River

I took a middle eastern drumming workshop this weekend with the drumming master River Guerguerian. I had my first drumming lesson with him back in 07 as part of bellydance camp. He's such an amazing person. He's been featured on NPR repeatedly during the week running up to the workshop & performance. In fact an NPR woman was there recording during our class. He had a very successful music career in New York playing percussion, then sold everything he owned and traveled the Himalayas for 5 years with just a backpack and musical instruments. His daughter was born there and he delivered her!He's a very cool cat, not earthy or crunchy, but you can see there's something special about him. He literally has musical energy flowing through his body all the time, and the energy comes through his fingers so naturally onto any surface without a second thought. He was standing there talking with the NPR woman about when he could meet her for an interview, yet as I walked around him I noticed his hands performing a riveting drumming on the water bottle he held. The sound reminded me of a babbling brook - mesmerizing, incomprehensibly complex yet natural.

I happened to have the same notebook with me for note-taking that I carried to my last class with him. Afterwards I compared notes, and they were almost identical. Nothing about music or rhythms, just comments about body alignment, breathing, and relaxing. Letting the drum strike be part of a circular movement of your hands. And the difference in the sound you can generate is amazing depending on if you're just thinking about hitting the drum vs. letting it be part of a larger almost meditative stance. Any time we were struggling with a complex rhythm he would intentionally take a deep breath, reminding us to do so as well, and the beat would just fall into place. He asked us once what the 4th toe on our left foot was doing, and as my attention slid away from my hands they relaxed into the music.

I know I will never be able to play like him, but I also know he will make me into the best drummer I can be. His encouragement is not that of wanting to please a teacher or show them how much you know, but rather that you want to be part of the energy he carries.

Puppies in the Spring

Now that the weather's brightening up, I'm spending more time outside with the dogs. I finally remembered to bring my camera with me, so here's a few new pics of the pups. Kayla just turned 6 months old - she's growing like a weed, so scrawny right now. I think she's using all her nutrition to grow fur instead of body mass. She's going to be even furrier than Katie. Egads, it's going to break my vacuum cleaner. At least I'll be able to continue knitting D. winter gear to match his Katie fur hat and scarf.

Windy loves the water, and if you ask her if she wants to go swimmin' she'll immediately tear off for the nearest watering hole. If it's not deep enough for honest swimming she enjoys just lounging. Do the strings of drool sheeting down take away from the overall image?

Kayla sometimes comes out with these expressions that make you look around the house to see what she's done. See what I mean? These looks also make me wonder what she's mixed with. We know half is Australian Shepherd, but really are curious about what the other half is.

Windy is sort of doofy, but her attention is unwavering when she sees something interesting. There were flocks of ducks migrating that sparked some deep rooted instinct in her. She'd trot along staring at them until they flew over the treeline. Kayla didn't know what Windy was looking at, but mimiced her anyway.

Awesome Product

I love high heel shoes. It's not because I need the added height, I'm always shocked when I see a "very tall" woman in a store and as I come closer realize we're the same height. So I feel slightly self conscious at how tall I must seem in heels, but from my perspective it's only a few inches difference from my normal height and doesn't seem like that big a deal. I just love the way they look, and how dainty my ankles and feet seem. Yes, I recognize I have a problem compulsively liking things that make me feel dainty in any way. I know being dainty isn't necessary for being feminine, and I probably would hate it if I really were dainty, but logic and compulsion don't really go together, now do they?

But that's not really why I'm writing today. Heels need to be broken in so they're comfortable, yet it's hard to wear them enough to break them in until they are. And my stupid pinky toe that broke and healed wrong isn't helping. Oh, don't worry about me, I broke it in college tripping over this jerk RA who refused to get up from laying across the hallway. He got his in the end, though - his hall duct tape mummified him and left him in the lounge. Anyway, the toe was really bothering me after wearing my newest heels and my new toe awareness made all my shoes disturbingly painful to wear. I was disheartened to think I wouldn't be able to wear any of my pretty shoes again, and that if I tried I'd damage my feet. Then I found the awesome product that is driving this post:It's an old fashioned Shoe Stretcher, but made especially for high heels. You apply a stretching spray to the inside of the shoe (I think it's just rubbing alcohol truthfully) and stick the stretcher in. Then turn the handle to start stretching the shoe and leave overnight. Natural leather shoes stretch very quickly, but synthetics or shoes with a lot of stitching take multiple treatments. But it's totally worth it. Because I can once again wear my new green patent leather heels :)

Do I win a prize?

