Friday night I went over to John and Treasaās with some bagel bites and spanakopita, the last of the insane amounts of party food Team Costco had acquired. They have this extremely large TV in their TV room, along with eight or nine hundred types of video game thingies. I got sucked into watching some sort of CSI show or something, but during the commercial breaks (when I wasnāt going āWait, huh? Why is that computer like that? Why does everyone have fingerprint-taking-stuff on them at all times? They sure dress nicely for civil servants. How come the lab just happens to have that information right there on the table?ā) we talked about my moving into their spare room in a couple of months.
Yes, my friends, my housing karma seems to have kicked in once again, just as I hoped it would. If all goes well Iāll be moving to bucolic Ballard in the middle of June. Iām sad, of course, to leave my current beautiful house and beautiful neighborhood, but I am equally thrilled not to be moving to a crappy one-bedroom instead. I went to see an apartment last week after work, having seen an ad that promised relatively cheap rent right in my neighborhood, around the corner from where I currently live. Yāall, it was just awful. In the basement of a chintzy building with 20-watt lightbulbs and filthy, defeated carpet. Just absolutely awful. I pretty much ran out of there, determined to beg Treasa and John to let me live in their basement, which I was sure would be way nicer than the place we saw.
It was a good conversation and Iām excited about the whole thing. John and Treasa have become good friends since they moved up here a couple of years ago and when I was over there Friday night I was having such a good time eating ice cream and talking with them that I was a little sad about having to go home. I think the expectations theyāve set are very reasonable: John says I have to stay in my room at all times except for two half-hour intervals to use the microwave. Also he says theyāre going to have to raise the rent because they just got this new potato masher thatās apparently really cool and well worth the hundred dollar hike. Andā¦if all this werenāt enoughā¦they said that theyāre happy to give me a ladder to prop up against my third-floor window so as to facilitate all the late-night hookups Iām sure to be having, now that Iāll be living in Ballard. Itās a little-known fact that people who live in Ballard are ever so slightly sexier than those who live in other, less sexy neighborhoods in Seattle. Strange but true. I think it has to do with proximity to not only to Cupcake Royale but also to the much-vaunted Nordic Heritage Museum, which, if you havenāt visited, hoo boy! Sex-ay!And speaking of sex-ay, Saturday night I went to see some more burlesque with some fabulous girls from my bellydance class. We were seeing Sharon perform again and it was awesome to behold. Iāve seen burlesque a couple of other times in the past six monthsā¦in fact I sort of feel that I am within easy striking distance of some tasseled pasties every couple of weeks or so, now that I think about it. But wait, that wasnāt until the evening. Saturday day I got up and did my volunteer day, which involved pulling ivy from a little neighborhood park in West Seattle. I never think to stretch or anything before battling these invasives for three hours so nowā¦two days later, I might add, because of my wimpinessā¦I am very sore. Itās always sort of satisfying to get a little muddy, though, and of course thereās the innate satisfaction that comes with totally annihilating a bunch non-native plants and working out any anger issues one might or might not be dealing with at the time.
with some fabulous girls from my bellydance class. We were seeing Sharon perform again and it was awesome to behold. Iāve seen burlesque a couple of other times in the past six monthsā¦in fact I sort of feel that I am within easy striking distance of some tasseled pasties every couple of weeks or so, now that I think about it. But wait, that wasnāt until the evening. Saturday I got up and did my volunteer day, which involved pulling ivy from a little neighborhood park in West Seattle. I never think to stretch or anything before battling these invasives for three hours so nowā¦two days later, I might add, because of my wimpinessā¦I am very sore. Itās always sort of satisfying to get a little muddy, though, and of course thereās the innate satisfaction that comes with totally annihilating a bunch non-native plants and working out any anger issues one might or might not be dealing with at the time.with some fabulous girls from my bellydance class. We were seeing Sharon perform again and it was awesome to behold. Iāve seen burlesque a couple of other times in the past six monthsā¦in fact I sort of feel that I am within easy striking distance of some tasseled pasties every couple of weeks or so, now that I think about it. But wait, that wasnāt until the evening. Saturday I got up and did my volunteer day, which involved pulling ivy from a little neighborhood park in West Seattle. I never think to stretch or anything before battling these invasives for three hours so nowā¦two days later, I might add, because of my wimpinessā¦I am very sore. Itās always sort of satisfying to get a little muddy, though, and of course thereās the innate satisfaction that comes with totally annihilating a bunch non-native plants and working out any anger issues one might or might not be dealing with at the time.But thatās nothing to the satisfaction of hanging out with the aforementioned beautiful women from bellydance and taking one of my new purses out to see even more beautiful women in various states of undress. This was the first time Iāve seen a whole evening of burlesque that didnāt make me actively cringe at some point. Sharonās husband Chris and I agreed that the fabulous Miss Indigo Blueās (I have a crush!) MC skills made all the difference in tone of the evening, as did the fact that all the performers actually had, you know, skills and talent. Sharon did a very cool classic bump-n-grind bit and wore an audacious feather headdress that made us all swoon. Another performer did a naughty thing with a Twinkie and then smeared some Little Debbies on her arm and licked them off, which was, obviously, awesome. And someone else wore this scintillating green dress and went by the amazing name of Roxie Monoxide, which may be my favorite drag name Iāve ever heard.
