Belated Blog

Well, I took a blog hiatus due to the insanity on my life that was dead week and finals week, but they are over, and I’ll give you the quick run down.

Linear Algebra: got a 23/35 on my final (I know that sounds low, right?) but I have an A in the class

Linguistics: Got a 9/10 on my final paper on German, and combined with my 9 on my first paper and my 86 on my first midterm, grade is looking good (still waiting on the second midterm for the final grade)

Several Variable Calculus: I did really well in the class as a whole (95 and 87 on the midterms, and 97 average on the quizzes), and I think I got a mid B on the final, so I’m expecting an A– in the class.
Chemistry: This class to be perfectly honest, kicked my ass, but I am positive that it kicked everyone else’s ass more. In addition, I feel really good about the final (lots of questions taken from past quizzes which I studied all night the night before) so I am expecting a B in the class. Again, fortunately, the third term of O-Chem is supposed to be way easier than the second.

BUT! Enough of classes, I dealt with them for the last 2 weeks so much that textbooks were flying out of my ears, so I don’t want to talk about them anymore.

So spring break has begun, and what are my plans for this week? How am I going to let loose and relax after a really stressful two weeks? Anyone who knows me well will know the answer: I am going to take advantage of my free time by working more. I have about 5 hours of work every day at bounce (possibly more, I told Naja to give me as much as she can). This will help with my money situation, because I can’t work that much during the week (because there are only two circus classes per week, and I can’t teach gymnastics or trampoline). So that’s exciting.

Oh, and I am staying at Evan’s house over spring break, and so is Kat – I think this is the proof that we are not faking out friendship, we actually did have a clean break up – she is actually here with me now at my favorite coffee shop right across from me – she is gonna help us set up the gym tonight!

But what is more exciting is this: I CAN HAS PUR4MINCE 2NITE!

Yep, I have my first show in 6 months on circus (that new years thing doesn’t count, that was structured improv). We have lights, sound, choreography, a story and everything! OH! And costumes! We have the most amazing costumes courtesy of Mitra, who is amazing. She made tailored costumes, and they are SO FRENCH CIRCUS! I’ll have pictures on facebook very soon, so keep your eyes peeled. In addition, we are going to get a video recording courtesy of the Nolan family (parents of one of our little girls – for those of you who read the Register Guard, they printed an article on us, and Melody Nolan was the cover picture for us).

You can find it on the Register Guard website, but here is my favorite part:

The other adult performers are Adrienne Wise, Francine Porter and Connor Cobbledick.

Cobbledick is a 19-year-old who moved to Eugene from Tucson, Ariz., to attend the University of Oregon. He studied circus in Arizona.

Cobbledick designed a trapeze piece, performed to the song “No Signs of Pain” by Azure Ray.

For Cobbledick, the piece is personal and emotional. It’s about a specific event involving one of his friends.

“You don’t have to have words to tell a story,” he said.

I’ve never been mentioned like that in the newspaper! And they didn’t misquote me or anything! How cool is that? I am so glad that I get to tell the story that I mentioned in a previous blog (Progress), and according to my co-workers, it gets the emotion across (I even got a little teared up the last time I did the piece). So, that’s all very exciting for me.

Erm, thats about it for my life. Due to the craziness of my schedule:

Day in the life of Connor over the last two weeks

Get up at 9 for breakfast before classes/finals

Get done with classes/finals between noon and 1

Sleep till 4:30

Go to work/rehearsal till 9/9:30

Come home and get dinner

Study until 4 in the morning

That’s all I have been doing for the last two weeks. It is awesome. That’s all for me, I’ve got to get going in a bit to work, call is at 5, and I want to get there a little early to get the idea of what we are going. Wish me luck! I love you Kali!

An Untitled Blog In March

Well, derby last night was awesome. We played several *almost* full on jams. There were a couple of people we were playing with who we weren't allowed to hit, but I laid into a couple people pretty good. It was a blast! My piece for circus is about ⅔ of the way choreographed, and I hope to finish it before the week is over, and that gives me two weeks to perfect (ish) it.

OH! And at my coffee joint, Perugino, where I go every Tuesday and Thursday before work, I am officially a regular! I walked in today and got “alright, soooo. Baklava and a 12 oz. Latte?” Which is correct, because it is what I get every time I come in here. It feels good to be a regular somewhere again (I miss Franks…. I’m actually wearing my Franks shirt right now, as chance would have it) like I’m finally starting to live here. I’ve been struggling a lot lately with the feeling of impermanence.

