Mumbling Madly

Well, I think it’s official: Seattle. Yes, that’s right. After FIVE years of high altitude and blazing sun we’re returning to the Puget Sound. I hope years of pining for this city won’t taint my return. I have no idea where to live, where to work, (any suggestions?), but I’m VERY EXCITED.
(Click Here for an exact transcribe of Josh Breaking the News)

Over the weekend, we visited my aunt and uncle in Denver. My cousin, Anthony, was also home from college. Turns out they’re all hooked on Dance Dance Revolution! You all know the game: Loud music, flashing lights, little arrows on the screen tell your feet where to go. I remember first seeing it at Gameworks four years ago. Any schmo can look like a top rated dancer with a few hours of practice on DDR.
Question: Is Having A Dance Minor At All Relevant? NO! In fact, I was way too calculated with my dancing:

Josh is so tall, I cut part of his head off trying to take a picture of him Dance Dancin’.

Me and Anthony.

At the store, our Motionwear rep also reps Keens, the innovative sandel with a chunky toe box. My initial response to them was: Wow, what an ugly sandal. And than the rep GAVE ME A PAIR. Suddenly, I’m all about Keens…I can make them look pretty stylin with a pair of capris. I almost feel like a poseur wearing them since I am not typically a rugged, outdoor, adventure-type. (This is partly why I want to move out of CO, the outdoors is wasted on me). I looked Keens up and here’s what I learned about my new sandals:
The Newport is the foundation of the Keen footwear line. Designed to perform in the adverse conditions of a marine environment, the razor sipped outsole and 3mm lugs provides excellent traction both on land and on the slick surfaces of boat decks or river rocks. A true hybrid, the waterproof nubuck upper withstand the abuse of saltwater and dirt, while providing supple comfort and a stylish look.

AntiMicrobial EVA footbed inhibits foot odor and controls moisture.

(And they were free!)

Many of you know that Josh and I are enduring an agonizing wait over where we’ll be living in 2-3 weeks. Most of this is beyond our control and not worth mentioning…let’s just say it’s been nerve-racking. At my Mom’s suggestion I conducted the following experiment to see where Hobbes preferred we moved:

Exhibit A: Wet Cat Food Representing Denver

Exhibit B: Wet Cat Food Representing Seattle

Hobbes was actually extremely suspicious about the entire experiment. She thought we were up to something, (well, I guess we were). Most likely she thought The Cage wasn’t far behind with a trip to the vet. At any rate, I placed her at equal distance between both plates…and she wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t until after we left the kitchen that she made her choice:

Not a huge surprise, considering that’s all I talk about these days. However, Hobbes was born in Summity County, Colarado at the impressive altitude of 9,000 feet. It impresses me that she would want to leave her birth state behind and live at sea level for a while. (Than again, she’s only a cat).

Remember when the huge juice craze hit the U.S.? Everywhere you went there was some fancy juice bar where they threw whole fruit into a galactic blender and served it up in martini glasses. These places also introduced shots of real, pulverized, GRASS…and not the marijuana kind, but the stuff you find in parks kind. Wheatgrass, that’s what it was called. We’d slug down a shot and marvel about how great it was for you. You could also buy custom made smoothies that were spiked with echincea and other goodies. I remember staggering out of bed and to the local IntaJuice for a Vitamin C Smoothie. I doubt it really worked, (does any of that stuff really work?), but I was convinced at the time that pulverized bananas would somehow cure me.
This was all around the same time that PowerBars were introduced. Folks couldn’t slow down for lunch so a PowerBar replaced what could have been a promising meal. I remember being at Bumpershoot in 1996 and raiding the PowerBar tent every few hours for free samples. I watched a myriad of bands all hopped up on fake nutrients. Needless to say they did not give away free samples the following year.
I think Atkins destroyed the juice industry. (And probably the Powerbar industry as well). Low-Carb People are not friendly towards fruit, especially juice, and a 15.2 oz bottle of Odwalla contains 33g of Carbs. This means that Odwalla is put on sale a lot…and I lOVE Odwalla. I could never afford it, but now my local store constantly sells Odwalla at the reduced price of 2 bucks a bottle. Even though the Vitamin C Monster tastes like a chewed up vitamin I still suck it down. I’m sure there are hidden hazards, maybe the fruit is injected with pesticides or the claims written on the bottle are false, but I want to BELIEVE. Perhaps the diet crazes will turn around and go back to liquid diets, fat free food, and the praises of grapefruit….until than I’m drinking Odwalla on sale.

Not much to report, hence the token picture of my cat. Josh is in San Fran helping his sister move. The two of them started the drive last Saturday. They narrowly skirted Nevada’s worst storm since 1916 and made it to CA in one piece. Meanwhile, I’ve been sleeping in the middle of the bed with my cat and it’s no longer fun.

