I hit the zills wall

Being half up and running again, I decided to start practicing something non-aerobic, ie. zills. I also got a very inspiring book today, the dancing cymbalist by Jenna Woods, which left me very impressed and humbled.

I consider myself not too bad on zills, I have made a good effort and gone beyond what I was taught, I feel I know my rhythms and I can semi-competently move with zills. So, far so good. When I watched Kamille at Pennsic, it was pretty clear what the next goal for me has to be: go from just clanging to expanding the tonal range of my playing and to adding dynamics (softer and louder playing). With that in goal set clearly, yikes, it was a painful practice session. I realized, there is a big, huge, seemingly unsurmountable wall I ran into, head-on. My technique sucks (I have no clue to get that under control), I am having a devil of a time with even the most basic drills for different strikes, and when it comes to playing soft, uhm, well, I can't - there is one volume setting to my hands. I really can't play soft for any more than a few strikes. OK - now what? Giving up is not an option. So, there's only one way - continue to practice. But, man, that's gonna be a LONG, LONG effort to somehow hoist my old, grouchy self over that huge wall I ran into today.

"Sherry, Niles?"

I guess that gives away that I am a big Frasier fan, and even have the entire series on my iPod. (I have a good excuse, Eddie reminds me of Daniel, the best dog ever.)

Anyways, what I really mean, with a glass of sherry in hand - I am back alive! Not sure whether I got it at Pennsic or while running through the WV woods in the rain, I suffered of two weeks of a terrible cough, which caused me to be sick in bed for days, to sleep in the guestroom (to keep those terrible coughing fits from waking Vincent), and not to drink coffee or wine - when I don't feel like wine for so long, it's serious. But, finally, finally, I started drinking coffee again two days ago - and now I am sipping a glass of (dry, of course) sherry. YEAY!!!!

No DNC webcast for us

Sure, as a German, I shouldn't be all excited by the election, and I shouldn't be interested in football, either. But, hey, I am interested in both, and want to watch the DNC webcast to make sure I don't miss Al Gore, who is a mighty cool guy, while we watch the Steelers. Problem is, even though I have the technology in place, the DNC website won't let me see their webcast showing me an (incorrect) error message that I my OS/browser are not as expected. Same for Vincent's machine - looks as if the smart people (those who use Macs) are not covered online. Of course, this will have no impact on my political opinion, but I very much hope this is not indicative for the rest of the campaign.

Held up by a cold

Instead of sitting with a nice glass of wine on my deck, writing up my Pennsic and then our West Virginia backpacking adventures, I am sipping herbal tea spiced up with cough sirup. Somewhere, I caught a stupid cold that gives me coughing fits - all I can do is try my best to clean up the collected mess. Last night, for the first time I can recall, Vincent fled the bed. Argh, this is so annoying! But, they will come.

Yesterday, we had "adventure" at home: A contractor for next door parked in the driveway (he didn't ask me, I should add), and managed to get himself parked in. Police came, and the car ended up being towed. The policeman seemed a tad puzzled by me: I tried to get the car (which belongs to a nice gal next door, I believe) not get towed, while wearing my usual cozy clothes, Indian shirt and pantaloons. Not sure that crazy neighbor look added to my credibility ;-)

We got in!!!

This morning, after returning tired beyond words and incredibly happy from Pennsic, Jen and I did the Rakkasah call-in thingie, and we got through, for a spot on Sunday evening, with Djinn.

Things going wrong at home

I have to add a warning here - this is a bad, bad blog story. I've just had the most unlikely bad day.

