BSW 2.0

In October 2007, my siblings and I decided to have a weekend together -- just us. No spouses or children. It turned out to be one of the best weekends of my life.

Growing up, we were very close and we still are today. However, we all have busy lives and families and we just seem to lose touch a bit.... subsequently, the 'Barth Sibling Weekend' was born and we enjoyed the 2nd annual BSW this past October. (Yay!!) Without a doubt, this has become an annual tradition that the four of us look forward to and are fiercely protective of.

The first time we gathered, we had dinner at a place in Calgary called 'Namskar'. Oh My God. The best East Indian food imaginable. Our waiter was named 'Veer' but Karen insisted on calling him 'Vindaloo' which is actually a dish on the menu. Without a word of a lie, I have never laughed so hard in my life. Never. The entire restaurant was getting a kick out of us and the 4 of us were in tears laughing at each other. There is a flow to our communication and especially to our humour. We just feed off each other and within moments, we can't breathe because we're laughing so hard.

We returned to Namskar this year and had an incredible meal again. We talked and laughed and we had a waiter with AMAZING taste in women. That's all I have to say about that.

This year we went to 2 movies on the Sunday. God, that just felt like such a luxury! In the afternoon we saw 'Religulous' by Bill Maher which was absolutely brilliant, then that evening we saw 'Passchendaele' a Canadian war drama by Paul Gross. A friend of mine worked on the film (Yay Michele!) so I was really excited to see it. Without a doubt, it is an excellent film with a real Canadian feel to it, which I loved.

The BSW 2.0 was again, a success. When I'm with my siblings, I'm just 'Suze'. I'm not a wife, not a mother, not an employment counsellor, not a community member. I'm just..... Suze. And at least once a year, that is something that I really crave. It's good for my soul. My sibs feel the same way. When I talk about this weekend as it approches, I'm always suprised by how many people are shocked that all 4 of us are close. I take it for granted and I shouldn't. What we have is really precious and I'm grateful for it.

Dance-o-rama

I love dancing. Love it. LERVE it. Luff it with 2 'f's.

My first memory of dancing is this; standing on my Dad's feet when I was just wee and being carried around the livingroom this way, likely to Roger Whittaker or Vicki Carr or something really exciting like that. (Shut up, Tana!).

My Mom loved to dance, but I never really had a chance to see it because of her disease. By the time I was old enough to pay attention, she was already having trouble walking. When she danced with my brother at his wedding, she stood on his feet and was carried around the dance floor that way. She was delighted.

When I was young, I took jazz dance. In college, I took classic dance (waltz, rumba, cha-cha). There is no feeling in the world like being in the arms of a man who knows how to dance. At weddings, I seek out any man over 55 who can dance.... not just dance, but really dance. The feel of his right hand on the small of your back, gently directing you, guiding you across the floor. The feel of his left hand, held out, supporting yours. To be moving to the music, in unison.... it's something you can't understand unless you've experienced it. My brother Glen and I dance like this. Two step, polka, jive. There is no one I prefer to dance with in the whole wide world. (Love you, Glennie).

This past weekend I went out dancing, but it was a different kind of dancing. This was the tequila induced shake-your-money-maker kind of dancing with my girlfriends. Now understand, this is completely different from the waltzing, contained dance in the arms of a partner. This is free flow, expressive, laughing dance and is OH, so good for your soul. We danced to 'The Hip Replacements', a Tragically Hip cover band and sat down only long enough to order another shot of tequila. MyBarb drove in for the night, as did my Seeso.

Fun du la fun a la fun.

I'd like to think that if she could have, my Mom would have loved dancing with us like this. Karen and I often ponder whether or not we get our wild streak from Lily and I'm pretty sure that we do.

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To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. ~Agnes De Mille

Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order. ~Samuel Beckett

Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected. ~Source Unknown

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. ~William James