My Blog

Taking bellydance back home (x-post from myspazz)

Elle — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:07:35 GMT

Not really sure how I'd do it, or what I'd do, but I'd really like to invade Coffeyville with bellydance. There's nothing to DO there. It's a depressing place. And bellydance has this nice way of making people happy, and giving people a new way to get up and be active than walking circle after monotonous circle around LeClere park. (Don't get me wrong, I adore LeClere park... and the attack geese.) So next time I go down there, I'm going to see how feasible it is, and perhaps if there are any roadtrip-loving bellydance chicks who would like to go along (gas is quite high, but splitting it however many ways makes it a bit more manageable), it might turn into something fairly awesome. ^_^ When I was there last, I saw how the city is "recovering" from the horrendous flood. Things just don't look great down there. Almost all of the houses on the east side are GONE. While I have an affinity for trees and grass and general wildness, it makes me sad to know that so many people lost everything they had. And I think... maybe having something new show up there might be something fun, and help bring some liveliness back? It seems so dead there, it's very depressing. And maybe someone there will find a new interest they didn't know about. There are bellydance studios in Tulsa, which isn't too far away. Maybe we could even collaborate with some of them? It would be nice to have an alternative to either the high school dance team or the strip joint. =p Oy... And little kids always seem to love bellydancers. =p Yay little kids. Just an idea. We'll see what happens.

feeling unmotivated............

Elle — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:15:22 GMT

i want to make some costumes but why? i want to work on moves but why? i'm feeling really disconnected from everything, i'm guessing part of is is post-accident decompression, part of it is attempting to adjust to life without a car i.e. i can't go ANYWHERE, part of it is that i don't have a class, and i don't think i was very well connected to any of the other chicks in my class anyway. It would be cool if we were having practice sessions during the downtime to keep up with what we'd learned, and maybe the others are, but... hm... blah... hopefully the "fire" will come back in august when class starts again. hopefully i'll be able to get there. i want to learn, i want to dance, i want to perform somewhere, i dunno. i want to DO SOMETHING.

i'm really happy that i am nondead at this time.

Elle — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:45:56 GMT

Goodbye dear sweet frog car :( Ugh... So my mom and I went down to Coffeyville for the 4th of July... and on the way back to Omaha, we had a really horrendous car accident. My mom's still at the hospital in Sebetha, KS, my pet rats are gone somewhere into the pasture where we crashed, C-Biscuit has heat stroke and is at a vet, and Cocoa is mostly okay and here at the apartment with me. The car flipped end over end, then rolled down a hill into a ditch. I am not sure what we're going to do without that lovely little car. I guess we'll figure it out. How much does an ambulance cost? I need health insurance. I dunno what to do rightnow, but atleast I'm not dead. I'm glad that my mom has nothing broken, I'm glad that I atleast still have two of my pets. I just hope the rats will be okay. I hope they'll make it. One minute, everything's going well, and the next, everything is destroyed.

