Last night...

I like that song by The Strokes... The video is hilarious.

Anyway.

This has been an amazing weekend. Turns out, I think I need to get some scratch together and get a deep tissue massage.

So Friday night, I have capoeira class. And a classmate shows up after not being around for nearly two months and we get a new student! Class ends and I'm ready to stay in Kalamazoo for, at least, the night. Caçula had some birthday parties to go to; I get invited along. We get cleaned up and arrive to the first party approximately 11pm, more or less. I'm introduced to everyone as Leão from Brazil. So I speak with my weird little accent that I normally talk with, trying very hard not to speak like Boomhauer. Caçula finds a girl, and we head to the second party.

The second party is definitely smaller, still pretty cool, and I even got out on the dance floor. As a Brasileiro, I can dance. Samba.. Salsa.. Most definitely capoeira.. Tango.. Now, there was one person there who claimed that I wasn't from Brazil, and he was teaching a girl the tango. But, uh... It wasn't. So I said I could tango (and faked it better than he did). At the end of the night, everyone but one person was certain I was from Brazil.

At 3:30am, we arrived (our group of three) to IHOP for breakfast. Our waitress was pretty kickass, and it was at IHOP that I had to tell this girl (because our conversation was lending itself to the belief that I was either very very educated about America, or not from Brazil) that I was not from Brazil. I held her hands, and looked in her eyes, and told her. Honestly? I was holding her hands down, away from silverware and anything that could be thrown. Caçula was laughing his ass off at this point, because he apparently had come clean about it but she didn't remember. About twenty minutes later, though, we were friends again. That's a nice thing about being me.

We dropped her off at her car, and got to beds at 5am. My alarm went off at 8:30, because I had planned on driving to Schoolcraft to get my white pants, needle and thread, and my CDO shirt. My alarm sounded, and I rolled over and kept on sleeping. My teacher called me at 9:41 asking where I was; I was all ready for sleeping a few more hours. He needed his berimbau, though. So I sighed, packed my things, tried to wake Caçula, went to my car and drove to his in Battle Creek.

Met up with him and Cobra (who thought more people were coming and so drove a van) at 10:30am, hit the road to Ann Arbor by very short time after that, and arrived to the class/demo at 1pm or so. Class was at 11am (which the UofM reps were attending), so we had a roda for our arrival. Played there until 2:48pm, packed up, went out to eat at Ashley's restaurant and bar (ate a pretty good burger, which helped quell the liter of NOS energy drink that I had on the way to AA). Traveled to Manhoso's house to hang out until the birthday parties at 7pm.

Got to the birthday party at 8pm, and were two of the first people to arrive. Had some food, relaxed for awhile, the djs showed up and got things going... Learned to samba in the kitchen with Beijinho, Manhoso, Cobra, and a few others. But we were kicked out of the kitchen to the dance floor. Beijinho started dancing and looked at me to join her... and I started samba-ing like I was born on the dance floor. I'm like a natural! Whee! Danced from around 10 to midnight, at which time we all went downstairs for the birthday rodas.

We had about 15 or so capoeiras for this roda, solid walls and a low ceiling, so the music stuck in the air and the energy we created had nowhere to go but into the dance. Everyone was joining in... It was beautiful. When we finished with the capoeira, we called everyone back and with Manhoso on the djembe, Buscapé on the pandeiro, someone else on the berimbau, we formed a roda de samba. And I must say... After one lesson of samba... And one roda de samba... I am in love with the samba. We had to end around 2am, but with the music from the dj boards, I could probably have gone on a second 23 hour day without regrets.

By 2:40, sleeping arrangements were figured out, and I was cashed out. Until 8:38. One of the cats decided to sleep with me, curling up behind my legs. It is a very affectionate little kitty. Got things arranged to leave by 9am, back to Kalamazoo by 11:30, writing this by 1:50, unemployed until 5:30am tomorrow.

I am so very pumped for our upcoming events... Especially in March - for which people are flying from around the world to be here. And we'll have African Dance, Samba, Capoeira, and more...