It's one of these days where things are just so bizarrely not working out one after another, it's too crazy to make up. I need to replace my bank card - no biggie, just call the bank. And that's where a series of unfortunate events started: As it turns out, they still have my old address. So, I needed to change that (I get offers for credit cards and life insurance every second day from them - they have my address!!!), which is a rather amusing process: They asked me for my birthday so many times that I feel at least entitled to a birthday present from them. Then, because of the address change, I needed to talk to a supervisor to get my replacement card sent, which is fine by me - again, they were very curious about my birthday. At that point, I started thinking that I should get a yummy cake, with candles and filling, in addition to my present. To verify me, they wanted to know the last transaction - when and how much. I had what I thought was the most recent deposit slip, but it was not, so I had to climb up to the perch to get the right one - I was still confident that things would be cool, but I was wrong: During that time, my phone ran out of minutes. So, I wanted to use my brand new credit card - can't use the placement card b/c it doesn't have the 3-digit super-security code. No biggie - I went to buy a top-up card at the Giant Eagle. Go home, wanna use my card - but, when I try to scratch off the cover over the PIN code, the number comes off, which renders the card useless. It took me forever to find what number to call, and even longer to talk to a person. I can fax the card to them so that they can decide whether I will get a refund, or I can go to the store where I bought the card. Given that I don't have a fax, I walk back to the Giant Eagle, which is no fun on a hot day. There, I was treated by a rude cashier and a socially challenged manager - they are unwilling to do squat. So, I walk back home, call the phone company again (in their defense - I can call them company even when I am out of minutes, at least that much I can do), and I have to fax a copy of that damaged card. Problem is - I don't have a fax, and no, can't get the Giant Eagle to do that, either. I need an email address or a snail mail address. After being on hold for even longer, I talked to a supervisor, who gave me an address - not sure what I can do w/ that address.

So, here I am - still no bank card, no phone, bad mood, and a sequence of events that is so ridiculously out of kilter that I have to laugh at myself. And, I still have a great urge for a HUGE frozen margarita. I mean, seriously, isn't that the most pathetic, unbelievably unprobable and convoluted sob story in a long time? Sometimes life throws us things that even the worst writer couldn't dream up.

Things going wrong in the nation's capital

I am right now sitting in the Omni hotel in DC (that hotel has a NICE swimming pool!), and boy, it's a trip of things gone wrong. I am playing accompanying spouse for Vincent, who is one of the authors of a best-paper-award-winning paper.

First, I had wanted to take a private with Artemis, which was really the main reason why I had come to D.C. - but, I couldn't get in touch with her, she neither responded to email or phone. That has been frustrating, I have to admit. I am trying to learn, and it is a bit discouraging to not find somebody to teach me. I know I need instruction - but for the life of me, I don't find it. What else am I supposed to do?!?! I have made my peace with the fact that Pittsburgh isn't all that fabulous when one is interested in oriental/Turkish, but with the bellyflop in D.C., I feel a bit as if I am running out of options.

Second, I went to a workshop with Amaya, where I felt somewhat out of place between mostly beginners who attended the workshop. I learned some useful things, but it was one of the more unusual experiences to be in a workshop with a well-known dancer and to be surrounded by a majority older, Afrcian-American dancers who are in the very-beginner stage. I focussed on what I can learn and observing the teacher as much as I can, so I don't care much about the other dancers, but of course, an instructor will adjust to the overall level. Again - I am looking for more advanced instruction, but it seems elusive.

Third, I had some car upset: The hotel had only valet, not self parking, something I don't care for. When I drove to the workshop, I realized upon arrival that the door lock pull/push botton on the driver side was missing. So, I complained upon return - and they first gave me the "You should have noticed when you picked up the car!" nonsense, which didn't go over well with me, and then we had to wait FOREVER for a claim to be filed. Doing that to a hungry woman - not good. Now, that episode has a happy ending: After me raising hell (hungry woman filing a claim), the next morning, miraculously, they had found that thingie and put it back into place.

Fourth, and that really did me in - I somehow lost my wallet, either temporarily or permanently. I have no idea how and where, and then had to call the credit card companies, and now we have to check for unintended charges. I also had a good stack of cash in it (to go to the workshop with Amaya on Saturday, which I missed as a result of being seriously rattled). Fortunately, no IDs of any kind, only my Coop card and the Giant Eagle advantage card. But still, it is a hassle, and I am still very stressed out by it.

So, that's the story of me going to DC. Oh, there was also the terrible rain when we came in - on the last three miles, we had very bad rain that lead to me having to drive with around ten feet visibility. That wasn't the worst part: There were huge, deep lakes where they usually have streets. I was rather worried how our mature car would deal with these - I envisioned myself being stuck in the middle of an intersection on a major road in DC during a thunderstorm, water filling the bottom of our car ... (maybe it is fair to say that, I have a tiny little bit too much of a sense of drama at times).

