Swiffed.

If I showed you a picture of the bottoms of my feet, you'd know what we needed the Swiffer for. Public hall floors are disgusting.

People had cameras, so you might get to see a photo if any of them turn out (doubtful - it's hard to take good photos of dancers) but I took one self portrait for the blog header anyway, to give you a teeny glimpse.

It was a great night - lots of dancers in the audience, which is always energizing. Thanks, everybody who showed up - Rona, Brenda, Alison, Kate and her mum, my friends Sandy Leanne Teralee Renee AND my lovely mother - it was great to have you there, girlies.

We're finished for the year now - this was our last show - but as usual, post-performance, I'm buzzing and can't go to sleep. So I'm going to watch some Buffy and drink another Stella Artois...party time!

A22

My list for today:

BUY:
false eyelashes + adhesive
fake piercings
safety pins
large red faux flower + hairpin

PACK:
Swiffer
clothing adhesive/double-faced tape
stick-on rhinestones
beaded fringe
Witch Hazel
ankle bells
outfit X 4
Rescue Remedy

Three guesses what I'm doing tonight.

By Jupiter!

Went to see the Be11ydance Sup'rstars the other day with eleven members of my troupe. Jeepers, what a spectacle. As a dancer I could appreciate the amazing skill level, but a few things really dampened my enthusiasm.

First, it was too Vegasy. It was so overproduced. Even the facial expressions felt choreographed...there was no spontaneity and little joy. The tribal fusion dancers were an exception - very intense and connected with the audience. However, even that started to wear a little thin.

Which brings me to my second point - WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE HAND THOSE GIRLS A SANDWICH. With fries. I mean, come on! BELLY dancing, people! Let's see some bellies! If I wanted to admire skin stretched over muscle fibres I'd have gone to the bloody World Bodybuilding Championships or whatever.

And, my third point - I think they should come out with a Bellydance Superstars Over-35 Division. These girls were mostly in their early twenties - hard to tell for sure through all the makeup though - and I feel that bellydance is an art form best interpreted through the lens of life experience. Everybody on that stage was so damn smooth, it was depressing.

Now - I'm glad I went, certainly. It was an amazing show and I was zaghareeting my head off along with the many other dancers in the audience. It's just that over the entire 90 minutes or whatever it was, everything acquired a plastic sameness. The dancers all looked alike - excepting any distinguishing tatts - and honestly it resembled nothing so much as a Mattel aisle at midnight when all the Barbies magically come alive to dance for their lightning-bolt-wielding warlock sultan overlord. (Which, right there - great idea for a themed choreograph. Possibly though it would end up being more adult-film-industry and less ethnic-art-form.)

It's a great show, purely from a "dazzle me" standpoint. There's a lot of impressive fitness and beautiful moves, not to mention really stunning costumes. But if you are an earthy type, like I am, who appreciates the more subtle beauty of Reality, you might find it a tad shiny for your taste.

O Solo Nervoso Mio

Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone - last night was.......well, pretty good for a first solo. The dancing was a bloody doddle compared to the stress of maintaining an acceptable facial expression. I kept shrieking at myself (mentally) "Smile! For the love of sheep, SMILE!!" followed in a few moments by "GOOD LORD woman this is what is called a GRIMACE, RELAX YOUR FACE!"

So basically I spent four and a half minutes alternating between a Scantily-Clad Undertaker and Maniac Stepford Harem Girl.

But the dance itself was flawless. I wowed them with my swirling veil and my skilled rhythmic zilling. No photos, I'm afraid - it was all I could do to get the assistant to figure out how to put my CD on, never mind actually work my video camera. But I'll be dancing with my troupe next weekend (on TV this time) so I may record that for your viewing pleasure.

Postes Canada Post came by the other day, and dropped off a V-E-R-Y interesting package. Here it is.

Lest you missed it, let me draw your attention to the return address:

Oh Em Gee!! Oh Em Gee!!

Here's where I say a huge THANK YOU to Mairi Macleod for writing "Value: 25 GBP" on the customs form, instead of "Value: 115 GBP", resulting in my having to pay $7.43 duty instead of $20.

And if you want to know how much $240 gets you at Virtual Yarns, take a gander.

