| 1979
September |
Madame
X makes her appearance |
| 1979
September |
The
dangerous Meyerland
Club Gamble - Joanne returns to help Rick learn C&W
Dancing |
| 1979
October |
Risky
Business - I involve Madame X in a dangerous Gamble |
|
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Chapter Five:
October 1979 -
Cindy's Infamous U-Turn |
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Due to my aggressive actions, Cindy's panic
had brought her to my
doorstep in a state of near-desperation.
Cindy had taken an enormous risk. Now that she was
here in my living room, a
divorce seemed likely. Who knows what kind of mood her husband was
in. Her whole world could quite possibly come
crumbling down.
Cindy had finally made a commitment to me. The other woman had not.
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I wasn't sure I was happy about this, but I
agreed to let her stay because Cindy had finally shown some guts. Cindy had a lot more to
lose than I did, but here she was.
For me to jump off the train ride now would be
unfair to Cindy.
I owed her this much.
So with a fatalistic shrug, I told her she was
welcome to stay.
Cindy officially became the first woman I ever lived with... for six
whole days.
That
week I learned a lesson I will never
forget as long as I live.
The bond between a mother and a
child is unfathomably powerful.
This was another one of those lessons I learned "after I lost my hair".
Cindy began to miss her daughter from
the moment she walked through my door. Her pain over leaving
her daughter doomed our impromptu living experiment from Day
One. Cindy constantly was leaving to to be back with
her child. Furthermore,
she refused to bring the girl here. I quickly figured
out that until the daughter put one foot in my house, this
relationship had no chance that it would never work.
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You would think any
fool would know this, but not me. I had come from a broken home. My
father basically left when I was nine and my mother was usually preoccupied
with her own problems. Consequently I had little insight into the inner workings of a
good mother. And yes, for all her shortcomings, Cindy was a dedicated,
deeply conscientious mother who loved her child dearly.
The first morning of our new relationship got off to an ominous start.
When Cindy awoke the morning after her 'Leap of Faith', she was immediately rendered
numb and senseless with guilt.
There was no cuddling with me. There were no good-morning smiles. In
fact, I didn't exist. All Cindy could say was, "What have I
done? What have I done to my child?"
Cindy was absolutely forlorn over leaving her
six year old. She quickly got dressed, and then raced out of my house to
go home and take care of her child while her husband went to work.
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THE BIGGEST
MISTAKE OF MY LIFE
As she drove away, I stood there speechless.
Cindy hadn't really moved out of her house. She just came over to spend
the night. How the hell did I let her fool me like this?
Now I was
sick with disgust over Cindy's bull-headed move and
stricken with fear about how this would turn out.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized how badly my
Gamble the day before had back-fired.
I was filled with regret at my own
stupidity.
If I had just called her bluff and told her the Blackmail
Stuff was over, the Gamble might have worked. Why did I add
Madame X into the mix? That was dumb too.
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On the
other hand, I didn't have a great hand to play. I pushed up
my time table because I was scared to death of losing Madame
X. Cindy's panic served as an example of what happens when
you start betting with scared money.
Her car turned the corner. She was out of sight. Now
my self-loathing came flooding in. "Marry in haste,
repent at leisure." Hmm.
In the movie Risky Business all the Gambles
worked. In Real Life, obviously sometimes they don't.
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AS THE WORLD TURNS
Each morning for the next several
days, Cindy would drive back to her
home, meet her husband at the door as he went to work, spend the day
with the child, cry a lot, wait for her husband to come home to take
over kid duties, go to the studio at night, then come back to
my house to cry all night long, drive me crazy, sleep an hour or two,
then get up in the morning and start this fiasco over again. Are we
having fun yet?
Although I was flabbergasted at how utterly powerless I was to put an
end to this nonsense, I did manage to
make a couple of observations.
Cindy and her husband worked like a Swiss Watch in their carefully
orchestrated dance to take care of their daughter. The precision with
which she showed up on time and he showed up on time to hand of the
forlorn kid to the next shift was a marvelous display of teamwork and
cooperation.
When you factor in that both people had to be in deep pain,
this precision becomes even more impressive. They were both deeply
responsible, committed parents.