Few nice things - I learned some good things from Amaya (which make me realize even more how much happier I would be if I could find regular, advanced bellydance classes), I had a decent time in Georgetown (love the Lush store and bought a few things with the "karma" scent, got the best ever shoes to go with my cholis), had a nice dinner at Kramerbooks with Chas, Vincent and Ron (and I was a good girl when I had the chance to misbehave), had a great time reading by the pool (a nice book on Saladin), got a very long, and fascinating lecture of the owner of "Dancer, The Unusual Store" (I wish I had that on camera, I felt like in my own WQED documentary for Bellydancers - ya' now, Rick Sebak on Shimmies, I had a grand time just listening for at least an hour!), I got some cool appliques there (with more advice on making cabaret costumes than i had ever gotten before), and just before we left for D.C., the costume fairy was extremely nice to me and I bought the wine red Great Loop I had been whining about a few blog entries ago (color didn't work for the woman who beat me to it by a few seconds).

So, now I hope that I have sufficiently many good karma points to find my wallet through some miracle in a part of my luggage that I didn't check properly in my increasingly panicked frenzy this morning, or that at least, I won't have to deal with any abuse - I can handle the loss of the cash. Seriously, should that wallet be misplaced and show up somewhere, that cash will go some good cause!

Coping with summer in unusual ways

Now that summer is finally here, I am suffering: I hate the muggy weather, which has brought me afternoon headaches, a very unpleasant thing. So, I am just dragging myself around, and my brain isn't exactly at its crispiest and most rational, either. Today, I bought the most bizarre piece of salvaged building material at Construction Junction, a totally whacko little arch thingy made from some sort of foam building material. I have not the faintest idea what I can possibly do with it - but my heat-damaged brain fell in love with this piece of junk, and I could not leave without it. Boy, I have a very bad taste at times ...

Dancing for the Konrad-und-Pauls of Pittsburgh

Woooheee, another cool benefit coming up: Jen and I will be dancing at an Aids benefit. It was more of a coincidence that I made the contact, but I got the idea that the organizer must have talked to somebody who saw our appearance at Pantypalooza. It warms my heart that people like our performances.

Now, from Pantypalooza to an Aids benefit - we're becoming the condom-squad bellydancers, which is great, it lines up with my views on the undesirability of the whole sex and guilt crap. Moreover, as a long-time fan of German gay comic artist Ralf Koenig ( www.ralf-koenig.de ), I am very excited to dance at this event. In recent years, Ralf Koenig has frequently addressed HIV in his comics, including the dilemma of safe sex (how sometimes desire overrides reason), the death of friends (including the reaction of families and the church) and his main character being tested HIV positive. Through making his audience smile about life with HIV and the characters' coping strategies, he is able to increase his readers' understanding. I have deep respect for him - we need more Ralf Koenigs in this world. With this, having the chance to support the Konrad-und-Pauls of Pittsburgh through Middle Eastern dance, how fantastic is that?

And, for a political, price-winning cartoon that is related a bit to Middle Eastern dance (it's in German, though), inspired by the Danish Mohammed cartoon drama, see here: www.ralf-koenig.de/comic.php Gotta love Ralf Koenig!!!

Growing frustrated with software

I am not a novice to computers. Way back in the day, I managed to configure sendmail, which is more or less the equivalent to being a real cauldron-stirring witch. Also, before the advent of html editors, I made webpages in Emacs and clickable maps w/o WYSIWYG. So, one would think that I'd have an easy time using a fairly simple WYSIWYG web editor to make something pretty straight-forward - but, as it turns out, I am having a bitch of a time. I am sitting here with growing aggression and frustration, wondering why the fonts don't display in a rational way. I miss the good old days: sendmail was impossible to use - but at least it made sense.

And, as a chick who was happy in the macho boy sys admin world, I am growing increasingly depressed that I can't use a whimpy piece of consumer-level software anymore. For crying out loud - it's not even a Microsoft product where it would be clear it's not my fault.