Dance!

So I finally posted a video on my tribe site that actually has some decent footage of me dancing. It's from the Rhythmic Arts Festival, which is this totally kick-ass swing dance event down in San Diego every New Year's. I competed in the Jack and Jill contest, which, for the unitiated, is a competition wherein partners are randomly assigned, and you are judged based on how well you can lead or follow with someone who is not your usual partner. Over 120 people entered the prelims, and out of those, only 16 made it to finals, and I was one of them, so that was pretty cool. It ended up being a true Jack and Jill for me in the finals, in that I had never danced with the guy I was paired with ever before in my life. His name is Joe and he is from Colorado, and he is totally awesome, so it ended up working out great, although not without a few glitches. We took third place. Yay!

Anyway, if you are one of my friends who has been hearing about swing dancing from me for years, and has never actually seen me dance, or if you just haven't seen me dance lately, check out this video, as it's likely the only video you will see of me dancing, since I don't compete much, and when I do, rarely have a record of it. So check it out!

Cosmic Balance

There is a cosmic balance to be maintained. It works something like this. I go to San Diego for the weekend. Great location: one tally in my favor. The weather in San Diego is perfect: another tally in my favor. I get to stay in a house full of wonderful women and we all get along and have a great time together: another tally in my favor. The dancing is absolutely fabulous, and I hardly have a single bad dance the entire weekend: another tally in my favor. I compete and place third: another tally in my favor. With all of these tallies in my favor, the cosmic balance is thrown off. In order to balance it once more, I get incredibly sick just as I get back to Davis and have to go to work: five tallies against me.

We're even now, the cosmos and I.

Dicken's Faire

I have a lot of fond feelings for Dicken's Faire, I realized after visiting it for the first time this season last Sunday. Freezer Faire at Cal Expo was the first faire I ever worked. I was 11 years old, and it was just my mom and me. She worked at the candy store for St. Cuthberts, and I was a theme character: the oldest of the Cratchit children, Martha. I was the one who was off working for a milliner and hid in the closet to surprise Mr. Cratchit with my return. It was a good gig. Of course, I spent nearly every moment of my free time when we weren't actively gigging or I wasn't helping mom in the candy store off at Fezziwig's. Even then I was enchanted by dancing. In fact, I directly blame Dicken's Faire for my current obsession with partner dancing in all of it's forms. Before that year, I had only done solo dancing. Twas Dicken's that introduced me to ballroom dancing, which led directly to me learning modern ballroom, followed by swing, which I have been doing ever since. It was logical then, for me to join up with Fezziwig's the next time I had a chance, in 1995, once again as a theme character from A Christmas Carol. That time I was Miss Ariel Fezziwig, the youngest of the Fezziwig daughters. I was 16, but was supposed to be playing a large 12 year old. It was a great fun. It's hard to believe that that was 11 years ago. And now the current manifestation of Dicken's at the Cow Palace has been going on for years, and I have not become involved again for one reason or another.

I feel drawn back to it now though. I can't imagine working an entire run of Renaissance faire again, quite frankly. It is just a bit too much. I like visiting, but it doesn't really call me that way that Dicken's does. So perhaps next year I will get it together enough to actually make Dicken's happen. I may even go back for the last day of this run on Saturday. I'm working on a new costume all this week whilst on vacation from school. (I love being on vacation!!!). I most likely won't be able to work every weekend no matter what, since I still have other commitments, but I could most likely work the majority of the weekends next year, especially now that I know that there are people who go out every week from Davis that I could catch rides with.

I'm going to Faire this Sunday!!

I'm pretty excited. I haven't been since last weekend of last year. I hope to see many of you there!!

Everything comes in threes

This has been possibly one of the worst weeks of my life, and yet it's been relieving in a lot of ways. The breakup was not fun, and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but my mom falling off the ladder had very positive consequences in some ways. First, she was able to help me diagnose what has been wrong with me for the past six or more months. People have been noticing for a long time that I been shaking, that my heart has been beating like crazy, that I always look tired, that I'm not as strong as I used to be, that I've been losing weight even though I eat like a pig, and that I've had major anxiety. I thought I was just out of shape. When I went to the hospital to visit my mom on Wednesday, she immediately noticed the shaking, and she asked me if I had had my thyroid checked. You see, she had Graves Disease when she was 32, and so she new the symptoms of hyperthyroidism when she saw them. And sure enough, she was right. I do have Graves Disease. Having this disease sucks, but it's not the end of the world. I'm already feeling much better because they immediately put me on beta blockers for my heart, so I'm much calmer.

The other consequence of my mom falling off the ladder and me having Graves Disease, is that we finally got to talk about all of the things that have been bothering me, that have been keeping us apart. So all in all, even though three very terrible things happened, I'm feeling pretty relieved. At least I know now that I'm not really that out of shape, and that the anxiety I was feeling was not just because I was going crazy, but because my body has been on overdrive for over six months.

If you want to learn more about Graves Disease, check out:

www.4woman.gov/faq/graves.htm