teppuM's tornado tale (x-post from myspazz) eeegads man

Elle — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:36:16 GMT

Something really weird and creepy just happened and I must now tell you all the horrendous story so that I can flip out at someone and get rid of some of my extreme emotions. My heart likes to jump around when I get really scared so I'm feeling somewhat lightheaded and my chest is a bit tight. =p Cripes. So my mom and I went to town today around uh... what... noon? Something like that. Or was it after 1? I don't remember. And the sky was so gloriously blue and there were clouds but they were off to the north and birds were flying and it was HOT. So hot, I felt like throwing up. We went to a place for lunch and they had CNN playing, and on CNN they were talking about how the northern polar ice cap is possibly going to have melted away entirely by September (eeeeee friggen gads man...), then they showed the weather for the area and there was nothing on the radar for Omaha, just some rain waaaaay out west. We left the lunch stop and went up to the Wal-Mart near highway 680 and while we were milling around from the pharmacy, we noticed that it was getting dark outside. We thought we'd been in there longer than we should've so we checked out and went outside. Turns out it's not getting literally dark, there are some EXTREMELY dark clouds moving in. The guy on the radio said that some rain was moving in and would arrive in around 45 min. We stopped at a Burger King to get iced coffee (when Laura was here, I found out that theirs is THE best) and as we were leaving, the clouds started speeding up and they got all churny and purpleblackgreeny... theeeen the tornado siren went off. =p We thought we had time to get home, but noooooooooope. As we turned onto 90th street to get back on Dodge, we saw these two HUGE greenish clouds moving in really fast. Then back behind them an even BIGGER cloud raced in even faster. I've seriously never seen a cloud move that fast in my whole life. Wind started hitting the car as if to knock it off the road, and as the cloud arrived over 90th street, everything went crazy. The rain started coming down so hard, it looked like it could take your skin off. And the power all down the street started going out. One store after another after another, and then the traffic lights went out. I spazzed out and screamed at my mom to stop the car (she was driving) and she was spazzing out and screaming that she wanted to pull off somewhere. Then, just ahead of us at the intersection across from the Dollar Tree and all that junk on 90th, we saw the bottom half of a baby tornado swirling around and going crazy, and I had a literal panic attack. It was bending trees and throwing Dollar Tree shopping carts, and the top half of it was trying to reach down and connect to the bottom and form a full-fledged tornado. (Egads am I glad it never did!) Cars were stopping in all kinds of weird places in the road, and we followed one through the bottom half of the baby tornado and the rain started coming down even WORSE. You couldn't even see three feet in front of you. We finally got somewhere where we could stop when the radio went out and the hail began. It piled up all over the car, it was so loud my head started to hurt, and the roads started flooding. Tree parts were flying around, tops of trees were breaking off, stuff was hitting the car. Finally after what seemed like forever, the rain seemed to chill out, so we thought maaaaybe it was over and we could get home. But it was a liiiiiie, I tell you, a liiiie! As soon as we got back on 90th, it picked back up and the water was so deep, we knew the car would get flooded if we tried to head south to Dodge, so we went back up north, but the flooding was just as bad up there. Cars were literally halfway underwater, it looked like a lake. The glorious frog car did make it across and as we headed back towards 680 to get to 80 west, the sun started to come back out and the sky lightened up again. The radio came back but there were like three or four stations crammed onto one channel, the classical music channel we'd been listening to, and several other stations that were talking about the storm. It was so surreal, they were all talking really fast and flipping out while this classical music was playing in the background. =p And in that short time, the many voices on the radio said the storm was wreaking havoc in Council Bluffs across the river in Iowa, and in Bellevue, south of Omaha. Anyway, we made it home, and now I'm typing this hilarious story as the sky to the west starts to darken again. =p I think I'm going to lay down, my heart hurts. =p

No new session until August?! Ack!

Elle — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:37:48 GMT

After Celebrate Lincoln (squee!!) I have one last class of this session of bellydance, and then my instructor is taking time off. Which I totally understand. But I'm spazzing out because I have no idea what to do with the time. =p I think I may take another class.There's another tribal fusion instructor at our studio, but I also may take the time to take some cab classes :D How do you construct fusion without bits to fuse, yes? Magdalene is a glorious dancer and I'm pretty sure I'd do nothing but benefit from her classes. We'll see how my finances work out. ^_^ As far as C.L. goes... I've had alot of mini heart attacks. I'm having an anxiety attack and it's kind of weird. I've performed in bajillions of things since I was little, but this involves well... my body being VISIBLE. =p Marching band always encased me in a comforting, lumpy, horribly-fitting nonunique uniform -- bellydance involves... my belly. =p I've swapped out my top to kinda cover up a bit more. I've got some weird scars from a time in my life I'd like to not return to. =p Oy. Plus, general physical anxiety. I just hope I don't suck... Egh!!

Ground Squirrel Neighbors

Elle — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:44:39 GMT

literally :) I took this picture right out of my bedroom window. We have a first floor apartment, and my room is semi-underground. We've been seeing this ground squirrel lately, stealing strawberries from my strawberry plants, trying to steal trash from everyone, and noooow I know why SHE'S been such a nuisance. :) Those are two of about 6 little baby ground squirrels i counted following her around. ^_^ Their den is right next to my window. How awesome ^_^ Totally leaving food for those little dudes. =p

I've started a Dr. Steel tribe!

