Temporary lifting of the Salsa music ban

April 12, 2006 (and part of April 13, 2006)

I was hooked up to my iPod when a colleague said something to me. I turned off my music and took off my earphones to hear the comment again.

"I'm going to put on some Salsa music."

"Oh. Okay."

I put my iPod back on and continued listening to Goldberg Variations. After all, my ban is still in effect.

Few hours later, I am at Club Salsa. Cristian’s classes are still as popular as ever. It takes another 10-15 min before the classes end. The club stays quite crowded for a while once again. It's a mix of dance and chitchat night for me.

I think it has been a long time since I felt that I was exhausted from dancing and that I had enough. There have been many fun nights at Club Salsa this year, but I don’t think I ever ended a night in Cambridge feeling that I couldn’t have handled another dozen dances or even more. I danced myself to exhaustion at the Brit Salsafest, and I had thoroughly satisfied myself with quality and quantity of dancing at SOS on a few occasions (but not this year). However, I almost always leave most nights wanting more. Perhaps Scala Latina this weekend will do the job (although a red flag was raised prompted by a comment made to me about Scala being too crowded).

At one point, Cristian made an announcement saying that Club Salsa will be open this Friday and Saturday. My reaction was, "Okay. Is this news?"

Only at lunch next day at the cafeteria did the reason for the announcement became clear. I noticed that they were serving fish and chips, which is usually a Friday fare. I asked the server about this anomaly (this being Thursday) and the answer was that they will be closed for Good Friday. Oh. A lot of things make sense all of sudden, including someone else's comment about taking only 4 days off while going away for 10 days.

Back at my desk, another colleague exclaims, "I'm bored."

A second colleague turns to me and says, "Hey, maybe you should put some Salsa music on."

Oh well. There goes my ban. First album on is Ray Barretto's "Latino." Next up. Cal Tjader's "Soul Sauce."