Yuletide greetings

Happy Winter Solstice, everyone.

What are you worth?

Apparently, I'm worth $1,900,570. No word on whether that's US or Canadian dollars ;)

HumanForSale.com

Trying to gear up for Christmas in Florida...which is kind of surreal. I wish we could be at home, but I didn't have enough vacation time for both the wedding and Christmas so I had to choose. I can never get into the "Christmas Spirit" here...too hot, too many palm trees, no family, etc. So, it will be a quieter and more melancholy holiday than usual.

Michael and I went to see Ansuya perform at Uva Restaurant last weekend, which was a lot of fun. Michael had never seen her dance before...she was amazing, as always. She's going to be teaching workshops on Improv dancing and Indian fusion in January, and I'm thinking I'll go to both of them.

My friend Alina didn't get the gig at the Renaissance Fair, which is a bit of a disappointment. I don't blame her for not wanting to go so low that we were practically not getting paid at all, but it would have been fun if it had worked out. There's a possibility they may pick up the troupe for next year, but of course I won't be around then :(

It does mean, however, that Diana and I can concentrate solely on our January gig at a La Turca, which is good because I have a couple of solos I need to polish up! And a coin bra to coin! And costume pieces to find and...and....the 10th is going to be here before either of us know it!

On the front page of today's Sun-Sentinel: Middle-income workers now being priced out of S. Florida's housing market:

From city halls to the state capital, politicians have talked for years about the need for more affordable housing. Task forces were formed. A state housing fund was created. Builders promised to deliver.

But now -- with teachers, police officers and young professionals joining the ranks of those struggling to find homes they can afford -- South Florida's housing crisis has taken on new urgency .... 'It wasn't on our radar screen to keep track of how fast the cost of housing was escalating,' said Deputy Palm Beach County Administrator Verdenia Baker. 'Our housing market has outpaced our salaries ... We are going to be a community that has to import our workers.'

Well duh. Anyone who lives here could tell you that. The rent on our "affordable" apartment--the twenty six year old building which seems to be going downhill more and more by the day with paint peeling, walls cracking, potholes gaping, garbage piled up by residents in 3-foot piles in front of the chutes, garbage piled in 10-foot piles in the parking lot by management, and so forth--is being jacked up to close to $1100 a month, with more rent hikes to come after they start their much-promised much-delayed renovations and improvements. Thanks to property tax and insurance increases friends I know who've bought houses in the past 3 or 4 years say they would not be able to afford to do so today even with the inflated prices their current homes would fetch on the market (read farther in the article quoted above and you'll see that housing prices have risen 80% in three years with the median price in Broward now at $383,900). You'd think that the people who can afford this stuff, and the developers that build here, would realize that they have a vested interest in creating a community where the people who mow their lawns, serve up their Starbucks lattes, teach their children and patrol their streets could live. Even if it is on the other side of the gates that separate them from the riffraff. Strange.

But, enough of things that I can't change and soon won't affect me anyway and on to other news. The Aziza workshop I went to on the weekend was really good...if really tiring! Aziza is a fun person and a great teacher and performer, so it was really a joy to take a class with her. She lives in Montreal (wish I did too!), though she is originally from Portland OR. She has just released a Practice Companion DVD that I bought at the class. I have been too busy--and too sore!--to practice with it yet, but I will break it out later in the week.

A couple of performance opportunities have come along for me and my friend Diana...we will be doing a restaurant night in January and maybe some dates at the Rennaisance Festival Feb-March. We are busy trying to find music and create dances for them.

Finally, Michael was shortlisted for a position at the Petroleum Institute in the United Arab Emirates. He had an "informal pre-screening" phone call that lasted 2 hours (!!!) last weekend, and on Monday he got an email telling him he'd made the shortlist. Which means that he will probably be flown out there for inperson interviews and so forth. Exciting and scary all at the same time. It's something we wanted, but when the possibility is here now in your face rather than out there for someday it's a little more scary. No word yet on if/when he will be flown out, and what comes next, but whatever happens it should be interesting!

what's new

Our broken window got fixed yesterday. Cleanup continues on the apartment grounds, but it still looks pretty crappy at this point. I've posted the pictures we took right after the storm online...take a look on our Webshots page.

After three days of complete disoganization and and utter chaos at work, we are back open and functioning normally, if on a reduced schedule. All of our computer classes and programs are being cancelled.

No more military and Red Cross helicopters buzzing over my house constantly, but many cities still have curfews and most traffic lights are still down, which makes driving at night extremely dangerous. We had some rain these past couple days, with a return to hot muggy temperatures, so a lot of people have suffered further damage and more structures are being condemned. In most areas 30%-40% of customers still don't have power.

My mom sent me a link to this article interviewing the creator of Rex Libris. I'm not usually a comic book collector but I think I could really get into this one!

post wilma

Sorry to be so long posting this...today was the first day after the Hurricane that I got back to a computer. Michael and I are both fine and except for a one blown out window (small) and one bent one (large) we suffered no storm damage to our apartment. We prepared well enough to get through the first couple days, and as grocery stores have continued to get back open we have not had to worry about food or water.