The last 6 months in Tucson were really terrible because I felt like there was a ticking clock on my existence, and the last couple weeks were almost surreal, knowing that once I packed up my stuff, there was a very good chance I would never actually live there again. This place where I grew up, and this city which taught me so much about who I am, and I would be leaving it behind. Now I am here in Eugene, and I love it. This is an amazing town for me, the people are great, the weather is fantastic, and it is exactly what I need. But I registered for classes a week ago, and realized that this is my life. I register for the classes I need for the next term, with the goal of graduating in 3 years. And what happens when I graduate? I leave. I go to Montreal for cirque, or wherever they send me (assuming I get in) or I go to San Francisco or LA and work there, or go wherever. The point is, is that there is no life for me in terms of circus here in Eugene. Now, 3 years is a long time, I understand, not nearly as close as 6 months, but it is still a clock. There isn’t that element of mystery of time that I was used to in Tucson. I didn’t want to go to the U of A, but I didn’t know if I would end up there, I really didn’t. But I have regular friends, and I have a job doing what I love most in this world, I have a regular schedule where I get done what I need to get done. I go shopping for food and supplies, I watch movies, I do things that Police would disapprove of, which I will never elaborate in a blog about, and I met a girl who I liked, and so I asked her out, and we are getting coffee this weekend. Which, for the record, I have never done in my life.

I realized about an hour or two ago (thank you mid-afternoon nap dreaming) that, as simple as it may seem, that is what “living” is. So what if there is a clock on my existence in a place? Life is learning all you can and doing the most with the time you are given, whether you know how much time that is or not. I am loved by people, and I love people. I am surrounded by good people and good energy and every once in a while I need to re-remember: that’s all you need (yeah, all you need is love – who knew…). If I wanted permanence in my life, I should have chosen to be a scientist or a professor. I should have been a working cog in the wheel. But that is boring, and doesn’t bring me joy. Sure, there are many noble jobs that keep the world turning and moving forwards and many I would be honored to have. But every day I would wake up and know what I was going to do. I could never wake up, go to a chem lab, and say to myself, today, I shall invent a new reaction. But I can go to the studio and say to myself that I am going to invent a new silks wrap, or a new trapeze hold. I could go into a chem lab and see the same people every day and work towards the same goal, and that would be great. But I would much rather do shows and get to see new people every day out there in the audience, and watch their faces as I show them something they have never seen in their lives before. I have seen that face before, and I dawn it myself quite often, and that is the face and the feeling that everyone needs to have more often.

Oh, and going backwards a little bit, the girl I asked out deserves a bigger part in this blog. She was painted as a footnote when I mentioned her, and I try to make this blog represent my life accurately, and I spend more time on things that matter more. So thats-a-what-imma-do.

She is an actress in CATS, and I saw her when I saw it the first time. It was amazing, She was incredible. So I talked to her a little bit after, got a picture, flirted a little bit (like ya do) and went about my night. Two days later, decided that wasn’t good enough, bought a ticket for 2 weeks later, and went back. But this time, I had a determination. I was going to ask out a complete stranger, whom I knew nothing about, except her name and that she was an amazing dancer. So I did. When I asked her out, and I was going to get my jacket and wait for her to get changed back into street clothes, one of the other actresses from the show calls me over and basically interrogates me. No joke.

“Were you here three weeks ago?”

*nods*

“And you like Chelsea?”

*nods*

“How old are you?”

“19”

*whew*

Apparently I had been the talk of the cast since my last appearance, and there was a debate afoot.

“Chelsea! Why didn’t you flirt with hot eyeliner guy more?”

“Chelsea, there is no way, he is way too old for you! He is like 23!”

“C’mon guys, give him a chance, besides, he is 20 years old, tops.

Chelsea: “…”

So, now that that’s settled, I have no idea what to do. How do you do a date when you know nothing about a girl (I know that sounds dumb, because I know, you ask her stuff about her and you take the time to learn. But remember, every relationship I have ever been in has been with someone I was friends with for a considerable amount of time first) but I shall do my best.

That seems like an appropriate amount of time to spend on Ms. Chelsea in a blog. Moving on… tooooooo… erm… OH!

