contra dancing

i'm a better shrink than either of mine. of course, it doesn't count for self-shrinkage, but i'm sure i'm quite helpful to other people. meanwhile, i went contra-dancing!

it was a wild asparagus night and we got to the grange just after the beginner's workshop. there were lots of inept newbies stumbling around with the experienced dancers and i was still quite weak, so i only danced... four? three? something like that. anyway. was given approving looks by some of the more experienced dancers and i discovered that it didn't take more than a bit to get back into the swing of things. my ability to triple-twirl under the neighbor's arm on one of those little promenades has not been impaired at all.

also did some really AWESOME dances with multiple long wavy lines to be balanced. the music made me shiver. i bought one of their cds.

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going to bed is advisable after you reach the point where you can't type properly.

contra and dreams

the drag queen (who my mother charmingly calls a 'female impersonator') was at contra again last night. this time she was wearing a much shorter skirt, but not nearly as much makeup. i assume a wig, but it was a bit messy. at any rate, she came with an actual woman and was wearing lipstick and, i noticed, did not dance particularly much. hm.

i just find it so cool. before her i'd never seen a drag queen in person in my life.

i dreamed i met another slasher at amherst. heh. that's not very likely. the LBGT group was full of the overbearing sort from the debate team and, like, the national representative from the hillel to the israel council, or shit like that.

also dreamed that i discovered a vcr in a previously hidden common room downstairs (wishful thinking alert). and that devon's house and therefore wax_jism were mysteriously accessible from this common room. i woke up thinking, 'must go downstairs! --oh.'

::sigh::

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shit. dorm meeting at 7 which means i can't see my roommates when i was supposed to--at 7.

homework due monday for the class for which i'm not yet registered, so i can't get the course packet or the text from the department office, nor the information from the website. ooookay, time to email the professor, i guess.

okay, the very VERY coolest [contra] dance:

(contra geeks only, sorry :))

take hands in circles of four and the number # couples cross over, facing down the set. #2s face up.

do-si-do with the neighbor next to you;

right allemande once and a half with the same neighbor;

take hands in long wavy lines, men facing in and women facing out. balance the lines.

women 'walk' across the set (a straight step with some spinning), take hands in new long wavy lines (on the opposite side, still facing out) and balance the lines.

men cross the set; women spin in place. new long wavy lines, women facing in and men facing out (women are with neighbors, their partners across the set in the opposite line). balance the lines.

women cross the set, spin into their partner's arms for a swing (no balance).

twirl out of the swing for a right-hand-star. circle once (and a half?) until you face the new neighbor and do-si-do.

you really rather need wild asparagus for it: it starts off slow and dreamy, gradually picks up this stringed bass, picks up pace and slows off again, goes swingy and jazzy and slows down again in movements--it's gorgeous. everyone's sweating and people are whooping and shrieking, skipping and bouncing up into the air when the music picks up--.

and i say without sleeping...

okay, awesome wild asparagus instrumental folk music is being prepared to be copied to my hd. it says on it please support independent music by not copying recordings-- but my friends from all over will never even hear of it otherwise, so tough. soon i'll have some more of this inexpressible awesomeness to share with anyone who hits me up on aim wanting it. cim thing, that is.

also? one of the members? scottish, early 30s, slight accent, stubble, glasses-- GUH.

the elijah wood/ daniel radcliffe is growing, folks, with no sign of stopping.

elijah flushed and took his hands out of his pants pockets, tapped a cigarette out with not-shaking fingers and fumbled to light it while the boy watched with crossed arms and too-knowing eyes.

count to ten until the jitters wear off and don't think about the cloud covering the moon which casts a shadow over the corner of his THIRTEEN YEAR OLD mouth.

part i: here and part ii: here.

lalalalala.

marriage, divorce and dyslexia

kwirbx: [my 16 year old brother]'ll probably get married before i do.

cim thing: everyone will get married before i do, because i don't want to get married.

cim thing: although i suppose i can see some sort of attraction in it. everyone wants to have a family but if you're sick of your parents you think you need to make your own. but still. when you're so young that you haven't figured yourself out yet--
cim thing: it's a [scary] idea.
cim thing: can they spell divorce?
Kwirb X: i sure as hell can't

fuck it.

i'm reading bartolomé de las casas' history of the conquest of mexico by the spaniards and i'm starting to be sickened.

goddammit.

habíanles pedido cinco o seis mil indios que les llevasen las cargas; vinieron luego todos, y métenles en el patio de las casas. ver a estos indios cuando se aparejan para llevar las cargas de los españoles, es haber de ellos una gran compasión y lástima: porque vienen desnudos en cueros, solamente cubiertas sus verguenzas, y con unas redecillas en el hombro con su pobre comida; pónense todos en cuclillas como unos corderos muy mansos.

!

guy next door just yelled 'JESUS! WAX!'*

my little ears perked up, my back straightened, my chin lifted. i am a happy princess today.

of course since the word 'wax' also refers to things having to do with illumination and household products and, er, feminine hygiene and stuff--one has many opportunities to be cheered and/or titillated by overhearing it.

it's lovely. yes, preciousssssssss.

* there may have been some other words in there but my brain is not so tuned to pick them up.

what do i love about alabama? because loreleif asked...

hmmmmm. what do i love. i love how when you walk out of an overairconditioned building the heat is wet and it wraps around you like a blanket and crawls up your nose and your mouth.

when your back hurts and you sit down in a warm car.

driving into the sunset and it's the color of orange juice, but it only shows between the leaves because the whole horizon, any way you turn, is covered with trees, and their leaves show up like black lace over the light.

playing with the hose in the summer, because the south has these SKIES that you don't get anywhere else that aren't white or blue, they're fucking GOLD, like beaten metal, and the drops of water fly up into them and get heavy and pregnant with lustre and drop to the ground in graceful drunken arcs.

politeness. assholes who hate your fucking guts (and it's mutual) dive to pick up your pencil when you've dropped it, rush around you to hold the door.

when you feel lonely and you meet a stranger's eyes and you both smile.

the highways. i love the littler highways, the twisting through embankments and our piney+deciduous forests that are just. gorgeous. the forests, i love the forests. i love walnuts and pecans and oaks. i love the blankets of kudzu on everything.

azaleas. i'll never be able to live somewhere where azaleas don't bloom at easter.

lorelei's thread here.

ay, caballito frío, qué perfume de flor de cuchillo

still on de las casas and getting more and more disturbed. thank god i'm only reading an excerpt. silviakundera read the whole thing more than once. ::shudder::

anyone who wants some live dar williams (from are you out there live) or some wild asparagus (from where you go when you're sleeping)... i have these lovely gems.

y comienzan con las espadas desnudas a abrir aquellos cuerpos desnudos y delicados a derramar aquella generosa sangre, que uno no dejaron la vida.

we brought presents without cards and then we--

further adventures of the ghetto hobbits, featuring mr flopsy, with surprise (well... not so surprising. but eh.) appearances by cim, gandalf, and other of the dorm dwellers. brought to you by the divine hollsk.

wax_jism, my argument! what makes people scary?

i thought of the argument! it's not just because of association with scary people. no, that alone doesn't make you scary, because i'm associated with you and then i would be scary, right? well, to ... the people whom you scare with your fabulous seductive la femmeiness.

ANYWAY. point was. it's not association. it's livejournal politics. if you friend someone and they don't friend you back they become scary.