Performance Group: the Good and the Bad

(I actually wrote this last week, and delayed posting until now.)

This week was dress rehearsal for our English Country Dance Performance Group, summer session. This Saturday is our first summer performance, at the local Pirate Festival. We have two more performances and then this session will be done. I have been amazingly stressed over building number of dance events, so even as much as I enjoy dance group I will be much relieved when this session is over.

Last week my family went to family camp. I've probably mentioned here before that I do not enjoy camping or sports, so other than the possibility of meeting new friends I wasn't excited about attending. However, despite sleeping in tents and all that, it turned out to be surprisingly relaxing. Jen and I did call dances one night, but being disconnected from the World Wide Web forced us all to stop thinking of upcoming this and looming-on-the-horizon that. Which was good for all of us.

I've been surprised at the amount of stress generated by dealing with a few really outgoing people, who really don't mean any ill but cause disruption by simply being unknowingly loud. How can some people be so loud and just not notice it?

Oh well. Session is almost over. Performance group has it's ups and downs. I've learned the hard way lately, but made some good friends, and I look forward to continued relationships and new friends too.

Trouser update

Sewing helps: Chocolate, music, and extra thread.

The trousers, dictators of my life, are getting done:

And after that I have five shirts to sew:

I'm getting tired of sewing white.

The two main points of my Life

Dance activities are going well. The Ballroom has been rented for December; I may actually make more than $20 on the classes I'm teaching next week; and we have two more performance practices before dress rehearsal and actual performance. I will be very glad when the summer classes and performances are over, because as enjoyable as it is to teach dance this round has been rather stressful: exhausting physically with all the sewing of costumes, and relationally as I deal with unwitting and unruly performers. People can be so(to put it bluntly) rude without(I think) even knowing it. Do I ever do that? I hope not.
The trousers are coming along. I have the six aforementioned pairs mostly constructed, and I have to cut another soon and then move on to the men's shirts. Our sewing room is not air conditioned, and with this abnormally hot weather sewing is a real chore. Plus I'm really getting tired of looking at the boring white bedsheets that make up the trousers. It may come to a point where I say to the guys, you're wearing them whatever stage they're in so just deal with it!

Sewing Projects

The ghost of Christmas past. Should be interesting.

A new colonial gown in grey linen with blue linen cuffs.

Six pairs of small-fall trousers.

Obligatory post

I've been bad about posting lately. My life just isn't very thrilling right now.

I've been planning dances: Every Tuesday now we have dance practice for our upcoming summer performances. Between now and the end of August I have two performances, four dances, and a week of classes(if I can get enough people signed up) scheduled, and all that the little details that go with them. In September we'll take a short break from performances and extra events, and then plunge back in for Christmas with the rental of a REAL ballroom for our Fezziwig Ball and whatever holiday performances we can handle. So the dance group is my main "job" right now. I seem to have a tendency to gain unpaid work.

The Last Days: Reflections on House-sitting

Ahhh, privacy. I've been here in this clean, spacious house with only Jen as company for over a month now, and it's time to go home.

Thursday was my last day with a master bedroom and bath all to myself, and tomorrow will be my last day with unlimited high speed internet, last day with wholehouse AC, last day with automatic ice machine. No more parties and no more quick trips into town. I'm sure I've been utterly spoiled.

I'm trying to think of the bright side of going home, because in comparison our house is full, loud, and less comfortable. The only obvious plus is being around family. Here's hoping I can make the transition back to home life quickly and painlessly!

The owners are certainly glad to be back.

Recital Week

Although I am not a ballerina myself, somehow I spent all last week at ballet classes, rehearsal, recital and performances. I guess the alternative would have been to stay home alone all week, since Jen had to have the car. It was fun to talk to some of the little girls; many of them were amazingly outgoing. Much more talkative than I ever was at their age, and so cute.

Obviously the busiest person at a recital is the teacher. The teacher is indispensable in every area. Next come the dancers; then the stagehands; everyone else is just a blur in the background.

I have to say that I'm glad it's over, and hopefully I can have my sister and my car back.

By the way, we did get the AC fixed amazingly fast; and then the temperature dropped under 70F. So we've been enjoying both the AC and the cooler weather.