So when I was hanging out at the Actor’s Cabaret during intermission, the owner guy comes up to me and asks if I am in musical theatre of just acting (apparently I look like a theatre kind of guy – and yes, I know I am spelling “theatre” that way) and I told him I had not done much of musical theatre or acting, but I am a dancer. And you should have seen his face, he got so excited (apparently, they have no shortage of singers and actors in Eugene, but people dancers who can perform are hard to come by) and I told him that I am out of town over the summer, but he told me to get on the mailing list and that he expects to see me in auditions next year. I asked my girl Evylyn (my interrogator) if I look that much like a dancer that people can tell just by looking at me, and she replies, no joking here, with “oh yeah, its your ass, you’ve got a dancer’s ass.” This goes on both lists of “ridiculous things that have been said to me” and “best compliments given to me,” which is quite an accomplishment, really. Once again, for the record, I was wearing semi-loose black jeans, so that someone could see my ass enough to tell that it is a dancers ass is both impressive and disconcerting at the same time, and I’m not sure what to make of it.

I think that is it for Updates From The Front, vol. ??, so I’ll leave you with the crazy ramblings of my friends.

Colin Oliveira: No thank you, I like my stomach in my chest!

Kat: Shh! Stick your face in the bush!

Me: Don’t use a red light, then people will certainly get that you are a prostitute.

Chahailey: I grabbed Chelsea’s boob. And Adie’s.

Jessica: Me too!

Rose: Not only did your food grow legs, it also gained sentience. Sorry.

Me: A ferret? Certainly not on my head, no.

Isha: The music was an electric lawn mower

There is a backstory for every single one of these weird quotes, and they *almost* make the quotes normal, but the sheer ridiculousness of them sans backstory is worth it to give them to you as they are.

Progress

The in-between week is over, and things are happening once more! Some good, some bad, but at least things are moving forward. The bad things are pretty simple, little bit of injury, some person life pitfalls which are making the rest of my life a little more interesting than I usually prefer, but it’ll be alright. As for the good, there is some serious good.

I am playing Roller Derby again with the Men’s team up here, skating with them once a week and god it feels good to be on skates again. They are still forming their team and getting it together, so there is not a lot of hitting or really agressive skating yet, but we are getting there. We are trying to come up with a derby name, and it might just be “Pink” because that is what everyone up here calls me (I have pink tape all over my equipment). I really do love this game.

Circus update: I have a show! My work (Bounce Gymnastics) is organizing a show for March 20. Nothing big or fancy, but it’s still a show, and that is fantastic. I am going to have a 6 minute dance/trapeze solo, and I finally settled on an idea for the story of the piece and I finalized the music this afternoon. The music is “No Signs Of Pain” by Azure Ray with a little bit of extra stuff added from the movie I found it in (Mouth to Mouth). The piece is going to be incredibly depressing, and part of the sound that I took from the movie was crying. The theme is Kali, and our relationship. For those of you who do not know our history, I will give you the nutshell version.

We met the summer of 2008 doing a piece for Beth Braun (one of the leaders of Zuzi) for the children’s museum, and we had an instant connection. Then when I joined the youth company that fall, and she was there too, it felt like we had been best friends for years. We worked on the winter solstice show very hard, and had lots of pieces where we worked together, the foremost being Nightflight, which was a piece with two duets in it, me and Kali, and Scott and Audrey. The piece opening night was a disaster, and the trapeze swung out from under Kali before the lights even went up, and she broke her left wrist and right foot (or maybe it was the other way ‘round) and I had to improvise almost the entire piece without her. That night had a very large effect on me and still does to this day. So this is what I am writing the piece about. Our friendship and how it grew and then the night where she fell. My title for the music and for the piece is Nightfall (my clever joke, the piece she was injured in was nightflight, but she fell, so it became nightfall). I have rehearsal several times a week (only one of them is official, the others are me coming in to choreograph, because I am used to dozens of rehearsals for a show, not 4). Should be a very exciting time. Some of the girls in my class are also doing a piece, and other people who work/take classes at Bounce are doing pieces.

I am going to try to get a video of the show for my own records, but also so I can show people back home!

I went to see Avenue Q the other day, and it ranks pretty high up there of interesting things that I have seen, to be sure.

Due to the crunchedness of my schedule on Tuesday, I was unable to publish this blog on time, but now I can add Wednesday updates as well (it is Thursday at 1PM).

We had our first rehearsal for the show last night, and I can tell you right now, it is going to be an interesting time. I am used to Zuzi, where the people in charge know what they want before they come in to rehearsal, and they tell us what to do and we occasionally put our ideas in. This is not what it is like. Nobody had any idea what we wanted (I would have brainstormed before, but I was under the assumption that Francia had it figured out) and it was a cluster… you know what. Too many ideas flying every which way, and a lot of completely amazing ideas that were also completely unexecutable. So, as it stands, my piece is getting choreographed at an amazingly high rate, which I am very happy with, and I have no idea how the show as a whole is going to work out. Performances do have a way of coming together very very well at the last minute though, and I am counting on that.