Going through the storm was probably one of the most frightening experiences I've ever had. Six hours of huddling inside the hallway, listening to a battery-powered radio and feeling the air pressure inside pop our ears as the building shuddered with each 200 km/hr gust. The power of it was absolutely incredible. Watching our windows shudder and bow during the fierce, back end of the storm, we were absolutely sure that they would not withstand the wind and break. I'm still not sure how they managed to hold up. Even if we'd had shutters, they might not have helped--a lot of people had their shutters come off in the middle of the hurricane. This was definitely worse than the Tornado I rode out in 1987, even though the damage was worse--that storm took off our roof, but at least it was over within a relatively short period of time!

Our phone lines survived but both power and water were out until late Thursday/early Friday. Quite a surprise that we got back up that soon--many are still waiting and the target date for full restoration is November 22nd. Lineups for supplies were terrible the first couple of days--looks like a lot of people did not prepare like they should have!--and since there were only a few gas stations operational, lineups for gas have in some cases exceeded 6 hours. Fortunately neither Michael nor I had to go to work last week, so we could stick close to home and conserve our fuel. The first few days you can blame people for not being prepared, but after that people have to start going out to get to work, to line up for ice and water (apparently some stations won't give you supplies unles you're in a car), and you can't really blame them for needing to drive.

Of course, once you get out on the streets the traffic is a nightmare. Most traffic lights are still out--either no power or totally blown down and destroyed by the storm--and rather than being understanding and patient Florida drivers are showing their usual aggressiveness and lack of regard for traffic laws. Most intersections are four-way stops, which for this population pretty much means drive at your own risk.

I am back at work now, though we are not open to the public due to lack of a/c. Apparently FPL is afraid that if they turn on the chillers for this complex it could blow the grid in this area again. Only 5 libraries, many of them smaller branches, were able to open today, but we still all have to report to work or take annual leave now that the system is officially "open". I'm sure those few buildings will soon be wall-to-wall with staff who, like me, refuse to burn up vacation time because their libraries can't operate.

So that's the news. More updates as situations change ;)

rays of hope

I discovered something interesting today...

I was in the 290s, looking for The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle (for any non-librarians out there, the 200s are the religion section in the Dewey Decimal System). Walking down the aisle to the shelf, what should I see in the 299s but...a growing selection of openly Wiccan books! Amazing.

You see, when I first started reading up on Witchcraft, anything not under the cloak of research into god and goddess figures was relegated to the Occult section. That's still the main place to find them. It seems a major shift in policy to move these books from "Parapsychology and Occultism" to "Other Religions". And one that I, personally, can't help but be happy about. Who knows, some day we may even be legitimate enough to be boring ;)

Wilma is apparently not going to hit us until Sunday or Monday now. I'm still hopeing for the best case scenario: a three-day weekend with no power outages and nothing more pressing to do but hang around in our pajamas reading and watching Dark Shadows DVDs....

here we go again

Well, overnight, Hurricane Wilma went from a category one storm to the most powerful storm on record for this area. We have had no news about Broward County's official plans, but I assume that the libraries will be closed for the weekend, at least. The storm is supposed to make landfall Saturday, and is headed right for us by way of the west coast.

Gas stations are already running out of fuel, apparently...my tank is running on empty so hopefully I'll be able to fill up before it's all gone. It seems like every time gas prices start to go down, even a little bit, another storm comes along and oil companies jump on the chance to jack it right back up. I hesitate to think about what I'm going to be paying tonight.

At least we have lots of ice...a whole freezer full. We saved it all from the last big storm. We are expecting to lose power again, at least for a little while.

Well, all we can really do, I guess, is shop for some more food supplies, hunker down and hope for the best.

I found the first collection of Dark Shadows on our Hallowe'en display this week, so I am finally getting to watch it after hearing about it for so long. Apparently there's at least 22 collections in the series, and if they're all like the first they've got 40 episodes per collection. That's a lot of television! I only hope that the library has most of them...I haven't checked yet. Don't think Michael is enjoying it as much as I am. He definitely hates the opening and credits music!

Wasted an afternoon at a new County-mandated class yesterday...you know, if you're going to force me to go to a class about filling out a form, it would be nice if you spent some time, any time, during the class, actually, oh....talking about the form. Or something. As usual, the teacher, from County HR, admitted she knew little or nothing about Libraries Division, and couldn't answer many questions. And as usual, the most instructive outcome of the class was to find out how little Libraries Division actually knows and how much they do wrong. Frustrating? What makes you think that?

At least now I can take a deep breath and remember that it's not my problem any more, and doesn't affect me, because soon I will be Out. Of. Here.

holding pattern

Once more, long time no blog...but then, when I started this venture I didn't count on the fact that my life would sometimes be so routine and boring that I didn't have anything to share! Somehow I always pictured my entries as being much more interesting and erudite than they often seem to be. Oh well!

