(Above graphic lifted from B3ta)

Listening To: Boss Drum : The Shamen

OK so apart from the first date, I haven’t really been documenting my burgeoning relationship with a certain someone via this blog. I didn’t write about the second date (the Dante Hicks dinner-and-movie special), nor the third (drinks at Slip Inn), I’m NOT going to reveal exactly at which point things shifted gear into the bedroom (I don’t kiss ‘n tell … sorry y’all) and I’m not even going to clarify the chronology of when the status of things changed from ‘going on a few dates’ to ‘going steady’ (for our American friends).

I am going to share a bit of last Saturday night with you however, because it reveals as much about me as it does about the state of things between me and the wonderful woman I’ve been lucky (choosy ?) enough to hook up with.

Now different people have different ‘priorities’ or values they guage a relationship and their (new) partner by. And of course for all of us, there are things which can make or break a relationship. Things which can make us look at someone in an entirely new way – anything from being completely repulsed by our partner borrowing our toothbrush, to falling completely head-over-heels for someone when you find their moral compass is as quirky as your own :)

Keeping this is mind then, I have to admit last weekend revealeth Disappearing Boy to be a total disco-bitch … the raver gravy kind ;P

Y’see gang, on Saturday night Imaginary Girl & yours truly went out for a night on the town with some of IG’s good friends. DB wanted to stay @ Slip Inn where we started the night, but the rest of them didn’t want to pay a cover charge so it was decided to head to Cockle Bay instead.

We ended up at Bungalow 8, where funnily enough DB ran into his boss. But that’s a whole different level of creepiness we’ll cover some other time. The point of this tale, which I’m slowly getting to, is that prior to Saturday I’d never seen IG dancing, nor had she seen me. Up that point we hadn’t really been out ‘clubbing’ together, just drinking.

Now for any of you who don’t know this interesting factoid yet, DB luuurves to shake his booty after a drink or 3 ! In a recent poll (conducted by my dad one when he was here), my answers to the question “what do you like to do with your spare time ?” were “Drinking, writing music, catching up with friends, and clubbing !”. That’s pretty much it ladies and gentlemen, apart from blogging / writing … but I don’t think my dad would understand blogging so I didn’t mention it at the time.

So yeah … I’ve done a shedload of clubbing (and dancing) since I first started going out when I was 16 or so. In all that time (over a decade), and even through all prior relationship entanglements, I’d never found someone I could really get ‘in synch’ with on the dancefloor. At least not anyone I’ve dated / bedded / gotten freaky with.

There was one friend from the ‘old-school’ goth days … a PVC-wearing, speed-snorting, KMFDM-loving, industrial grrrl, whom I made quiet a ‘pair’ with when we both happened to be at Rollercoaster or Shrine … but a dance-floor pair is all we ever were and I half suspect she O.D’d a few years back when my ex-girlfriend broke up things which were finally ‘developing’ between us and then proceeded to steal this chick’s next boyfriend as well ! Either way, I haven’t seen Azrael at any of the clubs for about 5 years now, so it’s safe to say we won’t be “cuttin a rug” again.

The point is, I’d pretty much resigned myself to the fact that, no matter how ‘in sync’ we might be in other ways, it was unlikely, nigh on impossible, that I’d end up with anyone whom I’d ‘sync’ with on the dancefloor, certainly not instantly or without a lot conscious effort and modification of dance ‘moves’. Even when out with my most recent ex, who’s a pretty damn good dancer (must be those stripper moves hehe), we found styles still clashed. True – it looked pretty good to the casual observer (as I think you can agree from that time we all went to Retro Ms.Mellipop), but even there I had to ‘work’ to keep the flow and as good as it might have looked, it *felt* awkward. Can you see where this is heading yet, kids ? ;)

Now as I said, on Saturday IG and I went out with her mates. Started at Slip Inn, wound up at Bungalow. For the majority of the evening, we just drank and chatted as usual … me itching to go out on the dancefloor, but not so ‘into’ the stuff the DJ was playing that I’d get up and leave the rest of the group for some booty-shaking-gratification. At some point in the wee hours of the morning, IG and her mate’s wife decided THEY were gonna have a bit of dance because they heard a track they liked come on. I was still drinking my beer and trying to ‘bond’ with my girl’s school-friend (gotta make those ‘good impressions’ gang !), so I declined to join them. They came back after a little while, and we had another round of frosty beveridges.

Then comes ‘the moment’. I finish my beer, and over the conversation floats a bass-beat I vaguely recognise. Tonight they’ve got a live drummer on the corner of the dancefloor playing in tandem with the tracks the DJ is cutting, and he starts going off at this point. I glance over and catch IG’s eye – “Do you wanna dance, baby ?” I ask her. “Yeah, why not ?” she replies, and we head out into the sea of sweaty bodies. Can you see where this is heading NOW, guys ? hehe

To cut a long story short, it takes me all of two seconds to figure out Imaginary Girl is a really fantastic dancer ! That’s not what makes this girl and this moment so special though. What makes this moment so special, and what makes DB the little disco-bitch go “aahhh” and break out in an uncontrollable smile he just can’t suppress, is the way her body moves – totally in sync with mine !!!

“Ok, but can we keep this up for more than a few beats ?” I think to myself as I finally remember to ‘put on’ my usual dancing expression and look into my girlfriend’s eyes. That’s when I notice she’s got on the same little dancing pout that I have ! I break out into another huge grin … I must look like I’m on E big-time, but it’s just alcohol and an over-riding sense of … I dunno … Kinship ? Release ?

The beat keeps pumping, we keep dancing … the rhythm is flowing and we’re still in sync ! I fake left and she goes with it, she fakes right and I find myself moving in time with her, without even having to try ! Granted, our ‘styles’ are pretty dissimilar to eachother … but somehow it just works baby, I’m on auto-pilot without having to think about anything except how good this feels, and grinning like a maniac in between trying to pout … which probably makes me look mentally unbalanced ! :)

At the end of it all, I think we only danced to 2 tracks or so … maybe 5 or 10 minutes total … which is bugger all for someone like me who can dance for 5 or 6 hours solid without chemicals (no wonder people are always asking me if I have any speed when I’m out clubbing) to the right music. But it’s all about quality, not quantity as they say ! As I said at the start of this post, different people value different things in their partners. I didn’t even realise how important being ‘in sync’ with someone on the dancefloor was … until last weekend. But now that I’ve finally found it … everything to follow flows from that little moment ! Hats off IG – I think I’ve found a keeper – me love you long time :)