I was Mr. Spontaneous last night though, quite uncharacteristic of me… I was coming home from work, and I got to Eugene Station to take the EmX back to campus, and I see Ken and Colton! I met Ken and Colton at the rave this weekend. Now, I don’t usually go to raves, but I was “hired” to perform there and do some fire stuff, so I did, and I met these two. So, complete coincidence that I would see them less than a week later. Well, they invited me to chill with them, so I went to their friend’s house with them and stayed till 1:00 in the morning. I took my bike on the bus, without knowing where the hell I was going, and the bus almost left without my bike – I chased it a quarter of a mile and actually caught up to it. I don’t think I have ever run so fast in my life. Well, 1:00 in the morning, I found out where I was, and rode about 3 miles back to campus. Did I mention that it was 1:00 in the morning and it was about 35 degrees outside? I was quite proud of myself.

Well, I got home, and promptly crashed… Woke up at noon for registration, only to find out that I am not registering until 5:30. So, wish me luck at 5:30!

In-Between-Week

Well, the last time we spoke, it was last Tuesday, and I had just come back from a quite spectacular weekend. This time I am coming back from a fun, but certainly not spectacular. I went to a party at some friends’ house. I met these two extraordinary people at the Faerieworlds afterparty, and it wasn’t quite a party this time, just us three and their little girl (4 years old). Biggest fire I’ve seen in a while. It started so small and just kept getting bigger, and then it was just a giant pile of smoldering coals, and the only thing I wanted was a couple sticks and a bag of marshmallows. But alas, we were devoid of marshmallows – it was a mallow completely devoid of the marsh factor.

But that was Saturday, I still need to fill you in on the rest of the week. Got back a midterm from Linear Algebra (the class I had the worst time with last term) and it was an 87, and with the curve, that is an A! In addition, I got a 95 on my several-variable calculus midterm, so yay me! On the less bright side, I got a C on my second chem midterm (but got an A on the first one, so I’m sitting around a B– at the moment, and I fully intend to bring it up before this term is done) and it was pretty much my fault. Grades overall are going well.

I am going to go see Avenue Q this weekend, which is supposed to be hilarious (I know nothing about it really) and the tag line is “60% adult situations, 40% foam rubber.” It is basically a musical/comedy with muppets in really adult situations (Rod and Nicky who are roommates discussing if Rod is Gay, or the song “The Internet Is For Porn”) and I cannot wait.

Above all else at the moment, I need two things. I need something I try to go unmistakably and irreversibly right, because there has been a lot of things recently that have been seemingly good, and then crash down several days later. I’m kinda gettin’ tired of it… The second thing that I’m gonna need really soon is sleep. I just havn’t been getting to bed when I want, and this is my fault, so I’m going to work on that. I also think that I am building up a tolerance to my sleep meds.

I have developed an amazing connection with the people here, but at the same time, I really miss some of my friends back home. I have been spending a lot of the last week feeling really alone, until last night. Chelsea, for some very strange reason that I do not understand, is my anchor. She keeps me safe and sane, no matter what crap I am going through. It is quite remarkable, because to look at her, you would see no great soothing power, or great gift of calm, but when I hold on to her, everything just seems easier. Like the problems that I may be having just kind of melt away for that short second, and when I take a second look at the world, nothing seems as bad. Quite incredible indeed.

Well, I know it was a short entry, but that’s all the updates from this in-between-week, a week where nothing is really happening, but is simply recovering from the extraordinary events of last week and waiting for the repairs for the damage come next week.

“… and tread on for miles across weirdish, wild space. Headed, I fear, towards a most useless place: the waiting place. For people just waiting”

Goodnight, and I love you

Changes

I am proud to announce that I am establishing an actual routine rather than just haphazardly writing and studying when I can. I am going to a place called Perugino every Tuesday and Thursday before work. It’s this amazing little coffee shop, with amazing lattes and even more amazing baclava (although they didn’t have any today, much to my dismay…) and I am going to try to write each Tuesday when I come here. So that’s what I am doing, being that it is Tuesday!