Elle — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:48:10 GMT

http://tribes.tribe.net/drsteelworldemperor If you dont know about Dr. Steel, check here = http://worlddominationtoys.com/drsteel , www.myspace.com/drsteel , and www.toysoldiersunite.com And if you think he's neat, join my tribe! :D

eShakti.com -- they design, you customize

Elle — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:53:56 GMT

http://www.eshakti.com/ This is easily one of the most gorgeous clothing sites I've ever seen. My aunt emailed it to me. ^_^ You can order things in their designs but you can have them made longer or shorter, add different sleeves, whatever you want. ^_^ How cool is that?! Gah... Gah indeed. ^_^ And they have beautiful collection titles like "flirty filigree," "gossamer wings," and "ethereal spring." Plus a whole section on dresses, various accessories and yoga goodness. ^_^ Love this site!!!

steeeaaaam........!

Elle — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:25:43 GMT

look at all those gears :D bwah ahhaahahhaa... the steampunk that was apparently hiding in my brain seems to have awakened with a bit of madness. it all started earlier when Fang said she thought my new big metal headpiece would be a great steampunk accessory. and i agreed. theeeen i saw this show today about the antikythera mechanism, an ancient greek "computer" that was apparently used for tracking astronomical events (seriously, look it up if you don't already know it's history, it's an amazingly interesting device) and well... here we are... my brain went on this magical journey of where we'd possibly be if the library of alexandria hadn't burned down. we'd probably have flying cars by now! i started looking it up, and it's yet another aesthetic that i've sort of ascribed to in my brain but i didnt know the name for. =p and it's given me a new spin to put on the dr. steel costume i'm working on. ^_^ steampunk + toys = happy times. ^_^ so yeah... now i need a huge quantity of gears. lots and lots of gears. whoo hoo!

A Moment With Ms. Spikey (x-post from myspazz)

Elle — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:10:10 GMT

(Note: this is what mine looks like, but I didn't take this photo (where's my camera?!). Photo belongs to TribalKitty) So today, after planting tons of green bean plants, I launched into what I thought would be a complicated process to fix a slightly damaged hinge on my wonderous new tribal spike cuff. I'd resisted the somewhat obsessive drive to order two so that they matched, so this one is even more important. =p (Oh yeah, I'm reeeally serious about bracelets. Long story there.) It turned out to be an easy job (Thanks, Faststeel!), but all that fiddling got my brain wandering. This cuff is Waziristani handiwork, which I learned from looking at tribal bellydance sites, particularly Tribal Souk. Waziristan is a tiny region between North Pakistan and Afghanistan, a religiously conservative area broken into the tribes of the North and South. The people there "have a formidable reputation as warriors and are known for their frequent blood feuds" (Wiki). Looking at this bracelet, my brain starts churning up all sorts of dramatic tales in the lives of the people who made it and maybe wore it. Was it worn by a woman kept shrouded in a burka in her home? Or by a tribal leader on his way to engage in one of these frequent blood feuds? Or did it belong to a little kid who wore it just because he thought it was neat? Is it possible that some of the dings in it are from the wearer diving for cover from one of our own bombs? Who knows. But it's interesting to think about.

pomegranate tree ^____________^

Elle — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:24:09 GMT

i'm going to buy one ^_^ Neat. I looove pomegranates... and having a bunch of my own would pretty much be the best. You can grow them in containers (large ones, obviously) and the lovely person of loveliness has a south wall (this nursery i'm going to get one from says that they need to be against a south or west (i think) wall in order to grow in zone 5, which omaha is in) and he said i could keep it there ^_^ neat! i sent the nursery a few questions and when i get a reply, i 'll probably order a tree from them :) they sell figs and olives too. ^_^ there IS such a thing as a dwarf pomegranate... that might be even more suitable for containering =p

tomatoes, stawberries, and a croton :)

Elle — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:59:54 GMT

these plants are the start of my new garden in omaha :D they're all container plants since i'm in an apartment for now, but maaan am i excited ^_^ i've got a couple of window boxes to use to edge my patio, but i have no idea what to put in them right now. Too many ideas! :) Egads I love spring. I got the croton on clearance because it was smaller than the others. :) And Bonnie's paper biodegradable pots are the greatest things ever made. so as far as flowers go... i'm 'thinking about getting some short shade loving thi9ngs to plant around some tall things? i kinda wnat to grow cosmos here, their roots are shallow enough for a container i think :D we'll see!

