a pretty good morning, for a change

Last night I balanced a tray on my head and danced with it for the first time. I even danced solo in front of the entire class. The tray didn't stay on my head all the time, but somehow I miraculously caught it every time it slid off and incorporated the catch into the dance movements, simultaneously impressing and amusing my classmates. Anyway, it felt good. That was my last class with Amira Jamal for the summer--I'll definitely miss it. I really hope she switches to Mondays in the fall. I need to be taking two classes, and her teaching style works well for me.

In other good news, I've been fretting about weight (really, when is one not) but today my pants keep falling down, even with my belt on the last hole. This is somewhat discombobulating as my shirt isn't entirely long enough to tuck in so I have that not-quite-put-together-right feeling (plus I'm afraid I'll be flashing naval ring at work), but it's worth any discombobulation to feel okay about myself.

And I slept well for the second night in a row last night, am plotting a lovely copper coin and leopard costume, saw swans on my way to Alewife again this morning, and there's only three more days of work before I have an entire glorious week off, during which I have reserved hours of studio time at the Dance Complex to work on my veil thing for August 7. Seems a waste to be at work with all this feeling goodness, but you know, I can deal, because I feel OK!

also, I kick ass against the masses

If you were on a battlefield right now, versus everything...
Name
Gender	MaleFemaleAnimalUnsureRather Not Say
Age
Lover or a Fighter?
Fight for good or evil?	For GoodFor EvilFor Neither
Battle Cry
Weapon of Choice	Katana
Appearance	Leather Jacket, while riding your trusty steed
Your Battle Cry...	Falls upon deaf ears
Foes slain upon first strike: - 73%
What you fight	The Masses
You fight....	Because the forces of Evil must prevail
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This article in Salon today made me very sad.

Fourteen dark-skinned men from Syria board Northwest's flight 327 [from Detroit to LA], seated in two separate groups. Some are carrying oddly shaped bags and wearing track suits with Arabic script across the back. During the flight the men socialize, gesture to one another, move about the cabin with pieces of their luggage, and, most ominous of all, repeatedly make trips to the bathroom. The author links the men's apparently irritable bladders to a report published in the Observer (U.K.) warning of terrorist plots to smuggle bomb components onto airplanes one piece at a time, to be secretly assembled in lavatories.

"What I experienced during that flight," breathes Jacobsen, "has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats."


The Syrians were, of course, a band of musicians. The kind of people fundamentalist Islamicists despise.

Jacobsen's kicker: "So the question is ... Do I think these men were musicians? I'll let you decide. But I wonder, if 19 terrorists can learn to fly airplanes into buildings, couldn't 14 terrorists learn to play instruments?"

The paranoia boggles the mind. Detroit is home to the largest Arabic population in the US (maybe second to NYC? anyway, a sizeable population) and as Patrick Smith points out in the article, it's not at all unreasonable to expect to see several Arabic men on any given flight in or out of Detroit. Although I suppose the entire city could just be a giant sleeper cell pretending to be musicians, engineers, plumbers, storekeepers, etc.

I didn't read the original article by Annie Jacobsen at Wall Street Women because I don't want to give them the hit stat. Also I would probably start screaming.