I said last week that I was going to go see CATS, and so I did. The singing was incredible, and the acting likewise. The show declared in its program that dancing would not be the focus, and it wasn’t much to my dismay. The music was also significantly lacking, and it didn’t have that punch that we have all come to expect from Andrew Lloyd Webber shows. However, I did fall in love. The actress who played Victoria (for those who are unfamiliar with the show, Victoria is the pure white cat, and is traditionally the best dancer, because she is always in front and has a couple solos in the show) was absolutely magnificent given the small stage, and I honestly could not staring at her for the whole 2 hour show. Her name is Chelsea Morgan, and I met her after the show and took a picture and did, to the best of my ability, keep my mouth shut. I’m going to see it again on the 27^th, and I can’t wait.

On a slightly related note, Kat and I broke up yesterday, and it was quite possibly the best break up all time, and I won. I mean I won in the fact that I broke up with her first. Her whole purpose in coming over yesterday afternoon was to break up with me, and during an awkward silence, she broke first and said “what are you thinking about?” and that allowed me to say what I wanted to. Her response was, with a goofy grin, “are you serious?” We broke up because the spark of a relationship was gone, and we had been better friends than significant others since the start of winter term, so we decided to make it official. So everything is good, and we are still going to be great friends.

Circus news: I finished editing my Aerial demo video, and it is online for your viewing pleasure at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GMJ3RL1jFM and I hope you enjoy it. I had to cut a lot of things out of the video, being that (especially for silks) I had over 18 minutes of footage, and it is a 3 minute song, so only the most dynamic things made the cut (that also show my range). I will make another video in 6 months or so, I think I can do better. I have quite a few acrobalance partners now. A girl named Isha who just might be the most adorable thing ever, a co-worker from bounce named Ashley, who was certainly not lacking in people staring at her last night when she came to juggling club, and Daniel, the guy who runs juggling club. We are actually working on some three person acro moves, and its going well. I am getting stronger all the time, and more graceful.

I did a lot of dancing this weekend at my friend Yona’s house, to some music by a band named Faun. I miss dance so much, and just being free to move. I missed movement, I have been so focused on tricks and technique, and I forgot what it was like to indulge the organic part of myself. I feel that since this weekend, I have felt more connected to myself and the people around me. Quite an extraordinary weekend with those people. AND THE HOUSE! I felt healthier and cleansed just stepping foot into that house. It was outside of the city limits, so at night, there are no lights, there are no cars, it is completely silent. I went outside for some air around 5 AM or so, and there was nothing. It was just me and the world, with no distractions. And if I had been wearing shoes and it had been warmer than 35 degrees with me in my short sleeve shirt I would have danced right there. But it was cold and muddy off the walkway and I had no footwear. So I just admired everything from the stoop. Sometimes (more often than we do, I think) we need to stop and reconnect ourselves. To look up and sideways and all around and see what is around us. Look at the blades of grass that make up that boring old field. To figure out what we are capable of when we free ourselves from what we think we can and should be doing – it is truly astonishing how much of my potential I have not been utilizing, and I will not soon make that mistake again. In addition to looking at the world around us more, we need to look at each other more. Touch our friends on the arm when we are talking, give hugs and kisses to say hello, instead of a casual “sup?” that expresses no love at all. We all have amazing people in our lives, and we need to spend more time letting them know how much we appreciate them.

So that’s my hippie rant, that is getting adopted into my life philosophy. Last weekend changed me for sure. And while I may not be there anymore, I can remember what it was like, and try to keep that feeling going as long as possible.

I think that’s all the updates I have from the front lines this time (after all, it has only been 5 days since my last blog – Friday: CATS, Saturday: homework and Yona’s house, Sunday: sleeping because I was up till 7AM on Saturday, Monday: juggling club. Yep, that’s everything.)

So, until next Tuesday, Adios, gute nacht, bonne nuit, good night and I love you

Oh, and languages are seriously cool (who knew German was beautiful? Cuz I didn’t! Never payed attention enough to it to hear its beauty)

And now, off to work with my favorite girls at bounce, and then spend all night stretching so as not to re-injure my back...

Winter 2010.2: BusyBusyBusy

I am officially half way through my term, and that makes me happy indeed. Classes are still fairly uninteresting, but I am learning some seriously creative thinking from my vector calculus class. As a result of this creative thinking, I destroyed my first midterm (grade pending, unfortunately) so I am fairly excited about that. I also got the highest grade in chemistry I’ve gotten all year (89%, which is an A–) so all is well there. I also finished my first college paper this morning on Moldovan, and I’m pretty proud of it indeed.

