my vacation in summary
Jul. 11th, 2005 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alonewiththemoonVacation is over, now I'm back at work. I think I was about ready for my vacation to end, though, between being super broke and the return of the heat. So, what I did:
Monday the Fourth: waited at home for M to return from his sojourn amongst the hippies in Vermont. He returned and there was much rejoicing. Went out to Ceremony, where attendance was very low at the beginning of the night--guess everybody was out at the fireworks, or caught in traffic--but that meant that I could occasionally have the entire dance floor to myself. Since I had't gotten in any rehearsal time earlier in the day, I just plain bellydanced, no two ways about it, and DJ Gryffin obliged with appropriate music.
Tuesday the Fifth: We went up to Salem for the afternoon. We went to the Spellbound Museum, which is the biggest ripoff I've been to in a long time. Imagine that our apartment was filled with little cards explaining what the different decorations meant. Now imagine that we charged you $10 to come into our apartment and look at our stuff. That was about the size of it. I think we're going to complain to the Better Business Bureau of Salem. After that, we went to the New England Pirate Museum which was a lot of fun and educational to boot. I'm guessing our tour guide was a drama major on his summer break, since he did such a good job with the pirate-y storytelling. The museum consisted basically of lots of dioramas of pirate stuff, but they were carefully crafted and as I said, it was genuinely educational. I had no idea so many famous pirates were from around here. Then, dinner at Finz, asian-caribbean-fusiony seafood done very well. I'd certainly recommend it. After dinner, we met up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mvoid and greendramaqueen and the wolfen for some drinks and hanging out.
Wednesday the Sixth: Slept very late, and then went to the DeCordova for their annual exhibit of New England artists. I especially liked the work of Lalla A. Essayadi and Sally Moore. Some of the other stuff was clever, some of the other stuff was a bit dull. I think it's worth going to the exhibit for the two artists I liked. Later that night I went to a Sarab rehearsal, where we talked about some business stuff and got in some actual rehearsal. Our troupe is going to enter the troupe category of Johara's annual contest in November. I am debating whether to enter as a soloist or not, but that's another journal post for another day. I am pleased by the troupe entry, though.
Thursday the Seventh: We went down the Cape to the Edward Gorey House, which we have made a habit of visiting at least once a year. It is not a huge museum, as it is in fact the house he lived in, but it gives one such a warm feeling of Goreyness. The current exhibit is about the Gashleycrumb Tinies, which is not only interesting for itself but also because scattered around the house are various references to the ways the children are done in, so there's a scavenger hunt appeal. We had some non-descript seafood for lunch, and as we were looking for Bass Hole Beach (yes, we picked it totally for the name, but it is actually a nice area with a boardwalk out over the salt marshes) we passed a building labelled "Zooquarium." Naturally, we stopped and went in. It was a nice little facility with indoor tanks featuring mostly local and native fish, reptiles, amphibians, and animals, and then an outdoor zoo/farm featuring local wildlife and archaic breeds of farm animals. There were no shaggy Scottish cattle, but there was a black Irish cow that looked like she could have stepped straight out of the Book of Kells, along with assorted sheep, llamas and goats. A strange goose with a red face followed us begging for food, and when I didn't give it any it reached out and punched me with its beak. I'm not kidding. We also saw a great sea lion show. It didn't seem to me that the sea lions had a huge place to live, but there was a back area that we couldn't see, and they did seem to be whole heartedly participating in the performance. There was a little girl running around feeding all the animals who reminded me of myself as a child, so I was happy that she was one of the kids selected to get a kiss from the sea lion. After that, we thought about eating dinner down the Cape, but despite consulting Zagat we weren't sure where to get a nice meal, so we drove back to Boston and went to Cuchi Cuchi instead. I am in love with the strawberry basil "martini." I must figure out how to manufacture this drink.
Friday the Eighth: Slept late, danced in the afternoon, then went to see March of the Penguins withbrigid and plankton. It was a pretty amazing movie. I think I choose to believe in the anthropomorphized view of penguins presented in the film. Nothing else could really explain them. Also, baby penguins are among the cutest things on the planet, especially after being fed.
