Oh how I love the Dancing Matt videos. Watching this repeatedly is so much more fun than cleaning house, which is what I am supposed to be doing today.

I’ve already seen this on a number of blogs. Most likely, you have too. However, if you have not, enjoy!

Or go here and watch it in High Quality. It looks prettier that way. You can also watch it, and the past dancing videos on the “Where the Hell is Matt?” website.

I don’t dance. Or, I don’t dance in places where dancing is expected. Clubs, weddings, parties and the like. Too much pressure. This video proves what I have always believed, dancing is better in places, and times, where it’s least expected

Happy 4th of July, USA. I miss you. Later, I will wear my US Flag 4th of July boxers to bed in celebration. Also, I might eat some apple pie.

Raul had an interesting post this morning about our (Americans) tendency to refer to ourselves as Americans, when there are so many more Americans out there. Technically, it’s a continent, so Canadians and Mexicans are also Americans.

This is not meant as a rebuttal. This is simply a different perspective. Since I’ve moved here, and spoken with more Canadians, I’ve realized this is a slightly sore spot. And I totally get it. I have a tendency to say, now, that I am “from the States” instead of “American” so as not to offend. However, inevitably, someone will say “oh, you are from ALL THE STATES? That’s AMAZING.” Which drives me nuts, cuz I’m trying to be all sensitive and shit. I’m working from your outlook here, kid, so cut me some slack.

Ok, so we are all Americans. But, really, we are all NORTH Americans. There are actually massive amounts of Americans to the south of us as well, let’s not forget. This is flaw número uno in the “Let’s All be Americans,” plan. Flaw numéro deux is our fault, the USA’s.

Fact is, we are the only ones who actually use the world “America” in our name. And by doing so, we sorta stuck our flag in it, didn’t we? I apologize for bogarting it. Nonetheless, do not begrudge us our BEness. That is to say, I am from the United States, but American is what I am. (Also I am North American) I don’t know why we took the name, but we did. People from Canada get to be Canadians. People from Mexico get to be Mexican. Unfortunately, we did not choose to say were are United States of Americans. Too long, I suppose. USAsians just sounds dumb, and could be confused with “Asian” which someone is already using. But we should have the same ability to say what we are, in addition to where we are from, right?

Listen, my fellow North American friends who are not from the US, saying your American is sort of a mixed bag, too. When someone says they are Canadian, people say “Oh I love Canada! You guys are so nice and polite. Thank you for all the fine comedians. And natural resources!”

When someone says they are Mexican… ok, I just realized saying you are Mexican to someone in the US is also a mixed bag. Most people would say “Oh Mexico, so beautiful, and I went down there on vacation just last year. Loved it! By the way, thank you for the cuisine. So delicious. Seriously. Love it!”

But then others would just look at you suspiciously and ask to see your green card. And that, right there, kids, is the reason telling the rest of the world you are American can you get you trouble. So, really, you don’t need the hassle. Leave the potential hostility to those who worked hard to earn it. The US.

That being said, for all your flaws, I love you United States of America*! Happy Independence Day!

*Even the 51% of you who are responsible for keeping Bush in office 4 more years. What’s done is done, let’s move on.

For the last few weeks, I have been attending a Restorative Yoga class, once a week, with Airdre. And, I have to confess, I’m not very good at it. (Although my teachers say, every week that this is yoga practice, not yoga perfect.) I can only imagine how delightful this class must be for people with busy, stressful, lives.

You would think that someone as inherently lazy as I am would be aces* at a class of relaxing in different positions with pillows and blankets. At regulated breathing and quieting the mind. Wrong! I am an incredibly twitchy person, it seems. And my mind? Here we are, supposed to be concentrating on something we want more of in our lives, such as love or heath or some such shit, and all I can think about is taking over Russia with Wil when he gets home from work! Thinking about warfare, even fake warfare, when you are supposed to be breathing peace is just wrong. Or I write blog posts. It would sadden you to know that my most brilliant blog posts exist only in my mind during yoga, or when I am trying to fall asleep, never to make it out onto page. Seriously… GENIUS stuff.

I try to wrangle my brain back in. I try to concentrate on my breathing. I try saying a word, in my mind, when I breath in, and another when I breath out. I try to make them positive words, but they usually end up being “cheeeeeeeese burgeeeerrrrrrr.” The millisecond I stop focusing, which is often, I am backing to thinking about anything but relaxing. Last week was particularly difficult as I had had a bad headache that day, so I had taken a couple of excedrin. And I had also had a big gulp of Dr Pepper, which is unusual these days. I was over caffeinated and buzzing like a bumblebee. And I kept thinking about swimming. And bunnies. Bunnies… hopping happy bunnies bunnies BUNNIES I love bunnies need more bunnies in my life HOP HOP HOP omigod bunnies are AWESOME. Whoosh! And food and food, mmmm… cheese burgers.. steak I LIKE MEAT! And ick, I need to clean the house. I hate cleaning house. In what order should I clean the rooms? Start in the kitchen and go in circle until I end the living room? Maybe I should go the opposite way for once, except … all those dirty dishes. Forget it, let’s think about war instead. Russia is going down. Oh it’s on, Catherine the Great.

Let’s face it, I’m a mental AND physical spaz. But I keep practicing. The first day I was back after the flu, I was still terribly congested. I brought in a box of kleenix and a plastic bag to put my used tissues in, as I didn’t go more than 5 mins without blowing my nose or coughing up a piece of my lung. It’s very quiet and dark and relaxed in yoga, and one of the teachers came over and asked if she could do some energy work on me, which I said was fine. Airdre later told me she is a reiki master. That is just about the sweetest thing ever. Whether or not your are into energy work, to have someone come over to you and work their healing craft on you.. the sincere intention that you feel better is beneficial in of itself.

*You know what I am truly aces at? Procrastination. I could go pro in procrastination. I wish there was a procrastination olympics, except I’d probably miss the sign up.