Flutterby™! : Called my first Saturday square dance

Called my first Saturday square dance tonight, a "newer dancer" event for the Martinez Swingers. It was a lot, felt like 8 or 9 squares. I am wiped.

Edit: Notes I just put on Facebook:

Back in, I think, 2019, the Martinez Swingers asked me to call a square dance for them in February of 2021. That got postponed to 2023. I called it last night. First real calling in 3 years, definitely the first calling to more than one square in my back yard. Thank you *so much* for the friendly faces who turned out to support me! I'm still buzzing on the emotional rollercoaster of performance.

It was kinda a tough situation: It was advertised as a "Newer Dancer" dance, and the final flyer suggested there'd be some newer dancer, SSD, and a few full Plus star tips.

The Swingers didn't have a class going. It was suggested that a few of the dancers who are 2 or so classes from completing SSD from Circle n' Squares in Santa Rosa would be there, so I prepped some material that might work from them.

I know when I was handed my check for the evening I was told how many people were there, which I promptly forgot, but it was enough that I never had the moment to actually count the squares. I know there were generally 3 in the front, and sometimes it felt like it was 3 deep, but it was probably actually 2 and a half or so. It was few enough people that they paid the mandated minimum, on the other hand it was quite a few more than many larger name callers have drawn locally.

It turns out we had a floor full of people who danced solid Plus or Advanced, with about one square full of kids (I think they were teens, I'm of the age where anyone under 40 is a kid) who were doing the refresher thing. So I probably didn't give the majority of the floor the challenge they were hoping for.

My voice felt fairly good. The fact that I hadn't worked with my music in 3 years didn't. My nice laptop died at the beginning of Covid and I've never bothered to replace it, so I was using a laptop that's likely over a decade old, and it felt kinda laggy when I was filtering music. Gotta resolve that before I call next time.

Also gotta make sure the hearing impaired transmitter is actually working. Sorry to those folks.

Anyway, got there at 6:30, setup went fairly easy so I was out on the floor talking to people, trying to get a feel for what I could and couldn't call. First tip started at 7:32, by 10:56 I was *completely* toast. Turns out that three and a half hours of peopling is *hard*.

Completely different experience from calling to a few club squares.

Was great to get back behind the mic again, but dang that's hard work.