I was dancing at I-Bar tonight and they played the song “Love Train” (by the O’Jays, no less!).  I was catching a breath and watched as an actual ‘Love Train’ of people formed in single file, snaking around the dance floor.

I’ve been on the love train before, and it can be a fun time.  But it’s not without its share of difficulties.  First of all, you have to get on the Love Train.  This takes timing, position, and a little bit of luck.

Timing:  If you’re flying solo, starting a Love Train is pretty much impossible, so you have to wait until another group starts one, and then you have to jump on at the right time…hopefully right behind that hottie*.

In some ways, the Love Train can be really cool.  It can be a bit of an ice-breaker, because it’s a dance that requires physical contact with others, and it’s a group dance (akin to “The Electric Slide”) in which there’s a specifc way everyone dances to it.

Position:  On many dance floors, there tend to be little “pockets” of dancers, usually formed by groups of friends and/or people with similar dance styles.  The Love Train mixes up the dance floor…at the end of a successfully executed Love Train, everyone will be moved around, so you have new groups of people…and some of these people interact, and then, over time, new “pockets” form.    The cool thing is if there was an interesting person that caught your eye from across the floor (*you know the one!), there’s a chance that the Love Train will dump you out dancing right next to them for the next song.  But if you had your timing right, you were already playing caboose with them anyway (See PART 1).

This is another case where it helps to be the conductor of the train.   The downside of being the conductor though, is that you have no one in front of you.  Especially that hottie* from across the floor. But the upside is that you can control exactly where the train stops.  So guess where it’s gonna end?  That’s right, baby…HOTTIE CITY!

But beware of hijackers!  It doesn’t take much to hijack a Love Train.   But I digress….I’ll have to write another whole entry on the Tao of the Love Train Conductor.

A Little Bit of Luck:  The randomness that you can’t control.   This is the cool part of being on the Love Train that you never know where it’s going.  Sometimes they spiral in, around, figure 8…it can be a crazy train…up, down,  spin…no two Love Trains are the same, and you never know which one you’re on until it drops you off.  With a little luck, you’ll have a good time no matter what.  And if your timing was good, and your positioning was planned well, when it drops you off, you’re dancing next to the hottie* from across the room.  And who knows what could happen then?

So I watch as the Love Train forms in front of me on the dance floor, and wonder if I have it in me to climb aboard.  Was the timing right?  Was the positioning right?  Was this a train I was prepared to jump on?  Right here, right now?  Am I feeling lucky?  Where is that hottie, anyway?