teacher appreciation

Those of you who are my friends on facebook know the "share this graphic" thingy that inspired this post :)

The students are back to school, and as they go, why not pause to reflect on the teachers that have made a difference in our lives? My father and my paternal uncle were both teachers, and my mother a was library technician, so I grew up surrounded by educators. Little wonder, then, that when I stopped to evaluate what I was really going to do with my work life, I chose to become a librarian. Teaching is often a thankless and draining task, and most of the time we are in school we rarely appreciate the work or the emotional investment our teachers bring to us. I mentioned on facebook the sheer amount of after-hours work I saw my dad do, and the evenings and summers he devoted to teaching extra classes (like many teachers, my dad couldn't afford to have all the "time off" some people like to snark about). I remember the care he took with the ESL student's papers; the endless reams of tests in which students wrote of "Michael Angelo"; the Henry VIII poster that traveled from classroom to classroom and exhorted one and all to "Keep the Faith, Baby!" But one of the strongest memories I have is of the day I actually saw him in the classroom.

I was 15 or 16. had come to meet him at his school so he could take me to a dental appointment, and I was early. I sat near the back. He was teaching WWII (oh, the movies and books and articles and documentaries in our home about WWII). A map was up on one section of the wall, a film going on the other. Notes filled the blackboard. He was in constant motion. He would run a section of film, hit pause, and dash to the map, tracing borders and routes and clarifying exactly where this bit was happening. Back to the film. Pause again as he elaborated on an important point, enthusiasm filling his voice as he scribbled more notes on the board. Back to the map again, giving more context; back to the film. And beside me, his chair tipped back so he could lean against the wall, a boy in a denim jacket and a mullet, sleeping.

Sleeping? What?? YOU ARE SLEEPING THROUGH THIS??? Here was my dad, totally engaged in his subject, doing everything possible to make it immediate and dynamic and interesting, and this boy had the temerity to fall ASLEEP???? I couldn't believe it. Had I been older I might have given in to the urge to push his chair down, wake him up, and say "that's my dad talking up there, so wake up and listen, a**hole!" But all things considered, probably better I didn't.

There are always those few teachers who leave an impression when your school days are over. Besides my dad, here are some of mine:

• Grade 6: Mr. Bullen: A somewhat mercurial, truly dedicated man who cared about each and every one of us. He was the kind of teacher who, every time he blew his top and sent someone to the principal's office, would sit down and tell us why. "I am angry because I care about what happens to you," he would say. "Acting like that and thinking it's okay is the kind of behaviour that leads to you flunking out of school and cleaning someone else's toilet all day. I don't want that for you, and I know you are all better than that." I went back several times to visit him after I left elementary school, and he always had time for a hug and a chat. I think the last time I saw him was right before I started University.
• Grade 11: Mr Marion: I quaked in my boots when my math teacher left the school and we got rolled into Mr. Marion's AP class. Nothing I had heard about him was good. I failed the first few tests he gave--really failed, for the first time in my life--and then started getting honours marks in math for the first time since elementary. He didn't spoonfeed: he taught his classes like we were university students, expecting us to listen, engage, and (gasp!) take our own notes ("Why is there nothing on the blackboard for us to copy?", we wonder...). He challenged students to rise to the material and the results were amazing.
• Citadel Theatre School/High School: David McNally: a great drama teacher and acting coach who had the knack of being able to relate to teens on their level while at the same time avoid becoming That Person Who Decided To Teach High School Because He Never Emotionally Matured Out Of High School (*cough* Andrea Truman *cough*). He is an amazing actor himself, and we all were inspired by him (oh. And we all had crushes on him. Shhhh....).
• Grade 12: Mr. Olthius: not so much for how he taught me, but because he was insightful enough to recognize my brother's intelligence during a difficult period.

