So, LJ, wow, it's nice to see you again. It's been what, almost a year? Whew, yeah. (shuffling feet awkwardly) Well, I started seeing this other site a lot and, ya know -- one thing led to another, and pretty soon we were going steady... and, I guess the point is, I was just remembering all the good times we had and I thought I'd see if we could... hook up... What? Oh. Yeah. Well, FB agrees that we should have an open relationship, it was mutual, it had actually been seeing about 100 million other users, so...

... Uh. Wanna get back together?

I'm making a new costume bra, and the method I like to use for this is to take buckram (a cotton fabric impregnated with a starch), wet it, and mold it over a pre-existing costume bra. I haven't done this in a couple of years (since pre-diagnosis), so I've been figuring it out again for this costume.

I was just sitting here sewing the buckram to the bra, watching a movie, and eating some peanut butter, and some got on my finger. I licked it off, picked the cloth back up, and thought...

This fabric is impregnated with a starch. What kind of starch? Probably wheat starch.

Which, since I've been sitting here happily sewing and eating with my hands, I've probably been eating.

There aren't even words for what I'm feeling right now. The lengths I go to avoid glutening are ridiculous - I hamstring my social life, offend people constantly, wash my hands compulsively, keep clothes I teach in segregated from other clothes (sometimes I teach in elementary school cafeterias with breadcrumbs visible on the floor, so they get on my clothes, so they get in my house)...

...and I just sat here and ate wheat off my bra cover. If I'm going to get glutened, I want the chance to at least eat something deliciously forbidden, goddamnit.

My face is flushing, my back is seizing up, and I have the beginning of a headache. And the earnest desire to stab something. Only the next few hours will tell me if these are symptoms of a glutening, or simply frustration.

Ok, gastrointestinal tract: I hear you. I get it. I have Done You Wrong, and you are out to make me pay, and pay, and pay. So... um, enough already? I really am very, very sorry for whatever it was...

In delicious food news, tonight K made some buckwheat blini - lovely gluten-free vaguely blue pancakes - and we had a mini Russian dinner: blini with slices of hard-boiled egg and chopped green onion, loaded with smoked salmon from the local smokehouse and as a final delicious but deadly touch, cream cheese. Oh my god, was I sick tonight - but oh my god was it worth it. It's hard to worry about being sicker from dairy when I'm already just sick as a dog from... who knows what. Dairy won't kill me, and believe me - my avoidance of gluten is still fanatical. Meh!

I was given a gift certificate for some gluten-free muffins earlier this year and so I have about four dozen of those beauties frozen in the basement... :)

I've been hard at work on new projects: choreographies for next term and for the big May show, sending out quotes and nibbles on other gigs, liaising with dancers for March shows and the trip to the workshop in MN... tonight I finished a rough draft of a logo for workshops I'm teaching this summer, sent out a request for quotes on a bdancing costume I'd like to have made (& make part of myself), & handled some clerical work I'd been putting off.

It would really help if I weren't spending part of every day for the last almost 3 weeks in bed, recuperating from another part of the day spent curled up in a ball and clutching my stomach. Still! It could be worse. I could be dead, and that would truly, truly suck.

For Dr. Who fans:

"The Dalek Workout" on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-d6vWMseVo


Lots going on here, I'll have to do an update sometime... soonish... have been interviewed for a magazine article, am editing articles for a different dance magazine, working on the next set of T-shirts on CafePress, but dang is that expensive and less profit than I'd like... hmmm... low upfront costs versus low profits... much greater distribution and wider range of sizes versus fewer colors, more $$, and did I mention lower profits?

Hmph.

Last Sunday's party was a lot of fun, and I have happy students showing off their henna in classes, which is obviously the shiznite. :D

Ok, back to work. Thank you Red Bull and sugar!! (My heart is trip-hopping. Is that bad?)

OH!! iPhone owners:
do you like yours? how much does your plan cost? if you hacked it, why and what does that let you do that you couldn't otherwise? with which platform are you using it, ie Mac/PC/Linux? I am eligible for a new phone and am trying to decide if I want to switch to something shiny. Please tell me everything I need to know so I don't have to do research, KTHXBYE.

I couldn't make this stuff up. This article had me in stitches...

1) Chewbacca lives! Check out those hirsute gams.

2) Is that a pigeon in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

3) "Customs officials say they also seized seeds in the man's money belt and an undeclared aubergine, following the flight on Sunday."
Undeclared Aubergine: a tale of love, loss, and the naughtiest of nightshades.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7869301.stm


:) Other than that, things remain much as they have been. Definitely more stressed than usual but am planning to start meditating again and maybe that will help. I spent most of last night dreaming that I was packing for performances and that I was going to be late, so work is definitely getting to me. :}

Can we go back to Bali? I was pretty relaxed there...

Ganked from desert_zen... it reminds me of life with g0dz17la a little bit... ;)

Otto the Octopus Wreaks Havoc.

Am looking forward to the election tomorrow (today?) but am very nervous. No matter who wins, this has the potential to be very very ugly.

New SRK film coming out, and omg - he's a nerd. It looks adorable. Here's the first trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJi-8qTFZpA

A little nudeyness? You tell me. (sigh) This looks utterly adorable. It's good to see him going back to his uber-cheesy cutey roots, without being apparently too cheesy. :}

And now, off to class - new session starts today!

"I AM A DISCO DANCER!! I am a disco dancer! I am a disco dancer! Songs are my life...
D means Disco!
I means Item!!
S stands for Singer,
C stands for Chorus,
and O means Orchestra!!"

Also, "Craving hearts meet in youth like fire and water!"

That is all. :)

Ganked from desert_zen - I couldn't *not* post this. :}



I'm committing to this, or at least to trying REALLY hard... I spend a lot of my time talking to other women about how beautiful they are, then turn around and joke that I need to lose ten pounds to fit into my costumes. Ok, well, that's not really a joke; I'd stop popping beads off my red dress if I lost a bit. So it's not that I feel fat, exactly, it's more aesthetics and fit and... oh heck. Just watch the video.

And don't talk fat. XXOO

... from mwissa.

"He is a skinless metallic goat. No, I mean it. He has a black belt in goatness."

XOXOXOXOOXOXXOX
(benchilada, pls call us we have the wrong cell # for you we think kthxbye)