Makeup and Bellydancing :P

OK so I was supposed to post a challenge a week ago and haven't gotten to it. Good intentions and all that. I've found myself extremely busy, which is typical when I have something I want to do and impose a deadline on myself.

I've also been trying to put together my final AL order. This has been so incredibly hard for me. With the state of the economy and all the expenses a little one entail (plus trying to buy costume pieces) I hadn't really bought much in...about 8 months. So as you can well imagine my list of wants is about 5 miles long. When in reality my able to afford list is about 5 inches.

I waffled for a while about buying back up foundations, but no matter what happens, I have to find a new foundation. I so don't look forward to THAT whole process again. It is what it is, though. Metamorphosis is a holy grail product for me though, so I know a back up or 2 is in my future. ~sigh~ Still not believing in a month or so that AL will be no more :( I'm not looking forward to trying to find a MMU company that gives me everything I need. I don't think one exists, so I'll be finding several but some things there just won't ever be replacements for.

Yes I will be picking up Lost in Faerie this week. A lovely AL sister sent me a gift cert for it but since it's on Dormant Dream and GC's don't work there, I'm setting aside a little somethin for it :) And again, to the AL sister that sent it, THANK YOU!

I met so many amazing people through the AL forum. I'm sad to see us all sort of...splintered now. I know though that those I grew close to will continue to be friends and sisters. You ladies have no idea just how truly special you are.

The rest of this is mostly dance related so if you have no interest just skip on by :P

My student dance troupe is in the early stages of putting together our very first hafla! We were supposed to be performing at TribO, unfortunately they aren't allowing student troupes any longer. Too many pros that are now scrambling for spots. So instead, my instructor decided since 3 of us are willing to get out there and shake it, Body Lyrics student troupe will host our first hafla in September. The first she's been able to put together since 2008!

What's crazy to me is there are nearly a dozen of us. That 3/4 of the class only wants bellyrobics is just insane, IMHO! As you can well imagine, it puts those 3 of us at a HUGE disadvantage. Things like snake arms don't have a hell of a lot of "fitness" value. There's a plethora of other moves that are much the same. So while we get to do them, it's a rarity. Don't get me started on things like hair, makeup, costuming, cultural faux pas, etc. An hour a week also doesn't cut it for becoming a proficient dancer. So it'll be shimmying (practicing) the 6 other days of the week for me. Yes, we'll be staying after class to work on choreo but still there's a LOT of info we haven't even covered yet.

I'm hoping that we open it up to the community-at-large, but it remains to be seen if we'd even get any support. Hell *I* am interested in belly dance and had NO clue we had any instructors at all here until March. If I didn't know that then people who certainly have little interest in it don't know it either.

The scary thing is things like the American Burlesque and Sideshow Festival and TribOriginal have been going on here for FIVE years. I had NO idea, simply because there are never any news stories. The paper in the next county over carries a small story but honestly I don't buy that particular newspaper.

At any rate, Madame Onca works her butt off to produce festivals for the dancing community all over the east coast. Not only does she have TribO in October, but also Belly Horror in D.C. I only found out about that one last night (must've had my head shoved between a pair of zils or somethin LOL). Unfortunately there is just no way I can make both this year. I'd absolutely put myself on the road for 8.5 hours for that. Except for the fact that L.A will only be 13 months old and that sort of drive would have us all committed!

But it gets better! Even further away than Belly Horror is Raks Spooki in MA! OK even for me that's a little far to go LOL. However, to find out that there's all these AMAZING festivals that 2 months ago I didn't even know about it mind boggling. I would so love to be able to go to Salem, but I know that I'd only last about 2 seconds before things got to me. I'd also love to get to Tribal Fest, but I fear that will only happen should we finally be in a position to visit my brother in law LOL.

Anyway, as I've said before, if you're going to TribO drop me a line. I'll be there for the entire weekend and other than my instructor I don't really know anyone. She's actually only staying Saturday night. The other nights she's going home so yeah, awkward! :P

ETA: I forgot to mention. I AM noticing a difference in toning since I started dance classes. I'm also more flexible than I have been since I danced in high school! Nevermind that I have calves that could crush a mans skull to boot. Ready position is killer for tightening calf muscles LOL!