Last Thursday, Mer and I threw another party (we’re just social folks); this time, we invited the CVCA Ceili Club (the CVCA Irish dancing club) over for a movie and some dancing.

We had a good turnout: 10 students, one parent, and our friend (and CVCA Latin teacher) Dubbs. We (once again) had way too much food – I made pizzas and calzones, and the students brought sodas, chips, cookies, and even a vegetable plate (I even had some carrots!). We munched and socialized for about 45 minutes, and then we got settled in to watch a movie.

I wanted to get an Irish film, but ideally it should be PG, and it should still be interesting. I found a website that listed some Irish films, and I settled on The Secret of Roan Inish. It turned out to be a good pick (at least from my point of view) – it dealt with the western Irish islands, small-time fishing life, and Irish legends about seals (selchies), and it even had a smattering of Irish Gaelic in it. The brief shot from behind of a small but very naked boy caused some mirth from the assembly, but I think it went over well. If you haven’t seen Secret, I recommend it.

We then came to the dancing part of the evening. Our house has a 10’x20′ sunroom out back that is still without any furniture. It is tiled and enclosed, so it seemed a good place to dance. Granted, it is not well insulated, but I kept the sliding-glass door open to the sunroom all day in hopes of warming it up. Turns out that did not work very well, but it was still probably in the low 50s when we went out there to dance. Since ceili dancing is an active passtime, I figured we would soon be happy for the cooler temperatures.

I was certainly right about being glad for the cooler temperatures! With 12 of us dancing, we were soon very comfortable. The windows fogged up, but that was okay since it was dark out. That was when one of the kids fell. The floor was getting slick – the moisture we were putting into the air was condensing on the still-cold tile floor. If any of you have ever walked on wet ceramic tile, you know it can be very slick. Still, the student in question was fine, and we kept dancing. We danced for about an hour and fifteen minutes when the same student slipped and fell again (Mer and I had narrowly avoided slipping several times), and it was getting close to 10:30 at night and parents were picking up their children, so I decided that we had had enough dancing. And the student that fell let me know the next day that he was fine.

So, all in all, it was a very fine evening. The next time I hold a ceili out in the sunroom, it needs to be warmer! Maybe in the spring….