Michael's been out of town for a week--he went to Spokane WA to visit relatives. He'll be back on Sunday night, though, which means I guess I have to pull myself out of this exhausted-all-the-time-crash-and-burn rut that I"ve been in ever since he left. I don't know if I'm too self indulgent, too unmotivated, or just plain lazy, but I haven't been able to do much more than drag myself from bed to work to couch to bed this week. I sleep and sleep only to find that I am just as tired waking up as I was when I went to bed, and I'm holding a lot of diffuse, low-level tension in a lot of areas for no readily apparent reason. Not sure what's up with this, but hope it cycles off soon.

Still haven't dealt with the Blue Stone crap. At this point I really just want to completely dissociate myself from it all--I feel like I've been shut out, and like my life has moved on to the point that Rob and Bill and their oh-so-precious five-record deal really have no place in it. Add to this that whenever I steel myself enough to yank myself out of denial and actually call a lawyer, they don't return my calls, whether I'm working on cold calls or referrals from their family and friends.

Other than that...not much going on. One of my dance classes is on haitus this month, so I'm not as busy with that. Aziza from Montreal is coming to Miami in November to do a workshop, which I plan on registering for. I've been attending Bellydance Meetup events when I can, but many of them are quite a long drive away so I have to be picky about it.

Just overall...feeling kind of blah, and stuck, and wishing we were both somewhere else.

black times

I've kind of avoided posting anything about Katrina's gulf coast hit, and the horrific aftermath, because these events have really been challenging my faith in the basic decency of humanity. Between the looting and violence on the ground, and the pathetic government "response", I'm saddened and deeply disappointed.

I did, however, participate in a Katrina relief fundraising effort by my Bellydance meetup group that raised $400. A previous event had raised $200, and now we will be donating through a group member whose employer will match contributions. So I'm feeling good about that.

My neck hasn't been feeling too good lately; I visited Michael's chiropractor for a "free evaluation appointment." Bad decision. Though he apparently gave my neck the most subtle adjustment possible, the only time I've experienced significant neck pain is in the week following that appointment. For a while I was really scared that something was wrong; fortunately, after about a week it started to improve dramatically, and now I feel much better. I still have more cracking noises in my neck than before, and sometimes there's just a twinge of acheyness after a long day, but I haven't lost any range of motion and I'm assuming that, long term, I'll be okay. Mr. Chiropractor's office staff, of course, told me that pain was "normal" and "goes away during treatment". Mr. Chiropractor himself, naturally, offered me free physiotherapy treatments to help it feel better. Thanks, really, but really, NO.

Michael had this web page outlining the Lies we learned in Library School sent to him by a colleague. Pretty much sums up our experiences perfectly. I've felt so disillusioned in so many ways since I left SLIS...I'm starting to think that the only way I will find a *good* job that will *pay me decently* is if I leave the profession and take my skills elsewhere. Not quite sure what direction to go yet...but...there's got to be many many better things to do with one's life than sitting in a desk, bored out of one's skull, getting paid less than one would working retail.

(Seriously. Michael's brother supervises people who manage those little sunglass kiosks in the mall. They get paid more at their jobs than either of us do at ours.)

Well, this has been a downer of a post. I'll leave on a more positive note: this weekend I am attending workshops put on by Alexandra King, one of the most highly regarded dancers in the U.S., with two of my closest dance friends. And boy am I looking forward to it! Can't wait.

catching up

Well....long time since I've updated here. Hope you'll forgive me...I have been a little busy after all!

Of course, the big news is that the wedding is over! I haven't written much about the whole planning and implementation process, as both Michael and I have confined wedding discussion to our joint blog, The Big Event. The short version of the story is that everything went really well, and we thoroughly enjoyed both our wedding and our honeymoon in Jasper National Park. The only bad thing about the experience is that it was over too soon! Anyway, if you surf on over there you can see more details, if desired, and also find links to pictures of my bridal shower in Florida, our wedding day, and our honeymoon.

We'd barely got back home before Katrina hit. We've endured other hurricane events in the past five years, but not a storm that hit Broward County straight on as this one did. Needless to say we feel very fortunate that the only impact the storm had on our lives personally was 2 extra days off and 55 hours without power. Reading by candlelight and living on peanut butter sandwiches and crackers seems pretty tame in comparison to the experiences of people farther south and, now, in the Gulf.

Though it was expected to hit in northern Broward County, Katrina jogged south right beforehand to land closer to the Broward/Miami Dade county line instead. Usually, this would have been bad news for us, because most hurricanes apparently carry the worst of their weather in the northern part of the storm. This one, howevery, atypically had the most rain and wind in the south. Miami-Dade and Homestead/Florida City areas got hit really badly--with the duration of the storm, the wind, and all the rain and flooding, many residents there said it was actually worse than Hurricane Andrew in 1993 even though Katrina was "only" a Category 1.

That was a phrase we heard a lot, actually, during the hurricane and in its aftermath. There was a lot of complacency beforehand--"Oh, it's only a Category 1 storm." At least one news outlet was telling people that there was no need to put up hurricane shutters, since Katrina was so "weak". I went to the grocery store Wednesday night after work to get some supplies, and one stockboy there told me that he had no idea why everyone was "panicking" and buying up all their water and nonperishables, adding that he was planning to go to the beach the next day!