Yes, legwarmers are back. Two and a half years ago only grandmas shopping for their grandkids would ask for legwarmers at Christmas time. We laughed quietly to ourselves: “Silly Granny, don’t you know legwarmers have been out of style since Whitney Houston sported them with jeans?” Well the last laugh was had by all dancewear shopping grandmas out there. This last Christmas not only did dancers purchase legwarmers in vast quantities but young F.C. hipsters perused our vast selection of striped and solid warmers.

I can’t do legwarmers, I just can’t. They’re hot, they’re itchy, they’re not worth it and as a dancer, I feel like a terrible sell-out wearing them. But because I am always curious about how dance trends effect mainstream fashion, I did some research and found some appaling abuse of the new legwarmer trend. Like attaching a legwarmer cuff to boots and shoes:

With the growing trend of legwarmers comes the reintroduction of the pointy-toed high heel. This saddens me deeply. I had grown to love and be spoiled by chunky platforms, round, sturdy Dr. Martins, and thick soled sneakers. Not to mention the complete acceptance of Birkenstock as fashionable AND comfortable. Perhaps it’s my grunge upbringing (I came into my own at the height of flannel and denim), but I never had to pull my pants closed with needle nosed pliers or slide on a foot-mutilating pair of pointy heels.

The problem is now I am faced with a fashion dilemma: Do I buy a pair of pointy boots because, damn, they make my legs look great? Or do I wait until the trend passes and stick to my comfortable Dansko clogs…
Granted, I pick and choose my trends…sometimes I’ll go with one if I think I can get away with it. Most of the time I’ll wait the trend out because I know if I buy a piece it will not become timely or classic.
For example, trends I decided to bypass:
1) Shawls with huge floral pins.
2) Mini-skirts (this was a tough one because I’m still not sure if I’m too old for minis. They’re also very difficult to wear at work and even with shorts underneath there is a fear of the token muff shot).
3) Fake Fur trimmed coats, shirts, etc.
4) Horizontally Striped polo shirts.
5) Ugg Boots (You know, those hideous furry, well-insulated, boots people have been wearing? God, I hate those ugly boots).
Trends I decided to jump on:
1) Capris and short pants.
2) Flip Flops
3) One shouldered tops.
4) Wearing scarves as belts.
5) Shrugs.
A note about shrugs; Dancers have been sporting these legwarmers for arms for years now:

All of a sudden the Morning Show is showing NY socialities sporting shrugs.

Other trends that dancewear has started? Well, for example:
1) The ballet slipper flat.
2) Wearing leotards under jeans, (this died in the mid-90s thank God. Did anyone wear one of those leotards with the button crotch?)
3) Extensive use of mesh.
4) Tights. Dance makers introduced supplex tights that were a far cry from the nasty, baggy, nylon tights that people used to forgo for pantyhos.
Any that I’ve missed?

Mariah, (who now blogs here), very thoughfully gave me this fantastic shirt for Christmas. Of course I had Josh snap several different shots of me in my new favorite tee:

Friendly Photo

Couture photo (a la Top Model)

Action photo

So, I went back to teaching baby ballet this week. I had an interesting experience last night. For starters, in some of my classes I now have a portable wall separating the classroom with two classes going on at the same time. Let me tell you: I hate this. It was not my idea. I guess they’re trying to squeeze in as many classes as possible and this is the solution. I can’t wait to leave this dumb job. (Soon…soon).
Anyway, I had one little girl completely fall and do a face plant on the ground…you know…she landed on her head? She immediately started screaming, and I jumped into high gear with the usual questions: “Where does it hurt? Can I see? Do you want a hug?” There’s a fine line between fake hurt and real hurt with these three-year-olds. (I mean, come on, they don’t have far to fall). But this kid was really hurt and struggling to hold it together. We finally agreed that going to get a drink of water was the best solution. After we all trucked off to get some water, this little girl put herself in the corner. No ceremony, no noise, she wordlessly found a corner and sat in it. I interpreted this to mean when she’s crying and upset, the corner represents “down time.” In fact, she wouldn’t even leave the corner by the end of class. We ended up doing curtsies and bows in her corner because she refused to get up. Her parents were on the other side of the glass door the entire time and were really great about letting her do what she needed to do. They didn’t rush in and try to take over and (thank God) they didn’t blame me for her fall.
The bottom line was that she was wearing crappy Walmart slippers (that’s right, slippers, the kind you would wear around the house). Sadly, my little dance store competes with the likes of Walmart and their fake ballet slippers–hey, they’re only six bucks! But these crappy pieces of garbage are not even close to real ballet slippers. They don’t support the foot, they’re usually bought too large so they slide around in them, they’re sized S, M, or L which gives the kid’s no true fit. In short they are accident prone, face plant-inducing, bad dance-promoting, fake ballet slippers.

JUST SAY NO TO FAUX BALLET SHOES!

What with the many gifts one receives, I noticed there were many pics of myself and family members with our heads bowed over some intense gift or gadget. I present a small photo expose:

Sammy entertaining Gina with a cellular phone game.

Josh fiddles with our present to Sam: A dremmel.

Gina and Mara put muppets into yoga poses, (that’s right YOGA).