So, I’m officially a fugitive of the law… that’s right… you heard it correctly… a fugitive! After having a bad luck day today (yesterday… whatever the heck day it is at 2:30 in the morning), I got pulled over by the University Police tonight. I was so nervous (having never been picked up before), I immediately pulled over in a red zone right in front of a busy 4-way stop sign… he had to wave me to go across the street and then I forgot about the 4-way stop and went out of turn. Oh laws… I’m a mess. Of course he takes his time coming up to my window and I’m shaking like a frigging crack whore on a bad mixture of Jack Daniels and Percocet trying to get my registration and insurance information. Officer Bored Stiff asks me if there is any reason why I’m so nervous… because my hands are literally shaking (I’m pretty sure it’s totes from watching too many murder mystery shows… maybe I murdered someone!!?!?!?) and I’m pretty sure he thinks I have some marijuana in the car because he asks me to get out to look at my license plate and I’m sure that was because he wanted to see if I could walk in a straight line. Turns out that I have 2 year stickers on my license plate instead of a month and a year and Officer Really Needs A Hobby still wants to run my Driver’s License to make sure I have no warrants out. Well, officer… there was that one time when I was 6 that I stole some candy from the bulk food bins at Macey’s… maybe all these years they been searching for my punk arse.
Moving on!! Today’s song choice is I Hope You Dance as sung by Ronan Keating. The original song (sung by LeeAnn Womack) was released a few years after I graduated from high school. The song, as interpreted by me, is a parent’s wish for their kids… you have a choice… you can sit around and do nothing letting life pass you by or you can get up and dance… which one do you choose? I used to always tear up every time I’d hear the song… and I know it was because I was such a waste of space and a huge disappointment to my folks. I didn’t take those lyrics to heart and I didn’t know where to start either… so I didn’t dance. I sat against the wall wearing my glasses the size of my head and served the punch and cookies while all of my peers were out there dancing. And I was jealous of those peers… jealous because they were doing it and I was still telling myself that I couldn’t do it. I can’t dance… I just can’t. (That’s literally true… I can’t dance well… but dancing in this particular song just meant living life.)
I want to dance now. You are never too old to dance… never. If you find yourself stagnant, dust yourself off and get out on that danged dance floor. So, I lost all 10 years of my 20s… my 30s are going to be my turn around.
Two Saturdays ago my mom and I went on a bike ride… we stopped at a park and lay on the cool grass in front of the lilac trees (which my madre happened to be stealing by the bundle). Madre turned to me and asked… Do you feel free? I didn’t have an answer to that question right there, but I kept it in the back of my noggin and mulled it over and I think I have one now, Madre. HECK YES, I DO! My brain isn’t holding me back as much any more. I am biking and I am walking and I am losing hundreds of pounds… on my own… no trainers, no dieticians, no psychologists. I’m pulling from that gumption I had buried down deep in my innards… and I am succeeding. So, yes… I feel free… and I’m going to keep on dancing until I’ve mastered every move… because life is too short not to.
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance
and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances but they’re worth taking
Loving might be a mistake but it’s worth making
Don’t let some hell bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance (time is a wheel in constant motion always)
I hope you dance (rolling us along)
I hope you dance (tell me who wants to look back on the years and wonder)
I hope you dance (where those years have gone)
Questions of the Day: (1)What’s your last fugitive of the law story? (2)Do you feel like you are dancing your way through life? Why or why not?
craving a life 
I usually get pulled over for speeding. Sometimes I get out of the ticket. Did you get a ticket?
I didn’t get a ticket, Jen… but if I don’t get it taken care of soon, I will… Fugitive!
I like your positivity. Good luck.
Thanks!
You are more free than most, because you threw off what held you down and you are walking out on your own. Most people never learn how! I don’t care how old you are!
Lookie there, you got pulled over. You are not invisible anymore! I think you escaped into the world now!
Is that why I finally got pulled over!? You are right, Nammy… making the change is key!
Great blog, Whitney, and I LOVE “I Hope You Dance.” I always have. You should record it for your new CD! 🙂
I’m a fugitive for duck-killing. Seriously, when we lived in Boise, I ran over a duck – – – I can still hear the crunch of the bones! And me – – the great lover and protector of animals! Of course, my sons were with me, and won’t let me forget it to this day – – -and occasionally threaten to turn me in!
Oh my goodness gracious… just the thought of the duck bones cracking sends chills up my spine!! That might be the oddest thing to run over… I’m sure your sons were anxious for the duck soup! 😛
Well . . . I’ve had 2 moving violations in my LONG life (age 54 in a few weeks) and just last September 1st (my 26th wedding anniversary and you know my story . . . ) I was having a meltdown about my parents’ will and issues with my sister. I went to visit my cousin in Brigham City and was a bit OUT OF IT. I was at a stoplight on mainstreet talking to my sister on the cellphone and I noticed in my rearview mirror that there was a cop behind me. For some reason I thought I was at a 4 way stop and thought, “I need to get out of his way.” I also didn’t have my seatbelt on. I pulled on through the red light and I just pulled over immediately. The cop kept apologizing to me for having to give me a ticket. I kept telling him to not feel bad!!!! JUST GIVE ME THE TICKET.
The other time was when I was driving down 4th North in Logan when the school crossing was flashing. I was going to the doctor to have him sign my maternity leave papers 2 weeks after my twins were born. I pulled in Budge Clinic and all the other cars going the same speed I was didn’t get a ticket, but I did . . . That was 25 years ago. I was also pulled over on 4th North a few years ago for going too fast in the SAME school zone after a therapy session and the cop let me off . . . that doesn’t happen to me much.
Love the song! I agree, you should put it on your CD–and, like I said before, I want a copy of your CD. I’d be happy to purchase one!
