would think about how the flight arrangements were mad but it happened sort of like this - mid July I found a ticket from NWK to PDX for 115USD (tax incl - US Airways) so I snatched it up, though it requires 8 hours of airtime and a 1.5 hour layover in PHX. Late August I Realized that I still did not figure out how I was going to get to NY to DJ at Princeton so after a few hours of research I found an Airtran flight from MSP via MKE to LGA for $89 on Airtran. I delayed getting a return flight for probably a bit too long becuase i wan not sure if I am going to be resuming the "Monday, Tuesday in Chicago every week" hustle after Portland so didnt know where I should fly to, nor what day I could fly. So i just got my PDX to MSP tix 166USD us airways again. I had been telling people over the last couple of days that if i did not find flights under 150USD then I would take the train becuset the train is 150. But then I realized that the train take about 2.5 days and I would end up spending a lot more than the $10 on food.
So you're asking: "Great, so what is the problem?" well I realized that Portland in just a week away and I have not even begun looking for a place to stay. this is bad, so many dancers go to Portland so competition for couchspace is fierce.
Also, I am trying to decide what to do with the stuff I have here. I would like to leave it here since I will be back in 2 weeks. but where?

Introducing: Manzanita Escuela de Tango - School of Argentine Tango in Minneapolis

Thursday, Sep 27 marked the opening of the Manzanita Escuela de Tango - School of Argentine Tango in Minneapolis.

More soon...

For more information visit http://www.manzanitatango.com

Bringing you up to speed...

Welcome to my blog.

This might be a long post as I intend to let you know where I am at now so that you wont be lost as I make subsequent posts.

Back at the end of January of this year (2009) I quit my day-job in accounting to embark upon a journey in Argentine Tango Land. A "career change", some might call it, though i have come to find it more of a journey than a change of jobs. So I left NYC for Minneapolis to teach, perform, DJ, etc and thus it began - a life on the road.

Incidentally it was during my initial time in Minneapolis that I developed an interest in the Japanese language. More about my Japanese studies to come...

As I write this today I am currently in Minneapolis. I've been living out of the same suitcase since mid July. I started out in Chicago, was based there for about 2 weeks, and made weekend trips to Milwaukee and Champaign, IL. I took Amtrak down to Kansas city (12 hour ride - via Saint Louis). I spent about a week living in Lawrence, KS and the next 2 in Kansas City. While in Kansas City I got involved in Salsa Dancing. Yes, most of my tango friends said I had turned to the dark side", though my Tango Mentor, Robin, said it was a good idea, that i would learn some things that are applicable to certain types of motions in Tango. I made two weekend road trips From KC/Lawrence to Saint Louis. From Kansas city I went back to Chicago (Amtrak, 8 hours) for the weekend, before heading to Minneapolis via Megabus. I've been based out of Minneapolis since the beginning of September. I went to Madison, WI for a weekend, spent a Saturday evening in Rochester, MN and traveled back to Chicago the last two weeks spending only Monday and Tuesday there. This I think is probably the most far out thing I've done so far - spend two days a week in a city that is 8 hours away. if you know me me you know that I always say that I live in the "Tango Timezone", so it was quite a feat for me to make it to the bus Megabus stop in each city by 7am.

I am now wrapping up my stay in Minneapolis, though I expect to be back in a few weeks. Some exciting things are going on I will post accordingly.

That's all for now.