I don't tell people what to buy or ask them to donate too much...though I'll admit I tell people where to go a lot.

Today I'm gonna tell you about a few things that I value enough to donate some cash.  

The first is Solar Roadways, and indiegogo campaign to raise funds for production of solar panels that you can walk, drive, even ride a tractor on!  And....they reduce greenhouse gases by 25%!  But the most impressive part, to me, is that a mom-n-pop couple is behind this technology and not some huge corporation.  Think that's because huge corporations can't come up with this?  No.  It's because money.

Because money.

And you know what we have, together?  That's right.

The next is a gofundme for Refuge, one of Portland's best - and only - mid-sized event space.  It is host to private, corporate events....ocassionally. Most of the time this place is overrun with performers, artists, DJ's, producers, and a whole helluvalot of happy dancing people.  If it weren't for Refuge I wouldn't know the music that I do, I wouldn't know the people, I wouldn't have a performance schedule like I do, and damn if my CV shrink to the size of a boring, unworldly pea.  Refuge hosts events for the people, not for the money....  

...and now the fire marshall and OLCC are mandating major renovations in order for the place to stay in business.  We've seen multiple shows in the last few months have to either cancel, postpone, chop down their capacity in a major (and monetarily debilitating) way, and - bless their hearts - Refuge has persisted, even to the point of offering shows for free rather than cancel, in order to bend to the will of The Codes.  Please help keep this place a thriving part of the community!

And of course, something I've been gung-ho about for a while and am an enthusiastic supporter of: VASALGEL, a multi-year, reversable male contraceptive.

I first heard about this contraceptive a few months, maybe a year ago, in terms of an Indian version (thus non-FDA approved), currently in advanced clinical trials, called RISUG.  It's a polymer-based contraceptive, meaning it is injected into the vas deferens where it just kinda hangs out, chillin' all cool and calm and blockin' stuff so it doesn't, you know, end up being babies.  

The Parsemus Foundation is now doing their own trials on their version called Vasalgel, and it is super exciting to think that by late 2015, women may not have to shoot themselves up with hormones or shove pieces of metal into their body cavities to prevent pregnancies.  

I highly recommend signing up for the newsletter, because you learn really fascinating stuff about how the trials are going, and how they are done!  It's fun for the sex-lovin', no-baby-wantin' scientist in all of us!  Donate today!

Though I had high hopes for myself last night, as I always do, I fell short of accomplishing most of my goals... as I usually do.  Don't get me wrong - I accomplish a lot, but I set the bar pretty high.

Work all day
Debrief meeting for the last Bellydance v. Burlesque show (Sept 27th, save the date!  More info to come!)
Buy organizational items for the overabundance of costume-related items strewn about the house
...and that's where my plans derailed.

Instead I pouted and took a walk to a park and sat on a swing.  This is where I discovered pendulum-pouting, which is a great way to feel crappy in your brain, heart, and your stomach. 

I found a flower that is my favorite color, though, so I picked it and carried it home in my hair like the good old days back in SE (see photo right) when I took myself on springtime walks all the time, and looked forward every year to walking past my neighbor's yard, where they grew my favorite color.

When I arrived home I was way behind on my plans but was able to get a vigorous workout in, and practiced some fan moves.  It took an hour to gather up my things that were, embarassingly, left all over the house while there were guests.  Now it is a giant pile of stuff on the floor of my room, where it is tangled up in a huge mess of wrinkled, bunching fabric and accessories.  It makes me feel very anxious and upset to have that mess there waiting for me.

No time for the bath I planned to take with the epsom salts I bought along with the organizational tools.  Priorities.

I played with light-up things at Offbeat Bellydance!

I danced (and danced and danced and danced some more) at the Dimond Saints show at Refuge!

I took my mum out for breakfast on a Sunday morning.  We both had a Spanish Coffee.  It was before noon.  Cheers, God!

I danced EVEN MORE with Daddy Ruckus and SUPER fun, very friendly and talented, Italian act: Sweet Life Society!

I also rescued a drunken sailor (or at least I rescued the rum)

(biggest thanks ever goes to Micah and Bree Reese of Strut Creative Studios for directing and photographing this shoot!)

Tonight I will be seeing you all as the ladies of Bridgetown Revue once again take over the stage of Offbeat Bellydance, as it so happens (yay last-minute gig-shifts!)...and it's their first month at their new location: Analog!  Please do come join us as we prance about merrily onstage and off, because Offbeat is a family show.  The family that you choose.  The family with whom you can drink copious amounts of whiskey.  The family that always, always, has glitter stuck to them somewhere.