Since I met you, Whitney–you have come A LONG WAY. AND you are the best transcriptionist I’ve ever met in my 25 years of doing this job. I am so thrilled for you. AND like you said–it doesn’t matter what time of life. I never thought at age 48 that I had any dreams left–that I would enjoy my kids and maybe grandkids–but that dreams for me were over. How wrong I was. I’ve lived more in the past 6 years than I did in the 9 before that. You are an inspiration.
What is the luck, Colleen! Your fugitive stories make me feel better about mine! That’s too exciting that you too are getting out there and living it up. It’s a freeing feeling ain’t it? Dance it up, lady!
Actually, the reason he sat in his car so long is that he has to page in and inform the other officers what he’s up to. The officer never knows what kind of crazy they just pulled over. :b
Sometimes they also run a license plate scan.
My fugitive of the law stories only pertain to my job. ~laughs~
Oh… no, he was just walking really slow toward my car… trying to walk a straight line, I suppose… and then he was jealous I had a Buick and he didn’t. I should have given him your number!
Did you tell me your fugitive job story, Avy-Lou?
I am dancing now but haven’t always been able to say that. Thank you for your blog and sharing your life, it’s inspirational to say the least! And I still love the pictures…wow what beautiful scenery.
Yay for dancing now! Do it and enjoy it… and live the life! Thank you for reading my ramblings. I really can’t express enough how much I appreciate it!
My family has already heard my “STING OPERATION” story but I’ll tell the rest of you. As I approached an intersection (no stop lights or signs) all of a sudden a person walks out right in front of me in the crosswalk. Well, of course I stopped but then I proceeded as soon as he had passed by the car. Next thing I know I am being picked up by a policeman and got a ticket for not letting him get clear across the road before I proceeded. It was all a set-up! BooHoo!
Love the inspiration that song brings. Why not dance?
Oh laws… THIS story again. It was a loser way to get pulled over… I thought you were going to tell your story about how you got pulled over for entering the turning lane on a double yellow line?
I don’t dance literally because I am so uncoordinated it’s not even funny. You know how I broke my wrist from tripping over a retaining wall? Dancing would be bad news for me. Figuratively, I feel like I walk along for stretches and then bust moves for stretches. I need to bust more moves.
We’d b e in the same dancing company of HORRIBLEY nonrythmic and clumsy. I like to watch good dancers, but I’ll never think I could ever be good at it!
Questions of the Day: (1)What’s your last fugitive of the law story?
Oh don’t get me started on my last fugitive story…I get so steamed just recalling it…Grrr.
Ok – let me see if I can keep my blood pressure in the normal range AND put this in a nutshell…
Several yrs ago ( my kids were still small ) I had to haul my husband’s 16ft flatbed trailer with my Tahoe to my parent’s place.
As I am not used to having 16 – 18 more feet of vehicle behind me I was being extra cautious.
I was doing fine maneuvering through a series of traffic lights in the city with the traffic but wasn’t sure which lane I needed to be in so I was going slow and looking for an opening to change lanes ( with my blinker on ).
Apparently, a hwy patrol officer on his way into to work didn’t think I was changing lanes fast enough and he decided to pull me over by cutting me off so I didn’t have enough room to get my Tahoe AND the 16ft trailer totally off the hwy. The back end was still over the white line for heavens sake.
Well, Officer Still In Sweatpants From His Workout stomped back to my Tahoe to chew me up one side and down the other. During his rant, I interrupted him and told him I had children in the vehicle and that I would appreciate it if he would pull his car up so I could get the trailer OFF THE ROAD!
Well, he threatened to write me a ticket and I told him I would be filing a complaint against him as well.
Needless to say I never saw a ticket and he huffed and puffed and stomped back to his patrol car and we moseyed along our way.
I hope he had a bad day.
(2)Do you feel like you are dancing your way through life? Why or why not?
I love to dance. I dance by myself ( have for yrs ). I dance with my husband, when he asks. I dance around the kitchen with my kids if a good song comes on or some silliness strikes me.
As for dancing through life….
I think I have off and on.
I lived life to the fullest as a teen and in college. I also felt very alive as I started my career and started a life with my husband.
Sometime after I had my daughter I was still active and social and doing new things and getting out there and in excellent shape.
Somewhere after the miscarriages and the tricky pregnancy with my son…I lost some important part of ME. My health was, for the first time, in jeopardy. I had to be dependent on others and I felt fragile for the first time. I started making excuses and it got to be a bad habit and before long it became who and what i was. I was very unhappy and I blamed my husband. He put up with me and told it to me straight even though I didn’t want to hear it.
For some reason ( and I honestly don’t know the defining moment ) but this year is the year for me to change it all and get ME back. I am working very hard at every decision of every day and being brutally honest with myself about EVERYTHING. This is a total transformation for me not just weight loss. I am searching for the better than I was ME b/c now I am older, wiser, and well loved and there are no more excuses.
Keep on….keepin’ on….
Ugh… I don’t blame you for being steamed about that lame police officer pulling you over on the highway like that!?!?!? How ridiculous was that?
Go you for saying this is the year to make the change. Time to find you inside there!
Whitney,
I was pulled over on Main Street about two years ago, for the first time in my life. (Think of how many years I had not been pulled over.) When my license was run there were warrants out for the arrest of five women with my name. He said he was excited to think he had stopped one. I had made an illegal left turn and did not meet the profile. Think he was very disappointed. He did not give me a ticket.
Can’t dance, but do love life. Just marked two Wicked tickets for Whitney and her Mom. Enjoy!
LOL!!!!! I can’t imagine this Karen Smith as needing a warrant… I’m sure that would have been quite the shock right there!
I’m excited about Wicked… let me know how much I owe you and I’ll pay up!