Dancing the Night Away

The winter wind has been blowing and I have been distracting myself with plenty of movies and entertainment. My favorite movies of the year: Doubt and Slumdog Millionaire. My girlfriends and I did have fun watching He's Just Not That Into You. It was definitely "A watch it in the afternoon with popcorn and loud commentary" type movie. (Loud naughty commentary that you only say when men aren't around.)

We are in the middle of February vacation here and Inga and I seem to be spending it at the local Arts Center. Wednesday night we braved a small snow squall, found the parking garage, and went to see the dance troupe Pilobolus. Pilobolus, it turns out, is a type of fungus that is tiny but capable of throwing dung filled spores some two meters in the air over the backs of cows. I guess they picked this name for their dance group because they can jump really high?? Did they originally practice in cow pastures? Their dances transform like fungus? I spent some time considering this before the show started as it was delayed due to the half full house due to the weather. We enjoyed it though it was a bit uneven. I had the feeling they didn't put on their best show for us small towners. In between each dance the house lights came up completely which was kinda weird and distracting. The first piece was some combo of Bladerunner, street dancing, water running, and African drumming. It had a bit where all the dancers appeared to be super heroes from the future moving in slow motion. Pretty cool, but the whole time I was focused on this tiny dancer with tiny short arms and legs. She really looked odd. Dancers usually have long beautiful arms and legs and to make matters worse she was constantly dancing with a tall blond Adonis type guy. Eventually, I got over that hang up. Our favorite dance involved Jazz and lots of moving of chairs. In all the dances at some point the women ended up folded up on the men's heads. I liked that part. In the last dance they were mostly naked which I actually didn't like. I am not a prude but it was a little hard to focus on the actual dancing! I like my dancers with clothes.
Tomorrow night we are going to see Cirque Mechanics which is supposed to be like Cirque Du Soleil. It should be good. No matter what the performance Inga and I love to get dressed up and go to a show.

My Big Kids Go Dancing!

Sun and Shadows

For the first time in a week the sun came out to play. It's going to rain the next two days so I thought I better get out there and soak up the vitamin D before it went away. I was humming happily as I walked around trying to hold two dogs, a bag of poop, an MP3 player, and take pictures all at the same time. It is amazing how my mood changes with just a little bit of sun of on my face! The trees were casting great shadows but it sure was hard to see the view finder in all that sun. My eyes were in shock. The sun was so bright and my eyes were so confused it was like walking in dark but I will take that kind of darkness any day!

I Made it Through the Whole Game!

I watched my very first Super Bowl game last night. I admit I have watched little bits of past games and a few half time shows including the infamous wardrobe malfunction incident but never a whole game. It really wasn't as long as I thought it would be. I watched it because my girlfriend invited me over to her house for the whole party thing. She invited me knowing full well I am not a sports fan. I did promise to behave and not start the the whole ethics of sports conversation. I went to be a friendly friend. And it was alright. I do like wings and I never eat them or order them so they were yummy. Something different. Mary Beth and I are kind of proud of ourselves that we have been able to forge a friendship despite our huge political and social differences. And I feel bad for her living in a household where she is outnumbered by males. She always has to watch action movies and sports. I am not sure I could survive that. Oh yes and there are guy things all over the house. Golf clubs in every corner. Football banners and mascots on every TV set. Stray punching bags hanging around in spare rooms. Tiny garbage cans on the end tables for their scraps.

I decided to root for the red team because I had never heard of them ever being in the Super Bowl before. Also they were from the West and not Buffalo. Karl, of course, told me they were going to lose. Things went pretty much as expected. I was surprised that the big football fans in the room actually didn't know all the rules either and they weren't always paying that much attention to the game. Most of the time but not always. Lots of the players were, you got to say it, FAT. There was plenty of thuggish behavior on the field and some gorilla chest pounding. But there seem to be four or five players on the field who were all about the playing the game with exceptional talent. I like Larry Fitzgerald. No lame showboating or thuggishness. And Damn that boy was fast! I think he could catch a ball too. Didn't win but not for lack of trying. So I managed to suspend my lack of understanding of the amount of money and effort spent on these games, wondering at the ethics of winning at all costs and how that's working for us on Wall Street right now, dismay at the violence in the lame sexist commercials and what that says about our society, not yawn too much at Bruce Springsteen or comment that I didn't care too much if he sang Born in the USA, and pretty much enjoy the game. Stranger things have been accomplished.

Marking the Day

As I grew up race seemed to be often in the background lurking just close enough to have an effect and make commentary. My very first memory of noticing color and difference was playing in a bubble bath with two neighbor girls and egg beaters. They were brown and I was not. That was it. I didn't pay too much attention. Later I got smashed on the head with it( sometimes quite literally) and I did pay attention. We moved to a neighborhood in transition and I attended middle school as one of a very small minority of white children. It was difficult and I haven't forgotten the hate and division I experienced. Unfortunately it is always the difficulty and the hate that sticks the most. In spite of the difficulties I remember that time (1970's) as a time when people believed in change and believed things were going to get better. People were going to get along they just had to work harder. Yep. I stopped thinking like that. Most people stopped thinking like that. Until recently it seemed to be that we were set to lock up a nation of young black boys and race relations were in the pits. Forever. Black people were set to riot and white people just didn't want to know. They were not paying attention. Barack Obama's swearing in today is so momentous and such a milestone. I am amazed.

Done With That Christmas Stuff!

This is a picture of the very last Christmas object left to pack away into the basement. Large basements are of course a blessing and enabling. If we didn't have a basement would I have a 13 foot artificial tree? That took me two days to dismember? Nope. But of course we used to have real trees and they were just as much of pain in the butt. The very first year we lived in this house I overloaded a brand new Shop Vac vacuuming up needles to the point where it burst into flames. I took it back. Ran too hot. The year I had my first hip surgery I only used the very tip top of the tree. I bought tiny weeny ornaments and set it on table in the window. That was nice.

I also have to put the cookies away. Far away into the deep dark depths of the freezer.

And every time I look outside and it is dark, windy, and snowy I must not run for my electric blanket. Well unless I have a really good book to read...

Yesterday I read a pretty good book about a girl from the Mosuo people of China who live near Tibet. They have a matrilineal culture and don't celebrate monogamy. They practice something called "walking marriage" but yet they have strong family structures. Wikipedia seems to offer a skeptical veiw of this but it made for interesting reading on a cold, windy, dark day in NY.

Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World

Another Snow Day %#@*!

It started sleeting last night at 9pm. This morning when we woke the roads were skating rink like and the kids had a two hour delay. At 7AM we had freezing rain and they called off school for good. I love my kids but really folks I do need my alone time!! How can I do Wee Fit naked when everyone is home! My scores just aren't as good fully clothed. Oh well, yesterday I Hula Hooped myself into being pretty sore so maybe a day of laundry is necessary anyway... Good thing I'm not at Bill's house because all those mirrors would also preclude anything naked.