What teachers inspired you as a student? Who do you remember now? Let me know in the comments!

why your stylist hates henna

Having finally "refreshed" my hair yesterday, I feel predisposed to write a post on henna for hair. I've been henna-ing my hair for the past...5 years, maybe more. When I visit a new stylist, the reaction to my hair is invariably the same: an initial enthusiastic comment on the "incredible" colour followed by an uneasy and/or negative response to my explanation on how that colour is achieved. Yes, it's likely your stylist hates henna, and while it's annoying for those of us who use it, upon reflection it's really understandable why they might. So the topic for today is:

Top 7 Reasons Your Hairstylist May Hate Henna

They Were Not Taught About it in School

...Because really, growers from Rajasthan are hardly going to be sponsoring classes at the local beauty college. Most hairstylists have no reason to learn anything about henna. The vast majority of their clients won't use it. They themselves almost certainly never will. Outside of ethnic communities, henna is still somewhat of a "fringe" product.

When They Are Taught, They Get Misinformation

I had a stylist tell me that product buildup was due to the henna I used months prior, because henna "coats" the hair. Henna does not "coat" hair to dye it any more than it "coats" your skin in mehndi applications. Stories about henna being bad for hair, turning hair green, and causing hair to "melt" after subsequent chemical treatments abound. While it is true that it is difficult to impossible to remove the red from hennaed hair, for the most part high-grade, Body-Art-Quality (BAQ) henna will not damage your hair and will not preclude many other chemical treatments. Which caveat leads into my next point:

Poor Henna Products Lead to Henna Horror Stories

The "henna" you see at the Natural Food Store, promising a wide array of colour results, is not anything remotely resembling BAQ henna. Neither is the grey, dusty stuff in the bulk bin at Whole Foods, or the box on the "ethnic" shelf of your supermarket. If you're lucky, it's just henna that is old and has lost its staining power. And if you're not, you don't just have inferior henna powder. You've got a host of additives as well, including the dreaded mineral salts that cause many of the problems referenced above. When people have problems with adulterated products, or try chemical treatments on top of them, it's the stylist who gets to attempt to salvage the resultant disaster. No wonder they shy away from henna: they never know what you may really have in your hair.

Even when you have good henna, though, it's not really a very salon-friendly product:

Henna Gives Transparent Colour Coverage

With chemical colour, what you see is essentially what you get. With henna, what you get is a red/auburn overlay on top of your natural colour. Black and dark brown hair will never get more dramatic than red highlights. Light blonde, grey, or white hair, on the other hand, will go a bright neon orange (take a look at this Google image search to see good examples of the effect of henna on white or grey hair). Not being suitable for all hair types, and often requiring experimentation, henna is therefore of limited use in a salon setting.

The Initial Result is Not the Final Result

As it does on skin, henna on hair starts out bright and brash and mellows over the next few days. Pictures from my first henna application are a good demonstration of this effect. The first photo was taken the evening I rinsed out the henna paste; the second, 2-3 nights later:

Safe to say, that anyone without prior experience would not be happy with a change this drastic. Especially if they had to leave the salon not knowing what the final result would be. Henna-ed hair results also change after multiple applications--after years of use, my hair colour is now much different.

Even with Good Products, Results Can Vary

Again, personal experience can illustrate: when I repatriated to Canada from the UAE, I had to find a new place to get my hair supplies. I ordered the same, well-known brand I use successfully for body art. Due to my familiarity with the product and my personal relationship with the seller, I know I got quality powder. Yet no matter what I did, this henna never started out with better than an anemic gold tone and didn't develop into the colour I knew and loved. My next order, I went with a different brand and got back to the bright-orange-mellowing-to-red that I was used to. Why did the first brand not give me the results I wanted? Who knows? It simply seems to have not liked my hair. And again, salons cannot deal with that kind of uncertainty.

Finally, Henna is Time Consuming

Once applied, henna has to sit on your hair for up to 4-6 hours. Which is fine if you are spending a day at the hammam, or hanging out at home, but not ideal for a business that needs to consider space and turnover.

Justified or not, I doubt that salon stylists will be changing their opinions on henna very soon. However, if you understand why they are leery of it, it's easier to start a conversation about it--and to come to agreement on the best care and treatment of your hair. Any questions about henna for hair? Let me know in the comments!

in which we camp

Firstly, yes I've changed the blog template again. And I can't promise this will be the last time. Eventually I will find one that will "stick".