My other observation was that even though I was theoretically a key
player in this Greek Tragedy, I sometimes wondered if I was really the
pawn in a gigantic domestic power struggle. I clearly wasn't trying to
break up their marriage, but I was now certain to be the Fall Guy in
this Passion Play.
I saw
myself as the patsy, but I have no doubt if husband or wife were to do
the rewrite, I would certainly be cast as the villain. Each day I asked
myself over and over how did I ever get myself
into this mess??
Mercifully, Cindy's "Leap of Faith" didn't last very long. This charade
ended after one week. As she rose on the sixth morning, Cindy began to
pack. When I asked what this meant, Cindy announced she was moving back home.
I tried my best to look sorry, but the truth was I overjoyed.
I do not recall experiencing any joy that entire
week. Cindy cried practically the entire time she was there. This
experiment had been non-stop SHEER MISERY!
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Later that morning,
Cindy called me. She said that yesterday she had consulted an attorney
regarding how to protect herself in case of the divorce threat.
Now she was worried about losing custody of her child and with
good reason. The attorney said she stood vulnerable to an accusation of
"abandonment" unless she went home.
The moment she heard that, Cindy decided she would have to move home
for good the next day.
At this revelation, I shrugged my shoulders. This whole mess
seem to revolve around her daughter. In the year I had
known Cindy, she had made no attempt to involve me in her
daughter's world. And during her six-day stay, there was
no mention of fixing up a room in my house for her daughter.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized Cindy's
decision to show up on my doorstep was impulsive. Why
didn't she think about her child in the first place?
Now I began
to speculate what would come next. Did I dare hope my
liberation was at hand?
I assumed Cindy would
continue to cry her head off and beg her husband for
forgiveness. She would crawl back into her security
nest and try to restore her Sunshine Life. Of course her husband in turn would banish Cindy from the studio.
That would free me up to rush into the arms of Madame X!
We would rekindle the spark that had burned so brightly at the
start. Perhaps we would get engaged and take a romantic
trip across the seas.
AND WE WOULD ALL LIVE
HAPPILY EVER AFTER!
Yeah, maybe in the movies. But not in my life.
Events swiftly took a dark turn.
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To my unimaginable shock, once
Cindy returned home, she actually got strong again!
In my opinion, that house of hers strengthened her
like Count Dracula's castle. The woman seemed to
have dark magic to call on.
After Cindy moved home, she
quickly reverted to the Blackmail Monster.
Quickly Cindy threw me not one, but two major curveballs.
First she said that just because she had moved back home, I was still
officially her boyfriend. Where she lived didn't
matter - I was hers and she was mine. I pointed out the
little technicality that
her husband was still there. That's when she threw a
little surprise at me - at her insistence, her husband had begun
to look for his own apartment.
Cindy informed me that she had taken the
greatest risk of her life, she had done it for me, and for me to
desert her at this point would prove to the entire world that my
promises had been hollow and empty.
This meant Madame X would
have to go.
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Second, the lawyer had
informed her that in his opinion, she had a strong case
against me for wrongful termination if I tried to get rid of
her. In fact, Cindy had been told she would be entitled to receive a
share of my business or at least compensation for her many
contributions... FIRST she would collect her money and then go ahead and
ruin me for good measure.
She looked me in the
eye. She told me in no uncertain terms that she was planning to stick around.
This was her dance studio too and, based on the brief
week we spent together, I was officially her boyfriend.
In essence, I was stuck with her now whether I liked it or not.
Those weren't the exact words that Cindy used, but the chains felt real
nonetheless.
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For starters, I was stunned
by Cindy's supernatural will. For an entire week, I
had watched this once proud woman reduced to a never-ending bucket of
tears. She moaned continually how she had made the mistake
of a lifetime and ruined her wonderful marriage. She
had about as much strength as a boxer laying on the mat
after a knockout punch.
But now, just like in the movies, she had miraculously
regained all her power! She had risen from the Undead! I had to admit Cindy's otherworldly strength had definitely caught me
completely off guard. This time I did not open my big mouth.
I just listened to what she had to say.
After our talk,
I was ready for a fight, her
new strength notwithstanding. I did not appreciate being
dictated to by a woman I was positive I did not love. I was prepared to stand up to her.
I had been thinking about Cindy's Blackmail. Now that
she had pulled her U-Turn, her position had weakened
significantly.
