Let's All Meet Up in the Year 2000

Had the oddest dream last night about having to rescue Conduit from the man who made death threats against him. There were demons and teleporting involved. It was a bit Dick Francis meets Doctor Who meets Buffy, or maybe Angel. I would totally watch that if it were a tv show.

Pounding sinuses achey eyes inability to sleep well makes me a not terribly content woman today. Do not want. Still excited for the return of dance class tonight, though.

Random highlights from last week's vacation: the Tomb 10A exhibit at the MFA, delicious Dogfish Head beer on tap at Redbones, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I recommend those things very much. Also I tried a salsa DVD and while I was not very good at it I enjoyed it. It's good to jump out of one's comfort zone, and moving my feet that fast is definitely out of my comfort zone. I had no idea what to do with my arms.

oh how I want to curl up under my desk and sleep... time for more tea...
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and admitted that I was sick, and that I should listen when a doctor tells me to rest.  So today I am home.  I slept about ten and a half hours last night; I feel slightly yuckier today than yesterday, but maybe that's because I'm letting myself slow down enough to feel it.  Hopefully a day of real rest will do the trick.  I do have to do laundry today, though my brain is trying to convince me that it would be okay to wear pyjamas to work tomorrow.  No, brain, it really wouldn't.

I feel like I had a bunch of things to update about, but they have all fled my head.  There probably wasn't enough room for both the swollen sinuses and thoughts in there.

I dreamed that I was at a museum of urban myths and folklore, looking at different exhibits.  I came to a grizzly bear sleeping in a snowbank and without thinking I patted it on the head, waking it up.  I looked for the exhibit sign to tell me what to do, but there was no sign.  I figured this meant it was the part of the museum where you have to work out the proper solution for yourself.  I remembered reading somewhere that if you walked in a zigzag pattern, the bear would get confused and not follow you.  I tried that, but the bear just attentively walked with me.  I sat on the snowbank with the bear, petting it and talking to it, and thought maybe it would be okay if I just lay down in the snow with the bear.  The bear was quite soft.  On some level I was aware that it would probably mean either freezing to death or being eaten by the bear, who was now friendly but who knew about later, but it didn't really matter that much to me.  I had a slightly sad sense of inevitability about it, but really it was okay.  And there was the chance I wouldn't die anyway, though I knew I'd be changed either way.

I should not watch Grizzly Diaries before going to sleep.
 
Oh, I am making my debut at the Red Fez Saturday, Nov. 9.  Let the anxiety commence!
 

I bought this for the ferrets.  I could not help myself.

A very good, if action-packed, weekend.  Saturday I worked on a meleya leff DVD for some inspiration, and I was indeed inspired.  Then I watched the Arlington Million and went to a party out in Baldwinsville.  No Baldwins live there, but college friends of M's do.  tisana , they all say hi!  Several million hungry mosquitoes also live there, and despite my wearing long pants, my legs are pretty chewed up.  I guess the bugs couldn't bite through my hoodie's sleeves but they could bite through my pants.  But on the positive side, the plethora of mosquitoes and other bugs meant that we got a wonderful aerial show put on by daredevil bats at dusk.  So elegant and neat.

Sunday I put my meleya inspiration to work and made progress with my number for Jane Doe.  As always, I wish I had another week to prep it.  I think it will work out okay though.  The DVD did help.  The samba drum solo is also pulling together.  From a technical standpoint, it's challenging to switch between dancing to the underlying samba rhythm and dancing to the overarching Arabic rhythms, and deciding when one should take prominence over the other in my interpretation.  It definitely makes me appreciate Sayed Balaha's brilliance as a percussionist to have put it all together in the first place.  Sunday concluded with excellent food and great conversation, and later falling asleep on the couch to Project Runway.  None of the designers really stand out so far.

Last night I dreamed about bald eagles and three pet wolverines who were all named Seti.  The eagles were soft (as I know in real life they are) and they needed to be brought somewhere to be released.  Gingerly, I had decided to trust the wolverines in the house, and also around the eagles.  Insert interpretation about love and loss and daring to love again here.

When your body is crazy full of histimines, you really shouldn't eat things that you know will trigger the production of more, like, for example, peanut butter cups.  Even little ones.

( started slow, got better )

Last night I had a dream that featured amphibious elephants, small ones about German shepherd sized.

Now I go pull weeds from the garden.  Fun, fun.
 

Saturday my massage therapist worked small miracles on my foot.  I think all my muscles had seized up in response to the constant pain and swelling and were stressed from walking oddly.  I'm still not pain free but I'm considerably more comfortable.  As I said to M, my foot now feels like it has the occasional dull ember in it and not a constant hot sharp knife.  My toes actually hurt more than the ball of my foot now.  I have to be careful not to over use it in the coming weeks but I feel much more optimistic.  I may survive the Morocco workshop and trip to Vegas in decent shape after all.  I ordered a balance board for myself because I think using that in physical therapy really helped keep my arches and ankles strong--I just sold some back issues of a belly dance magazine which covered the cost of the board almost exactly, making me feel quite clever.