In other, more interesting nooz (tis a silly day, just so you know), my hall, Ganoe, had a party a couple weeks ago. It was Joel’s idea, and he is a genius for it. He called it showerpalooza, and it was anyone who wanted to from Ganoe to meet in the third floor (boys floor) showers to listen to music and eat junk food and generally have a blast. But here’s the cool part: we got our RA’s approval. Albert and Ginny are awesome, I’m just gonna say that right now, They said as long as we behaved and wore bathing suits at all times, it was all good. And it was all good, we made a calendar of people there (we are going to print it one day) and I was in September (doing the Captain Morgan stance, because talk like a pirate day is in September, on my birthday actually) and April, miming some Ganja (4:20 – arn’t we creative). And then the RA’s showed up. Now, I know what you’re thinking “but Connor, you said the RA’s were ok with it!” and so I did, and so they did – but they did not talk to the whole complex about it, so the RAs on duty doing rounds through our hall asked what was going on and wanted to write us up for noise violation and having boys and girls in the same shower (more specifically, having girls in the boys shower). I went and got Albert, and he kept us from getting written up (which really, can you blame us for breaking the rules if the person in charge tells you that it is ok?). So the party ended early, and by early, I mean around 10:00, this party wasn’t that late. So we just hung out in the lounge, and I spent 30 minutes recovering from my Mountain Dew chugging competition with Evan (he beat me by less than a second) and this was a 16 oz. Soda. I do not recommend it for those of you considering a soda chugging competition – use sprite or pepsi – the Dew and Orange soda will kill you.

Our group of cards playing friends has gotten larger, we are now playing games of Kemps with at least 6 people, most of the time 8, and it is pretty crazy indeed. We live at carson dining and common grounds cafe, and I am pretty much only in my room to study and sleep (which isn’t that often).

This past weekend, I went to an event called Faerieworlds (note: Faerie, not Fairy – there is a difference, look it up). And yes, it is a awesomely lame as it sounds. Several hundred people dressed up as faeries and woodland creatures (including me) on two different nights. There was Good Faeries night, and I didn’t have an outfit for that, so I just did some face paint, and we listened to a band called Woodland, who were good, and then a band called Delhi 2 Dublin. Delhi 2 Dublin is amazing, and one of the coolest things I’ve heard in my life. I’ve heard of fusion bands before, but this was like nothing I’ve ever heard. They mixed traditional indian music (sitar, this drum called a dhol which can produce different sounds by hitting the two sides of it), celtic (this really sexy fiddle player who can jump around like a rock star and still play incredibly complex melodies without missing a beat), techno and hip hop (they had a DJ guy who did this) and traditional Indian vox. Now, you have to understand, they did not alternate between these styles, they did all of them at the same time, all the time. It was CRAZINESS!!! 300 Faeries dancing all night to these guys. The next night was Bad Faeries night, and that one I dressed up for. My costume was some handmade clothes with fabric hand sewn (by me, over 3.5 hours of time) to the sleeves to look like wings and be fun to dance with. We got to listen to Abney Park, who are classified as Industrial Pirate music – the Genre is Steampunk-esque, and I have no idea what that means, but the steampunk kids came out in force for these guys. Then we got to hear Beats Antique, who were just a techno/trance group, who were accompanied by one of the best tribal belly dancers in the world, Zoe Jakes (http://www.zoebellydance.com/ will give you a good idea about what kind of show we saw).

So then I woke up on Sunday, and decided to go back to sleep, because I had been dancing until 1:00AM both nights previous.

So this week was filled with homework and studying and quizzes and tests and papers, and I am going to be rewarded for my hard work, because I am going to go see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS tomorrow night at the Actor’s Cabaret, and I am very very excited.

Circus still going well, I’m taking it easy this and last week because I worked a little too hard and injured my back. I have really started working on Acro with my new parter Isha, and she is such a quick learner I just kept pushing us, and my body was not ready for the work it takes to be a base. Flying I can do all day, but basing takes different muscles (mind you, neither one is easier, basing is harder on lifting strength, but flying has more to do with core strength and balance to the point of perfection) and I injured my back and have been recovering ever since. Plus, I am fighting off sickness, so it has not been a good couple weeks for me.

But, staying positive, still loving the weather and the people.

Oh! And before I forget, if any of you have not seen my juggling demo video, you should go watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8icEfv81RTU, I will be editing/publishing my Aerial (Trapeze and Silks, and possibly some hand-balancing too, I’m not sure) demo video this weekend, so keep an eye out for that.