Afterwards, the shocked stories started rolling in. One former news employee and long-time Floridian interviewed from his home in south Miami-Dade said that he had never been scared of a storm, but sitting through this one with no shutters up watching the glass of his patio doors bend and ripple as his neighborhood got torn apart for five hours straight had terrified him. Editorial writers rushed to publish columns about how "we will never underestimate a storm like this again. We forgot that any hurricane, even a 'weak' category 1, is still a hurricane; now we know better."

It all just kind of boggles my mind. Sure, this particular area has not been hit directly by a hurricane in years, but, hello, people? 90 mph winds and torrential rain at sea level are still dangerous. Even if you're still suffering from storm fatigue/ennui from last year, how dumb do you have to be not to realize that a weaker storm that hits you straight on is still worse than a stronger one that hits miles away?

Well, we've still got the most active part of the current hurricane season yet to go, so I guess everyone will have plenty of opportunity to put their newfound lessons learned into practice.

Much as I don't even want to think about the situation, I'll end today with a short update on Blue Stone. The news is not good. The label either can't or won't do what they need to to sign with them (I've been kept away from them so I don't know for sure what they actually said). Rob and Bill have signed with them already, however, and have offered me a "partnership agreement" that will give me ownership rights to a percentage of the band and the profits on the work I've done. The problem is that despite their protestations that "no one will ever find out", as far as I can tell this is still not legal for me to sign it.

But, they don't seem to care. The Official Blue Stone position is that It's Too Late To Do Anything Else Now, so even if I can't sign it everything will go ahead as they have planned and I will, quote, benefit from the exposure, unquote. Oh, don't forget that I could have "solved the problem" by getting married in a quickie ceremony months early, in Florida, and then applying for a green card, which Michael and I had decided was not in our best interests given that we're leaving the States no later than next August. Because restructuring my entire life around a band's requirements--a band that, after this experience, I'm not even going to work with anymore--is perfectly reasonable, right?

So I need a lawyer. I've tried asking for recommendations and cold-calling offices, but no one has returned my calls yet. Somehow I think that even if I agreed to work for free (oooops, sorry, for the exposure) it would would still be illegal...wouldn't there be a whole lot of "volunteer" non-US non-immigrant workers if this loophole actually existed? Wouldn't that kind of negate all the laws stating that we have to be paid the same and treated the same as US citizen employees? Anyway, at this point I would be willing to screw up the entire release just to prove that breaking the law is, you know, wrong, and immigration fraud isn't something to take lightly. Even if you figure "no one will find out".

Sigh. I was warned by people smarter than me that this could happen. But nope, I trusted my friends. Even after all the problems I've had here that have stemmed from trusting people who didn't deserve it. Well, if you know a good lawyer in South Florida, or one who lives elsewhere but would be willing to advise me, give me a call.

ooops

Okay, I really should have checked the template changes more than once. Then I would have noticed that the new profile picture was huge and distorted the entire look of the page. I've tinkered with the blog template and that should fix the problem. Only time will tell...

I'm at work today. Actually, I'm at work all weekend. Sigh. Sundays are a short day, as we only work 4.5 hours, but I still can't get past the idea that working Sundays constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Even the day off in lieu the next week doesn't quite make up for it...

Hurricane Dennis is passing to the west of us, which has made for winds and storms and lots of palm frond debris in the road. Luckily this should be as bad as it gets for us, and the Keys will miss a direct hit as well (though they were still evacuated on Thursday). Four named storms this early in the year is unusual--looks like we're in for another active year.

Finally got back on my yoga mat yesterday after a 6-month haitus. With practice habits like these it any wonder I am still stiff, weak and inflexible? I still really miss Ruth-Ann, our yoga teacher in Plantation who lost her studio early this year. I assume she has yet to find a new place, as her web site has not been updated and we haven't heard anything from her about new classes. She is a really excellent teacher, and her classes were always invigorating and inspiring. Anyway, hopefully I can get back to regular home practice. I have been thinking about investing in this Yoga for Bellydancers video, too. We'll see.

new profile picture!

Okay, my old profile picture is gone. And since I don't really have an online photo album. the only way I can think of to get a new one is to post a picture here and then link to it. I'm assuming it will work. This picture is a year or two old...it's me dancing at the Sawadee Thai restaurant in Ft Lauderdale.

back to real life

My mom went home a couple of days ago, so, back into the old routine for me. We had a pretty good time while she was here. We went to the Everglades on Thursday, where we walked some of the trails, watched some alligators, and had a picnic lunch. Stopped at Robert is Here on the way back for Strawberry Key Lime Milkshakes and souvenir shopping. On the weekend, we had our housewarming party--finally! Not like we've been there four months or anything. I was afraid no one would come--most of the people we heard back from were people who said they weren't coming--but it turned out to be a full house and a real blast. Fortunately, none of the neighbors complained about the drum circle or the zill noise! So we all drummed and danced and visited and had fun. On Tuesday, we went to Naples for shopping, dinner, and the beach. This was the only day that we had anything like the usual South Florida June weather--the rest of her visit was luckily cloudy and cooler. We were both pretty done in by the end of the day but fortunately a good meal and a sunset walk on the beach restored us.

