Who spent six hours last night hanging out in Alberta Park and rehearsing with a bunch of Oregon Fire Conclave fire hippies?
Oh, I don't know, maybe the same girl who just bought her ticket to Pacific Fire Gathering in September.
MORE FIRE!
Who spent six hours last night hanging out in Alberta Park and rehearsing with a bunch of Oregon Fire Conclave fire hippies? Oh, I don't know, maybe the same girl who just bought her ticket to Pacific Fire Gathering in September. MORE FIRE!
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Yesterday was not the best day at work. Mind you, I love my job. I actually do a relatively varied set of tasks across a relatively diverse set of projects, with co-workers that I really respect, for an organization that I truly believe does some really valuable work for a huge number of communities. The problem is that sometimes, I suck at it. My mother and I have a lot in common - like being entirely too self-critical. Like, thinking very highly of our own potential, and thinking very absolutely about failure and success. Something we don't have in common: I am ruthlessly efficient, to the detriment of my accuracy. She is efficient, but without the ruthlessness, and with more accuracy. I love my mom for instilling these priorities within me, and the desire to be the best we can be... but accepting that my best is not perfection is a different story! So, while I spent a good portion of my day yesterday feeling down on myself for making so many little mistakes (Yes, I got the date wrong on a contract again), no one else batted an eyelash. Thank goodness that my evening's plans involved acupuncture with Kaz (which resulted in slight bleeding from my third eye... a portent sign I would say!), and the first in a series of semi-private bellydance lessons organized by my holistic-healing, rickshaw-driving friend Tracia. I'm teaching a group of fabulous beginning-ish ladies who don't have anything in common, yet, beside friendship with Tracia, and now BELLYDANCE. Things turned around for me when I realized I'd be spending every Thursday evening in June half-naked and dancing with five amazing women in a beautiful, herbalicious back yard garden. So for the rest of my weekend... Kick-off Silent Dance Party at the "Witch's House" tonight! Polarity, also tonight! World Naked Bike Ride Saturday night! Silent Dance Afterparty Saturday night! You may already know this about me, but I have another blog. It doesn't mean I don't love this blog, I just don't expect one blog to meet all of my needs. It wouldn't be fair to the blog, and it wouldn't be fair to me. Look right up toward the top of the page... you'll see a link called Biffed Connections. Click it some time. In fact, click it all the time. I read through Craigslist Missed Connections every day -- that is, I read through the Multnomah County, Portland, m4w MCs once a day, every weekday...if I'm being honest. I re-post my favorite MC ads for your enjoyment, and of course, my own amusement. I like to think that my dedicated, specific, and regular research on this topic has made me an expert on a very precise subject. Should you ever find need or desire to write an article, you may reference me as your Subject Matter Expert. This activity combines many of my loves: finding trends, snark, qualitative analysis (and at first, quantitative), the quirkiness of Portland, psychoanalysis, distraction and avoidance from work, and providing entertainment. Sometimes it is titillating to find an entire storyline, sometimes a back-and-forth, sometimes discovering interesting tidbits about our city like the fact that there is a very cute red-headed server at Red Robin near the airport who receives regular MCs. Or, that there is a strip club with particularly good dancers (or rather, actresses). I hope you'll also take a look at my "other blog" some times. Maybe it will make you appreciate your own common sense. Maybe it'll inspire you to just say "hi" and actually exchange phone numbers next time you see/feel/experience a connection. Maybe it'll be a better way of using up your phone's data than checking your Facebook again. So yesterday I worked a full day at my full-time job. I do this a lot - 40 hours a week in fact - and then spend my evening on all of my other activities. Yesterday, I did my errands in the hour between work and my first drop-in, in-person Heels class with Isaiah Tillman (through 12hd.com). I prepped myself by finally finishing the last online video from the Pop it in Pumps course (HOORAY ME) and then showed up at the studio... alone! That's right, I got an hour alone with Isaiah, who is as fun to chat with as he is to learn from...and as he is to watch! Lessons learned: go to drop-in classes 'cuz sometimes you'll get a private lesson for way cheap. Also: hip hop and bellydance do not have, like, any cross-over. Also also: wider stance, Endi. Wider stance. After class, I had to scoot off to a quick meeting with my friend and former hairdresser. Not only do we have amazing style in common, but we also have awesome taste in DJ boyfriends. They have been working for a couple of years on starting the first Queer-friendly noncommercial radio station, Wild Planet Radio. I am SO excited to have the opportunity to work with them to increase their reach and supporter base, to share some common goals, to get some more networking, and to shake my glittery butt on whatever stages they offer. You'll be seeing us around a LOT soon! We met at Caldera on SE Stark. We had Spanish Coffees. I think this is all going to work out very very well. ...then I came home, did some chores, and rehearsed EVEN MORE. Without further ado, here is the non-perfect but totally exciting culmination of my Pop it in Pumps course! Perhaps you noticed a short break in my blog postings. If you were concerned, I appreciate it... and if you were jealous that I was on another vacation, you were just plain wrong.
Last week was the busiest week of work yet - and it was a short week. And I was sick. (Hack cough). It was also a great reminder of how much responsibility I carry with me every day, and just how much I've changed in the last couple of years. This weekend I was perfectly contented to have no obligations. It was sunny and beautiful and there were about five amazingly fun and adventurous things to do at any given time, but I accomplished next to nothing, and adventured very little. It was glorious. Copious amounts of enjoying the privilege of a mostly-private backyard. Sleeping and napping. Eating arugula from my garden. Mild socialization. Lots of chinese-herb-drinking. Instead of the frolicking and playing of last weekend, and the many festivals and fairs and outings that typified last summer, I think this year I'm looking forward to much more lounging and surveying of the pride... |
Endi's blogthe slightly less snarky one Archives
January 2017
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