It was almost exactly three years ago that I attended my first Hot Jam dance in Buckhead and saw my first jam circle. This wasn't the kind of jam circle I talked about recently, a birthday or celebration circle. No, this was the other kind, with the fast music and amazing-awesome dancers. And I saw a couple named Bobby and Kate swing into the circle. The danced like this. And they danced like this. And my jaw dropped, and my eyes lit up, and I exclaimed, "I want to dance with him!"

As it turns out, Bobby White and Kate Hedin are internationally acclaimed, award-winning dance instructors. They used to live in Atlanta, but moved to DC the year I started dancing. They still show up from time to time to teach a class, and tonight's Hot Jam drew the lucky number. Bobby showed up to teach a class on creative dance technique, and stayed for the open dancing afterwards.

The class was great; we did a lot of experimentation with styling and creativity. The dance afterward was *fantastic*. Bobby's a big name in the lindy hop world, and I'm sure tonight's crowded dance floor was at least in part due to his presence. I danced with a lot of my favorite partners, and round about the middle of the evening, I screwed up my courage and asked Bobby to dance. And you know? I did pretty well. Actually, I think I did really well. I was creative, I was stylish, I followed everything he led. It felt good. It felt great. And I think he had a good time, too.

I think I'll always feel like I still have a long way to go before my dancing is as good as I want it to be. But tonight felt like a milestone. I asked Bobby White to dance. And I didn't suck. Life is good.

I have permission from my historical linguistics professor to do my final paper on science fiction vocabulary. I'd appreciate it if you'd take the time to complete my survey. It's both simpler and a bit harder than the last one--there are fewer questions, but they're probably harder to answer. There are no "right" and "wrong" answers; I'm looking for your common semantic knowledge about certain terms. If you don't know a term, that's still data. :)

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