We decided to pack up and camp again this week, this time at the Lakeview Campground in Echo Valley Provincial Park. Last time we came to this park this campground was closed, and we ended up in Valleyview next to the Drunk And Stoned Neighbors From Hell. This time, I am happy to report, we managed to score the most secluded site in the entire campground and enjoyed three days of peace and quiet and no neighbors. Bliss. Well worth having to hike to the nearest (non-running-water) toilet and the garbage disposal!

Above: getting ready for dinner after setting up camp

Sophia loves everything about camping, and while that can mean setting up is difficult due to all the "helping", it makes unexpected or difficult things easier to manage. Neighbours who want to party, for example, do not bother her at all and she happily does her own thing and pays them no heed. She will even sleep soundly through the music and yelling. She also is content to camp in rain or in sunshine, a trait which definitely came in handy last weekend, when we had not only party kids next door but a deluge lasting close to twelve hours our first evening/night/morning. Rain outside? Rain in the tent? No problem! Just put on your raincoat and continue having fun. Fortunately this time her resilience was not tested. Although the forecast had been for thunderstorms and rain the first night, and was apparently later upgraded to tornado warnings, all the dark clouds hanging over the park blew over as if they had never been. After the first hour or so, we had clear skies, warm nights, and sunny days.

Above: settling in for our first evening

Part of the fun of camping is the food, of course. We don't own a Coleman Stove, so everything I cook I cook on the fire. One of our perennial favorites is Chili-Lime Rubbed Steak from Our Best Bites. This time I wrapped sweet potatoes in foil and put them right in the fire for about an hour to serve along with it. The smoky note imparted by the fire was a nice complement. Usually we only go out for a couple of nights; I'd like to try some longer trips, so I'm focusing on finding or creating recipes that use foods that don't need refrigeration. A friend suggested The Great American Camping Cookbook, so I'm going to try to read that before our next outing.

Above: S'Mores!

Echo Valley has a beach and a playground right close to our site; Sophia enjoyed "dipping her toes" and drawing pictures in the sand for the tide to wash away. The second and third day were beautiful beach days: not too hot to be unable to enjoy the sun, with a gentle breeze. She didn't want to go home when we were done, so if we can keep on avoiding that special class of annoying fellow campers, this park may become a favorite spot.

Getting her feet wet

Enjoying a sunny afternoon

dance weekend

I was bellydancing in Florida when I left this blog, and after a hiatus in Abu Dhabi I started dancing again here in Regina in 2011. I dance with two troupes affiliated with Linda Yablonski of Belly Dance with Linda, Regina's only dance studio dedicated exclusively to this dance form. If you follow me on foursquare or facebook, you've seen the notes I've posted about extra practice time the past couple of weeks; those practices were building up to a busy schedule of performances this weekend.

After a year in the beginning/intermediate Tribal troupe Ya Rayah, I was promoted to the senior group, Ya La Habibi. Both Ya Rayah and Ya La Habibi perform what would technically be called Improvised Tribal Style, or ITS (I'll probably go into further detail about what exactly that means in a later post). I didn't need Linda's warning to know that this promotion would involve a "steep learning curve", and the last couple of weeks my fellow graduate Deanne and I have been involved in some intensive and sometimes frustrating practice sessions to get ready for our first performance as troupe members. On Saturday we drove with three other dancers to Moose Jaw, where we danced at the Bentley Retirement Home and the Motif Multicultural Festival.
We were scheduled at Motif for 2:45, but ended up not dancing until around 4:00 thanks to an unwelcome downpour that started pretty much right as we pulled up to the park entrance. The stage was uncovered, so we had to wait until the rain stopped and until the sound equipment could dry out. Picture dancers edging away from the stage as the people who just told us we can't use a microphone on wet grass pick a power bar up out of a puddle of water and try to figure out when they can plug more stuff into it. Ulp. We finally got to get in front of the crowd, and finished most of our pruned-back set before more rain forced us off the stage again and under the tents. Fortunately the weather cleared soon after that, and we were able to enjoy the festival booths and see some of the other performers. We couldn't believe it when we got back to our vehicle to see it was already 8pm! Time to pack up, change back into civilian clothes and head back home