So now I'm back at work, thinking I need another vacation!

Got some disappointing news this week, as the woman who runs the restaurant I occasionally perform at says that she's selling it this month. I guess I'm not really surprised; she's been at it a couple of years or more now and business just never really picked up. I think that the place may not have been as good under the previous owners, which may have played a role. I had been thinking of quitting there anyway, and had really only stayed on because I liked the owner, so for me personally this isn't too bad. I feel badly for her though, and for the other people who dance there more regularly. It was a really nice atmosphere to dance in, and the customers were nice too.

Our hurricane season is starting up with a bang--little more than a week in and we already have our first storm--Arlene--which is coming closer to Florida's gulf coast than originally expected AND may upgrade to a weak hurricane before it hits shore! I guess they weren't kidding when they predicted another active summer. Time to go supply shopping.

vacation!

Well, my mom is finally here! She got in for her visit on Monday night. I have to work a couple of days while she's here, but I've got most of the week off and I am very happy for the break!

Of course, the weather turned rainy the day she got here and has not yet let up. So much for spending her first day here on the beach! But hopefully we will be able to get there a couple of times, as well as get to the Everglades and into Naples for a day like we planned. Whether we do or don't, though, I'm just really glad that she's here. She was overdue for a vacation when she first planned to come, in March, and I'm glad that she can get away and relax for a little while.

Also, in a nice stroke of serendipity, the Origins store in Broward Mall called me today. I had dropped my business card in a prize draw the last time I was there, and I won a facial, makeup session, and hand massage for me and up to 3 people! My mom wanted to visit the store while she was here anyway, and before she came I had actually been thinking of booking a spa day somewhere; I just didn't know where to go. So now we can have a bit of a mini-spa day anyway :)

Now, if only I were at home relaxing over a nice dinner instead of steeling myself to teach part one of Basic Computer Literacy.....

catching up

Well, a little less than three months to go and we are feeling like we really should get on with planning the wedding. I won't reproduce the stuff we've written on The Big Event here, but things have been put on the back burner for too long and now we are getting a little anxious! We don't want much, thank goodness, but we need to get cracking.

Michael and I were at the BCLA annual luncheon yesterday. Strange lunch actually--I had ordered the Grilled Chicken with Tomato-Lime Salsa, and I didn't really expect that it would come to the table swimming in a plate of mushroom gravy. An...interesting flavour combination, and one I don't think I would repeat given the chance. Michael was elected the new BCLA Historian--this was his second time running, first time successfull--and I finally got to launch the new BCLA Website! It's still pretty simple in design, but I'm rather proud of it. The banner graphic is the first that I've ever created, and I put a quite a lot of work into the Photo Gallery as well. Though if I'd realized beforehand what a chore it would be to create all the thumbnails and post all the photos I might not have started it!

Tonight, we are going to a show that my dance teacher, Myriam Eli, and some of my fellow students are involved in, Encuentro, with Ballet Flamenco de la Rosa. The show will combine bellydance and flamenco as it tells the story of a Middle Eastern woman who marries a Spanish man. All the dancers I know in the show are very good so we're really looking forward to it.

We're also gearing up for a couple of vacations. We are going to go to Everglades National Park next weekend, as a kind of early-engagement-anniversary trip, and stay in Flamingo Lodge. Also, my mom was finally able to reschedule her trip down, so she will be coming in early June. Hopefully the comparatively mild weather we've been enjoying so far this season will continue and we won't be too hot and sticky!

Jacksonville and back again

Great news this weekend--my dad gets to go home on Tuesday! I know that both he and my mom are more than ready to have him back. He is still not back 100% to where he was before he got sick, but he is able to get up himself and get around, even if it's with difficulty, and so he can finish recovery at home. I'm very happy he's leaving the rehabilitation place--despite everyone's best efforts it was an institution and he hated it.

Mom's not sure if and when she will be coming to visit, but depending on how things go at home she may still come, which would also be nice. Hopefully she can make it before all the Everglades tours and accomodations close for the summer.

Michael and I have just returned home from the FLA annual conference in Jacksonville. Despite some organizational glitches, and being forced by Nova to stay in a cheap, horrendous hotel, things went pretty well. We hosted our roundtables on Tuesday afternoon, which were fairly well attended. We also got to go to a few interesting sessions on Florida digital collections and wireless reference services. We also found some time to relax the last night--we took a side trip to the Jacksonville Five Points historic district, ate at a funky little streetside Mexican restaurant that had 2-for-1 margaritas and really good food, and did some shopping. Not a bad trip all told.

I would write more but we're about to close down for the day...so....later.

Blue Soul

Well, I'm 33 now. Soon I'll be older than Jesus. You make it past that you're doing well, right???

