Okay, probably they do this other places too, but still, it seemed very Santa Cruzy: Today, I salsa danced on the beach. Well, it was on a deck right next to the beach, but I figure it was close enough. It's easier to dance with a hard floor beneath your feet than on the sand. I met my new friend Jay there (we met in salsa class), and we practiced some of the basics. It turns out that every Sunday afternoon there's a salsa dance party on the deck next to the info desk (right behind the Ideal Bar & Grill) at the beginning of the wharf. Who knew? The Salsa Cruz website has a calendar showing all the free or drop-in salsa events happening in Santa Cruz. It doesn't include the series classes at Palomar, and it may not include some other types of more formal (though regular) lessons, but all the come-on-by-and-have-some-fun stuff seems to be there. I had no idea Santa Cruz was such a hotbed of salsa!

I'm also going to try the drop-in East Coast Swing class at Palomar this Wednesday. I have no idea what the difference is between East and West Coast Swing, or why they're teaching East Coast Swing here on the West Coast and not teaching West Coast Swing, but that's what they're doing. I suppose if I really got motivated, I could do a search and find out pretty easily online. What the difference is, that is, not why they're teaching one and not the other.

Anyway, it was fun dancing by the beach today, though I didn't dance much. Jay is even more of a beginner than I am, and most of the people there were fairly accomplished dancers, so it was a little intimidating. But finally we worked up our nerve and found a corner and just practiced the stuff that we know. And of course it was fine. Because it's a holiday tomorrow, they're going to do it again down there, so I may drop on by. We'll see.

You know, this dating thing may not be getting me much in the way of romance, but I'm making some pretty great friends.