She's a Super Freak!

Tuesday night Neil, Margie Grace and I were having a leisurely meal out at Moe's Southwest Grill after running a few after-work errands when the most bizarre thing happened. If you have ever eaten at Moe's, you are familiar with the wide-range of music that is played throughout the restaurant while you are dining. It is a large part of the eclectic atmosphere of the place. On Tuesday night we heard everything from Elvis to the Beatles to Sinatra (not that wide a range, I know, but trust me on this). During dinner, Margie Grace was seemingly oblivious to all these tunes as she was pretty involved with her chicken quesadilla. However, suddenly as a new song came over the loud speakers, she was overcome with rhythm and began nodding her head to the beat while sitting at our booth. The song continued and her dancing became more and more involved. "What is she doing?" I asked Neil while trying to contain my giggles. "I don't know," he answered. "But I'm not wasting any money on dance lessons. She's already got it down!" "Got down" is exactly what happened; the tot was keeping time to the music, clapping her hands and nodding her head, as if she was front and center on American Bandstand. After a few seconds, I thought it would subside, but she kept going -- at one point even waving to the people in the booth next to us, perhaps trying to entice them in her own little way to get up and follow her lead. She was a toddler possessed . . . possessed by bad 80s funk rock music. Yes, folks, Margie Grace was getting down to the 80s stylings of Mr. Rick James and his perennial hit, "Super Freak." And it was as if she couldn't help herself! In fact, she really didn't even hit her stride until the saxophone solo started. And the whole time she kept giving us this look like "come on people, get up and dance!"

Now we've seen Margie Grace dance lots of times before. I think what made this time so funny for us was her song choice. We don't give it a second thought when she rocks out to the occassional commercial jingle or Playhouse Disney tune but Rick James?!? This was a first. And to top it off, lots of songs had played while we were sitting there but nothing else could motivate Margie Grace to boogie down like Rick James' signature hit. In fact, after that song finished playing and another song came on, she really didn't seem all that interested in dancing anymore. The scene really was hilarious, if not a little bizarre! (And for those of you who have seen the movie "Little Miss Sunshine," you can imagine how much harder Neil and I started laughing when that infamous last scene came to mind.) We have a little entertainer folks, and she's not bashful.