1. Going to the gym is way less fun when the TV is on sports or fishing or "My Strange Addiction"
2. Going to the gym is actually more fun with no TV on at all, but only because I prefer the pain in my body to the anxiety of wanting to rip my own eyes out.
3. Going to TRX isn't nearly as fun without your best friend, but with a set like we went through yesterday we wouldn't have been able to talk anyway.
4. Chuu Chuus!  Enough practicing the basics to earn myself two blisters!

I have much less time to post today than I might normally allow myself, for my misplaced over-reliance on strategically color-coded calendar and task items has led to my being a week behind on a work project.

...so I'll just stick to the news.

I'll be teaching TWO bellydance workshops at this year's WTFest?! (What the Festival 2014!!)

Get your tickets now for my favorite local(ish) large-scale festival, June 20-22 and be sure to pace yourself so you can get some instruction for freezies.

Another weekend packed with adventure: CHECK

Friday night began with gettin' my hamstrings stabbed by my favorite acupuncturist Kaz, then a few hours at home psyching myself into the insulin shock endusing evening to come: auxiliary Bridgetown Revue member Melody Kay's Ice Cream and Undies Birthday Party.

It was a delicious and sparkly good time, involving all of the above AND fire.  (very small example included here)

Then Saturday was Flora V Fauna - and I dare say EVERYONE won!  Thank you to everyone who came out to see us!

Thursday I get to perform again with Cloud City Circus at our home stage.  See you there!

Yesterday did not start out well, but it ended INCREDIBLY.

Big fat wads of sweet-smelling and sparkly gratitude to Fredrick Zal for finally enticing me to see Cirque du Soleil.  Last night I brought my partner out on a date to watch the best circus performers in the world do their thing mere feet away from us.  There was so much glitter.  There were so many feathers.  There were MANY muscles.  ...These people were sculpted in ways I've never seen!  I can't wait to see them again and again and again as their legacy continues.

After we returned home, I found teaser preview photos from last Sunday's photoshoot in my email.  I can't share them with you here, because you will spend the rest of the weekend obsessed with seeing the rest of them, like I've been all week.  



In summary:
SHINY OBJECTS
PRETTY THINGS
FLORA VS FAUNA

Truth be told, I'm actually batting for both teams.

See you Saturday!

My pancreas is reeling after last night's nightcap at Hele Pele, the local tiki bar.

Now, I like fruit.  I really like drinking.  I also like working out, and eating. Unfortunately by around 11:30 pm I realized that only three of these four had been accomplished to any degree, and it was time to leave.  I'd somehow ended up at two tables-full of folks consisting of alumni from my high school, or our rivals'.  I was also one of the eldest in the group.

It was bizarre, hilarious, and actually made me feel really good about who and where I am now.

I was never one of the cool kids, and even to this day I struggle with self-confidence -- but to be around 21- and 22-year-olds, to talk about favorite teachers or differences in how and what we learned, to notice my subtle "it's OK, you'll learn" nods, the roars of laughter from the table after an occasional joke, it appeared that I was actually sitting at the cool kids' table. 

And I didn't even care about being one of the cool kids.  I am The Cool Kid.  I am doing shit that I love, I have goals, I am achieving them, and I am using, and continuing to develop, my knowledge and skills.

This morning I discovered that I am, in fact, also famous.

Last night I actually accomplished what I set out to do!  Put away everything from this weekend.

...this included a giant pile of four costumes on my floor (each containing 5-6 pieces of clothing), accessories, four complete regular outfits (seriously if you've ever seen what I wear, that's like 2 shirts 3 skirts and a pair of pants each), props, fabric scraps, tags, bags, wigs, trim, ribbon, yards of fabric, and a couple empty mugs.

It took a while.

However, the re-set of my creative space makes me all the more excited to pour my 100% into working on finishing touches for this weekend's next Bellydance Burlesque spectacular: Flora v. Fauna!

Each performer will delight and surprise you with their interpretation of a flora or fauna character during their bellydance and burlesque performances!  We're working with Cloud City Circus family member Johnny Nuriel as well as our lovely friends from Critical Hit Burlesque and Bergamot Burlesque.  

I've been practicing ...

This weekend I debuted three new costumes.  

...which is to say, this weekend I started and/or completed three new costumes, performed two sets at Down the Rabbit Hole (with WALA and David Starfire!) as a drunk strip-teasing dormouse and a jabberwocky, and drove out the Gorge to hunt trillium and shoot fire photos from atop the Stonehenge.  

Longest photoshoot ever.

...and...

it was better than I'd been imagining for the last four months.

I can't say that my face won't betray me, as it does in most photos ("what am I supposed to be thinking right now so I don't look like a dear in the headl---- too late") but if the tiny LCD screen preview shots we wizzed past throughout the day are any indication, I think this is going to be one for the record books.  ....I mean, scrap books.  Maybe I mean Pinterest boards.

I'm tired and my house is a wreck.  This quad-shot espresso is only going to help so much... the rest of my energy is coming from the pure excitement and longing to view the final images and all of their magical, aesthetic bouquet of colors and themes and contrast...

Thank you, Jeremy Running Photography!  I can't wait to play again...

I have in my possession, more fishnet products than I'd ever owned until this moment, combined.  It feels good.

My quads, hamstrings, and chest/arms?  Not so much.  Ouch.

Yesterday I went to TRX and then headed to the Boom Boom Dynamo Show! where I found out why God is disappointed in me, learned about the REAL history of Shanghai'ing in Portland, and entered a coloring contest, and later went out dancing with the promise of hearing a new DJ duo called "Holla n Oates."  I missed their set, but it did lead me to do this search, with very very pleasing results.  (You're welcome)

OK, well only one of them would have walked into the bar, and it would've tripped over itself.  But not for long!

I'm increasing the number of props I can use!  Now that I'm gradually making the stability ball my stability bitch, I've taken a second TRX class with my bestie (more challenging this time but the classes are so short!) and last night I even did the first 2-hour "Pop it in Pumps" class, online, with Isaiah Tillman!  I feel so lucky to have managed to end up in the course -- I'd picked up a flyer probably more than a month ago and kept forgetting to look into it, then boom-bam-bip (or insert other "one thing led to another" noise) and here we are: watching the videos online as they are posted each week, because my schedule is ridiculous and because it's kinda like all the online courses I'm taking for Professional Development at work.  Except for all the ways in which it really, really isn't.

The first class was a very slowed down version of the 1-hour sampler class you can view below.  Last night I spent the better part of an hour walking around my dance temple in heels, alternately walking fast and slow, always checking myself out in the mirrors.  

Day-um.  You can bet I'll be wearing heels more after this.