it seems that the 20 (25?) year old central air conditioning has finally expired.  i can survive in my bedroom with the fan i bought at walgreens, until tomorrow when the air conditioning man comes to tell me that i need to figure out financing for $4000.  sigh. 

.....goin’ back to brasstown tomorrow…bouncy bouncy bouncy…coincides with this...whee!....wanna stay a second week for this but don’t know if i can swing it….bouncy bouncy zing!...

flying to woolfcamp in santa cruz!  a whole week in nocal for mee!!!

can it really be a three year anniversary when i don’t post here much anymore?

i have to think of something to rescue this trip.  I’m in over my head and my foot is wonky, so i can’t dance much but then, what else is there to do? i spent much of today driving in to murphy to get an ace bandage (that really seems to have helped, i think) and things to make the swelling in my foot go down some, but it’s still quite weak. i took the waltz class and it went out on me a couple of times, and i was really treating it fearfully.  i had to compensate a lot for it in the 200 years of american dances class, but i was able to do the whole thing, although I got way off several times. i notice that i have a better time when i try than when i let it overwhelm me, though, so i’m going to try the 8pm community dance tonight, which i sat out last night.  see if I can get something done, anyway.  the jury’s still out on whether this will turn out to have been a good or a bad idea, and that’s too bad, but I’m hoping i can still turn it into a good one.  i think i’ll go to the english dances one tonight; i’m told it might be easier on my foot.

was up at 5:30 this morning and sat out on the porch waiting for the sun to come up.  it was quite nice.

i gto to brasstown with little trouble, although driving was another of those completely-on-faith experiences that, as they always do, worked out just fine in the end. i got first pick of the beds, met two of my roommates (both of whom are serious dancers,or so it would seem) and immediately repaired to the coffeerroom to geek out.  the geek refuge.  i checkedrto see if i could take pics and vids, set up britekite to show me here, and here i am. dinner is at 6, with a short meeting thereafter and then the first open dance of the evening.

gulp.

my foot hurts. the one that always hurts these days, but it’s really hurting some now. probably from its immobility in the car for 10 hours? at any rate, it may prove (in?)convenient.  i did bring a rehearsal skirt, at least i remembered that far.  i wonder if i will spend the week in the corner? at least i plan to end my evenings by posting here and uploading whatever i’ve gotten that day.or that’s the plan.

so here i am. just like when i’m home. only i’m here.

had to sit out the open dance as my foot has suddenly swollen up to grapefruit size. now what?

1.) How old were you 10 years ago? 46
2.) Where did you go to school? University of South Florida
3) Where did you work?: University of South Florida
4) Where did you live? this house
5.) Where did you hang out? philosophy dept.
6.) Did you wear glasses? yes
7.) Who was your best friend? Joanne
8.) How many tattoos did you have? 0
9.) How many piercings did you have? 0
10) What car did you drive?: 80something toyota cressida
11.) Had you been to a real party? not for years
12.) Had you had your heart broken? not for years
—————-5 years ago—————-
1.) How old were you?: 51
2.) Where did you go to school? same
3.) Where did you work? USF St. Pete
4.) Where did you live? same
5.) Where did you hang out? LYS.
6.) Did you wear glasses? yes
7.) Who was your best friend? no one
8.) How many piercings? 2 (ears)
9.) How many tattoos did you have?: 0
10.) Had you been to a real party?: same
11.) What car did you drive?: 99 corolla
12.) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorced?: single
————————2 years ago—————————-
1.) How old were you?: 54
2.) Where did you go to school? taught elementary school art
3.) Where did you work? taught elementary school art where i didn’t like
4.)Where did you live? same
5.) Where did you hang out?: online
6.) Did you wear glasses? couldn’t afford them
7.) Who was your best friend? no one
8.) How many tattoos did you have?: 0
9.) How many piercings did you have? 2
10.) What car did you drive?: same
11.) Had your heart been broken? same
12.) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorced? single
——————————Today——————————
1.) How old are you?: 56
2.) Where do you go to school? still teach
3.) Where do you work? still teach, where i do like
4.) Where do you live? same
5.) Do you wear glasses? getting some this month
6.) Where do you hang out? online
7.) Do you talk to your old friends? no
8.) How many piercings do you have: 2
9.) How many tattoos?: 0
10.) What kind of car do you have? still corolla
11.) Has your heart been broken? repeatedly
12.) Are you Single/Taken/Married/Divorce? still single

