the tale of the weekend
Sep. 22nd, 2008 10:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabineSeeing how Friday was Talk Like A Pirate Day, I garbed myself in my finest pirate regalia and headed to work to terrorize the rest of the crew of the Dread Evil Empire. Regretfully, I left all weaponry at home, as our Dread Pirate Queen doesn't approve of such measures. I finished some code, did some testing, solved a couple of things, and answered most of my email. About noon, I made my escape to head to the Northern Lights festival/workshop.
Once home, I packed the cooler and a grocery bag. I also ransacked my dance clothes and filled my half of the suitcase. Downwood packed his things, we threw the laptop into a bag, and headed out to run a couple of errands before leaving town.
While driving up to the Dells, we realized that this was the first time since our honeymoon that we were leaving town for the weekend and it was going to be just us. All of our other vacations or mini-vacations have involved either his family or mine. That makes for cheaper vacations, but there's a sense of obligation, too.
We arrived at the Kalahari resort at exactly check-in time. We breezed through the front desk and located our room. Holy crap. We had a king-size bed, a jacuzzi bathtub, a living room with comfy chairs, and a FULL kitchen with stove, microwave, fridge, AND dishwasher. It was gorgeous. I got checked in with the festival registration people and we spent the evening in Super Relaxation Mode.
When we got to the resort Friday night, I noticed that I remembered everything except my yoga mat. Thinking this would be a problem and that sleeping in sounded good, I skipped the 8 AM yoga workshop. Instead, I went straight to my morning Intro to American Tribal Style workshop. It was very different from the way that I've been taught to dance, but it was a lot of fun. I liked the improvisational style, but I think I need more than a two-hour session to decide if I want to keep learning it or not. The posture of the style made my upper back very, very sore, but I think that if I consistently practiced it, it wouldn't be so bad.
After lunch, I went to the vendors' room to do some shopping. It. was. OUTSTANDING. I only got two things, but there were so many more that I wanted to take home and snuggle and pet and love. I may not know how to dance tribal, but I adore the costuming for it. They had lots and lots of pretty things, which makes sense - I think belly dancers are actually magpies who crave and collect shinies.
I spent the afternoon in a single four-hour workshop. It was taught by Morocco. She's been a belly dancer for 48 years. Listening to her talk was...interesting. I kind of want to be her when I get old, but I don't think I want to dance her style. I learned a lot and she taught us a pretty spiffy drum solo choreography, so I think it was time well spent.
The show Saturday night was awesome. I may end up emailing the festival organizers to see if I can still buy a DVD of the performance. It was really, really impressive and inspiring. I need to practice more if I want to dance like Sonya. I very much liked watching the tribal fusion group and the Goth dancers. I don't want to dance like them, but I love watching when it's well done.
Sunday morning came very early, but since I was signed up for a Turkish workshop with Aliyah Sahar, I didn't really mind. She condensed a six-hour workshop into just over two hours. We did floorwork, learned skirt tricks, worked with zils, and got the patterns for dealing with 9/8 rhythm drilled into our heads. It was lots of bouncing around and a whole ton of fun.
When she let us go, I went out to search for Downwood. While I'd been in the workshop, he was supposed to pack the car and get us checked out, but I'd forgotten to ask him where he wanted to meet me when the workshop was over. Luckily, as soon as I stepped out of the building, I saw him walking in from the parking lot. We poured me and my wobbly legs into the car and raced home to watch the Bears.
The game was disappointing. I worked on doing laundry and not falling down because of tired legs. I made some very tasty nachos for lunch and some yummy banana bread for dinner. I also finished the book that I'd been reading and started planning out the next quilt that I'm going to make.
I watched most of the Cowboys game, but about halfway through the third quarter, the tiredness of the weekend caught up to me. I crashed on the couch, woke up enough to stagger upstairs, and passed out until late morning. Since I knew I'd want to sleep in today, I took the morning off. It let me be lazy and get up slowly and was a really good idea. After work, I'll be hitting a grocery store and probably taking it easy.
