Adventures of a Tofu Slut

And it's December, which apparently came a surprise to me, as I left my December transit pass sitting on the kitchen table. Imagine my irritation when I couldn't get through the turnstile! Imagine my indignation as I squeezed past the people buying tokens and flashed my pass at the man in the box! Imagine my embarrassment when I realized that it was me, and not the TTC, who was the idiot, and that the transit man was probably cursing me for attempting to scam him! Imagine my annoyance when I realized that I would now have to pay actual cash to get home again!

In other news, I had no time for breakfast this morning, due to an extended bout of not-getting-out-of-beditis, so I have succumbed to the lure of toasted bagel and peanut butter. Expect whining about stomach pain and heartburn in approximately 2 hours.

These last two weeks have been full of theatre for me, which makes me all *glee* and *bliss*. Last week I went to Wicked with starfishchick, which was great. On their own, I find the songs fun, if nothing special, but the production made them come alive, even if it did leave out a lot of the politics found in the book. Still, great choreography and costumes, excellent singing for the most part, and damn, did they all sound scarily like the people who originated the roles on Broadway. I don't think I've ever seen a touring production before where the intent was so clearly to copy the original, down to speaking inflections.

Then on Tuesday I took myself to Chicago, which I've never seen a professional production of. And yes, there was a Backstreet Boy on stage. He was actually pretty good - his voice was a lot sweeter and somewhat less powerful than I would have picked for Billy Flynn, but it's a good voice and he's got the stage presence. The women beside me were very excited, despite having been all mocking before the show started. And the rest of the cast was great. The woman playing Roxie looked just like Miranda from Sex and the City (from where I was sitting in the gods). It was eerie. Most importantly, the dancing was awesome, and I loved how they used the stage, putting the band on stage on riser-like things, and having the cast use the same setpiece, and interact with the bandleader. It really played up the vaudeville angle.

Last night I went with dancer friends from Kitchener to see Arabesque Dance Company's new bellydance show, Asala. Fantastic. One of the best all around shows that I've seen. The live band was amazing, and there was a drum interlude that nearly killed me, and the dancing was great - group choreographies that mostly ran through various folkloric and contemporary styles. With many, many costumes, including at least 4 for each dancer during one big number. I love that. Seriously, if you like bellydance, or you're curious about bellydance, go see this show. So much better than Bellydance Superstars.

And now that it's December, I promised myself that I would stop getting annoyed every time Christmas music is played, or I see decorations, or people talk about it. Because there's only so long you can carry around that kind of irritation without exploding, and December 1st is when Christmas is allowed to begin (or so says I).

The ducklings are no longer wee and tiny - in fact, if you see them without the mother duck around they look normal-sized - but they still sleep in an enormous pile. So adorable.

( Not quite as adorable: money issues )

Of course, that hasn't stopped me from suddenly wanting more icons. I think once I've managed to make it through a few weeks without conspicuous consumption, I will buy myself some more. Yes, indeed.

My body has found new and exciting ways to torture me. And my apartment is a mess, because I was too hot and tired (read: lazy) to unpack fully when I got home on Sunday night, and everytime I bend down to pick something it's all about the headrush, so there is stuff scattered everywhere. However, the side benefit to being incapacitated due to heat and pain is that I watched the first three discs of The Wire season 2, and I am once again completely enthralled (although it took a bit longer than it did with season 1. But that's the benefit of watching 7 episodes in 2 days: by the time you realize that you're not completely on board with episodes 1 & 2, you're already halfway through episode 3).

And finally, in this random stroll through my brain, it's time for me to start taking bellydance classes again. I stopped because I was having all sorts of issues related to how fast I was progressing and comparing myself to others (I know), but I'm missing it. Plus I picked up a new jangly coin belt in Seattle that I want to wear. And I'm not going to go back to that same class, because it's really turned into an advanced class, which, let's be real here, I don't practice nearly enough to be in an advanced class. What I am going to do, though, is see if I can find somewhere that has air conditioning, because dancing during the summer heat is not fun.

No, wait, finally FINALLY, it's Friday, and I fully intend to get better enough that I can enjoy the weekend. Weekend!

1. Birthday wishes! Happiest of birthdays to orionnebula today, and advance happy birthdays to stellanova for Sunday. Enjoy your spectacular days.

2. I got music in the mail yesterday - CDs from montykins and sensational. Thanks! I'd like to be at home listening to them right now, but sadly, I am at work listening to the Tea Party, who I hate with a fiery passion entirely disproportional to their actual impact on my life.

3. The entire cast of The West Wing is my Secret Pretend Boyfriend (or Girlfriend, as the case may be). Also the writers. Also Aaron Sorkin's brain. I love Season 1 so very much.

