shanmonster | Long Day, Busy Day

I worked from 10-5 today, and the day was filled with activity. I made two necklaces (both with carnelian and faux pearls, and one also incorporating a rough citrine crystal), gained some bokken-handling skills, practiced two-person jo forms, went over my kung fu sword form, and played around with poi. I also discovered that one of the guys who works in the Casemates is a juggler, and he seems willing to teach me. Awesome! Not so awesome was the nasty sunburn I got. The extra-silly thing is that I had a large bottle of SPF30 sunscreen handy, and chose not to use it because "I won't be in the sun very long." Of course, I got carried away and spent an hour or two training under a cloudless sky. I'm a dork. A very red-shouldered dork.

My last Thursday night dance class was tonight. We did more veil techniques, then I shifted them to Mayas and 3/4 shimmies. Finally, I got them practicing their cane technique. At the very end of the class, I showed them some advanced work, to give them a taste of what they can work up to. I had them doing some kneeling quad exercises, and when they quivered and shivered in pain (after about fifteen seconds), I let them relax and demonstrated how developing those quivery muscles will allow them to do backbends from a kneeling position. They seemed pretty amazed. I also had them try side lifts (weight supported on one elbow and one foot all along the same side), and that had them all a-tremble, as well. It takes time to build up those muscles....

I can't wait until I have a bunch of students in good enough shape for some serious floorwork lessons. I have a couple, but I want more!

Kung fu was a bit different, tonight. We didn't do 300 dragons. We only did about 200. But we did a lot more stretching than usual. And tonight, Siobhan tried out the class for the first time. She seems to really like it. Of course, I didn't beat the crap out of her like I did snowy_kathryn a few weeks ago. Oops....

Tomorrow, I'm leaving for Saint John with my Mom and littlekeltie for a tribal dance workshop. random_echoes is also going, albeit in a different vehicle and at a much more indecent hour. While I'm leaving around 4:00 pm, she's going up at 6:00 am. Ugh. I don't know how she does it--especially since I think she's at a Bif Naked concert in Moncton tonight. If she's lucky, she'll get four hours of sleep. That would kill me. I need my beauty sleep.

Also tomorrow, I must figure out what on earth I'm going to dance to at the workshop performance. I still haven't chosen a song, although I have chosen an outfit. Shame on me....