Meet the newest dudes in the long line of Brothers Finkk ^_^

Elle — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:46:16 GMT

I finally got to pick them up yesterday. Yesterday was quite an enjoyable day, but I'll get into that later, or maybe I won't. Jenner is the black one and Shiprat is the agouti (brown variegated) one. They're hilariously active and kind of jumpy, but they're males so they'll slow down eventually. ^_^ They're two months old, and Shiprat seems to be pretty large for his age, so I dunno how big he'll be when he grows up. :) Wonderous little guys. ^_^

QUIET PRESS!

Elle — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:44:51 GMT

Those are viking style brooches made by the guy who runs this site: http://www.quietpress.com/vikingbrooch.html I needed brooches for the turkish vest/hangerok/whatever thing i'm making for my elle costume and he has them for the cheapest i've seen and they still look glorious ^_^ I've seen them up to $850! No joke! he also has some cool flat ones that would make great additions to a belt... so i'm probably goign to do that, too. i'm reeeeeally in love with anything celtic or norse or whatever, and this dude has become my new favorite DIYer ^_^ bwah hahahahhaa!!!! he silverplates for $10 extra :D not bad! must... order... million dollars... of stuff!!!!

New car!

Elle — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:27:03 GMT

Okay so it's not exactly new, but it's new to me. ^_^ It's a 1995 Ford Escort. :) A nice little green car, I'm so excited. ^_^ It'll be great to have more control over transportation, and hopefully I'll have a job soon. Now I can get to bellydance class! hahaha ^_^ Tribal classes already started and April 17 is coming up soon. Whoo! Tomorrow we're moving into the new apartment, which is nicely located on the ground level so we can bring everything in through the sliding door. Rock on Hooray! (the picture was taken by the previous owners. yay craigslist ^_^ seriously =p)

New Finkens :D

Elle — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:51:47 GMT

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=10193338 Those are the two little guys I hope to get from Capitol City Rat Rescue in Ithaca. ^_^ All she has to do is verify that my new place allows rats and that's that. :) yay! Rats are such great pets, it's amazing. And when they are gone, you miss them. So hopefully I'll have new ones soon ^_^ The black one, I'm going to name Jenner, and the brown one will be called Shiprat. =p Jenner and Shiprat Finkk, the next two in a long line of brothers Finkk. :) haha hooray :)

things are shaping up, i hope

Elle — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:57:55 GMT

It seems we've finally found an apartment in Omaha. :) It's near my mom's job, and we can have dogs that don't fit in a purse! Isn't that unbelievable? (Seriously, if you tried looking for dog-friendly housing here, you'd know what I mean.) So this means that I can get to class easier, my mom doesn't have to bum rides to work, we can get the dogs out of boarding, and I can find a job in Omaha. I've been looking but most of the jobs have been in Omaha and sometimes I have no idea how I'm getting back from class, much less getting to work. So this is good news. Though I'll probably be coming back over here since the church here is ridiculously fantastic. And I'm a person who just really doesn't generally care much about churches these days. Anyway, now I think I can finally get on with my life. And hopefully get my phone bill paid off. =p I owe an ungodly amount. It's amazing what they can rack up with fees! Phone cards can stab you in the back because, while you don't have to pay the cost of the call, you end up stumbling into overage because you're not counting the minutes! Ugh...