Saturday the Ninth: Got up way too early to go to Chelmsford, where Seven Sunless Days were playing in a sea of testosterone-driven metal-ish nouveau punk. The other bands were pretty painful, but I had my earplugs, so if nothing else at least I didn't lose any hearing to them (they weren't untalented, just not remotely my cup of tea)(though I was made a little nostalgic for the days of yore, all ages afternoon shows, watching your friends up on stage). We were all a bit worried about how SSD would be received, but the crowd responded really well. They sold a couple of cds and added a bunch more names to the mailing list, so in the end it was entirely worth it. M and I were pretty much toast for the rest of the day, so I watched Immortal while he fell asleep on the couch. Clearly it is not a movie to watch while exhausted, but I do recommend it. The CGI is a little uneven, but the main characters are well done and the story is interesting and surprisingly emotionally complex. Later I watched the IFC documentary Punk: An Attitude, which provided a good palate cleanser after the show earlier in the day. It's well worth seeing, though it annoyed me by not including the Pogues and by saying that nothing at all happened in the 1980s (Birthday Party? Neubauten? Sonic Youth?).
Sunday the Tenth: Slept late, went to my first real yoga class at the Arlington Center. There is a big difference between doing a 45 minute yoga dvd by yourself and an hour and a half class with an instructor. I kept up pretty well though, and got a lot out of the class, so I'll keep going back. The teacher's main influence is Anusara, which puts an emphasis on the heart both in spiritual and physical terms. I like thinking about positioning based on where my heart is--somehow it's easier to envision putting the lump of muscle inside of me in a particular place than it sometimes is to imagine moving your whole torso. Maybe it's just that I'm used to thinking in terms of isolation, but anyway it works for me. She also does some Vinyasa flow stuff, which the dancer in me enjoys. Today I am a little--not exactly sore, but feeling that I hit my limits yesterday, in a good way. Guess that would be the point, wouldn't it. I think I will be able to go to class before my performance at the Middle East next Sunday. I stopped by the convenience store on my way home for bread, and the Indian man who owns the store, noting my yoga mat, remarked that yoga was certainly very popular these days. I smiled at him and said yes, for good reason. Happy cultural exchange moment.
Which brings me back to the beginning of my post, where I remark that I am back at work. And I really ought to do some work, but I had to let the vacation go first, I think. So back to it...
Monday the Fourth: waited at home for M to return from his sojourn amongst the hippies in Vermont. He returned and there was much rejoicing. Went out to Ceremony, where attendance was very low at the beginning of the night--guess everybody was out at the fireworks, or caught in traffic--but that meant that I could occasionally have the entire dance floor to myself. Since I had't gotten in any rehearsal time earlier in the day, I just plain bellydanced, no two ways about it, and DJ Gryffin obliged with appropriate music.
Tuesday the Fifth: We went up to Salem for the afternoon. We went to the Spellbound Museum, which is the biggest ripoff I've been to in a long time. Imagine that our apartment was filled with little cards explaining what the different decorations meant. Now imagine that we charged you $10 to come into our apartment and look at our stuff. That was about the size of it. I think we're going to complain to the Better Business Bureau of Salem. After that, we went to the New England Pirate Museum which was a lot of fun and educational to boot. I'm guessing our tour guide was a drama major on his summer break, since he did such a good job with the pirate-y storytelling. The museum consisted basically of lots of dioramas of pirate stuff, but they were carefully crafted and as I said, it was genuinely educational. I had no idea so many famous pirates were from around here. Then, dinner at Finz, asian-caribbean-fusiony seafood done very well. I'd certainly recommend it. After dinner, we met up with
mvoid and greendramaqueen and the wolfen for some drinks and hanging out.Wednesday the Sixth: Slept very late, and then went to the DeCordova for their annual exhibit of New England artists. I especially liked the work of Lalla A. Essayadi and Sally Moore. Some of the other stuff was clever, some of the other stuff was a bit dull. I think it's worth going to the exhibit for the two artists I liked. Later that night I went to a Sarab rehearsal, where we talked about some business stuff and got in some actual rehearsal. Our troupe is going to enter the troupe category of Johara's annual contest in November. I am debating whether to enter as a soloist or not, but that's another journal post for another day. I am pleased by the troupe entry, though.