My dad was officially taken out of isolation a couple days ago. This is very good news. I still don't know if they have any idea when he's going to be able to leave the hospital and/or go home, though there is a definite need for rehabilitation before he can be totally released. Maybe my mom will be able to come visit in May....we'll see.

Negotiations are proceeding with Neurodisc but I am getting increasingly worried as my concerns about the legalities of signing me given my current immigration status are being glossed over with "it's not a problem" and "it's your issue." Not like I haven't had this song and dance before, but hearing it from friends makes the barb sting just that little bit more. I don't want to lose this opportunity but on the other hand I don't want to end up accidentally jeapordizing my current status and my future petitions due to oversight/error. Why people can't get that I just don't understand. Oh well, worst case scenario I have to walk away and watch Blue Stone become rich and famous without me. I knew the possibility existed from the very beginning. All that said I will continue to trust that despite current frustrations things will work out for the best--or as they should--in the end.

Been spending time with the BCLA website. No link yet because my work is not "live" yet--just the old site with updated information. Given some more work it should end up being vastly improved, and vastly more useful, than heretofore.

Also got my new Moroccan Henna from Kenzi yesterday. A nice little batch is mixed up and waiting for me to get home and play with it right now....

best laid plans

Not too happy right now. My mom's visit was cancelled, because my dad's in the hospital. He's been in for over a week without much change, still in an isolation ward at this point and with no indication of when he'll be well enough to be discharged. So on top of the general regret at having to cancel my vacation, I'm really worried about my dad--wondering when he'll start feeling better, when he'll be able to go home, and given the MS-related mobility problems that plague him at the best of times, whether he'll even be able to go home from the hospital at all or whether he'll be stuck in some sort of rehabilitation facility after.

To add insult to injury, now I have to work until 9pm on my birthday, instead of celebrating it in the Everglades with Michael and my mom.

Sometimes life just sucks.

more

Seems like every post lately starts with some version of, "well, it's been a long time..." I know that I've been erratic with the updates, but besides the mental busy-ness of work and moving and wedding planning and vacation-with-mom planning and conference planning, lately it seems like every time I come to update Blogger is down or having technical problems! What can you do.

We're still having ongoing maintenance issues at our apartment. You'd think that doing things right, and when they say they're going to, would involve much less time and aggro than lying about when you will be in to work and then doing such a piss-poor job that they have to come in again and redo three or four times, but, hey, what do I know! Fixing a wall isn't rocket science...I'm very tempted to do it myself and then charge them for time and supplies! Oh well...the worst is done, and our organizing and reorganizing is slowly getting finished. I think we're both essentially spending enough money at Target to independently keep them in business, but we are getting new shelves and organizers and things are slowly coming together. I finally got our patio set up, so we can sit there with our coffee/tea and enjoy the view of the water. One thing I haven't yet done, believe it or not, is visit the pool and the fitness centre! Maybe I'll get a chance when my mom comes to visit. Right now we're too worried about getting things organized before Michael leaves for his Denver vacation on the 18th and my mom arrives on the 24th.

I'm also happy because my new bellydance practice tape finally came in the mail last weekend! Yes, I finally have my much-anticipated, much-delayed copy of Tribal Fusion: Yoga Isolations and Drills for Bellydance, by Rachel Brice.. I'm really happy with it--it's really going to help me in areas that I'm still weak in, in particular finding and isolating my core muscles to get more precise movements.

The really big news, though, is that it looks like my band, Blue Stone, has a record deal! No contracts signed quite yet, but the people at the label, Neurodisc, really love it and have had a couple of meetings with us. The process is going a little bit more slowly than the guys in the band (Rob and Bill) would have liked, I think, but I am perfectly happy to let things unfold at their own pace. I am, to be honest, more than a little freaked out at this point, and I need to have some time to get used to conversations that include statements like "well, our first short-term goal is to get you on the Billboard charts."

I'll leave you with photos of the henna I did in January for Bollywood comes to Broward:

there and back again

Whew! Well, we moved. Despite a too-small truck and an apartment that still wasn't ready when we got there, we managed to get everything shifted and the truck back on time. Unpacking is proceeding slowly...both of our collections need to be weeded, so to speak, and because the closet/storage space is not quite as big as it seemed before we got our things in, we will probably be indulging in "creative organizing" activities for quite some time.

Unfortunately, we moved in with some outstanding maintenance issues that the apartment complex managers and maintenance have been slow to deal with. We keep on going to the office and complaining that little or nothing has been done, and they keep on taking lists of our needs and promising that maintenance staff will be in ASAP, and we keep on coming home every day to find that the same issues are outstanding. It's not been the best of ways to start our tenancy.

The good news is that our balcony and the bedroom window faces out over the canal, so the place is nice and quiet and we get lots of cool breezes. Given a little more time to settle in and decorate and it should even feel like home!