We got a fresh batch of samples to test at work yesterday. Someone said one of them had orange string in it, and showed it around while people tried to guess what the item actually was. I thought it looked pink, not orange, and could be a strand of bubble gum. After we had our fun guessing someone opened it and rooted around until they found the "orange string". And lo & behold it WAS a piece of pink gum, maybe Trident from the size. I threw my arms up in victory and cheered. Yeah, it was one of those days at the end of a long week where everyone is a bit more overwhelmed than they can handle and things get silly.

I do have a disturbingly accurate rate of guessing foreign objects in samples. Maybe it's my deductive reasoning that helps me recreate the whole picture in my mind and not be swayed by misleading evidence. Maybe it's just years of experience. But ultimately - Why? Why do I have both the skill and perverse desire to figure out what things are? It's always a little thrill when you realize what you've found, but egads, who really needs this?

(I reread my post and think it's "safe" unless you know exactly where I work)

It's showtime Synergy!

I hope the reference wasn't too esoteric. Just rub your star sparkle earrings and get ready to kick some Misfits ass. So yet another example of the weird synergistic connection my SIL and I share. We seem to have an oddly similar approach to things, down to having matching nailpolish. Here we are at xmas (my feet, her hands): Totally convergent evolution, never have we discussed these things. All of you who know me know that I always wear blue toenail polish. I may stray a bit and wear teal, but that's as far as it goes. So one day I got a wild hair up my ass and painted my toenails ruby red. I was stunned when I next saw my SIL and her nails were the exact same color as mine. Ok, this isn't like twins separated at birth who end up living identical lives on opposite coasts. But it does feel a bit more than just coincidence. Hey, you can see my rainbow sock knitting in the corner! Sorry, got a bit of the "ooh shiny!" distraction going on.

Socks socks socks... and chocolate

You ever have those days where you really want something chocolatey, but just can't figure out exactly what you're craving? Candy? Cookie? Brownie? Ice cream? High quality dark chocolate bar? Nope, nothing is calling out as the exact right item. That's how people end up drinking mexican hot chocolate and eating dark chocolate covered dried plums. Oddly, it seems to be satisfying the craving. Hooray!

Ok, I'm not really talking about chocolate, I just wanted to set the stage for my real post. SOCKS! Last month I dyed a sock blank with my SIL. In case you're asking what the hell a sock blank is--I used a knitting machine to knit up yarn into a big chunk of fabric, then we dyed it, then I unraveled it and used the yarn to knit a pair of socks. Ridiculous? Just wait till you see the final product! Dyeing the yarn this way allows for color gradations that wouldn't be possible if dyeing the yarn in a skein. And for some magical reason using this yarn and pattern makes the sock knitting go twice as fast as normal. I had these done in about a week! Holy speed knitting batman! Here's the awesome socks I knit for my mom's birthday present. Dang, I sure hope she doesn't see this post before her party. And best of all there's enough dyed yarn left for a pair of knee socks for me!

Second sock-related item: I've been trying hard to keep up with the laundry and not doing a very good job at that. But how can I be totally to blame when the Sock Monster is hard at work disrupting my sock matching? Sure, I can accept having one or two mismatched socks in the middle of a laundry day, but this is just ridiculous: I know in this photo they look like matched pairs, well maybe not the knee socks, but in reality they are all different sock patterns. I really don't know where all the sockmates are, I hope they turn up in the next load, or things are going to start looking silly. Because handknit rainbow stripe socks aren't silly at all.

Insert: frustrated muppet noise

You know that noise the Muppets - Kermit in particular - make when they're frustrated. They press their lips together, pull their mouth back into their neck a bit, grimace, and go hrrmmppff. You know they're irritated, but it's ok because hey, they're muppets! Yeah, that's kind of how I feel right now. Nothing's "wrong", things just don't feel quite right. I feel like I don't have time to do everything I need to, yet I also have free time that I'm not sure what to do with. Ok, ok, before you say that sounds like an easy answer and maybe some bad planning on my part, can I try to come to my own defense? The 30 min. I have free before I need to get ready for bed is not when I want to start tackling my to-do list. Often the things I need to do aren't compatible with an almost-4-month-old puppy who's starting to lick the baseboard moulding. Ah well, I better go see what's she's into before I head upstairs for bed.