Where is your mobile phone? plugged in in the car
Where is your significant other? which one?
Your hair colour? redbrownblondegrey, or so say my kids
Your mother? lamented
Your father? gone
Your favorite thing? um….?
Your dream last night? I don’t
Your dream goal? find some community irl again
The room you’re in? bedroom
Your hobby? Knitting
Your fear? losing job/house…losing
Where do you want to be in 6 years? here?  no. there.
Where were you last night? here
What you’re not? monosyllabic
One of your wish-list items? um, things?
Where you grew up? Daly City, CA (outside SF)
The last thing you did? drank milk
What are you wearing? nightgown
Your TV? 15 years old and converted from a rabbit
Your pets? nonexistant
Your computer? two laptops, a tablet, a kid’s olpc xo, and an ancient dell.
Your mood? Exhausted
Missing someone? everyone.
Your car? 99 corolla with bonks, and things falling off.
Something you’re not wearing? skirts
Favourite shop? out of business
Your summer? quiet
Love someone? not now
Your favourite colour? red
When is the last time you laughed? i don’t know
When is the last time you cried? today

(originally posted to ravelry.com)

they’re here! general lecture last night; can’t wait for today’s workshop!! i had been worried as the shop that’s brought him seemed rather clueless about what he’s all about…f’instance they had us buy yards of 20 different shades of one colorway and precut 6 diamonds of each so we’d be “ready”. i bought 40 basic pallette 99 cent fat quarters at joann’s instead and turned those into 6 diamonds, or half of them i did and then asked kf/bm after the lecture. of course, they said no, don’t cut anything yet!! and i felt much better. he said he can’t wait to see how we mix ours with his fabrics and the shopowner piped up “oh, it’s going to be all your fabrics, kaffe, we love them!” to which he replied “then we’ll just pull some others down from the walls and mix things up!” (just as i was leaving bm whispered to me “if you’ve got any fabric at home bring that, too!” alas, i had to confess that i didn’t as i’m really a knitter in mufti.)

the room turned out to be a wedding tent out near the pool with a noisy generator powering the ubiquitous air conditioning; i saw kf sitting out by the pool near it, very still and mild, and somehow i just didn’t feel i could approach him, continuing to think maybe i’d made a big mistake raiding my savings for this weekend at this clueless shop and there he sits so still and seemingly biddable….WRoNG!

so i needn’t have feared, kf was wonderfully commanding and himself. in response to one of the few questions he said he doesn’t really plan what to do next but just flows creatively. whereupon bm couldn’t stand it and mentioned that actually kf’s diary is filled 8 months in advance and he has no cllue; kf admitted what one needs to flow creatively is to have a brandon:)

turns out he’s one of those performers who can (must, probably) turn it on and off like a current and i suppose he was simply in rest mode storing up (if you can imagine kf sitting alone by a pool outside a quilt venue and absolutely no one, including me, approaching him! on reflection, that in itself is pretty commanding, isn’t it.) first thing he did when on was call for the a/c to be turned off (thankfully, as far as i am concered.) but you should have seen the room still, i’m sure they all thought they were about to to die in an unmediated state. and then he just marked time until it did, indeed, go off, and only then then slides started.

so good to hear him ramble over the familiar images. although he seemed to sense part-way through that people were looking bewildered, which i hadn’t noticed, not looking at people (they always seem so to me) but very hard at slides, me. but the main thing i learned by example, i think, is that i, personally, need to be more intellectually aware of the things that are around me, to allow them into my mind as well as my eyes; i know from experience that they go into receptor storage without me knowing anyway, but i can’t really think about them that way, now can i. f’instance: i think of this place as being featureless tasteless corporate targetmart, but kf congratulated tampa on its appreciation of color. i didn’t realize tampa appreciated color; whenever i use any eveybody falls all over like they’ve never before seen such a thing. of course, he probably congratulates everywhere he goes on something, but still. if i had to recommend someplace to go to see something, or even just to dinner, to someone i respect artistically–anyone i’ve known, for instance, or say kf/bm, as an exercise– i wouldn’t be able to do it. i’d probably say the tampa theatre. or the columbia in ybor. lately i stay in my studio and make my own world as compensation/deflection. not that i want to change that part so much but i do need to become a bit more aware, i think. kf was sitting by the pool in the off mode and he was probably looking, not at dreadful social phenomena, but at the colors.

the lecture was wonderful and marred only by a near-total lack of audience participation, which ended things a full hour early. i don’t think there was one person in the audience under 50 and i have no idea what the rest thought–possibly entirely about air conditioning, i don’t know. i then bought some kf fabrics (i had planned to do so to augment the basic pallette fat quarters): six 1/2 yds for about $27, which i thought quite good, and i plan on allowing myself carte blanche (emphasis on the carte) no matter what comes up at today’s workshop. we’re doing the diamond pattern and i don’t want to make a quilt per se, but rather a 30” wide banner (+/- 10 ft?) of sorts for my “classroom” (probably giving the shopowners apoplexy) but i’m so psyched and relieved to find the actual kf i had expcted and more! got my glorious books from the 80s signed last night: 6 hours today, i want every second!!!!

one other thing? it’s so GOOD to hear my home accent again. genuine mid-20thC northern california via shakespeare –there seem to be so few of us left!