oh, ass.

Why didn't I check first to see when the blasted NAAFA convention or where Tribal Quest NW was like a week ago?

Cause now I'm going to be in the SF Bay (where the NAAFA thing is a week later) while TQNW gets down with its bad self in Portland, which we also contemplated. Doh! Somebody else go to those things for me, okay?

Ah, well. That's for next year's August Bank Holiday. This year, we're doing girly stuff.

almost last chance - 2nd annual ladies' (not really) cd swap!

By end of this week, I'll collect and send out the addresses for the 2nd Annual Ladies' (Not Really *) CD Swap. So, if you want to do it, go gimme your address, already.

More about the theme/rules/etc..

* By which I mean, not only do pretty much none of us women count as Ladies, but participation is in no way limited by gender. So it's really not a "ladies" swap at all, is it?

hula hoop! and alma mater

My adorable, huge red-covered Betty Hoop came the other day. After an hour (except smoke break) of heating one end and wiggling and shoving it up against a wall and resorting to duct tape to put the thing together, I have to say it's the source of all joy.

It's also exhausting. It took me (only!) two days to remember how to hoop, but I get tired after about a minute.

And I think I do it a lot differently than when I was a kid. I thought it was a fairly rigid body thing, and that's what all the hooping sites say - but what's actually working is basically an exaggerated version of the hula ami, which is basically a hip circle with your pelvis tucking under and your top half released but not really moving all that much. See! It is like hula.

And! If it starts to fall down, you can bend a little, and it comes back up with you. If you do tilt your whole body far back/forward/sideways, you can get a cool oscilloscope thing going. Physics! In action! Joy! And the whole slight squat it requires is totally going to help me with the levels and stuff I'm afraid of with dance.

Seriously, how exciting is that? Everybody needs a giant hula hoop, I tell you.

Also. Today I drove through campus at Dear Old Shiz, and had a very excellent sammich. I'm feeling healed by the constancy of my 300 year old college, even if all its students are given to interrupting other ideas to quibble on the internets about whether its a college or a university. It's exactly the same, plus a few buildings and minus a couple of others. That's nice sometimes, you know?

P.S. - it's the latter, dammit.