After that late night I was up early to get ready to represent my cabaret style troupe, The Jewels, in the Secret Gardens Tour. Linda's garden was in the tour this year, and she decided to have dancers as part of her yard's attractions. Dealing with liquid eyeliner at 8am after little sleep was a bit of a challenge, but shockingly Darcy Not The Morning Person did manage to get up, get ready, and be onsite and performance-ready before 10am. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful this time around, and all of us had a wonderful time dancing in such an intimate natural setting.
So after all that glamour and excitement, it will be back to real life on Monday. We are going to be camping; of course, it is forecast to rain the first day. Well, at least we found the hole in the tent floor our last trip...

Rebooting

So I'm thinking I may start blogging again.  Inshallah has been quiet for quite some time, and sometimes I have thoughts I could write about, but wouldn't really fit there.  First up, though, is to update the blog look and structure.  The look is woefully out of date, and blogger has had...quite a few updates since I last blogged.  There are also a lot of sidebar items that are out of date and should be updated or removed.  Anyway...look for more postings soon and maybe I can turn this blog into an at least semi-active place again!

radio silence

The short version of our story since March is we got to edmonton fine after only one minor car repair and 5 days in Denver visiting Michael's brother and his wife. We ended up in Edmonton much longer than we thought we would due to the difficulty of getting basic things like driver licences and other paperwork done, and finally left for the UAE on June 1. Since we got here, we have encountered many delays and frustrations, though the kinds of things we are facing are not unusual to new UAE residents. We still don't have our residence visas, but we are FINALLY going to be able to move out of our hotel and into our apartment tomorrow, which makes us very happy!

One of the reasons I haven't been posting here is becuase my internet time is limited (no home computer yet of course) and Michael and I have been maintaining our joint blog, Inshallah with our experiences here. Since more of our family members and friends have been checking that one, it's taken precedent for updates. So if you'd like a more detailed version of what has happened and is happening in our lives, surf over there.

last day

So, today is my last day at work. Which feels very strange. This is the first time in my life that I have left a job with the prospect of not working for a long time after, and had that be okay instead of a source of stress. Even if and when I find a job in Abu Dhabi, I still won't be working for months. There's so much to do in that time and yet still I feel kind of cast adrift.

I've been trying to figure out how to bring my car into Canada, which has honestly been a huge nightmare. Check out the list of things to do here and tell me if you believe in free trade anymore!

We haven't even really started packing yet--so it's good that I will have a couple of weeks before we leave. On top of the regular work we also have to have an itemized list of everything we move with us to declare at the border, so that will require some extra work as well.

So I'm sometimes excited, sometimes freaking out, sometimes not even believing the whole thing is happening!

Since today is my last day with regular access to a computer, I won't be online to write here or answer email as much anymore. I'll try to check it a few times before we leave at least, but may not have access on the road, and after we leave Edmonton in early May it's going to be a while before we can get our own computer and get it all set up. So I hope you will excuse me if my posts are even more sporadic than usual this next little while. I'll write when I can, I promise!

big news

We got the official word today

MICHAEL GOT THE JOB!!

WE ARE MOVING TO THE UAE!

Needless to say I am excited and anxious and scared and worried and full of anticipation all at the same time. So much to think about...so much to assimilate...so much to learn...so much to do.

I already handed in my resignation letter though. Boy was that fun!

After being in limbo with no word for so long everything seems to be coming up much too fast. I will be leaving work mid March. Then we will drive from Florida back up to Canada at the end of March. Then, hopefully, we will have a decent amount of time to store our things and visit family and friends before departing to Abu Dhabi.

Life feels more than a little surreal right now....

