The Book Dance.

Drew and I have this silly ritual. And we’ve done this since, gosh, probably the first year or two of our marriage. He’s a reader. And I’m not. And he’s great at positively reinforcing things in my life. And when I decided (nearly in vain) to start reading more, he got this crazy idea that we’d dance, yes, dance, anytime either of us would finish a book. It’s a cheesy shoulder-shaking dance. Nothing special. You don’t even have to stand up for it. But it’s such fun and it’s a mini-celebration of an accomplishment that some might say is rather huge in my non-reading life.

[If I had one, I'd insert an inspirational quote from the person who coined the phrase "Celebrate Your Wins" here.]

We don’t do The Book Dance nearly as much for me as for him, because I might average oh say 4 books completed in a year. Maybe. But sometimes he’ll come out of his home office with a straight face and say “Ready?” I hardly ever know what this is in reference to until the grin cues the shoulders to start going.

This past weekend, we did The Book Dance four times. And none of those times were in celebration of ANY books that I’d finished. He completed four. FOUR. Well, to be even more precise, he finished three of those four books on Friday. The other he finished on Saturday.

Nerd.

So we danced, and laughed, and smiled, and celebrated. And it was fun. And it was in public and we didn’t care.

And it made me want to finish a book–a Particularly Good Book–a memoir, because we all know I luhuhhhvvv memoirs for some strange reason. And when I do finish it, I’ll blog about it–because it’s worthy of recommendation. And I just might try to catch The Book Dance on video so y’all can celebrate with me. But, until then:

What’s the last book you read? And is it a book you’d recommend to others of the memoir persuasion?

Are you coming to my Dance Party??

DOWNLOAD MUSIC HERE

It’s officially called the “All-Star Super-Fantastic Global Dance Party” for a reason:

I’ve done some heavy recruiting via Twitter (@mandythompson) this week, and I think we’ve got…. oh… 10 participants and 5 countries covered…? woot woot!!! And there’s room for more, so y’all come on in!!

YOUR job:

  1. get 2 sheets of paper: write your location on the 1st, your name/twitter/site or whatever on the 2nd.
  2. dance along to that 30 second clip of music, following my instructions: “show us where you’re from, show us who you are, jump jump jump, hands in the air, freestyle, wave goodbye”
  3. record your dance on a webcam or iSight or digital camera.
  4. email it to danceparty[at]mandythompson.com, using yousendit.com or box.net or whatever you want to use (file may be too big to email directly).
  5. DEADLINE = MONDAY OCTOBER 4th. MKAY??

MY job:

  1. compose some sort of dance party mix for the music video
  2. mix all your dances into a music video
  3. host the dance party video here on FRIDAY OCTOBER 8th

So, grab your camera and get your groove on by MONDAY!

The All-Star Super-Fantastic Global Dance Party

I’m in a good mood. And by “good mood” I mean VERY good mood. (details about how big a deal this is)

And I want to celebrate my good mood. And what better way to do that than by hosting a dance party.

Right here.

Right now.

By “right here” I mean wherever you can find the time, space, and recording equipment to shake your groove thing by Monday October 4th.

And by “right now” I mean on Friday, October 8th, because I want to make sure all of you attend.

Here’s how this is going to go down.

YOUR job:

  1. get 2 sheets of paper: write your location on the 1st, your name/twitter/site or whatever on the 2nd.
  2. dance along to that 30 second clip of music, following my instructions: “show us where you’re from, show us who you are, jump jump jump, hands in the air, freestyle, wave goodbye”
  3. record your dance on a webcam or iSight or digital camera.
  4. email it to danceparty[at]mandythompson.com, using yousendit.com or box.net or whatever you want to use (file may be too big to email directly).
  5. DEADLINE = MONDAY OCTOBER 4th. MKAY??

MY job:

  1. compose some sort of dance party mix for the music video
  2. mix all your dances into a music video
  3. host the dance party video here on FRIDAY OCTOBER 8th

So, grab your camera and get your groove on by MONDAY!

Who’s gonna come to my dance party? And who’s gonna BRING FRIENDS?!

The Kind of Art that Makes Me Want to Cry

Every once in a while I come across a work of art that makes me choke up.

Granted, my life is a bit of a roller-coaster of emotions as of late, but there’s something about this that makes it hard to breathe… I don’t know what it is. I think it may be the simple beauty of “creating” … You know – how human beings are made in the image of our Creator, so we’re creative as well? Maybe that’s what gets me. Seeing others absolutely soar in their creative abilities.

I don’t know.

But this is still worth watching.

Hit the full-screen button in the bottom right hand of the player, and soak it all up.

ht: The Chronicles of Lewis