Thursday the Seventh: We went down the Cape to the Edward Gorey House, which we have made a habit of visiting at least once a year. It is not a huge museum, as it is in fact the house he lived in, but it gives one such a warm feeling of Goreyness. The current exhibit is about the Gashleycrumb Tinies, which is not only interesting for itself but also because scattered around the house are various references to the ways the children are done in, so there's a scavenger hunt appeal. We had some non-descript seafood for lunch, and as we were looking for Bass Hole Beach (yes, we picked it totally for the name, but it is actually a nice area with a boardwalk out over the salt marshes) we passed a building labelled "Zooquarium." Naturally, we stopped and went in. It was a nice little facility with indoor tanks featuring mostly local and native fish, reptiles, amphibians, and animals, and then an outdoor zoo/farm featuring local wildlife and archaic breeds of farm animals. There were no shaggy Scottish cattle, but there was a black Irish cow that looked like she could have stepped straight out of the Book of Kells, along with assorted sheep, llamas and goats. A strange goose with a red face followed us begging for food, and when I didn't give it any it reached out and punched me with its beak. I'm not kidding. We also saw a great sea lion show. It didn't seem to me that the sea lions had a huge place to live, but there was a back area that we couldn't see, and they did seem to be whole heartedly participating in the performance. There was a little girl running around feeding all the animals who reminded me of myself as a child, so I was happy that she was one of the kids selected to get a kiss from the sea lion. After that, we thought about eating dinner down the Cape, but despite consulting Zagat we weren't sure where to get a nice meal, so we drove back to Boston and went to Cuchi Cuchi instead. I am in love with the strawberry basil "martini." I must figure out how to manufacture this drink.
Friday the Eighth: Slept late, danced in the afternoon, then went to see March of the Penguins with
brigid and plankton. It was a pretty amazing movie. I think I choose to believe in the anthropomorphized view of penguins presented in the film. Nothing else could really explain them. Also, baby penguins are among the cutest things on the planet, especially after being fed.Saturday the Ninth: Got up way too early to go to Chelmsford, where Seven Sunless Days were playing in a sea of testosterone-driven metal-ish nouveau punk. The other bands were pretty painful, but I had my earplugs, so if nothing else at least I didn't lose any hearing to them (they weren't untalented, just not remotely my cup of tea)(though I was made a little nostalgic for the days of yore, all ages afternoon shows, watching your friends up on stage). We were all a bit worried about how SSD would be received, but the crowd responded really well. They sold a couple of cds and added a bunch more names to the mailing list, so in the end it was entirely worth it. M and I were pretty much toast for the rest of the day, so I watched Immortal while he fell asleep on the couch. Clearly it is not a movie to watch while exhausted, but I do recommend it. The CGI is a little uneven, but the main characters are well done and the story is interesting and surprisingly emotionally complex. Later I watched the IFC documentary Punk: An Attitude, which provided a good palate cleanser after the show earlier in the day. It's well worth seeing, though it annoyed me by not including the Pogues and by saying that nothing at all happened in the 1980s (Birthday Party? Neubauten? Sonic Youth?).
Sunday the Tenth: Slept late, went to my first real yoga class at the Arlington Center. There is a big difference between doing a 45 minute yoga dvd by yourself and an hour and a half class with an instructor. I kept up pretty well though, and got a lot out of the class, so I'll keep going back. The teacher's main influence is Anusara, which puts an emphasis on the heart both in spiritual and physical terms. I like thinking about positioning based on where my heart is--somehow it's easier to envision putting the lump of muscle inside of me in a particular place than it sometimes is to imagine moving your whole torso. Maybe it's just that I'm used to thinking in terms of isolation, but anyway it works for me. She also does some Vinyasa flow stuff, which the dancer in me enjoys. Today I am a little--not exactly sore, but feeling that I hit my limits yesterday, in a good way. Guess that would be the point, wouldn't it. I think I will be able to go to class before my performance at the Middle East next Sunday. I stopped by the convenience store on my way home for bread, and the Indian man who owns the store, noting my yoga mat, remarked that yoga was certainly very popular these days. I smiled at him and said yes, for good reason. Happy cultural exchange moment.
Which brings me back to the beginning of my post, where I remark that I am back at work. And I really ought to do some work, but I had to let the vacation go first, I think. So back to it...