I believed I had a fighting chance to win the PR war.
After all, hadn't I given Cindy the chance she asked for?
Didn't Cindy
beg to be let in the door? Didn't I let her in the
door? And didn't she move right back out of my house of her own free will
six days later?
In essence, Cindy turned her back on me. That gave me a
huge edge in any he said/she said battle that might arise.
AND WHAT DID MADAME X THINK?
That night I visited Madame X to see where she
stood.
During Cindy
Flipflop's
one-week stay at my house in October 1979, I was in
constant communication with Madame X. We
talked nearly every day.
I
tried to explain that the experiment was certain to
fail. It had been a fiasco from the start.
But my explanations failed to calm
Madame X's fears and
disappointment.
She was completely and totally traumatized.
Furthermore she didn't like sharing me with Cindy
one bit.
Madame X kept telling me that I should be with
Cindy, that Cindy needed me. She never said
this, but I
think she was angry at me for letting Cindy move in. It
seemed whenever Cindy snapped her fingers, I would
obey.
Furthermore, like Susie had said earlier this year,
Madame X was growing skeptical I would ever have the
strength to get rid of this woman.
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That's is when
I told Madame X I agreed with her. I felt completely
deceived and manipulated. The more I analyzed
Cindy's doorstep move, the more I realized it didn't
have a snowball's chance of working because Cindy
had absolutely no plan for her daughter's
well-being.
Cindy's selfish move hurt me, hurt her husband, and
hurt her daughter. What was she thinking?
But I had kept my end of the bargain - I had said I
would never have an affair with her behind her
husband's back, but if she would leave her husband,
then I would be there for her. It was not my
fault Cindy moved home, but when she did, her
actions released me from my obligation to her. And I
was pretty sure I could communicate this point of
view to the students at the studio if Cindy went
scorched earth on me.
Now I asked Madame X to forgive me. If she would
stand by me through whatever turmoil Cindy stirred
up, then I would do everything in my power to move
my life in a direction away from Cindy.
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That is when Madame X pulled the rug out from under my feet.
Madame X was clearly unhappy. She told me
she was deeply traumatized by the utter
insanity of my day-to-day life. She believed that even if I stood up to
Cindy, this woman would make my life miserable for a long
time.
"What's next, Rick? Do you have any clue what
Cindy will do? She is unpredictable and dangerous.
There is no way you can have a public fight with Cindy
and expect your studio not to be damaged."
Madame X wanted
STABILITY in her life, not this insane volatility known as Cindy
Flipflop that followed
me everywhere.
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Madame
X was an accountant. You don't become an accountant if you don't appreciate an
ordered world. Madame X did not enjoy being out of control
in the slightest. (Nor did I, but in 1979, my life was always
out of control whether I liked it or not).
Confronted with this reality, Madame X chose to retreat to the
safety of her ordered world. For one thing, she knew that Cindy
now considered me to be her boyfriend. She was worried that a
confrontation between her and Cindy was inevitable if she
stayed in my life. Madame X knew what had happened to
Susie and Joanne. Consequently she dreaded having to
go face to face with the notorious dragon slayer!
Now
Madame X brought up another point. Before the U-Turn, I was single and available. Now in Madame X's
eyes, I belonged to another woman. She had no desire to share
me. I pointed out the obvious
inconsistency in her code of honor. After all, she had
been quite willing to be my lover and be engaged simultaneously.
Madame X said she had to follow her feelings. She said
in her heart, she "felt" like I belonged to Cindy now, not
to her. Previously she felt like I belonged to her.
It hurt like hell to let that witch have me for that week.
And she had no guarantee it wouldn't happen again. She wanted to back off.
A memory crossed my mind. I remembered how furious I had
been when Susie decided to fly to LA to see if she could
rekindle any flames with her old boyfriend George.
What I had done with Cindy was a hell of a lot worse than
that. Madame X had every right to be furious with me.
Confronted by Madame X's attack of cold feet, I was fit to be
tied. I had been ready to fight Cindy for my studio and for this
woman I cared about. All I needed was some encouragement.
I swear - Just one sign of encouragement from Madame X and I would have risked
standing up to Cindy. But she would not give it to me.
I looked at her carefully. Here was a woman who was fearless
when performing risky acrobatics, but had zero guts when it
came to fighting for what was right.
