Where'd 2013 Go?

My first NFL game was a very good time - I think I like football.  Tailgate partying which included a lot of beer and tipsy salsa dancing in the morning ... people watching while buzzed in the stands ... a suspenseful game to the end ... basically all the ingredients required for a great experience. Even as a neutral Canadian.  Okay maybe I was a bit biased - I was in Dolphins territory after all.

The next day I burrowed through the travel wormhole, which took me from plus 30 degrees to minus 30 degrees and PLOP! I'm back in real life Edmonton.  I slid gracefully back into scarves and gloves, brushing snow off my car, piles of drawings and spreadsheets at work and even finishing up my Christmas shopping.  A magical trick: avoid the craziness of the big malls and stick to City Centre.  A measly 3 bucks for parking on the weekends and there's a Jugo Juice to keep you going while you shop (I prefer Mighty Kale smoothies).  Added bonus: since it's not so chaotic, the salespeople are pleasant and stress-free.

Time is crazy.  I can't believe 2013 is ending already (hey, that rhymed).  And what a jam-packed and fulfilling year this was!  New travels.  Accomplishments in work and dance.  The last half of the year got so busy that I didn't have much of a "life"... but I sure did feel alive :) Now that my schedule is winding down, it's a treat to be able to catch up and spend quality time with folks.  I am lucky to have patient and supportive loved ones.  Including a big strong handyman who puts up with my schedule.

I am incredibly blessed period.

My heart goes out to those who are suffering so much at this time.  Haiyan victims ... refugees fleeing Syria and Sudan ... the list is too long.  If only every being right now could be clean, well-fed, safe and warm.  That's what I would ask for if Santa crashed through my window right now.

That and changing the length of a day to 40 hours instead of a piddly 24 :)

And it's Done.

Made it to semi-finals but not finals. Happy to be in tenth place for now, considering it's my first time and most of the team is new (we've only practiced altogether as a group for less than four months).

It was a privilege to experience competing among the world's best and to see them practicing backstage. Stuff like that can't be youtubed. To see how precise, how powerful (and sometimes how crazy) these dancers are on and off the stage is breathtaking. From South America to Europe to Asia ... They all share the same type of focused discipline.

Makes one realize what the human body and spirit is made of and what it can push through. 

Makes one hungry for more :)

Happy highlight tonight: during the social dancing part of the evening, a dancer mistook me for one of my favouritest dancers ever - Alien Ramirez! Totally made my night :)

Here's to my lovely teammates, who busted their asses in such a short amount of time to get to this experience. 

We Qualified Tonight.

After weeks of 6-days-a-week practices, we were able to qualify at the World Latin Dance Cup in Miami tonight :) Competing is definitely a different breed of performing.  The panel of judges, the high calibre of other competitors from all over the world ... It's pretty amazing and inspiring and overwhelming all at the same time.

It's 5am Miami time.  The rest of the team is asleep after a champagne hot tub celebration and I am about to hit the sack myself despite still having a nest of hairspray in my hair and faded bits of eyeliner that won't completely wash off. 

I'm excited to finally sleep in.  I'll need the sleep for a day of more practicing and fine tuning of our routine to prepare for semi-finals on Friday.  Plan B (if we didn't qualify) would've been to enjoy just watching the semi-finals and finals while squeezing in beaches and mojitos and dances.  And then there is the dessert after Plan A or B: my first NFL game on Sunday before heading back to our colder northern home.

Here's to my team: a bunch of beautiful and positive folks who continue to push and help each other in creative and crazy ways.

Leader, Symbol, Hero, Hope, Grace, Courage, Justice ... You Name It. He Embodied It All.

R.I.P. Mandela.

One of humanity's greatest, who left this world a better place.

I was deeply saddened when I found out he passed away today while I was driving home from work.

I was initially rushing home so I could get ready for a performance, but somehow time stood still for a bit and I had to think about this great man and his life.  What were his last thoughts of?  CBC said he passed away peacefully and surrounded by his family and friends.  May his legacy live on.

Memoir Binge.

I did end up reading the Solomon Northup's memoir, which was a surprisingly easy read.  I can't pinpoint exactly why I assumed it would be more complicated.  Maybe it was the impression that someone writing from the 1800's would use much more different English than today.  It's still definitely a more formal English (just like the movie), but the story flows so easily.  There is just so much dignity and grace in this man despite having been to hell and back.  How do you keep from being bitter and hateful after being treated that way and seeing so much brutality and horror?  Maybe it helps to have a cause to fight for.  Maybe that's why he survived. 

Mindy Kaling's memoir.  Hilarious.  What's not to love?  Immigrant family stories.  Nerd girl morphs into superstar pioneer brown girl of comedy.