In my work life, I'm mostly trying to catch up on some of my professional association duties. I've been setting up Roundtable Discussion sessions for the Florida Library Association conference in Jacksonville in April--or trying to, at least! Very few people seem to be interested in participating this time around. More locally, I've just been named the Webmistress for the Broward County Library Association. The "interesting" part about this job is the Board is a little...fuzzy...on exactly how one sets up a web site, and as the last person in my position just "handled" things without telling anyone what she was doing and why before disappearing into the ether, it's hard to retrace steps and figure out where the site is hosted, how to get access, and so forth. This is not really my forte--I know how to create/edit the files and change/update the site, but I'm not so experienced in buying/registering/transferring domain names, choosing an ISP to host the site on their server, and so forth. Made even harder when you don't know anything about what the last person did except that she seems to have acquired, paid for, and registered everything personally instead of in the name of the association! Well, technicalities aside, I'm excited about the chance to brush off and improve my web authoring skills, and giving the site a much-needed content and aesthetic overhaul.

In dance, I think I may finally be getting over my year-long-if-not-longer plateau and moving forward again. Maybe it was taking a couple of workshops over the winter; maybe that I challenged myself a bit by incorporating some new music and zills into a couple of my performances. A week and a half ago, I was one of the performers at my dance teacher's last performance parties at the Sawadee Thai Restaurant. I performed a four-part show, which included a slow veil section and some improvised zill playing in some of the faster parts. I guess the stars were in the right alignment or something...I managed to pull off the best bellydance performance I've ever done! The audience was enthusiastic, and my teacher and my classmates were also impressed. Not quite sure where the dance ability demonstrated in that show came from, but it's nice to know that it's there, and that with a little work and a little luck I can maybe do that well more consistently!

Just about time for me to pack up here. Better save any other news for later, I suppose.

entering the new world

Well, things are just about in place for our move. I've been distracted with preparations, packing, and things to do, so I haven't had much of a chance to post lately. But, my house is pretty much packed, Michael's is the same, we have truck and friends lined up for tomorrow, and hopefully everything will go well.

We did hit one problem, finally--our apartment will not be ready for us until tomorrow afternoon, instead of in the morning. We had arranged for our lease to be begin on tomorrow's date, and made all our plans accordingly. Then I went to pick up the keys yesterday and found out about the delay. Maintenance staff are apparently not quite finished yet--they still need to clean the carpets. Thanks to some pushing on my part, they've moved the time we can have it up to 2, instead of 5 or later, and the people at the office said that they would work tomorrow to see if it can be ready even earlier. But considering our moving truck is supposed to be back at 6 it's going to be tight, and we only even have that much time because Michael was able to call UHaul and change our reservation time. Whew. Well, we'll do what we can do. Worst comes to worst I suppose we can use the truck for the furniture etc and shuttle boxes back and forth for a day or two afterwards--we're not really mandated to be out of our apartments until the 1st.

The other bad news is that I fell on the concrete steps outside my apartment yesterday, landed really strangely on my foot, and now I am limping, moving more slowly than usual, and in some pain. Wouldn't be so big a deal except I am supposed to be rushing around moving boxes tomorrow! Actually, my first thought was maybe I'd broken something in my toe or the ball of my foot, but I am assuming that if that was the case I would have got worse, rather than better, overnight, and that I would have more pain and difficulty walking. So I'm probably going to end up feeling more useless than not tomorrow.

In other news, I finally broke down and ordered a cell phone and service plan from letstalk.com today. TMobile was running a promotion through them with 1000 minutes per month included plus free nights and weekends for $39.99. The phone I chose--Motorola V600--will be free after the rebate and includes features like caller ID, voicemail and a camera. I will admit the idea of getting a camera phone was pretty fun. I actually hate the rudeness of most cell phone users, and never thought I'd get one, but the frustrating, world-is-built-for-cell-phones-and-I-don't-have-one moments got too much. Hanging around all day at home waiting for my mechanic to call, getting caught in traffic with no way to tell people I may be late to work or appointments, never being able to find a public phone, and so forth. Plus, I do a lot of solo driving, so I suppose it makes safety sense too. I was actually divided over the decision, so I guess only time will tell whether it will actually be worth it.

Weather here has been cooler. We got down to 45 degrees or lower overnight quite a few times last week, and I even had to turn on my heat for a few days! The tile flooring makes my current place cooler, and since no building plans in South Florida include basics like insulation, tight windows, or weatherstripping, you feel the cool temperatures indoors more than you do at home.

And that's the news...more updates to come after the move is over!

Here's a picture of some of the henna I did over the Christmas holidays at home. The pattern is from Arabesque, by Jessica McQueen. I love the two-toned effects!

I had my landlord over this weekend to tweak a few minor water pressure problems, and I presented him with my itemized list of damages. I think I was pretty fair. My CD player on my stereo works again--ironically, better than ever!--so I didn't include it on the list of damaged items. I also managed to rehabilitate all my damaged library books, and quite a few of my own, so I didn't have those on the total either. Grand total requested for what was apparently an event that left 2 inches of water on the floor for several hours: $271. But of course there was a lot of sidestepping. "Well, now, if you were submitting an insurance claim, you wouldn't get full replacement value; things would depreciate." (um...wasn't really aware that brand new items purchased a couple weeks prior as gifts would see so much "depreciation." And how much do pristine, like-new condition books depreciate anyway?) "So, you think that this is a fair value?" (Um, yes. As a matter of fact I think you're damn lucky I'm doing my best to minimize this total and not gleefully inventing or exaggerating damages to extort out of you.) "Well, I'll see what I can do." (Oh thank you, mighty benevolent one!)

