1998 october 27

dance

there are entirely too many elevators in the lobby of my building.

i like to get to work early because i get more done when no one is around to ask me inane questions. no one to stop by just to chat about their dog for an hour and a half. no one to tie up the printer with twenty seven copies of a recipe that we absolutely must try. besides, it means i get to leave early too and still have a good piece of the day to myself and my real life.

so, this morning i slug myself into the lobby, hit the up button, it lights and then immediately goes off -- a clue telling me that one of the elevators is already there, door open, awaiting my entry before whisking us both to the 14th floor. actually, i had to hit it again and watch it go off one more time before i got this clue, but get i did, eventually.

i turned to the left, no open door, to the right, no open door. so i started doing the dance of i'm not awake but i know one of these doors must be open -- spinning, step slide slide to the left, pirouette, slide slide to the right, bend low, stretch high, twirl in increasingly bigger circles. i could feel the expression on my face shift from puzzlement to panic to an out and out grin as i realized what an idiot i must seem to anyone walking past.

the other night, gene and i went to see antz. lord, but computer animation gives me the willies, but that is neither here nor there. the point of this little anecdote is at the end of the film, while the credits are rolling, the song high hopes is playing and in spite of myself, i found my hands making these crazy, undulating, snakey movements. gene looks at me like i am totally crazy and says, "what the hell are you doing?"

"the ant dance!!" giggles i.

"the what?"

"the ant dance!! just be glad i am sitting down and not giving you the full body version or you would be embarrassed in public."

"no i wouldn't"

"ha!! you would too!!"

"nope. i have the ability to walk away. just walk away from the crazy ants in her pants dancing girl."

i can feel this entry veering off into another direction so i am going to close for now and reopen the thought tomorrow. but just to tie everything up neatly in a bow topped package, because that's the kind of girl i am, yes, i finally found the open elevator, the one in the extreme southwest corner, and yes, i did the full body version of the ant dance, but only in the parking lot so the embarrassment factor was low. gene walked away as threatened, but only as far as the car where he had to wait for me because i had the keys.

high in the sky, apple pieing, claire

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