Bam, Bam and BAM!

Oh, you fabulous day, you. Got a great performance review at work and then today was the first evening of Alien's week-long workshops :) AND she gave me a compliment! 

Body exhausted yet mind still excited. What's a gal to do? (Answer to this question is usually reading or YouTube).

Anxiety and Teriyaki

One nice thing about being an engineer is having a good number of male coworkers who will willingly help push your car when it is stuck in the snow :)  Not that a woman couldn't do it but myself and the other females were in heels that night.

Poor parking decision on my part but I may have still been high on adrenalin at the time.  I was coming from my first performance ever which I only had two days to learn.  I don't think I've ever been that anxious before a performance - I actually felt nauseated the day before.  But it went fine and I was just so happy I made it through.  It helps to have amazing Cuban dancers on either side of you to take away the pressure.  Two elegant bookends make almost any book look extra good ;)

Speaking of books, I finished devouring MaddAddam and am currently rereading the rest of the Oryx and Crake trilogy.  I couldn't resist!  Margaret Atwood has such a knack not just for speculative fiction, but even for brand/product names and company names in the speculative future.  Maybe she should be copyrighting that stuff even though it doesn't really exist yet.

Oh double practice Sundays ... How you challenge my body so.  I really should get up and make my work lunches for the week.  I need to make sure food is accessible all week, since I will be rushing between work and dance even more than usual.  One of my favourite dancers is coming to do workshops for seven days.  It's none other than Alien Ramirez (the one I was thrilled to be mistaken for in Miami ... even if it was very very brief).   Okay my hunger is beating out my beaten body ... must go cook! I am on a stir fry kick right now.  I didn't realize there were so many ready-made sauces out there to make life easier.  

Asian Fail.

Happy New Year!  I just discovered the hard way that Korean soybean paste (doenjang) does NOT equal miso paste.  It is not even close.  My first lesson of 2014.

I was craving vegetables and rice and excitedly found a vegan recipe for fried rice in order to have my work lunches lined up for the week.  The recipe called for miso paste and so I went to TNT to pick some up.  TNT surprisingly didn't have it and I was in a rush so I ended up grabbing a tub of the nearest brown soybean paste, assuming all would be well.

When I started cooking, I noticed the paste had a pretty pungent smell but proceeded to succumb to the urge to add a tablespoon more than the recipe called for anyway.  I've never cooked with any type of soybean paste before and "soybean paste" just sounds so harmless.  Like a white sock or a pencil eraser.

This tendency to eyeball ingredients has resulted in almost ruining my big batch of vegan fried rice.

I tasted the result and it was WAY STRONGER than I expected.  A powerfully pungent punch to the taste buds.  A quick google revealed that doenjang is something like ten times more potent than miso!  Yikes.  I ended up going out for lunch today instead.

I am currently trying to dilute my overpowering fried rice with some plain old jasmine rice and more veggies before I go to dance practice.  It seems to be working.  Now my batch of fried rice will be even bigger, but at least it won't feel like a thousand soybeans died in my mouth every time I eat lunch at work.

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.