All in all, this was a really good weekend for both Downwood and me. He got to relax and spend time recharging and I got to dance in new styles. The resort was lovely, but next time we need to either get there early or stay late in order to enjoy the water park. I said on my workshop evaluation sheet that I'd be willing to attend next year and I'm already kind of excited for it.
Once home, I packed the cooler and a grocery bag. I also ransacked my dance clothes and filled my half of the suitcase. Downwood packed his things, we threw the laptop into a bag, and headed out to run a couple of errands before leaving town.
While driving up to the Dells, we realized that this was the first time since our honeymoon that we were leaving town for the weekend and it was going to be just us. All of our other vacations or mini-vacations have involved either his family or mine. That makes for cheaper vacations, but there's a sense of obligation, too.
We arrived at the Kalahari resort at exactly check-in time. We breezed through the front desk and located our room. Holy crap. We had a king-size bed, a jacuzzi bathtub, a living room with comfy chairs, and a FULL kitchen with stove, microwave, fridge, AND dishwasher. It was gorgeous. I got checked in with the festival registration people and we spent the evening in Super Relaxation Mode.
When we got to the resort Friday night, I noticed that I remembered everything except my yoga mat. Thinking this would be a problem and that sleeping in sounded good, I skipped the 8 AM yoga workshop. Instead, I went straight to my morning Intro to American Tribal Style workshop. It was very different from the way that I've been taught to dance, but it was a lot of fun. I liked the improvisational style, but I think I need more than a two-hour session to decide if I want to keep learning it or not. The posture of the style made my upper back very, very sore, but I think that if I consistently practiced it, it wouldn't be so bad.
After lunch, I went to the vendors' room to do some shopping. It. was. OUTSTANDING. I only got two things, but there were so many more that I wanted to take home and snuggle and pet and love. I may not know how to dance tribal, but I adore the costuming for it. They had lots and lots of pretty things, which makes sense - I think belly dancers are actually magpies who crave and collect shinies.
I spent the afternoon in a single four-hour workshop. It was taught by Morocco. She's been a belly dancer for 48 years. Listening to her talk was...interesting. I kind of want to be her when I get old, but I don't think I want to dance her style. I learned a lot and she taught us a pretty spiffy drum solo choreography, so I think it was time well spent.
The show Saturday night was awesome. I may end up emailing the festival organizers to see if I can still buy a DVD of the performance. It was really, really impressive and inspiring. I need to practice more if I want to dance like Sonya. I very much liked watching the tribal fusion group and the Goth dancers. I don't want to dance like them, but I love watching when it's well done.
Sunday morning came very early, but since I was signed up for a Turkish workshop with Aliyah Sahar, I didn't really mind. She condensed a six-hour workshop into just over two hours. We did floorwork, learned skirt tricks, worked with zils, and got the patterns for dealing with 9/8 rhythm drilled into our heads. It was lots of bouncing around and a whole ton of fun.
When she let us go, I went out to search for Downwood. While I'd been in the workshop, he was supposed to pack the car and get us checked out, but I'd forgotten to ask him where he wanted to meet me when the workshop was over. Luckily, as soon as I stepped out of the building, I saw him walking in from the parking lot. We poured me and my wobbly legs into the car and raced home to watch the Bears.
The game was disappointing. I worked on doing laundry and not falling down because of tired legs. I made some very tasty nachos for lunch and some yummy banana bread for dinner. I also finished the book that I'd been reading and started planning out the next quilt that I'm going to make.
I watched most of the Cowboys game, but about halfway through the third quarter, the tiredness of the weekend caught up to me. I crashed on the couch, woke up enough to stagger upstairs, and passed out until late morning. Since I knew I'd want to sleep in today, I took the morning off. It let me be lazy and get up slowly and was a really good idea. After work, I'll be hitting a grocery store and probably taking it easy.
All in all, this was a really good weekend for both Downwood and me. He got to relax and spend time recharging and I got to dance in new styles. The resort was lovely, but next time we need to either get there early or stay late in order to enjoy the water park. I said on my workshop evaluation sheet that I'd be willing to attend next year and I'm already kind of excited for it.