Anyway, it's not so much money that I would hurt too much to lose it. It's the principle of the thing, mainly. You say you'll pay for damages, it would be nice if you'd actually pay for damages. Especially when, as I've said, I've done my best to keep the claim low.

In other areas, not much is going on except efforts to start my packing and get organized around the move. We have our new exact address and phone number, and so now I'm wracking my brain trying to remember everywhere I need to change it. We're also going to hopefully be able to consolidate our car insurance etc as well as our other utilities, so there's a lot of running around, phoning around, etc., around that. Michael has had some water leakage issues at his place this past week, too, so we're both really looking forward to getting out of our current situations!

Holiday weekend coming up for us...naturally, Michael and I are on opposite schedules, so I work Friday and he works Saturday, but at least we get the Sunday and Monday together. We're hoping to start packing, do some henna, and finally see The Incredibles.

Before you leave, take a look at this eBay auction item. Priceless, no?

you just can't look away

This game is so disgusting, yet, strangely, so addictive....don't go there unless you have some serious time to kill!

When you're tired of bashing, head on over to their Home page...they even have Pac-Man! Woo hoo!

my own little tsunami

Well, I'm back from my trip to Edmonton. Makes me kind of sad to be back so soon--going for the better part of two weeks always sounds like it's going to be so much time beforehand, but somehow it never works out that way. We didn't get as much wedding-related planning and running around done as we'd hoped, partly because we never made enough time to formulate specific goals and things to do before we left, and partly because it's still far enough away (and casual enough) that many things just can't be done at this stage. But, we met our officiant, talked a bit about what we want to do, and got lots of offers of help, and I think we both have the feeling that the kind of ceremony we want will be achievable. So things should work out fine.

The weather was chill, with highs of about -18 Cto -20 C being the norm most days. We also got a fair bit of fresh snow. Call me crazy but it felt great!

Seeing Anita, Rene, Randy, Heather and Mike again was great, as well as visiting all three families. Other than just being able to be at home with my parents again, highlights include finding a new gold-and-brown bellydance costume at Anita's dance studio, Isis Dance Productions, shovelling the snow on my parents' driveway, having coffee at The Second Cup, hanging out on 124th Street again, relaxing by the fire in John and Heather's basement, and sipping New Year's Champagne (oh, all right, sparkling wine) with Chris and Rick.

However, after two relaxing weeks of visiting friends and family, I got home to find my water heater had burst the night before and damaged not only my apartment, but others below and adjacent as well. My landlord did get notified by a neighbor who saw water pouring out from under my front door, and he did do a lot of work installing a new heater, cleaning the floor and hauling area rugs etc. out to dry, and I am grateful for that. However, considering that after that he essentially just left all my stuff in wet piles all over the apartment with the doors and windows shut tight, I am lucky that I got back when I did. Another day or so and I'm sure that mold would have been covering the whole place and it would have become toxic and unsafe to enter. As it is, I am attempting to dry out some books with significant water damage, and I've had to throw out others. My stereo (on the floor because I had no shelf or stand for it) will still play radio and cassettes, but not cds (the mechanism closest to the floor). And, a couple of our smaller Christmas gifts to each other got ruined. The one that hurts the most, though, is that my complete boxed set of BlackAdder videos was on the floor as well, and it's pretty much toast. The box and the video sleeves were melded together, and I tested one of the tapes and my VCR wouldn't play them. Ouch!

The good news is that I don't think that things are as bad as they first seemed. Besides the books, which are always painful to part with, much of the stuff I did have to get rid of was either unimportant (cardboard boxes and papersand the like), or things I was planning to get rid of myself anyway (like the old foamy "chairs" a friend gave me a couple years ago that I never really used because they were uncomfortable). So the overall cost to recover should be small. Also, since we're moving end of January, even if there are longer-term problems with the rupture--which wouldn't be surprising given my landlord's typically haphazard style of building maintenance--I likely won't be around to see them.

In the note that he left on my door, my landlord did say he would pay for my damages; however, when I called him and told him I was making lists of damaged items and so forth there was a lot of mumbling about "don't want to be that way, but not legally liable" and damage deposits. It was hard to have a clear coversation--I was tired from our full day of flying, and between his head cold, thick accent and cell phone transmission it was difficult for me to hear him clearly. I guess we'll find out exactly what he meant when I talk to him again.

And finally, the other good news is that, yes, our move for January has been finalized. Michael and I went to the leasing office at Atriums again this morning and signed the lease agreement for our new apartment, with a set move-in date of January 29. We agreed to pay a little bit more to get an apartment with a view of the water. I'm not sure how much light the balcony will get--it's pretty heavily shaded by trees--but I will finally actually have a balcony, and hopefully will be able to grow a few herbs and fresh lettuce. We're looking forward to it, anyway.