The other possibility was she didn't care about me as much
as I thought she had. More likely though she was just too
hurt to want to try again, at least not right now.
Either way, without any encouragement, what was the point of
going up against Cindy alone?
I did not see the point of
jeopardizing my relationship with Cindy and putting my studio at risk if
this woman would not stand by me.
I told Madame X it was time for me to go. She nodded
her agreement.
As I walked down those stairs, I have never felt more
depressed in my life. I was losing a woman I thought I loved
for a another woman who spent most of her time manipulating
me. But what choice did I have?
I resigned myself to my fate. From this point on, I
assumed the role of being Cindy's sometime boyfriend.
Of course
I was very distraught. But I had Urban Cowboy
looming over my shoulder as well. I had just begun
the Meyerland Club class and I was struggling to learn
how to Western dance. Plus the phone was
starting to ring with other people inquiring about Western
classes.
I couldn't fight two battles at once.
Therefore the demands of my brand new Western classes at the
Meyerland Club forced me to accept Madame X's decision.
I turned all my attention to the task of learning how to
Twostep.
Maybe with time Madame X would regain her courage...
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During November, I continue to plead with the woman to
change her mind. Madame X stuck to her guns. "You
belong to Cindy now."
Despite her stubbornness, I interpreted it as a good sign
that she was talking to me. I was still in the game.
I pointed out to her that Cindy and her husband were living
together under the same roof. I was SINGLE.
Cindy was MARRIED. I had every moral right to pursue
Madame X if I wanted to, especially since the week with
Cindy proved loud and clear that we were useless as lovers.
I was persuasive. I can see this position was working.
Madame X began to soften up. Maybe we did have a
chance.
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We even had a night where we cuddled on her couch and
watched TV. We came this close to... you know what I
mean. Anyhow, when I left her apartment that night I
felt much better. I was certain we could patch this up.
The next day Cindy phoned me to say her husband had moved
out of the house. Oh shit. The timing could not have
been worse.
The moment Madame X heard this turn of events, I was back in
the dog house. Madame X interpreted this move as proof
that Cindy was committed to a relationship with me. She
pointed out it
took a lot of guts for Cindy to sever ties with her husband
like that. Therefore Madame X refused to renew our
relationship until she was certain that I was telling the
truth that my relationship with Cindy was hopeless.
She added that no matter how many times I told her it was
hopeless, it certainly didn't look like Cindy agreed it was hopeless.
In other words, Madame X didn't trust me. She thought
there was a good chance she was getting two-timed. Was
I trying to deceive her? And she was hurt too.
Madame X had been blindsided by the U-Turn situation.
She was determined not to let herself get burned like that
again.
I cursed my lousy luck. I was furious. Madame X
had come 'this close' to changing her mind, but now we were
right back where we started at U-Turn Week.
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I wasn't ready to give up. I kept in touch with Madame X hoping for an opening.
Sure enough, pretty soon an interesting opportunity
presented itself. In early December 1979 a friend
of mine named Larry invited me to go skiing with him. He
told me he had a big condo and to bring a friend.
I called Madame X at work and asked her to come with me.
She was astonished. "You mean you are ready to stand up to Cindy?" she asked.
"I was ready to stand up to Cindy in October,
but you wouldn't back me. Since then, my relationship with Cindy
has been mostly business. The romance
stuff is not working."
Then I added,
"I am willing to take the chance if you are. Please go with me."
Madame X thought
it over for several days. Finally she decided
it was too risky. There was no way she could go without
her fiancé catching on that something was amiss. She would likely have to break up with
her fiancé to go with me and she wasn't ready to do that.
In my
heart I knew she had been very close to accepting. It was another
near-miss.
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Early
in January, Madame X called me.
I immediately didn't like the sound of her voice.
She told me that over Christmas, she
had spent time with her occasional fiancé. They had
decided to renew their commitment to each other.
She
decided the only way her new commitment would work would be for
her to move to Austin, her fiancé's city. In fact,
Madame X already had a
job lined up. She would be leaving Houston soon.
Ms. X had more to say. She said one of the reasons she
was moving was the constant heartache that would not go
away. It was just too
painful watching Cindy have me when deep in her heart she still
felt like I belonged to her.
