.the littlest water bear.

.field notes.

I first came across Field Notebooks in July of 2013 when I was looking for a pocket size dance journal, despite the fact that none of my dance practice pants had pockets. But I wanted something portable and a little flexible and lightweight.

these are prettier on the back

I found Field Notes.

This was when the Nigh Sky Edition was out, and being a Science Groupie with a love of Astronomy, I immediately bought 3 packs (the "legal" limit) and began using them immediately. The use of them quickly expanded from dance journaling into note taking on everything that was going on in my life - grocery lists, to do lists, quotes from the radio, notes on ideas and projects, and on and on. It's a bit of a problem, now that I'm going through a notebook every 2-3 weeks, except that I can look back to any week in the last year and know exactly what I was doing on a given day - which is weird and also kind of neat.

I finally gave up all pretense just before the Two Rivers edition came out this past spring and got a subscription. Now, I'm not exclusive with Field Notes - in my stock of notebooks ready to be used I have Baron Fig, Scout Books, and a few other smaller brands that I've picked up on whims and also a dash of hoarding-type compulsion. (My partner tolerates me to hoarding 2 things - plants and books, and these are kind of books, and also very small.)

I have the graph paper all the way on the left, not that you can tell.

Along with my first subscription came a few of the staple Kraft notebooks that I have never been interested in (because the covers are boring) but I put them away in my stash figuring they were good for Modifications, if nothing else.

And then I came across this wine with this beautiful paper sleeve, and because I love my notebooks, and I love my wine, and the modification took shape in my brain.

Scissors and spray glue and another wrapper from a white, and a press test from my work, and voila!

Curious Beasts, Fushia White, & a press test

I used medical tape to secure the wrap, because Reasons.

...and I need more wine.

Much better now. I've been wanting a red field notebook for ages. Now I have the best one ever. And it's covered with monsters and skeletons!

.aerial.

On Monday I went to my second of three in a series of 7 beginning aerial dance classes.

Ok, that got away from me.

I signed up for 7 classes. Went to the first one, which was amazing and hard and emotional. I missed the second class - well, I went but quickly discovered that the arm/back injury I'd done to myself over the weekend was much much worse than I had thought, and was self-forced to leave because if you are physically unable to pull yourself up, there's not much you can do but sit and watch everyone else do the work.

This past Monday I finally got back to class. It was hard, but not quite as hard as week 1 by a smidgen. And today I'm not hurting nearly as much as I was this same time two weeks ago. I managed a double foot lock, and worked through cheater hip keys on both sides with much better results. I still need All The Work on my triceps and lats though.

In any case - I've missed aerial. I danced with her briefly several years ago, and dropped it to better work on my arm and back strength because I was struggling so much with that one aspect; except I didn't work on my arm and back strength - and really my best motivator to work on this outside of class is going to be doing better in class. Aerial is hard. Harder than maybe anything else I've ever been this interested in doing, and I think the hard-ness of it is part of why I love it so much. It does not come naturally to me. There's a fear aspect to conquer too - not performance fear, this is straight out "I'm going to fall on my face" fear.
And that studio is one of the emotionally safest places in the world for me.

So onward...

.after show.

Raqs Bohéme on Friday was spectacular, as promised.  Talks have already begun for both a reprise, and also a special expansion project that may or may not get off the ground.
Also this happened:

.show day.

I spent three hours last night searching my house for the Science Fair medals I was going to use as the Costume Contest awards at the show tonight. I did not find them, though I know I've seen them in the last month, and I'm pretty sure there in with a pile of things I thought would be good for costuming. Now that I have replacements (which are coincidentally much more fun) they will definitely appear in The Most Obvious Location sometime Sunday afternoon.

Tonight's Third Place "Medal"

Bella, who can't dance in the show after all due to a half torn off toenail, is donating one of her piece props - a giant life size print of Captain Kirk - as a prize as well. So with the venue needing us out by 8, everything should be fine. My plunger is painted silver. I definitely know at least one of my pieces. And I've found all the parts of both costumes ahead of time, so that I won't be running around like a headless chicken when I rush home after work to put together my Show Bags.

I am not exhausted. I just need to drink a bit more tea.

This is as good a time as any to announce the date for the next show - the Last Raqs Bohéme at RecordBar (at least, this incarnation of RecordBar) as they are changing locations after the first of this year, and the new location is yet to be located.

Time will tell.