Dreaming up costumes

Elle — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:07:11 GMT

x-post from my myspazz... i dont want to retype! I’m going to update this with sketches later. I just need to get these out of my brain so I can concentrate on something else. A chick in a bellydance tribe found a place that sells white tiger print furry fabric. I almost died. It’s like $7/yd which isn’t bad. That was the last thing I needed to make my uber-ambitious Elle costume. So to begin, Aksysanallineboram has a thing with tigers, white ones in specific. And he’s been stealing tigers of all sorts from Earth so that when he takes over Earth, he can reintroduce them, in case we’ve killed them all out. =p He’s been doing this for bajillions of years and has some animals that are already extinct. (talking about characters as if they’re real people makes me laugh. haha.) Meanwhile, he used generators to make faux-tiger everything, and made it "the fashion" on his planet. Everybody rips him off because he's original and he's eeevooollved. =p And since Elle loiters with him, it only makes sense. And you know you can always find zebra stripes, but finding actual tiger has made my brain dream up some ridiculous things. ^_^ Wee! So I need to make flare pants, maybe I can learn to make Fauxlodias, since Melodias are awesome but $135. =p I need to learn to embroider some panels to look like Analli language, make a bell-sleeved fitted dress-thingiemabob... Maybe I could base it on a ghawazee coat? Oy! I want my sewing machine back! (I just had a thought... The Elle costume would probably work so much better with Kathleen Crowley's ruffly pants... can't make those... so I'll have to save up. Bwah ha!) Then, I was sitting and listening to my profile song (Dr. Steel is ridiculously awesome, thanks to Matthew for intro’ing me to him) and I’m going to make a Dr. Steel bellydance costume. =p You can already get Dr. Steel and Toy Soldiers patches and pins, which would be great in place of medallions on a belt and a headpiece. I intend (again) to make flare pants, cut them into garter pants, make a belt with patches, cowries, coins, and chain swags, some yarn fringe, get a toy soldiers shirt, cut the arms off, cut it off under the bust, put a tribal bra over it and hang kuchi junk everywhere. It will look alot better than my description suggests. Then with the headpiece, I’m thinking... like... painting some legos black and making a row aross the back with those, then doing maaaybe some gunmetal domed studs (whoo kitkraft =p) and more cowries. Theeen well, I have to add more cowries to my oceany belt, and some Homespun also, to throw in more blue to balance out the huge blue roses. And finish the medallions for the belt I’m making to go with my skirt from Angelia. Bernat Max is the most amazing stuff in the world. Yarn falls, fringe belt, whatever. It works. Bellydance creativity spikes when I’m happy and I’m reeally happy. The past couple of days have been really weird, but things seem to be looking up. Omaha is a wonderful place. Bellydance, music, local art -- everything I wanted to do is here. I found 3 jobs for my major in the paper yesterday. :) Yay. Yay indeed. Also, April 1 and April 17 are coming up fast. Registration for the next sessions at Gnosis. Hopefully things will be worked out by then and I can go. :) Wee!

Cliquish tribes

Elle — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:39:40 GMT

I'm in a lot of tribes and I've been thinking about paring them down a bit. You know how there are those tribes where, no matter how you interact, you never quite seem to be a member? I've left a couple of those already, but I'm going to keep chopping my list down. I only want to keep ones where there's alot of activity, OR if they're necessary to my life =p (dramatic!) this has been a random thought brought to you by the Pamallama news corp. (Gah, some guy in this computer lab is wearing WAY too much cologne... maybe chicks have more sensitive noses than guys? can they not smell it?!)

I should pay money because why?

Elle — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:57:29 GMT

I was thinking about getting a premium membership, but if I'd paid last month, all I would've paid for is the right to battle with this website so I could post. And today, well actually carrying over from like the middle of yesterday, this site is STILL being a complete failure =p It's not updating anything, in fact, it's going backwards =p I've gone from 540 views to 538 to 5somethingelse =p With all the people paying to "support" tribe, shouldn't it be a little better than this? If it's not actually fixed, do'nt put it up as if it is. Just put back the "tribe is undergoing maintenance" sign. is it really that hard?

idiotic married guys.