She confided that she believed me when I told her I would
fight for her all along, but she also believed a fight would
be messy and painful. She hated herself every day
because she was too afraid to take such a big chance.
Then she said she had come to believe that I was just too dangerous a
man for her. She was immediately attracted to me
because I led such an interesting life, but once she got a
closer look, she became worried about how well she would fit into my
dance career. She wasn't anywhere near the extrovert
that Cindy was.
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And
maybe I was just a little too flashy for a quiet girl
like her. She questioned if she could remain
secure with all those women around. If it wasn't
Cindy, who would it be? Even
without Cindy in the picture, she had reservations
whether
she was the right girl for me.
But most of all, she was convinced Cindy would sabotage
any chance we had of happiness. Madame X had always been terrified of
a confrontation with the Lethal Woman. She feared Cindy
would tear her to pieces with accusations and lies.
Always the accountant, she had estimated the odds that
it would work out as less than 33%. Furthermore
she had a nice, dependable, salt of the earth kind of
guy who wanted to marry her and raise kids. He
might be kind of boring, but then maybe so was she.
Madame X pegged the chances of that relationship working at
67%.
She could stay in Houston and fight for me or she could
flee to Austin and try to forget her heartache.
She decided it was safer to go for the sure thing.
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I was
stunned for words. Her decision sounded so final, I don't remember
putting up much of a fight. I didn't say much more
than I wished she wouldn't go and to please give me another chance.
The U-Turn Week spent with Cindy had doomed my
romance with Madame X.
Our relationship was chopped down in its infancy.
I guess our love
was too new and too vulnerable to withstand Cindy's
determination to get whatever she wanted without regard to
the damage she inflicted along the way.
By February,
Madame X was
gone.
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You have heard of the proverb, "Faint heart never won
fair lady". How about "Faint
heart never won the great guy"?
With just a little courage
on this woman's part and I would have stood up to Cindy. But I would
not take on this formidable woman without a reason.
One woman
led with her heart and one woman led with her logic. I
also led with my logic. Madame X simply did not know me
very well. She was so blinded by fear and insecurity she
ran from a man who was actually a perfect match. What a
tough break. To this day, I still wonder what could have been.
It really hurt to see her go.
I was absolutely devastated. In fact, I cried for days.
There had been too many problems too soon. I was
heartbroken.
Sorry to say, I don't know
what became of Madame X. She was a good woman. I hope she
is happy wherever she is. Sometimes I wonder what she would
think if she ever read this story. The Road Not Taken....
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1980: PICKING UP THE PIECES
Once Madame X exited Stage Right, Cindy was the only
woman left standing. She had vanquished three lovers.
Theoretically to the Victor go the
Spoils.
However now that Cindy had my absolute
undivided attention, she couldn't have cared less!
No serious romance ever
came close to developing between us. Affection yes,
romance no.
We became boyfriend
and girlfriend in eyes of the public, but it was
superficial at best. There were moments of real
warmth, but those moments did not occur very often.
Cindy never won my heart.
For one thing, it is hard to capture someone's love
when you keep a sword under their chin. Cindy kept
her Blackmail Threats hidden somewhere in the
background, but I always knew she knew where to find
them.
I
was fond of her to be sure, but I never believed that this relationship would lead anywhere. I
could sense she had never stopped loving her husband.
And since I never saw her daughter once after the
U-Turn, I could read the writing on the wall. So I
kept my heart tucked away in a safe place.
As I mentioned, Cindy's husband moved out fairly
soon after Cindy moved back in. Now in his own
apartment, he started dating and soon had a girlfriend.
This development caused Cindy to undergo a surprising
metamorphosis. She actively began to find a way to get
her husband back!
All I could do was shake my head at the sheer folly of
this latest chapter. I remember a note I scribbled
down about this time: "Hey Ho, Go with the Flow.
Jump in the river and see where you go."
Obviously I didn't see myself being in control of my
own destiny.
It used to be "What Cindy Wants, Cindy Gets."
I decided to amend that to "Whatever Cindy Has, She
doesn't Want, but Whatever Cindy Doesn't Have, Cindy
Wants."
Urban Cowboy
was released in July 1980. The city entered a
western lifestyle frenzy, so
I
stayed very busy.
In my post-U-Turn relationship with Cindy, my notes reflect one
overriding theme - she and I functioned almost
exclusively as business partners. I wrote several
letters to her during this time period and not one
of them even mentioned our relationship.