It doesn't look like much, but.......well okay, actually it's not much. But hey - this is some quality wool. And all this wool PLUS a couple of hundred hours of my time EQUALS a pretty wrap! So if I paid a dollar an hour to knit this I am TOTALLY WINNING! Basically it's costing me nothing! Yay!

Dear Mr. Buhler: thank you for all the time you spent teaching me remedial math. I'm sure you're happy with how it all turned out. Affectionately, Shannon

I'll be swatching this baby as soon as I get some WIPs out of the way. I have promised myself to finish off the Log Cabin Blanket and the Marina Piccola socks before I start Rheingold. (I'm not talking to the lace right now, by the way. I have threatened to send her to my riding-crop-owning friend* for a bit of spankin' if she doesn't start behaving soon. So far she has responded to that just as she responded to my tears and cajoling - with stony silence. We'll see how stony she is WHEN SHE'S GOT A FEW RED WELTS ON HER BEHIND, YES YOU HEARD ME BEYOTCH, YOUR TIME IS A'COMIN.)

On that happy note, I'll bid you all a fond adieu. I'll be back tomorrow (or possibly Friday) with another addition to my ongoing meme.

* I'm sure you're all interested to find out which of my friends owns a riding crop (although I'm betting it's more than just one) but I will be coy about identifying her....though she should feel free to identify herself, should she wish it.

Edit: Thanks Annalea - I forgot to link to Rheingold.

Quick Boring Update

We are languishing here at Maison HSB, waiting for Mr HalfSoledBoots to come home from a four-day conference. The night he arrived there he phoned and said he had opted out of the "Meet and Greet" event which opened the conference, because he wouldn't know anybody there. "Hence the name," I remarked.

But that is the strange thing about being as garrulous and outgoing as I am: you end up surrounded by those who are, themselves, shy and retiring. We chatty folks are the only ones with the power to draw them out of their shells.

Last night my (shy and retiring) friend came over to do a bit of dancin' and zillin' and shakin' of the booty, then stayed to (re)watch Once More With Feeling. We had Fresca and buttery maple-sugar-sprinkled popcorn. It was so nice to spend some time with a fellow Buffy zealot.

So I haven't had much time to post this week, due to single-parenting. It's not so much that I am doing two people's jobs: it's more that it feels a bit like a holiday from the normal state of things, and the girls and I have been making the most of it. Today we are on our way to the picturesque and retail-rich city of Courtenay, to look at the bellydance store, buy some pyjamas for my little sweeties (at a different shop, of course), and get an ice cream cone. The sun is finally showing itself today, so it's a good chance to get some walking and playing done. I'll do my best to present a pictorial record upon our return.

***
PS: Wanna see some Ogee progress? I present Sleeve the First.



I estimate I'm only about 70% done this sweater. Kill me now.

Garb

Hello Habibi. As promised, a glimpse of the two skirts which cost me ten dollars each at Incognito on Saturday. They are both intended to be one-size wrap skirts but don't fit around my waist properly, so they work perfectly when tied sarong-style around the hips instead.

Skirt the first: Black with metallic threads. Seen here over copper/black knit harem pants. Crappy picture - taken in the mirror in semi-darkness. I had to lighten it a bit so it looks weird.



Skirt the second: Pink. Seen here with my purple coin belt. Can you believe five-year-old Charlotte took this picture?



Last night I went to class, wearing my new pink and gold skirt, and a black choli. As everyone was taking their places, the teacher held up a plastic bag and said "By the way, anyone want a fuschia pink belt with gold coins?". I sashayed up to the front and grabbed the belt, which was a perfect match with my new skirt. The teacher added, "It's $20." Twenty Bucks! There was some grumbling amongst the other women, typically: one of them said to me "if she had told us it was only $20 to begin with, there would have been a stampede." Well, you snooze, you lose.

The skirt with the new belt:



Beaut, hey? I love it when I get a good deal, especially on belly dance costume parts. The one thing I need help with is tops...from the hips up is my area of least confidence. I find I continually look for plain, black, modest tops to cover what I don't want to show. As I progress in the dance, though, maybe I will gain new appreciation for what beauty I have, rather than being disappointed that I don't have the same beauty as others.

Next post - more knitting content. Promise.