Rattle & hum

(Above, me & my belly-dance teacher Lisa-Marie aka Sha'Vega Malibu, dancing it up at the end of year show in the summer! Whee :-)

Hmm, you know when you look down at your belly and think.. there *should* be abs under there somewhere (ok, everybody except EricB, KeithA & LeahH who all know perfectly well that there are abs down there..) You KNOW you have abs when they hurt! I may be more of a keg than a six-pack, but man-oh-man those babies are aching.

As you can tell, I must have excersized at some point to create the pain. Bellydancing classes started yesterday! Hurray :-) I signed up for Beginner's Class (again.. this time I swear I will practice more and try and remember ALL of my traveling steps. Right now I remember hardly anything..it's annoying :-P) I also signed up for Intermediate Class too, which is a bit daunting, but I do know a few things & it is to be a drilling class where you go over specific moves. Should be a blast!

I'm taking the dancing at Sir Guy Carleton HS near Centrepointe with Sha'Vega Malibu aka Lisa-Marie Serafin, Belly-Dance Diva Extraoridnaire! She is also doing Tarot Interpretation classes too; if anyone's interested... There is still room in the bellydance classes, and at $79 for 10 weeks (ok, it would be 9 if you signed up now :-) it's a deal.

It feels good to be moving around; even though my heel is still giving me some pain (I do believe there is a hidden sliver in there..haven't been able to find it yet.) Not fun :-P The new gang last night was enthusiastic and really into shimmying, trying the traveling steps and having a good time. I didn't recognize anyone except my teacher, but that was fine. They all were quite friendly.

The music kicks butt; the rhythms of the Middle-Eastern dance are infectious.. I found myself doing little hip twirls and figure-eights in-between our shimmies and snake-arms. Yay; it feels good to move about again. For anyone interested in joining up; a lot of the info can be found in my previous entry from the Spring! (Just remember to adjust the time and rate to reflect the fact that it is September/October and not April and that it is now $79 per session :-)

What else?
I think we're getting to the end of our time keying the HRSDC (acronym for "hellish, rotten, stupid, dorky, crap" we have to type!) Yay! I'm glad that it's ending and we're going to be doing a mail-out in the next couple of weeks. That's basically organizing surveys, stuffing envelopes, keeping track of everything and trying not to lose material. At least it will be different & not as mind-numbing.

Although tunes at work have been helping. Everyone trades CDs, listens to MP3 players, the radio or (thanks to JohnG here,) listens to MP3's saved on the computer's hard drive. I borrowed Bob Seger from my buddy MyraW which was awesome and also got to hear some great Johnny Cash, (a new sound for me :-) Some Trance, re-visited the Offspring and of course my old standbys, Colores Andinos and Conan the Barbarian. There's something oddly ironic about keying all this crap while Conan is thundering about in your imagination decapitating snake-priests. Yay!



This afternoon there was a big Census meeting for everyone who participated as a NRFU Enumerator in the Jean-Talon Conference Room. I debated about going. I didn't go to the luncheon at OID because I didn't feel like talking about the Census, or my involvement and my experiences. Everyone else had such a great time; I didn't want to be there to kinda drag it down. But, for the afternoon meeting there was supposed to be a big group photo and certificates handed out and such.. so I thought I should go.

It was strange seeing all the faces in the conference room again; the SOD NancyW was right, it all started here, wayyy back in July and here we all were again. We were officially thanked, officially recognized for our contribution (minor though it is!) to Canadian History by our assistance in collecting responses for he last question on the Census forms (YES you all have done your CENSUS, RIGHT??) anyway, if you haven't, take out a form 2A and give it a look. Inside the cover under all your made-up names and such there is a question that asks if you give Statistics Canada permission to release your personal info in 92 years for geneology and historical studies. Cool eh? Yes, that is a NEW question, and apparently the impact on generations will be very exciting.

heh :-)

I still have noticed that most men in Statistics Canada wear shirts that look like graphs. In 90% of the cases I have observed, apart from t-shirts and stuff, this holds true. Check it out :-)

So, I got my certificate & my name was spelled right. We gathered in the Jean-Talon Rotunda and the photographer squeezed like 66+ people into this leetle space, people sat, stood, lounged, knelt on the floor and grinned. I had NW squished against me to the left and my buddy LianneG to the right. Some head honcho was kneeling in front of me. It was kinda neat. We all mugged for the shot & laughed, compared notes and trundled back to the conference room for more chats.

I'm glad I went; it felt good to wrap it all up--the closure that we need when we've gone through an experience (traumatic or not!) Plus I'll be able to look at the certificate years from now and reminisce on my adventures in the wilds of Britannia :-D



So, tomorrow's Friday & ya can't be sad that it's the end of the week. I think Susie & I will go to Thyme & Again and have coffee (tea for me because of ye olde gallstones :-( but I might have half a cookie too! Saturday I want to go to the Forest Fair in Kemptville to see LianneG's photos & the other North Grenville Arts Guild people too! It should be fun; hopefully the weather will be nice.

Sunday, might do a brunch with some buddies at a Japanese place; if we can git organized for it! And of course Clay & I will try and see Mr. Savage. He has promised not to feed me deep fried brain or strong coffee laced with chocolate and whole milk. Well 1 out of 2 ain't bad!

Cheers & hope everyone has a good weekend.