(Satire) You know you are getting pretty good when...

1. People around the dance floor follow you with their eyes. Beginners smile, while advanced dancers remain very serious (when you are a beginner advanced dancers smile and beginners remain very serious). Advanced dancers remain serious because they wonder how long it took you to get where you are (maybe you learned faster than they did?) and whether they should start considering dancing with you...

2. Out of town visitors ask you if you are a teacher.

3. Dancing with some people becomes truly unbearable, but you still do it... because you begin to make a distinction between "bliss dances" and "friend dances".

4. Followers will stare you down or pop in front of you with a bright smile during cortinas. Leaders park themselves in front of your table waiting for you to end your conversation...  or pop in front of you with raised eyebrows as soon as you say "thank you" to the previous leader (they don't bother waiting for the music to start...).

5. A few followers will continue to say "no" just to prove to you that you still have a long way to go,  but they will dance with the guy who started three months ago... go figure. A few leaders will ignore you just to prove to you that you are not as good or as hot as you think.... but they will dance with the cutie who took her first class yesterday.  Ah the power trip...!

6. You see a performance and wonder what everybody is getting so excited about.

7. You see a performance and wonder why on earth you thought you could ever dance tango.

8. You prefer to stick with a partner during workshops... possibly because rotating reminds you of the awkwardness of beginner times? Or you hate surprises? Or you may end up dancing with someone you have been ignoring on the dance floor?

9. You stop attending pre-milonga classes... but the organizer still thinks you should.

10. Friends STOP telling  you that "you have been looking good on the dance floor"...

11. By some strange set of circumstances you end up actually performing tango ... in front of people who know nothing about tango.

12. You see Argentine Tango on "Dancing with the Stars" and you laugh your head off.  You hear the "critique"of the judges and wonder if they actually ever saw Argentine Tango, let alone dance it...

13. You are really embarrassed if you have not yet made the obligatory trip to Argentina.

14.  In some small milongas (outside SF)  you and your partner are actually the "star guests".

15.  You feel compelled to write about your tango experiences in blogs...