Except the Nazis. I don’t like them. The Pacifica Forum (primarily white supremacists) are the likely group responsible for the Swastika spray painted on the floor of the LGBTQA (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Questioning Alliance) Office in the Memorial Union. On the upside, it was a really big unifying factor for the students. Signs have been going up all over the place saying “an attack on one is an attack on all” and there were enough students at the protest in the middle of campus yesterday to fill up the amphitheater and then some. I was in chemistry at the time… and at work the time before that. My life is getting in the way of my activism…

Oh, and amazing(ly depressing) movie that is quite likely to be on my top ten movies very soon (and very near to the top of my favorite gay/lesbian movies list): Lost and Delirious. Staring Piper Perabo (who also starred in Imagine Me & You, another one of my favorite Lesbian movies) and Micha Barton, who plays the aptly named “Mouse.” One of the reasons I loved this movie (aside from the wonderfully depressing aspect, and the good love story, although not great sex scene, I might admit) was how it was told. It was not told from the point of view of the Lesbian Lovers, it is told from the point of view of their roommate Mouse, who comes from a small town and a small world (“Until that night, I had never felt anything, you know, down there, I didn’t know what that felt like” she is 17, you figure it out) and it is her telling the story as she sees it from the outside of this relationship, quite uncommon for a love story – which I appreciated when I got done being upset about the plot…

Kat, Evan and I had a discussion the other day about favorite movies, and I could do my top 5 no problem, so I shall now attempt to compile a top ten. For the most part, they are in no particular order, with the exception of 1 and 2, those are set at the top, and they are equal.

Contact

Pump Up The Volume

Girl In The Café

Boy’s Don’t Cry

Hook

Aladin

The Breakfast Club

Finding Neverland

Moulin Rouge

Lost And Delirious(?)

(Runner Ups: Mouth to Mouth, But I’m A Cheerleader, Tipping the Velvet, Unleashed, The Matrix)

When it comes to my top ten, the last 2 or 3 are always up for grabs and change quite often, but thats the list right now.

Of those 15 movies, 6 of them make me cry, and 8 of them make me angry (in a good, inspired way)…. Woah… what does that say about me? I like extreme emotions among other things, I think.

Well, I’m outta here, that is a blog that is over 1,600 words, and almost 3 pages single spaced, I think I’ve given you people enough to read until I get around to posting another one of these things.

I love you all, Go Ducks, and do your best to keep learning, wherever you are.

“You have brains in your head, and feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose”

~Dr. Seuss (Oh! The Places You’ll Go)

Winter term, entry 1

So I have obviously been very busy. I was supposed to post this blog on Saturday, but due to crazy busy-ness, I have not. So I am writing it now, while I have the time.

I’ll start with classes.

Math 342: Linear Algebra II

Its a continuation of linear algebra I, and therefore sucks by default. To its credit, however, the teacher this term is far better (and seems to know what he is talking about this time). We are still in the reviewing stage of things, but looking through the book, linear algebra seems to get more interesting when it starts getting into real world applications. In a similar way that precalculus is terrible with all those proofs, because they become necessary later. Doesn’t mean I have to like it though…

Math 281: Several Variable Calculus

I have yet to see the calculus bit yet, so far it is more like vector studies with a little bit of matrix algebra thrown in there, but I expect we will get there soon enough. I did read through this book a little bit, and by the time you get to the 5^th chapter, it is completely beyond the scope of my knowledge (not just in terminology, but in ideas) so I am really looking forward to getting taught something I know absolutely nothing about. The teacher is kind of hilarious. He reminds me of Dr. Strangelove (not just because he is polish and his accent matches, but in his mannerisms – and I don’t mean he has a Nazi hand – but every time he says the word “computer” I can’t help but giggle a little), and all jokes aside, he is really good. He has a sense of humor, and likes to tell math jokes, and since he is in a room full of math nerds, the humor is not lost on us. The thing I like most about him is that when he is asked a question, he answers it very precisely, unlike the teachers I had last term, who all had a round-a-bout way of answering anything, usually leaving all of the students even more confused than before.

Chem 335: Organic Chemistry II

We are still in the reviewing stage of this class as well, although we have gone more in depth into stereochemistry (now we know a little about stereotopic analysis, although we have no idea what the application of that one is…). I don’t know anything about what we are going to get into this term, but I know that whatever it is, we will be on top of it, for sure. The teacher this year kicks some serious ass. He is competent (and actually does O-chem for a living…) and really knows his stuff. He is organized, good at controlling the class, which is impressive, given that there are more than 400 of us, and I really like learning from him. That’s really all I have on this class so far.

