Apology to all my friends!

I am clearly Tribe Event and/or calendar challenged. If you got an event invite for Hiplash! Spring Fling more than once, or didn't get one at all...I'm sorry!

The third time's the charm, I hear...but rather than spam your inbox I'll just post the info here:
The correct date for the Spring Fling is Sunday, March 30th and doors open at 7pm.

Hope to see you there!

Home again!

I actually got home Wednesday night, but this is the first chance I've had to blog. I had a really nice family reunion at the Colorado River. My parents came from Tucson, and my sister & her family came from Alaska. We had four days together at an RV park right on the river bank. We went swimming a couple of times, went sight seeing at the London Bridge (no, it didn't fall down...they moved it to Arizona!), fed the ducks in the river, celebrated the Feb/Mar birthdays together, gazed at the stars (it's amazing how many more of them there are when there's no ambient light), and got reacquainted with each other.

I got to spend some time hooping every day and spun my glow poi every night. I even managed to work out a new trick or two without any bruises. Everyone liked the hoops, but they LOVED the poi. Good thing I made six sets of practice poi before I went. I was able to send everyone home with a set, and my mom wants glow poi for her birthday in June.

It's nice to be home again, though. My dog and cat missed me, and I missed my soft bed.

Testing for the Tribal Vagabond Tour

I'm on vacation and took this picture a couple of minutes ago, riding down the I-10 near Desert Center...aka the middle of nowhere. This is going to be awesome when I go on tour with Hiplash! in July. I'll be able to post daily updates with pictures from the shows and workshops. How cool is that?

I hurt my wing. :(

I have to replace one of the doors in my house. No problem, I thought...I'm a regular handyma'am. Unfortunately, there's no accounting for crappy construction.

As I was removing the case molding, I discovered that the trim was only thing holding the door jamb up! Removing the old door jamb should have been a piece of cake, since I didn't even need a reciprocating saw to cut through the nails...right?

Wrong! I went ahead and removed all the molding, then slipped the old door jamb out and CRASH! Not only was the door jamb not nailed into the rough opening...it wasn't even nailed together! As I pulled the old jamb out, the header fell. On me.

It missed my head, but caught me square across the back of my left shoulder. I'm not broken, but it hurts like hell and it's starting to get stiff. Hiplash rehearses twice a week and tomorrow's a rehearsal day, I wanted to get video of my new poi trick tonight, and now I'm not sure I'm even going to be able to get the new door in.

I'm also seriously wondering if my whole house was built so poorly. And if it was...when's it going to come crashing down around me?

Great Backyard Bird Count (and photo contest)

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent.

The GBBC runs from February 15-18th this year. If you want to participate plan to count for at least 15 minutes, write down the greatest number you see together at one time from each species, then enter the numbers on the GBBC website. You can count in as many places and on as many of those days as you like, as long as you keep a separate list for each one.

Complete instructions, an online bird guide to help identify species, details about the photo contest, and more are at:

www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

The picture is a Western Meadowlark that was in my backyard, btw.

The 'Wapsi Girl' Project!

Paul Taylor, creator of my favorite webcomic "Wapsi Square", is starting up The 'Wapsi Girl' Project again and has asked me if I'm interested contributing. I don't know when, or even if I will be featured...but I'm so excited! I may not be a glyph reader in search of the ancient calendar machine or part of a fractured chimera, but I can relate to the emotional struggles and relationships of the characters. That's what makes "Wapsi Square" such a gem of a webcomic, and why I'm so excited to even be considered "Wapsi Girl" material.

Wapsi Square: www.wapsisquare.com
The 'Wapsi Girl' Project: wapsisquare.com/wapsi_girl_project.html

Are you a carrot, egg, or coffee bean?

Original source: www.new-mind.com/Library/c...eebean.htm

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?
by Mary Sullivan - used with her expressed permission.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as if as soon as one problem was solved a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen.

The mother filled three pots with water.

In the first, she placed carrots.
In the second she placed eggs.
And the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil without saying a word. About twenty minutes later, she turned off the burners.

She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her daughter, she said, "Tell me what you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. (You known the tone of voice.)

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did, and noted that they felt soft.

She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg inside.

Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

The daughter then asked, "So, what's the point, mother?" (Remember the tone of voice.)

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water - but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid center. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its insides had become hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water...they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your
door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot , an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt
and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat?

Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial
hardship, or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my outer shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water - the very circumstances that bring the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor of the bean. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you instead of letting it change you.

When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level?

How do you handle Adversity?

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

Because I'm evil...

www.transbuddha.com/mediaHolder.php

Would you like some cheese to go with that whine?

Hips of Fury is just over a week away. I really need to be rehearsing, but all I want to do is sleep because I'm sick. It's nothing serious, but I've got a sore throat and enough of a fever to make me hurt all over and feel like crap. Even my hair hurts! I'd whine more, but I just don't have the energy. :(

Hiplash and Hips of Fury

Hips of Fury is coming up fast! If you've never heard of it, check out hipsoffury.net on the web or hipsoffury.tribe.net here on Tribe. Hips of Fury is a really cool Alternative Belly Dance Competition event in the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles. There are workshops, vendors galore, and a spectacular evening show, too. Every year has a theme (last year's was sci-fi), and this year's theme is spies in honor of the year '007.

Hips of Fury is very special to me, because it was the first big event I ever attended. This year is going to be even more special, because this year I'll be performing in the evening show as a member of Hiplash.

You see...Hiplash's debut performance was on that very stage at last year's Hips of Fury. I attended the Evening Show workshop and got to dance alongside them on stage. Hiplash was awesome! They were newly formed, but they were amazing and I idolized them. During the workshop, there were times I'd forget to dance because I was so mesmerized watching them. Thankfully, that didn't happen on stage! Dancing with them was the highlight of my short belly dance career.

I was inspired! I made a promise to myself to become a better dancer. I took up to three classes a week, performed with two troupes (the student troupe, Belly Vision and Galaxy), and spent countless nights practicing until the wee hours of the morning....hoping that "someday" I'd be good enough to dance with Hiplash instead of dancing alongside them.

"Someday" became a reality for me when I auditioned for Hiplash in June...and was accepted as a peer by those I idolized. That blows me away! There's no time to rest on my laurels, though. Hiplash set the bar high last year, and I have to maintain that standard at the very least. My promise to myself now is to push it even higher when I return to the stage that started it all. Hips of Fury is only five weeks away...I'd better get busy!


Picture of Hiplash (and friends) at Hips of Fury 2006 courtesy of renaissancefaire.net
Copyright © 2007 Richard G Lowe Jr