Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Pride Parade Picture!
Taken by the lovely Ali, blonde, tattoo'd, and becoming a kickass hooper after taking a private lesson with me! The hooper on the right is Cyndi, who has been taking workshops and classes with me since the very first Hoop Play at the Roundhouse in January!
Monday, August 07, 2006
I'm allergic to Summer.
So much to catch up on! Highlights in one paragraph or less:
April - did the birthday party, used the bike-cart-hoop-carrier for the first time, it rocked...
May - NLS course (which I don't remember anything of, other than there were a goodly number of participants).. lots of hoop classes and private lessons and hooping at the Children's Festival
June - Zajak swim meet (back to doing setup at the pool, which I always actually enjoyed), another NLS course, which wound up being TINY, only 4 people, challenging to teach but wound up being a lot of fun when we used members of the public as willing victims during the last couple days of sims.. started my official sweater-finishing service by doing the first mending job (to RAVE reviews, so the owner was able to wear her previously-ruined-due-to-huge-snag sweater again).. mmm... and lots of sun time, practicing for my Canada Day show... :)
July -... and the Canada Day show was okay. Decent enough for a first huge professional gig, learned lots of things (5 minutes good, 15 bad... shade good, sun bad..., warning crowd about possible throwing of hoops good, throwing hoops bad) and had a fun session of workshopping with folks before and after my melt-in-the-sun performance. Next day was Jazz Fest at the Roundhouse, LOTS of people to play with the few hoops I was willing to drag out, and a few fellow Vancouver Hoopers joined me.. also remet someone who'd used my hoops at last year's Folk Music Festival, spent the day in her company and became friends, and now we're going to Burning Man together! July also held yet another NLS course, 15 people to teach by myself, but they were a good crew so it wasn't bad... AND... Folk Music Festival was its usual amazing time, other than nasty evil lady who made me cry during my security shift (no relation to other NEL of the past).. and I got to go up on the stage for the closing act, and sing chords with Jane Siberry and 50ish other volunteers! This month also had hugely popular hoop classes happening at the Roundhouse... filled THREE sessions, woohooo! Practices after class for Zero and fire hooping at Illuminares paid off, that event went really well! (video will eventually be posted on my hooping site, once I free up some processing space on this machine)
August... oh yeah, Pride Parade! Heh, that was just yesterday, and I'm already so mentally beyond it... hooped the parade with another woman from my classes and a buncha stilters and spinners and the Carnival Band.. lots of fun, oh so hot and sweaty, thank goodness for ex's who roll past bearing icy cold water that they're willing to share! Good relations with ex's are so important...
Today was all about waterpolo.. I ref'd at a regional tourney out in Surrey for the South Fraser polo clubs.. and was reminded of all the things that I dislike about ref'ing... but I need to be positive and think that I'll get better and not screw up calls, and that parents and coaches would rather have ME on deck than having to do it themselves, or have someone worse than me. If they can find someone better, hey! Great! I could totally use that time to get ready for Burning Man.. but no, I'll be heading up to Kamloops in the middle of next week to ref the Provincials for three days, woo!
Exciting thing lined up for September (if I get in...).. the SEARCH program by the Alliance for Art and Culture www.allianceforarts.com which is a month-long, 9-5ish program to help artsy people like me figure out how to be successful at supporting themselves in whatver variety of ways they choose. Sounds good, eh? That will start Sept 18 (day before my 34th birthday, no presents required...) and run through the second week of October. After that, I'm hoping to teach a ton of knitting classes, and hooping classes, and follow up on whatever develops during the SEARCH program thingy. Wish me luck!
Oh, and I'm fully prepared to start PACKING for Burning Man with about three days to spare. Totally ready... to procrastinate more :)
Hope you're all having a wonderful summer! Sorry for being the worst person you know about updating my blog. (do you really care? I get more comments from Blaine than anyone else.. and most of you have no idea who he even is!)
Weather: Mostly hot and sunny. I'm so brown after all day yesterday in the sun (with 30 SPF reapplied often!) that people are asking me if I've been to Mexico. The braids with colourful rainbow elastics don't really help that...)
Chai: Just one, sitting in Chapters as my unwind time for the weekend.. was all go-go-go for prep and parade and polo, now some chillin' is due tomorrow!
Water: Played polo on Saturday, and am woefully out of swimming and passing shape, though my legs are still pretty decent from hanging out with all my NLS classes.. hope to get in and swim more in the next couple weeks before I head to the desert.
Craft in Progress: almost finished a Noro hat-with-curled-horns-if-it-all-works-out, hah, and haven't finished any of the projects I mentioned in the last post, oopsie! I've got a whole bunch of interesting bits and pieces floating around in my head for a Build-Your-Own-Horned-Hat class.. horns, ears, hair, tenacles, eyestalks... should be good :) ALso haven't started sewing any of the 10+ bundles of fabric I've bought for Burning Man costumes. Maybe Wednesday.
Wardrobe: Black and hot pink and red diamonds fabric shorts, which I *think* I bought way back when I worked at Fanny's Fabrics.. and have worn these for years ever since. Am planning to use them for a pattern for shorts for Burning Man 'cause they're so damn comfy. Bright pink sports tank thingy that works for home loungewear but doesn't provide enough support for public appearances :)
Dreadlocks: Have worn them in twists for most of the summer, don't think I've backcombed them since early May, and am now planning to UNdo them after Burning Man, since I am being realistic and admitting to myself that they'll never get dry in the wintertime... and I've seen a ton of people with dreads around the city, and have realized that it is more of a costume for me than an actual lifestyle. May redo the twists at some point, sans wax, but don't picture revisiting dreads at this time.
