Squaredancing--particularly gay and lesbian squaredancing--really is a lot of fun, and was a major piece of my social life from when I first started in the fall of 1994 until 2000, when I began spending less time involved in the activity.

Years ago, I was in a straight squaredance club with my sister, parents and grandparents, and remember it as very enjoyable (ok, I was an odd kid). In 1987, when my then-boyfriend Hal and I first moved to DC from Boston, we sought out DC Lambda Square's open houses that first summer. However, we started the process of breaking up before classes began, and neither of us made it back. It took me seven years to get around to it again, and I plunged in with abandon to make up for lost time.

Not only did I learn the Basic and Mainstream levels taught by the club from that first September to the next May, but I taught myself the next level, Plus, in a couple of weeks earlier that same spring. I also was elected to the Board of Directors around the same time, though I later resigned due to time constraints. In April, 1996, I completed the next level, Advanced. During the summer of 1996 I started to learn to call, and I began the final series of levels, Challenge, in October of 1996. In the spring of 1998, I was graduated from a Challenge 2 class, but haven't kept up my skills at that level; when I do dance these days, which isn't as often as I used to, I tend not to dance higher than Challenge 1.

Through squaredancing, I've met some incredible people and made a number of terrific new friends. I've also participated in some fun events. In February, 1995, I attended my first fly-in (usually a weekend event to which other clubs are invited) at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, hosted by DCLS. I had a blast. Since then, I've been to several other fly-ins, including several in Harper's Ferry: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, hosted by the Baltimore area club, Chesapeake Squares; Toronto, Ontario, hosted by that city's Triangle Squares; New Hope, Pennsylvania, hosted by Philadelphia's Independence Squares; and Advanced/Challenge weekends in Phoenix and Denver. They've all been great fun, and have offered the opportunity to dance to some wonderful national callers.

Then there's the annual convention, which is almost indescribable. May 1995 saw some 1300 lesbian and gay squaredancers gathered in a single Chicago hotel for an incredible four days of nearly non-stop dancing. The 1996 convention, which was even more fun than Chicago's, was in San Francisco, the week following the city's Gay Pride weekend. 1997's convention, Wheel and Deal 97, was in Las Vegas, and 1998's, Weave the Rose, was in Portland, Oregon. The Portland Convention has been my favorite so far: I met a lot of really terrific new friends there, including a man in Albuquerque with whom I had a long-distance relationship for a little more than a year. I missed 1999's convention, Lights, Camera, Linear Action, held in Los Angeles, but I attended the 2000 convention, Crack the Crab, in Baltimore, and 2001's, Make Magic, in Vancouver, BC. The 2002 convention, Clover Leafs and Maple Leafs [sic], which I missed due to my unemployment at the time, was held in Toronto.