Johari Windows

Johari windows are something I stumbled across recently on a message board. The whole concept sounds kind of intriguing. So, if you'd like to contribute to mine, point yourself here: Darcy's Johari window

turca to hard rock and beyond

Well, Turca Groove went pretty well all told. Sorry I didn't post an update in a more timely fashion! There is a set-by-set description of the night in my Tribe blog if you'd like to read it. There are photos posted in this album as well. I finished my tribal bra--and my tribal-influenced solo!--in time, and we also managed to have our "zill solo" ready. Strange to dance to no music but us... but I think it worked.

A friend videotaped it for us, though so of course I had to endure the indignity of watching it afterwards. Funny how the mistakes that I thought we had covered up were hugely visible, and the ones that I thought were glaringly obvious were hardly noticed! I also saw quite a few...er...areas for improvement in my dancing. It's always hard to watch yourself and see how you really did, as opposed to how you felt things went. So I was a little less happy with the performance after that.

But, the house was packed with our family and friends and everyone who came said they loved it and had a good time, so I'm trying to forget all the glaring ugly flaws and consider it well done.

I also had my first professional dance photo shoot at the Broward Bellydance Meetup's January meeting, which was a lot of fun. I ended up ordering about 8 of them from the proofs, and I'll be getting digital images with them, so I'll post some of them when I can.

Michael has not had any official word from Abu Dhabi yet, but we think he is going to get offered the job. He's had a couple of unofficial email exchanges with some of the people there, and while they are not coming out and saying directly that he was selected, the inference is clear. There are multiple reasons for the delay...all typical of the culture in that area of the world...so we are settling in to "hurry up and wait" on the issue.

I am performing at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino this weekend...with Diana again. Guesting for my teacher Myriam. It will be great to dance to live music again! We are outside, and I'm assuming we'll be there more for "ambiance" than anything else. Doesn't meand I'm not nervous though! I'm working on a new costume that will hopefully do for some cane dancing, which I haven't been able to do for some time. See a sample photo here .

Counting down to Turca Groove

Well, tomorrow night I have my first public bellydance performance in close to a year. My friend Diana and I are performing at a la Turca restaurant for their monthly Turca Groove.

We have three sets planned, each with a duet and two solos. We are going to dance the choreography we learned at the Aziza workshop in November, a karsilama (9/8) we created ourselves to the Turkish standard Rompi Rompi, and a "zill solo" we just finished last week! That one will have no muscial accompaniament....just us on finger cymbals. Which means, of course....no room for error. Diana has showed it (on paper) to to her and Michael's drum teacher, Joe Zeytoonian, and he said he thought it looked good, so hopefully it will be received well. For my solos, I am going to dance to the Hossam Ramzy drum solo I used to use for my gig at the Sawadee (Naima's hip from Sabla Tolo), the first track from Light Rain's Valentine to Eden, and Inanna by the tea party. That last will be my first tribal style dance...I choreographed most of it, but parts of it, and all of the others, will be improvised.

Naturally, things were going pretty smoothly until our rehearsal last night, in which I rediscovered mistakes I thought I had fixed weeks ago, thought up a bunch of new mistakes to add in, and totally lost control of my veil. Argh! Better now than Tuesday I guess.

As for the rest of life....

Michael has been selected for interview at the Petroleum Institute in the United Arab Emirates. He's been posting about it regularly on his blog, so I won't recap too many of the details here, but he has been told informally he's a strong candidate for the position and I think there's a good chance he will get it. Moving there would be quite an experience...sometimes I'm more excited, and sometimes I'm more scared, but either way it would be too interesting an opportunity to pass up. We have been reading up on the area as much as we can, but there is not a lot of UAE-specific info out there as far as travel and etiquette guides go...most focus on places like Saudi Arabia. The UAE is more liberal than a lot of the Middle East...but of course "more liberal" would be a relative term and we're not really sure what to expect. Michael will find out more when he goes, I guess (they're not flying me out with him).

We had a pretty good Christmas and New Years all things considered...about as good as a Christmas in Florida can be. Hung out at home, read our new books, listened to our new CDs, and ate good food mostly.

And that's the highlights of the past couple weeks :)

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.