Halloweeen

Thursday night I practiced my salsa dancing skills at Cafe Habana's salsa night. I danced with an older French man, who knew how to salsa, bachata and merengue rather well. I like bachata, it's made up of quick little steps where the hips should also move back and forth quickly. I love going to those public salsa dancing nights because you get to dance with people who are very proficient at Latin dance.

Friday I worked, but at work I read John Waters Role Models. Amazing book. It's funny, and I just love hearing John Waters' impressions on life. He is one of my role models. Here is an inspiring excerpt:

"Have faith in your own bad taste. Buy the cheapest thing in your local thrift shop -- the clothes that are freshly out of style even with the hippest people a few years older than you. Get on the fashion nerves of your preers, not your parents -- that is the key to fashion leadership. Ill-fitting is always stylish. But be more creative -- wear your clothes inside out, backward, upside down. Throw bleach in a load of colored laundry. Follow the exact opposite of the dry cleaning instructions inside the clothes that cost the most in your thrift shop. Don't wear jewelry -- stick Band-Aids on your wrists or make a necklace out of them. Wear Scoth tape on the side of your face like a bad face-lift attempt. Mismatch your shoes. Best yet, do as Mink Stole used to do: go to the thirft store the day after Halloween, when the children's trick-or-treat costumes are on sale, buy one, and wear it as your uniform of defiance" (102).

He goes on with various details about not worrying about fitting in, and even try not to. Be what you like!

Anyway, I also read a little of Edgar Allen Poe - short biography and a couple poems. I found this book in our collection and I figured it was somewhat mandatory reading for the season.

The past few days are dotted with my daily routine didacting: practice music, cook (lemon squares made with whole wheat flour and honey, hummus, and pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon syrup), crochet, watch old movies (so many horror movies are on! I'm in heaven!), read, and take walks.

Saturday, after work again, I ended up on campus hanging with my dear friends. We went to Elk's Lodge and I had such a good time! Great DJ, great music to dance to. I need to go and practice my dancing skills more (how do I improve as a dancer in social, improvisations settings like this? Maybe I can record certain common movements, like they do in salsa which I believe arose as spontaneously as modern freeform dancing but has been broken into formal movements. This might be something to work on....). I love to dance, and they play great music there.