Riot and Frolic

a mostly ballroom dance, but also a bunch of other stuff, blog

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about

I own and rock people’s faces off teaching ballroom dancing at Dancers Studio in St. Paul, MN. My husband and I compete professionally in American style and wrangle eight children in our spare time. I’ve been teaching and competing in ballroom dancing for over 25 years and have lots of opinions on it. I am an expert by any means, but there are quite a few dancers who are better than me and I have a solid knowledge of basic technique, so suck it.

Category: Domesticality

  • January Mixed Tape

    This month's playlist starts off really slow with a pretty, morning-feeling, peaceful piano piece by Sigur Ros with a really creepy video that I don't recommend watching.  From there, things get trendy and then weird.  Like beards.   Enjoy.

  • The Get Smart Book Club: F*ing Anna Karenina

    You guys.   You guys.   YOU GUYS.   I finished Anna Karenina.   Now, to refresh your memory, a million years ago, I figured up 91 books to make me smarter and then started the ill-attended, virtual book club (there's even a pseudo-book report to fill out for The Princess Bride!).  And then, THREE F*ING YEARS AGO,…

  • Adventures Time : Part One

    Okay, I'll admit.  I haven't been present for a full half of the ADVENTures this year.  But I've liked all the ones I've witnessed.  And that is something.   Day 1 : pinecone ornaments Is it just me, or does anyone else say "pinecorn"? I grabbed some pine…coooonnneees, a few jingle bells, a couple sticks of…

  • Parenting and Perfectionism

    In past years, I put together a list of ADVENTures (get it?  PUNNY) for the Christmas season.  The girls, doing that whole growing thing, have better hand/eye coordination, so we're totally upping our game this year.  But along with all the FAMILY TIME and CRAFTING and HOLIDAY SPIRIT, this mama is learning about PATIENCE and LETTING THE…

  • Adventures Time

    It's that time of year again, where I put more pressure on myself to create fun, family memories for the gang and create extra work, less sleep, and more to do for myself.  But I LIKE IT!  And FUN! And CHRISTMAS!  So, DO IT! If you haven't been here before, I make a list of neat things…

  • Things I’d Like to Yell

    I'm a loud person, but you'd be surprised how many things I say quietly, or even keep to myself.  These outbursts are generally directed at my kids or my students or bad drivers.  Hopefully you can tell which is which. Here is a partial list of spasms: IT'S NOT INTERNATIONAL SMOOTH! USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL! I…

  • September Mixed Tape

    The best way to start something is just begin doing it, without making any excuses for why you haven't been doing it or had been wanting to do it but didn't, and acting like it's no big deal that you're doing it.   So here:   This month's playlist starts with the very lovely second…

  • July Mixed Tape

    I was so not impressed by Spotify, which I tried out for June's Mixed Tape.   My new format?  YouTube. Bless you, YouTube. July Mixed Tape    

  • I’m Off Facebook

    This title will confuse you, because you most likely got to this post by clicking a link… on Facebook.  No, I didn't delete my account.  I didn't change my privacy settings.  I didn't even edit my friends list.  But I did take the app off my phone and I changed my Facebook landing page to my…

  • OUTRAGE!

    Why aren't more people outraged at toilet paper companies? This is the "bath tissue" aisle at a certain superstore: This aisle of pretentiously-dubbed "bath tissue" (are they afraid to use the word "TOILET" [I'm not: toilet toilet toilet toilet toilet]) takes up about 650 square feet of store space and one company has a package with…