Throughout 1979, we had worked side by side. But
early in 1980 this
relationship began to change. Cindy, till now
always front and center at the studio, increasingly lost interest in
the limelight.
Her constant pain forced her into therapy. Now Cindy started a campaign to
learn more about herself. Eventually she also set herself out to win back her husband
(1981).
As her interest in the studio rapidly dwindled, she
did little more than show up for classes and teach.
All I could do was shake my head. After all that struggle and all those threats, she
basically retreated back to becoming little more
than a part-time teacher for me!
As time went by, she began losing interest in the job.
Cindy began her gradual decline as a
force at the studio. She no longer worked at
improving her dancing, she really didn't care that
much for western dancing and hoopla that went with
it, she begged off coming to events, and even began
to cancel private lessons when she wasn't in the
mood.
In 1979, Cindy was just as important to the studio
as I was. In 1980, she started to back away.
By 1981,
Cindy taught a few classes and kept a
very low profile. At this point, I ran the studio by
myself.
So much for my "Life Partner Working Side by Side to
Create a Dance Empire".
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However I wasn't bitter about her decision to
retreat to the background. Why should I be
bitter?
By 1981, my studio was fabulously successful!!
Let's give the
woman her due. Cindy deserved a ton of
credit for getting me to this spot. She
possessed that marvelous intangible known as
"popularity". People loved being around
her. Cindy used her charm to persuade one
person after another to get more involved in the
dance classes and to come to the parties.
The beehive was buzzing whenever the Queen Bee
was around and Cindy was the Queen Bee.
Meanwhile my only skill was a knack for teaching
classes. I did not possess her charisma in the
least. I was shy, I hated hawking my own classes
and most of all I hated the schmoozing and small
talk that came so naturally to Cindy.
But you know what? I watched carefully and learned
how it was done.
Once Cindy began her disappearing act in 1980, I
was ready to step up. Cindy was like a booster
rocket that shoots you into outer space, then
burns out and drops off.
Now it was my
turn.
I took over the reins
as the undisputed leader of my program.
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During her soul-searching period, Cindy slowly
withdrew from the studio. However, let me be clear
Cindy didn't desert me or leave me hanging.
Any time
I
needed her, Cindy was there. For all our misery, we were
always friends. And friends look out for each other.
For example, in July 1980 Cindy
really came to my rescue. Just as
Urban Cowboy
was being released, I had to miss the movie's debut because I was in the hospital. I had acquired a bizarre throat infection
from a tooth extraction because the dentist had
forgotten to prescribe penicillin afterwards. What a
stupid mistake! All that infection drained
right into my lymph gland system. My throat got infected and
puffed up like a balloon. I had to go into surgery
to have it drained. And the first set of
antibiotics didn't get the job done. Fortunately the
second set did the trick. It took two weeks to
get back on my feet.
Fortunately Cindy covered all my classes. She was always
so marvelous
on the business side. I believe if we could have sidestepped the
romance, we could have been an unbeatable business team.
But Cindy wouldn't listen to me. She was always
convinced that she was in love with me. I was ready
to give it a try when Susie left in July 1979, but
Cindy's cold feet gave me the chills. Typical
Cindy - I was only attractive when I wasn't
available. Fed up with her flip-flops, I backed off of Cindy and brought Madame X into
the picture. And we all know how that turned
out.
Once Cindy showed up on my doorstep, it was too
late.
The passion of the
spring was long gone.
Now in October we were both too depressed for any
sparks to fly.
Cindy was out
of control. She forced the issue simply
because I was unavailable again.
During the U-Turn
we made a morbid discovery - we did not do well as lovers.
That phase of our relationship fizzled out like a
defective firecracker. Cindy was just as aware of
this as I was. Who knows? Maybe that's
another reason she moved back home.
In the coming months after the U-Turn, we went back
to what we were good at - being friends and business
partners. However, this would work only if I promised
not to pursue other women. Even though her
eyes began to drift back towards her husband and
even though we did click romantically, Cindy was
determined to keep her shackles on me.
I accepted these terms because I had seen first-hand
with Madame X what would happen if I defied her
again.
