Hey babes.
Week four in this thang, officially been back four weeks and I'm loving it. It has its days, it has its "yikes" moments, but it surely also has its ups. One of them, is the copious amounts of time we all have to reflect and look back on really positive moments in our lives, moments that when we're able to, we'll recreate. Moments we cherish a bit more, moments that expanded us and made us grow in laughter, in love, in joy!
So! With that said, Ima share an outside memory that I enjoy and was so in yet out of character for me.
August 2019 I traveled to Japan for a month of exploration, cultural immersion and eating. Turns out, a fellow Chicagoan, dope ass artist and woman named Star was out there at the same time. Now, Star and I had crossed paths many times before, she's a bit older than me, so she knows one of my sisters that's also a fellow creative. Also, the Chicago dance community is SOMEWHAT small, so we'd crossed paths on a gig or two also :) But, never had we had the chance to interact on a purely social level. Turns out she's a cancer, so we decided to meet up in Shinjuku and grab Ramen.
What I thought would be an 1.5-2 hours of getting to know someone around 7PM and maybe finding something in common turned into a 4AM night filled with finesse, fun, and simply put: black girl magic.
Not only was Star out there for work, we just vibed! We walked around drankin, as there's no law against publicly drinking in Japan, and fake shopped. Then we were like, wait we're dancers.. lets go dancing? We end up getting into the club and it was POPPIN. We end up having a few drinks, and then... we have a few more, mind you we've already killed pints of whiskey and beer before said drinks. Then, we take over the dance floor. We sit and talk about boys, about how smoking indoors is yucky to us but we don't care cuz we drunk, about how this is crazy that we're this T'd in Japan. We chat about dance and expanding the reach of black dancers and people. We talk about food, I mean you name it, just kicking it and chatting! People want to take photos with us, Japanese men want to invite us to their private sections, it's just, a turn up. At about 2:30, things start to get a slurred/ blurred lol, so it's time to go.
We go outside, and I put Star in a cab, making sure the cab driver understands where she needs to go with my drunken Japanese lol, and then I proceed to walk home which took me about an hour... but for some reason, I enjoyed the walk.
Next morning Star ended up having to work/ teach early in the morning and was OUT OF IT lol. We both were like what were we thinking! But, inside, I felt so much joy. Idk about y'all and how y'all astrological chart is set up, but this Cancer Aries Cancer can struggle to make what I consider genuine friends because frankly I don't feel like a lot of people are as real as me or real in general when it comes to this life shit, so I be steering clear. Doesn't make them better or worse, just different... and sometimes assimilating to that difference without compromising my own beliefs cuz I naturally am a nurturer and put people at ease and make them feel like we besties immediately cuz I'm vulnerable..... sometimes it just don't work lol
But we had a fantastic night, on foreign soil and I couldn't help but feel accomplished, brave, and comforted. That there are other people out here that's real, even if hard to find, even if not someone you'd expect because you've had limited experiences with them. People you could out of the blue say hey lets grab dinner, and the night go up and up and up and you find yourself in a place you didn't anticipate.
Idk about Star, but I'll remember that night forever. And I plan to make more nights like that abroad, with my hubby, with my friends and family... making new friends, doing crazy things, taking over the dance floor, making friends with the natives of whatever land I'm on... and I know I'll get that chance. So use this indoor cabin fever times to reminisce on all the times you were brave, courageous, fucked the club up, did something crazy, fell on your butt, changed the game, gave a church hug, made a new friend etc...
Corona is a lot, but it will pass. And I'm reminding myself consistently that when it does, I'll be ready to make more, even better, memories :)
Until next time lovers...
With all of my love,
Mrs. Taylor