Saturday I also watched the Wood Memorial and the Santa Anita Derby.  I'm doing much better this year in keeping up with the major prep races for the Kentucky Derby.  I thought for sure Colonel John was going to fade as they entered the backstretch in the Santa Anita, even saw a moment where I thought he was out of gas, but boy did he dig in deep.  He came out looking really good, too.  Big Brown is still my sentimental favorite, but I think this year there's a lot of talent and a lot of heart going into the Derby.

Sunday I danced!  and did some yoga.  Not as much as I wanted of either, especially given that I'm supposed to present a piece in AJ's class tonight, but still.  I wasn't any more achy after dancing than I was when I started, and I think the yoga actually helped a lot (see above about seized up muscles).  We did a bunch of shopping that evening and I had a little trouble negotiating the endless aisles of Target, but the soreness left after a bit.   We now have a brand new suitcase that is not mildewed from sitting in basements for too many years and a new trash barrel that is not falling apart and has an honest to goodness lid.  Also I now have a pretty plastic swan.  I try not to buy more junk but sometimes it just sticks to you, you know?  Those Schleich models are very cool, I would have flipped over them as a kid and as it was I had to convince myself that we did not need extra horses and elves and unicorns and okapis in the house.  It's like the next generation of Britains Ltd, bigger and more detailed.

Last week I watched Paprika--I think Satoshi Kon is one of my favorite directors ever, anime or otherwise.  His films just keep getting better and better.  I somehow hadn't realized that he did the Paranoia Agent series, but it makes perfect sense.  I love the way he blends the fantastic with serious social commentary.  There's an interview with him, the author of the manga Paprika was based on and the two lead voice actors in the Paprika DVD extras, and he's just so charming.  I'm aesthetically and intellectually smitten.

Dreamed very vividly of Seti last night, I think for the first time since he passed away, or at least the first time this vividly.  It was nice to see him again.  As usual when I dream of past ferrets, the overwhelming sensation was tactile, the feel of fur and warmth.

amazing ferret soft sculpture.  If I owned one I would be constantly doing double takes thinking some other ferret had snuck into the house.  Ronan did the cutest thing last night; I was kneeling on the floor, and he crawled underneath me, curling up with his body between my ankles and his head sticking out between my knees.  I felt like a mommy penguin.  He's been very affectionate lately.  He doesn't really like to be held for more than a few seconds, but he likes to lie down near us, almost like a little dog.

Worked on three pieces of music last night, two songs for Saturday and my Amira Jamal recital piece, which I am supposed to perform in class on Monday.  I was pretty happy with everything.  That was a particular relief in the case of the recital piece, because I don't think I'll have time to work on it again between now and then.  I'm glad that I decided to do some work with double veils (for Saturday) so that I could finally get to know my veils.  Gradually I am figuring out the tricks of dealing with them, esp. the importance of momentum.  I didn't feel in class as though I was very good with them, but using one's own music choice makes a huge difference.  During practices I've been letting the screw-ups happen and keeping on dancing so that I'll have practice in what to do if things go wrong, so that hopefully if anything does go haywire no one will be any the wiser.

Did Aziza's shimmy drill last night thinking that it would be exactly what my sore quads needed.  Could barely walk when I was done, but I do feel much recovered today.  Shake that soreness out!

Watched a few episodes of Samurai Champloo last night and I dreamed in its artwork.  I can't remember what the dream was about, if it was really about anything, but I remember ever so vibrantly my surroundings.

It is ridiculous to have to wear earmuffs in April.  Wednesday marked the fourth time that my poor hyacinth has put up shoots only to be clobbered by snow.  Somehow it is still hanging in there!

Got spring fever, oh yes I do.  Don't want to be at work! 

I've been slightly obsessed with the M.I.A. song "Amazon" the last couple of days; I suppose it's all the green stuff appearing outside.  I swear the day lily shoots in my front yard tripled in size from yesterday morning.  But the song:  it's not remotely pc but god is it sexy.  Spring, spring, spring.

I think spring fever is all that kept me going through last night's Greek routine marathon in Amira Jamal's class.  I do better with that music than I used to, but hoo boy is it fast.  I think the drum solos are actually slower than the main songs with their rapid-fire bazouki.  I ended up doing a lot of travelling steps to keep up with the music, which led to the good realization that these months of dancing at the Middle East have resulted in my being able to fully use my available space much better.  I used to pretty much hang in one spot in these improv exercises in AJ's class, but now I work the whole floor space.  Next step:  figure out how to look like I'm moving fast without really doing so, or without being exhausted after 20 minutes of a routine.

Bad ex dreams last night, but a few nights ago I had this awesome dream of being on a quest in the company of a couple of tyrannasauruses rex.  They didn't have wings, but they could fly.  The quest had something to do with liberating their country, or breaking a spell that had been put over them, or something like that.  They were quite intelligent and I knew that we were very good friends, and that I was very worried about them but confident that we would succeed.

This is such a manic time of year.  Now I'm ready for a nap.