When I started at Felida Elementary after my parents divorced and Mom moved my younger sister and me out to the family property, I could have tried to fit in with the popular girls. The most popular girl took me in hand and pointed out all the cool kids, but I never strove to be thought of as cool. I always wanted to be thought of as interesting. It wasn’t a winning strategy when I brought jacks or marbles to school. Was it by the end of the week or the end of the month that I was playing by myself at recess?
I don’t know that my twelve-year-old self would approve of fifty-year-old me. I’m too much like my mother, and my own teenagers certainly find me as adorable and embarrassing as I found Mom at their age. However, I am having the time of my life these days, especially the weeks surrounding Halloween.
This fall, I again joined Thrill the World Albuquerque, originally part of the worldwide effort to compete for the most people simultaneously dancing Michael Jackson’s Thriller. We don’t try to break records anymore, but there are still active groups all over that still perform the Saturday before Halloween. Anyone can learn the official dance we use off of YouTube, but I prefer the hour-and-a-half classes held at parks or public spaces all over town from September through October.
On the Friday before our big performance, I was invited to a Harry Potter party. The house was decorated to perfection with floating candles and Ferrer Roacher balls with wings for little golden snitches. The mix of guests was half people I know from church, some friends from school, and other potential new friends. I pulled my zombie bride dress for the upcoming Thriller performance off the hanger on which it has hung for two years. (Last year my hurt hip kept me from dancing.) Voila, I was a castle ghost. Justin wore a cloak to be a Hogwarts student, and Coryn dressed in brown like the sorting hat with a real talking sorting hat on her head. It was a great party, but without anything to do but make small talk, I felt uncomfortable. We stayed an hour before heading home.
I was tired after a long week too. As we walked from the car to the house, we heard the neighbors blasting our music for one of their awesome parties. I walked over once before to join them in a birthday or other family gathering. They had given me a glass of wine and welcomed me into the fun.
Upon hearing the music, Coryn recommended, “Don’t go over dressed in your costume.”
“No worries,” I said as I dragged my feet back to the house, thinking about heading to bed early.
Mike was sitting on the front porch watching a show on his iPad when we came home. A few minutes later, he came into the house and said, “They are playing Thriller. Syra, you should head over. This is your big chance!”
I lifted the tattered, lacy, fake-blood splattered skirt above my knees and flew across the street right before the dance ended. Ginger is the sweetest lady. She again greeted me with warmth and invited me to join in. I danced away the night with her family. That’s the great thing about dancing. It gives me something to do during a party.
Our big performance on Saturday was at a fall festival fundraiser at Cornucopia Adult Day Services. They had a trunk or treat, carnival games, a taco lunch and bingo. Xenia was my faithful photographer, and we invited our friends Genevieve and her daughter Cassie to join us. After signing in, Xenia and I split up and went off with our respective friends. I can spend hours at an event when I’m with a friend.
The event was a huge success with fifty-eight dancers! I didn’t know any of them, but the dance was all that mattered. Though the huge smile on my face as I performed was at odds with a terrifying zombie look, I love the look of joy Xenia caught on camera.
I had so much fun that I joined all the invitations to Flash Mob Thriller that week. My favorite has to be our dance at the Senior Center. The old ladies at the table near me drew back with giggles when I did a zombie grab towards them. Then the old men and women took to the floor afterwards and warmed my heart with the beauty in their dance moves.
Next a Halloween party in a warehouse in downtown Albuquerque invited us to perform. It was my first Halloween in ten years that wasn’t about kids and costumes, and candy. Basil took Justin to the Corrales trunk or treat. Jonah went to the harvest festival at his school. Xenia stayed home and watched a movie with the cruncher party leftovers from the night before, when Justin, Xeni,a and I watched K-pop Demon Hunters.
I was nervous about my safety in the downtown, but everything looked clean and safe. I felt comfortable walking to and from my car, and the many other smiling, costumed people helped. They let me in before the paying crowd to talk to the DJ. While I waited for our small team to assemble, I met a new best friend who accepted me on Facebook and traded pictures on our phones of our grandkids. Being a grandma was the best part of the evening!
