Rock-tober 14, 2016

Andrea and I waltzed to Travis Tritt's "Drift Off to Dream" at our wedding reception. "Big deal, Wayne. Everybody dances at their own wedding." Here's the significance. I've never considered myself among the most coordinated of individuals - there's a reason I'm not part of the Riverdance cast. Besides, apart from senior prom, I never attended a single high school dance.

Fast forward to college where I found myself trying to impress this blue-eyed redhead. The "in thing" at that time was country line dancing, and a group of our friends frequently made trips to this out of the way country-western bar for dance lessons. I'd join in occasionally. The place was dark and a little seedy looking, but it had a large dance floor and competent instructors. After a few group sessions, my stock with her rose when I managed to negotiate the dance floor with her in a two-step and not cause a major pile up.

When we started dating (after the events in Rock-tober 23, 2013), we upped our dance game. We took lessons from an Arthur Murray trained couple who led us through the basics in the waltz, swing, rumba, and cha-cha. We found we really enjoyed dancing with each other and continued to frequent country-western bars to practice and get our groove on.

We enjoyed the waltz, but we had fun with the swing. One of the songs we practiced to was "T-r-o-u-b-l-e." First released by Elvis back in 1975, the King took it to # 11 on the Billboard Hot Country chart. Travis Tritt released his cover of the song nearly 18 years later to the day, and it went to #13 on the same chart.

While "Drift Off to Dream" got the nod for our wedding dance, it was in large part the times we spent dancing to "T-r-o-u-b-l-e" when we decided we really "liked" each other. The lessons in communication both non-verbal and otherwise was something that would be much more difficult to hammer out if we'd restricted ourselves to a series of "dinner and a movie" type dates. Dancing is still an activity we enjoy today and the reason "T-r-o-u-b-l-e" is a permanent part of my playlist rotations.