Now, the thing about burlesque is that I donāt find itā¦all that sexy. I mean, itās awesome, itās beautiful, I love it, itās very cute and cool, but itās not actually arousingā¦even though there is some nakedness involved. I donāt know if it is meant to be arousing, in this day and ageā¦I mean, you can see just about the same amount of skin in any random movie billboard, itās not like itās that exciting. I think the best burlesque Iāve seen thus fas has used sexuality as just a part of the allureā¦itās mostly about the attitude, in my opinion. Still, it was pretty funny when Denise leaned over and was all āIs it really weird that Iām eating a burger while that girl is taking her dress off?ā Like we should be a little more focused, or something because LOOK AT THE NAKED LADIES!
Miss Indigo Blue actually offers burlesque classesā¦in fact this night was the Spring Recital for her students, how awesome is thatā¦and I thought a little about taking one. I think it sounds really cool and fun but I am not sure if itās something Iād be good at. Leaving aside the conundrum of how to actually take your clothes off in a seductive fashion, without getting your zipper stuck or messing up your bra hooks, Iām not totally sure I have the performance wherewithal. Tonight in intermediate tribal class weāre working on our solos and I just emailed Sharon this big thing about how Iām scared and Iām going to have a heart attack and wonāt be able to make it to class because Iāll be in the ER. Itās not even the showing my bits part that gives me pause, or the concomitant body image issuesā¦and itās not that Iām not a huge attention whore, as anyone who knows me in real life can attest. I donāt know; I think I canāt quite yet coordinate dancing and attitude and moxie and all the things you need to be able to do to be a good performer, burlesque or bellydance. I can usually get either the moves or the attitude or the eye contact or the musicality, but never at the same time. Itās a little frustrating, of course, and I am still terrified about tonightās class, but I guess Iāll never get any better if I donāt keep trying. Itās sort of exciting, anyway, to think that not only do I live in a city where I can bellydance as much as I want to, any night of the week, but also that I could one day branch out into something like burlesque.
Okay, where was I? Uh, yeah, Saturday night. So, right, I went to burlesque and wore a new necklace my mom sent me for my birthday and then I came home to a movie and my flannel sheets, sweet bliss that they are, and yes Iām still sleeping on them even though it is April because I am cold. Sunday morning I had the MS Walk, which was very very early in the morning. My whole office was supposed to do it together; we thought it would be sort of jerky for people work actually work in MS research not to come out and support, you know, MS research. We were all supposed to meet underneath a sign at the Husky Stadiumā¦which Iād never been to in my life, though Iāve passed it on the way to the gym and occasionally parked there when I wanted to rent canoes from the WAC. I found myself wandering around trying to find my team, looking forlornly at the entire Starbucks corporate office team members in their matching green shirts, wondering if I shouldnāt just give up and go home and forget about it. Happily for me and for the cause, I ran into another team I knew comprised of my friend A., her sister, her mother-in-law, and another mutual friend. They were nice enough to let me stand around with them for approximately eight hundred hours in the cold, and then to let me walk with them down to Gas Works Park and back. It was a nice easy walk (we wondered if it oughtnāt be the MS Stroll, instead) but there was some excitement in the form of a car on fire on the bridge above, and also in the form of an altercation between a poor defenseless MS Walker and some horrible mean cyclist guy who jumped off his bike and started screaming about how someone pushed him and he was about to hit the MS Walker and then this big bouncer-type guy came and physically tore this guy away and it was all pretty scary and awful but we kept walking and then some nice people gave us some fruit leather later.I was home by noon and spent the rest of the day not cleaning my room, talking on the phone, receiving the news that our dryer is broken, and drinking hot chocolate. I just booked a flight to Chicago for next month, where I plan to go to Erinās book reading, visit the Jessamyn and her daughter, and hang out with the luscious Dawnie and possibly some more friends from inside the computer. I also just found out that this entry won a Diarist Award, which is so awesome, especially when you see the awesomeness of the other winners, amongst whom I am mighty honored to be included. So it was a lovely weekend and I have high hopes for an equally lovely week, thank you very much.