Orange is the New Black was something my sister got me into.  I watched it on Netflix while I was at home coughing up a storm.  Again, I broke my read-the-book-before-the-show rule but I read the book anyway.  The book opened a whole new world for me.  I googled the real Piper Kerman and found out there was some flak about her being a privileged white woman who merely got to dip her toe in the prison world and easily jump out, while thousands of underprivileged women of colour are stuck in prison for smaller crimes.  I'll have to go with the creator of the show (Jenji Kohan) regarding this one.  I think that even though Piper's story sold well because she is indeed a privileged white woman, at least it generates discussion (and hopefully, progress) about this hidden and forgotten world.  Piper strikes me as another person with a quiet dignity, even though she is on the other end of the spectrum.  She is fully aware of her privileges but empathic towards those who clearly do not have the same advantages.  I felt like I was humbled right along with her while I was reading.  Empathy, people!  Get some.

Now that I think about it, I honestly don't know how I had time to read all this.  Maybe sick time helped.  Now I'm back to dancing every day.  And performing as much as possible to get into the performing groove to prepare for competition time in Miami (I leave in a week - whoa (c) Keanu).

And somehow I will squeeze in another book, which I've started already.  I'm taking a break from memoirs and jumping on Malcolm Gladwell's latest book about underdogs. 

Yes, I Say "Yes" Quite a Bit.

Just realized that while reading previous posts. The tendency seems to increase in proportion to how riled up I am.

I'm learning how important rest is (yet again) and am trying to shake off this cough by taking a break when my body tells me to - even if I am sad about missing practices. Seems to be working! Energy levels are on the upswing again. 

Going to make myself lie in bed now, but wanted to gush about who I got to meet this weekend: Margaret Atwood!! At the Festival of Ideas this year, Alanis Morissette and Margaret Atwood were brought together to chat onstage at the Winspear. It was fun to watch ... Especially since Ms. Atwood is one of my favourite authors. 

Even in her seventies she is vibrant and lovely and eloquent and full of wit. And a wearer of hot pink. AND promoting her latest novel (the third in the Oryx and Crake trilogy). My copy of MaddAddam is now signed and I can't wait to read it!

Okay gushing over. Bedtime!!

Just Saw 12 Years a Slave.

I was so unsettled that I had to stop eating during the movie.  I kept thinking that it was based on a true story, which kept me going through vicious cycles of awe, fury, pity and disgust.   

The performances were powerful and the scenes chilling and unforgettable.  Down to the sheer discomfort during the scenes where whites become sickeningly inhumane and psychotic in their treatment of slaves.  It is mind-blowing that there were people who actually thought this was normal and idealistic.  When I watch movies like this or read books like this ... I am reminded of why I will never be okay with using the "N-word."  Yes, words have power.  And this one carries behind it one of the worst faces of mankind in its history.  Of course black people have the right to own it and do what they want with it.  Yes, I like songs that happen to contain the word.  But no one else should be messing with that word today.  No one.  It just feels innately wrong!  I remember once being around a Filipina and a white girl who used the N-word as a term of endearment with black athletes (yes, they were groupies) and I cringed so bad I wanted to erase the memory forever (fail).  Plus I was especially (and instantly) embarrassed because of the Filipina girl.  Ugh I'm cringing right now. 

But I digress. 

There is no one big theme or message in the film.  There is no Hollywood emotional manipulation.  Instead you get a sense of the comings and goings of days, nights, hours, minutes ... in this mundane nightmare that is a slave's life.  One female slave in particular - Patsey - broke my heart (Just googled and it was captivating actress Lupita Nyong’o).  She was in the worst lose-lose situation.  There is no safe haven when the master wants you and hates himself and you for it.  And then of course his wife just plain hates you. 

So difficult to understand and believe that this evil existed not that long ago on this continent.  But it did, and this movie makes it so real it's scary.  Steve McQueen did an amazing job directing this.  The lead part, a free man who got kidnapped into slavery, was played by Chiwetel Eljiofor and he definitely mesmerized.  I smell Oscars :)

Again, I broke my rule and I didn't read the book before the movie, but I do plan to read Solomon Northup's memoir now. 

And I just discovered that the memoir is available for free online :)

 
Mind Farts
-Canada now fast tracking visa applications to help out Haiyan victims :)
-i remember racist white kids calling me "[N-word] Lips" in elementary (yes, kids were that racist even in elementary school. thankfully Edmonton's more diverse and multicultural now).  as an immigrant kid, that was my sad introduction to this stupid word.  so yeah, white people using it = not cool
-having full lips is not a problem nowadays
-another kid's parents called me a derogatory word for Aboriginal people.  seriously, what was wrong with the neighbourhood I grew up in?  it's bad enough that people didn't care enough to get my ethnicity right ... but even adults slamming a 10-year old with racial slurs - really?

-my kids will definitely be going to a ethnically diverse elementary school.  mandatory!  as you can tell, this movie got me all fired up