This is the story of how dance saved Jacob's life.
It was 8:30 at the Marathon house and all was well. Jacob and Josh had just polished off heaps of Indian food and Dustin and Meagan were making their way through their own pizzas (one was free because it was "accidentally baked in the shape of a heart"... what?). Sex and the City was background noise for a group of close friends ready to go share their pride for Austin's GLBT population downtown when all of the sudden Jacob emerges from the restroom:
"My thingie got disconnected. I haven't been getting insulin for the past three hours."
A mad dash to the kitchen for a blood test yielded the following blood sugar results: 770. (Ideal levels should be around 75-100).
"What is to be done?" asked Tolstoy.
"I must excercise," answered Jacob, nobly in the face of weird tasting breath and wooziness.
(For our readers we must now explain that having high blood sugar is how diabetics can sometimes go blind or have to have their legs amputated. Low blood sugar is when you go into diabetic shock.)
"No friend of mine is going to loose their vision because of high blood sugar!" said Meagan, wearing her Batman suit.
"Or their feet!" echoed Josh, in his Robin suit.
"I had a friend whose father had to have his legs amputated because of his diabetes," said Dustin.
"Shut up!!"
So it began. Pride was postponed for a series of jumping jacks that didn't really do anything. Following the logical progression of any exercise routine, the group decided to begin a push up pyramid. The pressure was on: 1, 2, 3, 4... Somewhere around the number 5, Dustin collapsed into a pile of post-pizza-immediate-exercise stomach pain. But not to worry. Josh, who had been a supportive spectator up until this point subbed in. Then came 6 push ups. Meagan, who had been wearing her Batman suit traded it in for Catwoman, whose female powers she immediately invoked to start doing the push-ups where you put your knees on the ground. 7: Josh decided it was pride night and what kind of a bi would he be if he wasn't allowed to invoke the same rights?? (sorry about gender!). Two more knees down. By 8 Jacob was still going strong, being granted no concessions and the rest of us lay strewn about the living room in pain.
Jacob had won the push up pyramid contest... but he was still in the fight for his eyes against high blood sugar.
Then, as if the blindfold had been removed ( pun intended) Josh exclaimed " I know what we have to do... WE HAVE TO DANCE!"
Why did we not think of this sooner?
The dancing began with Missy, as always when Jacob and Meagan are in the same room. Elana Clift, answering the call from her special red dance party telephone (the president has one in the oval office too) promptly arrived at our house. And they danced... oh, did they dance.
Then Josh, Elana, and Dcoates got tired and went for coffee...
but Jacob and Meagan kept dancing!! Song after song, French techno faded into Caribbean salsa and they kept dancing. New dance moves were invented that night. And then, the ultimate song was put on: Benni Bennazi and the Whiz "Satisfaction". It is a song that probably lasts 11 minutes, but for full-bellied 22 and 23 year olds who just finished a push up pyramid, it is a song that lasts 5 hours. Upon thinking it was over, Jacob and Meagan hugged. And then it came back. And they kept dancing.
Finally, just as they were getting a second wind, the song ended. Jacob and Meagan rushed to the kitchen again for another blood sugar test. 720. All that and it had only bumped down 50 points! So they went on a walk around the neighborhood to keep moving.
Eventually Jacob's blood sugar dropped down to a manageable level... because it decided to. Dustin, Josh, and Elana came back and we all did end up going downtown and having a great time. But that night, amidst the sticky sweat of an Austin summer evening and the numbing base of European techno, those crucial 50 points of blood sugar taught us all a valuable lesson:
You must dance.
Dance to make yourself happy. Dance to keep yourself sane. And most importantly, you must dance so that you and your friends don't go blind and lose their feet.
3 comments:
Two "friendly" ammendments:
1. Jacob's blood sugar started out at 450 not 770. Big difference but the 50 points was still correct.
2. I wrote loose when i meant to write lose.
Really, the heroism that night was just inspiring.
Ashlee and I would have totally been there dancing...but we were doing it in a hotel bed with japanese condoms and a vibrating ring thingy (cah-razy).
That being said, if someone had given us a call, we would have hopped on a plane blue balls and all and gotten down to texas to save your life.
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