Elle — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:28:45 GMT

Right, so there's this guy who's really interested in me. And I was starting to "like" him too. This has been causing all sorts of emotional weirdness because, even though it's been about 5 months since my ex and I broke up, I still love him. =p So I was getting extra nostalgic, extra weepy, extra WEIRD over all of this. Then when I kind of had an epiphany and felt like I was genuinely over him once and for all, I find out that this guy is married. =p I'm pretty disgusted right now to say the least. I wish I could find out WHO his wife his and tell her that he's intending to cheat on her. =p So I've been railing at everyone about being dishonest with me, it seems to be a trend these days. Save the rainforest, save the whales, save the last few shreds of honesty left. Ugh. Yick. Well, I guess this gives me more crap to write songs about. =p

The Gnosis Hafla

Elle — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:46:23 GMT

Sooo I've been to my first hafla! :) Egads was it a wonderous time! Gnosis studio is where I'm going to take classes. They have a nice, eclectic cabaret style, and they also offer tribal classes. That's pretty perfect since I want to take both. And they're so ridiculously friendly, especially Magdalene. I honestly don't think she ever stopped smiling. EVER. And she has a nice smile so it works out. :) I also met Della, who's like a Nebraska bellydance icon. She was nice as well. :) There were several performances and then at the end, people with drums just started playing and anyone with hips was invited to dance. :) I didn't because I'm far too lame, but I still had a great time. :) My mom also wants to learn to bellydance now! That's pretty cool. :) It would be something really fun for us to do together. So once I get settled and get my post-move finances in order, I'm signing up. ^_^ Whooo!! It was really cool to go to the hafla and see the members of the Diva Soma troupe, and also Calliste who teaches the tribal class. I know for a fact that I will get a REALLY good experience from learning from all of them. And that's important. I'm very excited. Didn't think the bellydance bug could bite any harder, but apparently it can. Har har! weee!!

sick and tired

Elle — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:43:15 GMT

i'm so stressed out. i absolutely hate trying to move, especially when you've got a finite amount of money (my job kinda screwed me on my last check) and everything under the sun is trying to take what little bit you have. dunno where i'm going to be moving YET, apartment prices are going up (i hate humans) because spring semester is close, gotta figure out whether or not to cancel the u-haul by 5 tomorrow. people claim to be "pet friendly" but they only take cats or small (read tiny or non-existant) dogs. gaaaaaah...! not to mention, the death of both the modem AND the car has meant sitting around uselessly at home, hoping someone can be gracious enough to give me a ride somewhere where i can use a computer. in an age where EVERYTHING is done over the computer, not having one is practically lethal. moving to omaha is turning into more of a nightmare than i wanted... i just wish i could forget about college, go to europe, and drop off the grid for good.

Ice is not nice!

Elle — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:15:00 GMT

So yes... it's really not. We didn't get anything HALF as bad as what people north of us and in OK and MO are experiencing, but it was annoying enough. Missed work for several days, my internet at home is knocked out thanks to errant lightning (it was literally a thunderstorm throwing ice at us... yuck), and i'm finally able to get into town and use a computer at the library and harass people =p Another thing I need to post about is Winken's operation about a week ago. No more tumors for my little finken! And he's doing very well. I have lots of stuff to mail, and presents to buy, and air outside of my house to breathe (yay!) so I shall be off for now!

Winken

Elle — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:34:58 GMT

My little rat isn't doing well. He has one very large tumor that I'm currently saving up to have removed. In the midst of this, though, he's developed another one, and his breathing's become noticably more labored. So I'm wondering if it would be worth it to either of us to put him through surgery when he could just wind up with another turmor (or perhaps already has one in his lungs that can't be removed anyway) or he may not survive the post-surgery recovery period. The sad truth that I have to remember is that finkens don't live very long. At 3 years old, Winken has reached generally accepted "maximum age" for a rat, and while there have been rats living much longer than that, they are usually rats with documented "long life" blood lines from professional breeders, and certainy not ones from rescues or pet stores who started life out on a downward tilt. Another rat reality is that tumors are just "one of those things." Every rat is prone to them, they may or may not kill them, but trying to stop them can be an uphill and almost futile battle. So I guess the real question is "to euthanise or not to euthanise." I don't want him to be sick forever because I just don't want to part with him, but I don't want to put him to sleep if he can be saved. But knowing that, at his age, he may not even survive recovery... Well, I dunno. And of course, he's a lone rat now, and never was before. His three brothers have all died, and being alone is misery for a rat. And as much as I interact with him, I can't make up for finken kinship, something rats need almost as much as food or water. This is my current decision, and it sucks.