Linguistics 211: Languages of the World

Taught by Prof. Scott DeLancey, the man who has the ability to make anything interesting (and who I had last term for Ling 301), is teaching this one, and he is living up to his name. We started off with a discussion of language, and what it is, and what makes a language dead, and that there are actually two different definitions. These definitions refer to Latin or Visigoth. They are both “dead,” but there are thousands of people who speak latin all around the world. Latin never disappeared. There was never a time when Latin wasn’t spoken. The difference between Latin and English is that nobody has Latin as their native language anymore. People learn it from books. That is the definition of “dead” we use in this class (which makes Visigoth dead as well, because since nobody knows it, nobody has it for their native language).

This class is cool because, first of all, we cover every single language class (note I did not say every language, given there are between four and six thousand of them in the world) from Belorussian all the way to Kuot and over to Klamath and we have to remember where all of these languages are spoken. The other reason the class is cool is that there is no homework. 30% of our grades are the two midterms, which are just match the language with the country/area (15% each), 30% a short paper we write due in three weeks on some language in the world, and a second, much longer paper, on a different language that is our final (40% for those who are not keeping track) and that’s it. So this is my first class where I have to actually write anything, and today is the day I get to thank Ms. Toews and Ms. Harings so very very much for teaching me ever since 8^th grade and putting up with my crap, I know there was a lot of it. I learned well, and I am helping all of my friends with their essays for WR 121 (which I don’t have to take) and laughing (silently) at the grammar mistakes that got pounded out of me in 9^th grade.

ENOUGH OF CLASSES!

Circus update:

I am now working two days a week at Bounce Gymnastics, continuing to teach silks and trapeze, but now I have added acrobalance, juggling, and hand-balancing to the list of things I teach (not that I am an expert in hand-balancing, but I am better than all of the students, and I am better than Francia – so I get to teach it). I really do get to work with the most amazing people there. My co-workers are amazing people and artists, but it is the students whom I love most. They are just so full of positive energy and they want to learn so much, and it really pushes me to work harder for them. In addition, those who really want to learn – I push them harder as well. I ask more of them than others would, because they can take it, and they keep showing me that they can take more. Amazing little kids, I swear.

On my circus training, I am still attending juggling club here on campus, and working on new things. I am getting to do some pretty awesome passing patterns with the people here, but I am also learning (teaching myself) to juggling ping pong balls with my mouth, I can do two without hands, and 4 or 5 with my hands and mouth (depending on the day). I also found a new acro partner, named Isha (pronounces ee-SHA, emphasis on the last “a”) and she is perfect. She is just so tiny and light and flexible and wants to learn so much. I am enjoying learning to base, and she is learning to fly. I also get to work on some flying with a man named Seager, so I am getting everything I need.

Plans for circus:

Dave Kha sent me an e-mail yesterday telling me that a woman in florida (who she is working for, I don’t know) is looking for contact jugglers for a commercial. I sent her an e-mail telling her that Dave told me to contact her, and that I am making a demo video for contact juggling that I can send within the next week (I am making the video for other reasons, which I will explain next). This commercial will be shot in Orlando, FL, and if they decide to use me, they will fly me down there for a weekend and pay me to do it! I don’t know if I will get the gig, but I’ve got a shot, at least. So that’s cool.

The reason I am making the demo video is for something else entirely. I am making a full video including aerial silks and trapeze, juggling (balls, clubs, and rings), poi, and contact juggling. Emilie has found a circus school in Philadelphia that trains professionally, and if I want to work for Cirque, that is the place to go. We plan on going there for a month together over the summer and doing work-trade for them. Taking classes and teaching classes – the demo video is to show them what I can do for them – it’s going to be a showcase of the best that I’ve got. So I’ll be filming and editing over the next week, and you should look for it on youtube in about two weeks or so (also, if you go to www.youtube.com/derachne919 and click on the “favorites” tab, the first one is “ElementalFirstNight” and that is a video of me on stilts doing fire breathing for New Year’s Eve at the Tucson Museum of Art).

PLUS! With all these amazing jugglers (and acro people and contact staff masters and blah blah blah) there are a lot of people who are interested in forming a professional company, and one who is interested in helping me lead it (plus, he wants me to help teach acro at lane community college). The future is literally wide open, and I couldn’t be more excited.

I still have the greatest girlfriend, and the best friends anyone could hope for, and life is pretty much as good as it can get at the moment. It is cold and rainy (although we had nice sun showers today) and I love every day of it (except when there is a fire alarm pulled and we have to go stand in the rain for a half hour at 11 at night, that kinda sucks).

Questions? E-mail em!