Flying Away

[shanmonster]

Yesterday, I developed a curriculum for a floorwork class. It's going to be brutal. When I did a précis of it in last night's dance class, I was met by my students' looks of abject terror. Whoever practices what I'll be teaching will be in excellent shape, that's for darned tootin'! Either that, or they'll be dead. But they'll have one fit-looking corpse, at the very least.

I've been spending the past two days getting acquainted with the music of Bellydance Superstars II. This CD rocks the casbah! Every song on it is perfect for dance, with sufficient changes to keep my interest up. But the final drum solo is crazy! There's no real freestyle dancing to that. The changes are so sudden, and so unusual, that if you don't know the song inside out and backwards, you'll be caught zigging when you should be zagging. And the ending is quite strange, too. I wish I could see Rachel Brice's interpretation of it.

Aside from tonight's kung fu class, today was a lazy day. I read Ursula Le Guin's Tehanu and enjoyed it a lot. I prefer it to its predecessor, The Farthest Shore, and I hope I can find a copy of Tales from Earthsea. Tomorrow, I'll be reading something completely different: Anita Diamant's The Red Tent.

I'd realized I hadn't been reading very much, lately. It's because of my stupid migraine aura status. It makes reading anything very difficult. My eyes jump all over the page, miss words and paragraphs altogether, and make it difficult for me to understand what I'm reading. But I figure if I force myself to read, I will find ways to overcome this problem. So far, it seems to be working. The first half hour or so is trying, but afterwards, I seem to get into the groove of reading.

It's been about six months since I went off the propranalol, and aside from a few setbacks, I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping the migraine problems at bay. Here's hoping I can keep it up!

Right about now, f00dave is somewhere over the Atlantic ocean, flapping his way to England. I wish I could have gone, too! It might not be England, but I'll be way out in the boonies at another kung fu sleepover this weekend. I'm attending a Mantis seminar on Saturday, and I've been talked into staying the night and partying with kung fools. I'll betcha I'll have a bunch of them belly dancing before the night is through....

Tonight was my first kung fu class in weeks. I was sick, and then I was in Montreal, and then I was sick again. Today is the first day since returning from Montreal that I have functioned properly for the full day. I've been migraine-ish, complete with headaches, since then. This weekend will probably set me back again. Any time my sleep schedule is fucked with, my brain complains for a week or two. Argh.

I was a bit worried about tonight's class, but I managed to make my way through it without screwing everything up. Although amnesia kicks in on a few places in my forms, my movements are snappy enough to elicit unsolicited compliments from the Sifu. I'm such a puppy dog wanting pats on my head. I love getting praised, but it has to be honest praise. Had he complimented me on my forms, I'd know he was bullshitting me. They suck. I'm embarassed by my forms. I want them to improve, but they seem to be devolving. At least my technique improves steadily. I can't suck all the time!

Comments

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

I adore The Red Tent. Incredibly rich and engaging read.

Some of my friends get frustrated with Dinah for just kind of going where life pushes her, and I see the point, because she does see other options and not take them. But it's part and parcel of her being constructed as an observer, imho.

And I'll shut up and let you read it. :-)

[miraba.livejournal.com]

Amusingly (for me), I know her daughter. Not only did we attend the same high school (a few years apart, but with some overlap), she attended a summer camp when I was a counselor for the program she was in. Such weird connections.
My mom loved the book, to put this back on topic.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Whose daughter? Dinah's? If so, I had no idea you are so very, very old!

[miraba.livejournal.com]

Oops.
Should have clarified. Anita's daughter. I'm about the age you probably think I am.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok! I was pretty baffled, for a while!

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* As taraljc is fond of saying, "My world is a size of a grapefruit, and has eight people in it."