Let's All Meet Up in the Year 2000

This evening my chiropractor not only fixed up my back and hips and shoulders, but she also declared a couple of my ribs out of alignment from all my coughing.  She adjusted them, which rather hurt in the moment, but immediately afterward my lungs could suddenly expand all the way again!  Hooray!

Reading an excellent book now on Arabic popular culture--I'm still in the introductory chapters about the phenomenon of pan-Arab nationalism and the standardization (or not) of the Arabic language.  It is fascinating stuff and my head is spinning from all the revelations about why things are the way they are.  I'll try to write a review when I'm done, but this is a very valuable read.  There's a bit about the controversy over Fifi Abdo serving Ramadan meals to the poor later in the book, can't wait to read that.
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I can truly say at the moment that I am a well-adjusted individual, as I have just come back from the chiropractor's. ;-)  Things are continuing to go well.

Last night after troupe rehearsal rojagato  kindly and competently and professionally recorded me dancing to Ad Mortem Festinamus, so that I could submit a videotape as an audition for a dance event in New York in September.  Watching it later on the big tv, I'm fairly happy with how it came out; it was better than my dancing at the big birthday party a couple of months ago, more variety of wing movements and more actual belly dancing under the wings.  Still far from perfect, but we'll see if it's enough to get me on the bill or not.  The night's theme is "Night of 1000 Goddesses," and the general idea is to portray your conception of what goddess means through dance.  I added a write-up about how much religion is based on fear of death and the unknown, and that while my goddess has no promises of an afterlife to offer (being immortal, she doesn't know the answer to what happens when you die either), she will at least dance you along your way towards death, providing what comfort she can as you face the inevitable.  I'm somewhat anxious about how it will be received.  I know I made a couple of noticable flubs, but some parts I can honestly say were quite nice.  I'm submitting the tape more or less on a whim so I don't have much invested in whether I make it in or not, but of course rejection always sucks.  If I'm not chosen, then I hope there will be some kind of feedback for me.  I did not make note of the fact that the routine was supposed to be a maximum of five minutes long before doing the recording, so I suppose that's already one count against me.  I did put in a note saying it could be edited down if needed.  So, we'll see.

One cool thing about the recording was that I could see how much more stable my turns are after all the chiro work.  I could feel it internally, but it's good to be able to objectively see it.  I have got to do something about that fringe skirt though.  I love the way it looks, with the metallic threads, but the thing is a serious tangling hazard.  I am thinking of microbraiding it, which is somewhat insane of me but it's the only solution I can think of.  It just tangles in on itself so badly, and then I run the constant risk of getting my toes caught in a tangle if I do any floorwork, or even if I do any arabesque type movements while standing.

I am no longer much sick, thanks to the miracle power of fresh Costa Rican pineapple.  My fruit-of-the-month club pineapples arrived this week, and I had some for breakfast on Thursday and today--wow!  I don't think I have ever had genuine naturally ripened pineapple before, it was heavenly and I wasn't allergic to it at all.  Moreover, it felt so incredibly good on my sore throat, I seriously think it infused me with health.  I will never be able to eat pineapple from the supermarket again.

Troupe practices went well on Weds and Thurs--it's all getting there.  This is the frustrating part of practicing, where we pretty much have the choreography down but we have to do all the hard work of refining and coordinating our movements and it can start feeling like everything is getting worse rather than better.  It's an illusion, though, because we're now expecting more of ourselves so it feels like we're doing worse.  The drum solo is going to be so much fun, I'm really looking forward to that.  Well, Clown will be fun too, but more disciplined--I like seeing everybody's personalities come out in the drum solos :-)

Ooh, I hear the super kooky ice cream truck coming!  Today it is playing "Row Row Row Your Boat," interspersed with funny looney tunes sound effects.  Ice cream would be nice...

I think I mostly forgot to mention it here, but I'm dancing, along with nepenthe  and several other lovely ladies, at the Athenian Corner in Lowell tonight.  We'll be doing three sets, about 20 minutes each, starting around 8pm-ish with breaks in between each set, with a grand finale of mass insanity as we attempt to perform a 12-person choreography on the stage and in the aisles without killing anybody.  Good thing it's veil and not cane.  I'm in the middle set, doing drum solo and finale (we take your basic American Cabaret routine and tag team it, jumping in and out for each part, with the backing of a live band.  It's a lot of fun!).  Food is good Greek cuisine, but a little challenging for those who do not eat meat.

I'm seeing the chiropractor again today, for more adjustment and discussion of what she found at my previous visit.  I hope this doesn't affect my dancing too much tonight; on Tuesday after my first session, we did a bunch of turning steps in class and I could feel that my spine's new positioning was throwing me off, since I am used to a crooked center line.  I think I also had an emotional reaction as I crashed rather hard later that evening, although that's sort of been the story of this week in general.  Being prepared for that stuff is probably half the battle, though.  I danced last night and it was fine, and in my yoga cooldown I could feel muscles working differently, more freely.  And when I lay flat on my back, I could feel that my lower back was nowhere near as arched as it usually is, and quite comfy as well.  This is pretty exciting, though I'm a little afraid it will just all revert back when I'm done.  Hopefully not.

I've been generally worried about Ronan's health for about a month now, due to low energy levels, weight loss and more details about poop than you want to know.  But I'm happy to say that he's put the right amount of weight back on, his energy levels are back up and pooping activity is more normal, though still not great.  He clearly does have some digestion issues, so I'll drop a line to the vet and see what she thinks we should do next.  I'd been giving him unsweetened pumpkin puree to help in the stool department (adds roughage in a form that ferrets can handle), and it did make a notable difference but it won't cure him.  Probably prednisone will be the course of action.  Seti's doing great; I had noticed him seemingly unable to jump up on the armchair in the living room and felt sad that he's finally starting to get a little old at 4, but then he was up on the chair last night, so maybe he just wasn't feeling well that day.  Weasels--they make one worry, no doubt about it.  Realistically, though, he's lived half his live already and I probably should expect to see signs of slowing down.

Hoo boy, now I'm all sad again.  I shouldn't worry so much about the future, last night the two of them were rampaging and tussling all over the house, quite lively and happy.  I should be like a ferret and seize the day.  Then hide the day under the bed.