My team and I practiced nervously in a back room because none of our fearless leaders were able to come, but we were rescued by ReVah whom we followed with great relief. Our first performance started the party and was met with a million cell phone recordings. The live band followed, and my new friends and I talked and danced in a loose group until our second performance. The crowd was feeling loose and comfortable by then, and people filled up the dance floor around us to do their best to follow our lead. It was so much fun!!!! Afterwards since our duty was over for the night, I left the rocking Halloween party with plenty of dancers out on the dance floor and went home. It was past my nine o clock bedtime.
The next morning I was up early in my fuchsia silk shirt and peacock colored scarf to head to a wedding at my church that was the most beautiful wedding I’ve been to in forever. The families were from Ethiopia, and all the women wore white. The young bride and groom were draped in capes over their bridal gown and tuxedo, and with the crowns on their heads, they looked like a king and queen and a mystical icon of Christ and His Bride the Church. From there, I went to the backyard wedding of a new best friend, where everyone was dressed in black and they had a Day of the Dead theme. The love and joy of the bride and groom were tangible. I love going to weddings where I can feel the happily ever after. They inspired me to get my egg-dyeing kit and make an egg to commemorate their wedding.
On Sunday, after dancing in my last flash mob at a music school rock music recital, Xenia and Ι went to see the comedian Josh Johnson’s flower tour. When Ι was waiting for a parking space, another car pulled in. Xenia turned to me and said, “Tawanda!” She had me laughing my head off before the show started. She wants to have a Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias watch party over Christmas break.
Amidst my fun with the flash mobs, my cello teacher put me in a duet with my newest BFF Dorothy. On the Thursday before Halloween, I came into work and told my boss that I was going to have the best day ever, and I did! First I taught an hour of calculus and felt like my students understood every word I said. Next I invited Dorothy over to my house to get to know her and threw a full-on tea party with cucumber sandwiches and everything. We ate and talked more than played our piece, but I had the best time ever. We’ve since started meeting at her house to play, and it’s always one of the best hours of my week. I had to rush out of my own party and leave Dorothy packing up her cello to race over to the movie theatre where Jenifer Jannakos and I watched a rom-com to celebrate her birthday. From there I raced home to go with Mike to a fancy restaurant for our penultimate dinner date before Advent started.
My egg project took up most of the week after Halloween, and the next weekend, Mike, Xenia, Justin, and I jumped in the minivan and drove to Texas to celebrate Basil’s twentieth birthday. He went out ahead of us to spend time with his friend Ezra and drove the kids and me back in the minivan on Veteran’s Day, which fell on a Tuesday this year. Basil’s favorite restaurant is Hatsuyuki Handroll Bar, and it’s mine too! Xenia and Justin stayed with our friend Amanda, who threw Basil a birthday party too, with cake. The kids got to see their St. Peter’s friends and went to their favorite church, St. Barbara’s. Mike and I worshiped with our friends at Archangel Gabriel. Then on Monday, Magdalena, Xenia, Justin, and I went to the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Monastery, where Mom is buried. That was a blessed trip, and I’m so excited to see the plans for the chapel they are building at the cemetery. They are collecting funds for their project if you are interested.
It was good to see the friends I managed to see, even though I wished I could stay longer and visit everyone I love out there. It felt good to be loved on by so many people over the past few weeks. I may have pulled off what my child self always wanted. I’m both interesting and loved.
Last week I was feeling depressed. Going to Fort Worth put Xenia and Justin in a funk because they were missing their life in Texas. Mike has been out of town for work, and with Thriller over, I had far less exercise in my life. My latest book, Syra’s Scribbles VI, is done and out on Amazon, and I had no art projects in the works.
This week I decided to throw a Christmas carol singing party. I’ll do a cello duet with Dorothy, play in a guitar trio with my guitar gals Hali and Joanna, and learn ukulele for a duet with Justin. I might learn line dancing or take an aerobics class, and there’s a new roller skating rink open at the Cottonwood mall. Then there’s Syra’s Scribbles II to rewrite with a new cover to match the others before starting Syra’s Scribbles VII. Thanksgiving is coming soon, after which I can start decorating for Christmas and getting ready for Esther, John Ben, and Misha to visit. Whatever comes next, I’m sure it will be interesting.
Syra's Scribbles 