4. My bellydance classes started up again last night. The moaning pile of aching muscles you hear over in the corner is me, thankyouverymuch. I'd forgotten (or deliberately blocked out of my mind) that this teacher is all about the isolations, so we worked each muscle very slowly and very carefully, and dude, can I feel it today. We were running late, though, so she didn't pull out the 21-minute shimmy. Gosh, what a shame.

5. The reason we were running late? There was a model search going on the room before us. Here we were, a bunch of round and curvy women, 20-40, sitting on the floor outside the studio as the young and skinny and impossibly unblemished boys and girls walked up, looked as us in confusion, and tried to leave, thinking they couldn't possibly be in the right place. We took pity on them, though, and pointed them through the door. Side note: If you take already tall women, put them in 4-inch heels, and then look at them from a vantage point of sitting on the floor as the pass right by you, they appear freakishly tall. I mean, I felt like a 2-year-old looking up at an adult. Other side note: There should be a cautionary note attached to the "skirts" that are just a waistband and a ruffle, warning people that they are not to be worn if said wearer is 5'11" and going to be walking by people sitting on the floor. I'm just saying.

6. Please god, wipe the thong from existence.

7. The Return of the Five Hour Meeting was cancelled! Hurrah!

8. Happy weekend everyone! I think I'm going to make mine include sushi somewhere, somehow. Mmm, sushi.

I went to my first Arabic Rhythms class last night. We drummed first, which I'd never tried before. It was great fun, even with my wimpy little fingers that couldn't make much of a sound. Then we worked with the zills (finger cymbals). I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of getting a good ring with the zills. I have some new zills, too, that just need to have the straps sewn up, and they have a better tone quality, so they'll be much more fun to work with.

We looked at three different rhythms, and how you can fill them. There was a lot of "follow the leader", which is great for me, because I pick up rhythms very quickly. Now all day today I've had patterns running through my brain: doum tek tek doum doum tek.

The only hard thing about the class was sitting cross-legged on the floor the entire time. My feet kept falling asleep!

The show went really well. It was much more low-key than I was anticipating (helped by a smaller-than-usual house and two extraordinarily exhausted organizers), the choreography was fine, the soloists were excellent, the dancing was so much fun, the bands were fantastic, especially the gypsy brass band. Everyone seemed happy to get up and dance, so we didn't have to drag people out, and someone did my makeup for me, which was brilliant.

The costumes were lovely, too - beautiful circle skirts made from heavy satin, which were so much fun to swoosh around in, although we had a bit of an issue with flashing when we first tried them on. We definitely have to learn to twirl with a little less enthusiasm, or else buy cuter underwear. And I now have bruises on my collarbones from the little straps of my halter top, which I obviously tied too tightly in an attempt to keep myself somewhat perky sans bra.

I'd forgotten how much fun it is to just get up and dance, in a smoke-free club, to live music. I think I'll go back next month (when the Flying Bulgars are playing) even though I'm not dancing in the show.

I'm totally enjoying reading the questions and answers that are being thrown out all over my flist. Questions for me? Dying to know where I'd spend my thousand dollars?

*****

I don't think I ever talked about the first rehearsal for the show I'm going to be dancing in. I've always prided myself on being very quick to pick up new choreography, but I found it really hard. Not the choreography itself, which is repetitive and not that difficult, but getting the choreography to stick in my brain. Plus I seemed to be having left/right issues, and I was always on the wrong foot. Of the six of us there, 3 had done the dance in the last show, and 3 of us were just learning it, but I seemed to be the only one having problems. It was really frustrating.

Because of the long weekend, that's the only rehearsal we've had so far, and I think there's only one more coming up before the show. I've tried to practice at home, but... well, if I can't remember it, I can't practice it. I'm feeling really unhappy about this. This is why I hated team sports so much as a kid - I was fully aware that I sucked, and I didn't want my lack of ability to drag everybody else down too.

I don't know, I've blown this up so much in my head that I'm ready to just say I can't do it. But I don't want to back out of a commitment. There's reason that I just do this for fun, though, and why I'm still dancing at the same level after a few years. I'm just not a natural dancer. It's fun, and I love it, and I think I actually look pretty good when I have a lot of practice, but it's just not in my body.

I watched a very fun documentary on tap dancing last night*. Now I'm dying to break out the tap shoes again, but I keep hearing that there are no adult tap classes in Toronto. This seems wrong. I loved tap when I took it before, mostly because it seemed like a dance form that required less grace, more energy. And the less grace, the better, says I.

Plus the benefit of tap is that it is great for entertaining yourself in endless lineups. You don't have to move anything more than the feet, and unlike throwing out a few shimmies or undulations, people don't think you're practicing to be a pole dancer.

*Because there was nothing else on. Seriously, there is nothing to watch on Monday nights, or even negative things if you could the black hole of suckiness that is CSI Horatio. Can't someone just shuffle a few things from Thursday to Monday?**

**Of course, having said this out loud I now feel very pathetic. I really can entertain myself without the TV, I swear!