Saturday is a mixed bag of awesome: BBQs and crafternoons and photoshoots (stay tuned!), Dimond Saints playing at Refuge (you'll hear one of their tracks during my set at Offbeat!).  But be sure to save some energy, because on Sunday it's Roman Holiday!  Bridgetown Revue will be dancing with our favorite daddy-DJ Globalruckus, as well as Italian electro-swing band Sweet Life Society!  I hope you'll come sweat it out (I hear the weather should be cooler), shake it, flap it, the works!

Though I am disappointed by the news that my good friend Dawn won't be joining us in Fire Conclave, we had a really great time last night chatting, playing with fire, and choreographing stuff.  We had one of those magic moments of creativity and synchronicity.  Thank you!

What another amazing weekend!  

I had acupuncture, happy hour with some old friends, then donned my new rainbow wig and mobbed over to Refuge PDX for Manoj's birthday, which was free, provided an excuse to play with my LED fans, and also my super-hot boyfriend was playing.  Mutual fan Hijinks caught this video of Erika Ryn and I sneaking on stage to play with blinky flashy things.

The next day we scooped up Manoj to drive to the Northern Oregon coast to enjoy our good friend Chuck's birthday, his good taste in friends, and some absolutely beautiful weather.  I played with fire (fans AND Spanish Coffees) and more lighty-uppy stuff, Joe DJ'd marathon-stylee (yussssss) and I was able to make people's foreheads sparkly with bindi while we watched hours' worth of ever-changing sunset.

By the time sunset came around on Sunday I was falling in love with the second round of golden twilight glow on my friends' faces, but despite their pleas for me to take the day off work, I was happy to say, genuinely and without regrets, that I wanted to be home.  I wanted to get a good night's sleep so that I could do my job and do it well, to benefit the team and to  benefit the national service community... it feels good to know that my desire to be here and work hard is more about my desire to excel and passion for the job than it is about avoiding guilt. 

...And I had enough energy left over last night to catch up on bellydance/fitness trade and Pop It In Pumps. Huzzah!

Last night I attended a naked lady party with, as is usual for NLP's, a handful of close friends and a handful of close friends belonging to the person throwing the party.  This is a recipe for new friends: pre-verified ladies (they are only one degree of separation), wine, clothes, and naked.

....and then there were miracle pants.

Let me tell you a story.  Years ago, maybe 6-ish, I found a pair of wide-leg chocolate brown sweat pants at Goodwill on NE Broadway here in Portland.  I'd just started considering wide-leg pants as an important part of my wardrobe after starting to daily-wear my dance pants (Zen Pants a la Annie Eschaia) that I'd purchased from my dance studio.  I wasn't sure about these pants...the legs are so wide...but fast-forward to today, in which I still wear these things multiple times a week.  I've gone so far as to hunt eBay for more (huzzah, the brand tag was still inside them) but to no avail.  Sweat pants aren't really much for an eBay item.

Last night I found another pair, in a heathered purple-ish brown.... which is to say, a color I don't have but have lots of clothes that will match them. 

YES I AM WRITING A BLOG POST ABOUT SWEAT PANTS.  

That is how good these are.

Oh, also... I get to perform at Offbeat Bellydance next Friday!   Wooooo!

See you all tonight at Uplift.  I'll be the one in the rainbow wig!

I know I mentioned my heels, and the blonde, and the dancing and all that from this weekend... what I didn't mention, is that it was also SPRING CLEANING.

Aside from two house parties, moving furniture in another town, and a family brunch in still another town, I managed to...

• Clean the inside and outside of my dance temple windows (there are a lot of them, they are double-paned, and they are tall enough to require me hauling a heavy wooden ladder through a bunch of bushes)
  
• Hung curtains
  
• Cleaned the kitchen
  
• Cleaned the bathroom
  
• Swept and mopped floors of each
  
• Reorganized the basement
  
• Reorganized the garage (the part I could physically get to)
  
• Weeded the yard
  
• Dug up a garden and planted enough greens to feed....
  

ME!

Last Friday night, among other things, I attended a "Spring Break" themed party.  It was, ahem, "bikini-friendly" but the weather was starting to turn again, and it was late at night... 

So instead I went blonde and wore a mini skirt with HEELS.  Big thanks to my Lindsey Bluth wig, and huge amounts of appreciation for the 12-Hour-Dancer "Pop it in Pumps" series that I've been doing online at home. I can now boast that I wore heels, while standing AND dancing, for multiple hours in one night.  This is a milestone accomplishment!  (You can take free sample classes for all the 12HD dancer series too)

Speaking of Friday, I am so excited for this weekend!  MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF BIRTHS LATELY, no?  Have you noticed that you have a TON of friends born late April/May?  It's because their parents were gettin' it on late summer -- and who can blame them?  I, for one, am more than happy to celebrate the lust and the love of this springtime and the heat of the summer!  Friday I'll be sweating it up at UPLIFT with some funky goodtime dance party DJs!