So
I entered a period of Limbo while Cindy sorted out her life. This
odd state of near-celibacy gave me the luxury of no
more women problems for two years. It was just
as well - after 1979, I definitely needed to catch my breath.
Instead I
settled back into my catbird seat
and watched the
psychodynamics of Cindy and her Husband as they danced the
Sadomasochistic Tango. Oh how they loved to
torture one another...
|
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THE BEAUTIFUL COUPLE
After the U-Turn, Cindy moved back
to her home. Her husband
soon moved out. At first Cindy claimed that she had thrown
him out, but as time passed I realized he was too
disgusted for words and had left of his own free will.
1980 was mostly about the two of them punishing each
other. Her husband was furious and I can't blame him.
There was a lot of blame thrown around. This was a very unhappy year.
Cindy mentioned that her husband was weak. Maybe he was.
He had been trying to appease her to save the marriage,
but her U-Turn stunt put an end to that. From
this point, he began to stand up to her.
Amazingly, once
he developed a backbone, she was soon attracted to him
again.
I honestly think if he had stood up to her long
ago, this whole thing would never have happened. But
then who am I to lecture him about standing up to
Cindy??
Cindy was scared to death of losing him and
losing me. She wanted to keep us both. Confused and
unable to decide which way to turn, Cindy was unhappy
and filled with guilt most of the time. This was a very difficult
time for her.
|
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|
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COMPLETE RISKY BUSINESS/URBAN COWBOY TIMELINE |
|
1978
August |
Rick
meets Cindy at JCC |
|
1978
September |
Joanne
arrives at Stevens of Hollywood |
|
1978
October |
Rick meets Susie at
Stevens;
Cindy organizes her first of many dance classes at Stevens |
|
1978 December
|
Cindy
organizes Pistachio I, a Disco party for 300 people at the Pistachio Club. |
| 1979
January |
Cindy
is upset when she notices Joanne has a crush on me. |
| 1979
March |
Cindy's first month as a
Disco dance teacher. |
| 1979
March 11 |
Pistachio
II. Joanne's crush
on Rick gets her the "evil eye" from both Cindy AND Susie |
|
1979 March |
Joanne decides to spend
less time with the Disco crowd and starts to learn C&W dancing |
|
1979 April |
Rick teaches Disco
lessons at the Meyerland Club (which led to Western lessons in
September) |
|
1979 April |
The Rubaiyat closes, then reopens as the Bullwhip. Other Discos
across the city start to go Country |
|
1979 April |
Cindy and Rick begin taking private dance
lessons together |
|
1979 May |
Susie goes
nuts and calls Cindy's husband; Cindy and Rick make an Agreement |
|
1979 June |
Joanne gets razzed for going country,
then completely quits the studio to join her "Country Club" |
|
1979 June |
I visit Joanne's Country
Club. Totally disgusted by what I see, my resistance to C&W
dancing grows |
|
1979 July |
Susie and Rick break up |
| 1979
August |
Cindy
gets cold feet |
| 1979
September |
Madame
X makes her appearance |
| 1979
September |
The
dangerous Meyerland
Club Gamble - Joanne returns to help Rick learn C&W
Dancing |
| 1979
October |
Risky
Business - I involve Madame X in a dangerous Gamble |
| 1979
October |
Cindy's
infamous U-Turn |
|
1979 November |
Cindy begins the two and a half year Limbo
Period as she struggles to chose between two men |
|
1979 November |
Rick teaches his first Country dance class
at Stevens |
|
1979 December |
Rick's Stevens class corners him after
class and forces him to go Western Dancing for the first time |
|
1980 January |
First Class Factory Western class appears |
|
1980 February |
Madame X tells Rick goodbye and leaves town
for good |
|
1980
April |
First TGIS Class |
|
1980
July |
Urban
Cowboy movie debut in Houston; Rick has throat
surgery |
|
1980 September |
Lance Stevens and Rick
have angry confrontation, Rick is told to look for another
studio |
|
1980
October 20 |
Rick
and Cindy move out to begin teaching
their dance classes at Dance Arts |
|
1980
November |
Rick starts
teaching Western Classes for Leisure Learning and learns the
secret of
Western Swing |
| 1981 |
The Winchester Club Era
- I begin to forge an identity apart from Cindy |
| 1982
May |
Cindy
leaves the studio for good |
|