you live your life as if it's real

 I submitted my poem, "Paradise is a World of Trees," to newWitch on the 13th. Got a rejection today. (First rejection ever, actually, since I still haven't heard back from my other submission). I'm not too down about it, and actually pretty happy that it was so fast. I like this poem a lot, so I'll send it out again. Haven't figured out where yet, but I'll find somewhere.

My apostrophe/quote key is sticking and it's really frustrating. Apparently my right pinky finger isn't very strong.

Today was the dance recital, and now I'm really tired. Dance recital and then grocery shopping = sore, sore feet. It was fun though... obviously about a thousand things went wrong, but overall I think everything came off pretty well. Our Clocks choreography was hilarious cause none of us knew what we were doing at all, but the one dance mom I talked to said it looked good. Then again, moms (even if it's not my Mom) are pretty much obliged to say that.

Most hilarious thing ever though... our choreography to Mairi's Wedding (except we changed songs a couple weeks ago, but never changed the title of the dance, and my teacher spelt it Marii instead) ended with a ten person reel. Basically we were just doing highland reel movements, weaving in and out to get off the stage. Anyways, for some reason we only had 9 dancers today, and so two of the girls mucked up the reel formation and totally smashed into each other hahahahhah. Seriously like full body collision. I managed to avoid also being hit, but it was almost a four person pile up. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard as soon as I got offstage.

Now no more dancing for me until the Cambridge Highland games. Oh that reminds me, bluebonnets, do you know if anyone from KR's is going to that? It should be a good time. I'm dancing in the ceildh July 18th, and volunteering for the competition on the 19th and 20th.

 OI. I totally forgot to flail about Made of Honor!

I saw it last Saturday with my darling titania_torres, and omg yay Scotland! Okay, so they were mostly making fun of Scottish traditions, lolololol haggis is made out of gross things, and so on.

But there was highland dancing! (Not especially impressive technically, and they just showed like two shedding movements, but whatever! Highland dancing! Done properly!* In a movie!) And there was caber tossing! And sporrans! And lots of kilts! And bagpipes! And when I left the theatre, I was singing the Laddie cause the main Scottish guy (the one the female lead is going to marry) plays it at one point. The other tunes they played on the bagpipes during the course of the movie were all really familiar ones too.

Seriously though. Awesome. I guess I should have expected it, since the trailers clearly say they all go to Scotland, but for some reason it never occured to me that Hollywood cramming every stereotype possible into the movie would include dancing. So I got really excited when all of a sudden the screen was full of ghillies, wool socks, and second position.

bluebonnets, someday we should totally get all the dancing-types together, rent this and pretend we're back in Scotland. There were no chocolate muffins though, which is how you know it's not realistic.

(Other than the highland dance nerd factor, it was a pretty good movie. A nice chick flick. Jokes, good looking man, happily ever after, you know.)

And xsilvan, where are youuuu? I just found out that I have to go to my family reunion, so I have a couple days less time in Ottawa =(  Now I get in sometime the night of Thursday the 26th, then Saturday afternoon to Monday morning I'm in Brockville. So Friday, d'you want to do something?

*Anyone ever see Fred Astaire pretend to highland dance? I forget what movie it was in, but it was brutal and made me cry in my heart a little bit. Actually come to think of it, it might have been Gene Kelly. I've seen a lot of old dancing movies, okay, give me a break.

 "Summer of Storms"
Word count: 828 (Thurs) + 684 (Fri)
Total word count: 3,974
Finished! (Well, for some values of finished. Needs to go through the crit group, and I already can see some stuff that needs work. But the next revision will actually be just revision, not rewriting.)

Now I'm working on "Sparagmos." After that, not sure. Possibly "The Beginning of Change" which just needs a rewrite on the ending, or possibly revisions on two poems.

I figure I should put some time in now on my actual job. Since I'm being paid for it and all...

But before that, dance class today was so much fun. I love learning choreographies. And my teacher had the coolest  new cd. She's going to burn it for me. Bagpipe versions of all sorts of songs... We Will Rock You, Eye of the Tiger, Clocks... and so many others that I can't remember. I only got to listen to a couple tracks, but it is sweeeeet.

Nothing else to report really. Everything is pretty much at the status quo.

 I got new ghillies yesterday!!

Yes, gasp, shock and awe... the pair that got thoroughly ruined dancing in the rain at Holyrood Palace two summers ago have finally been replaced! It's going to be weird to dance with ghillies again... I've been dancing either barefoot or in socks for years now.

But these ones are soft and new and lovely. And best of all, they don't have that annoying triangle flap of extra leather by my three last toes. And they're size five, so my left foot is a bit cramped now, but they'll definitely stretch.


That's all I have to say. =)

I passed!

That's over and done with. Well, almost. First I have to make sure I actually signed my form that I gave to the examiner, otherwise it'll just be returned to me and it will be a big hassle. I am absent-minded.

Tomorrow I start researching. Well, after making sure about the form. And I baby-sit tomorrow, mustn't forget about that.

The process of preparing for a dance exam is a long and arduous one. Not the least of it is last minute running around. Of course there's the studying and practicing leading up to the exam (which in my case for this exam was also last minute), but somehow the night before seems to be when everything falls apart.

Today, was at my teacher's house for 3.5 hours studying. Got home and there was a message to call other dance friend. Do so, find out she wants to double check about me filling in for her reel, I want to borrow her kilt. We work that out (dear gods I hope she knows I mean the full outfit when I say 'kilt' because otherwise I won't have a top). Then a quick dinner, and off to dance class. I'm late but oh well. About an hour of dancing, some talking about when and in what form and how much I should pay my teacher. Find out my friend's had my missing dance shoes for nearly four months now. Back home. Little bit of down time, then call schedule-organizer person to see when my exam is. Find out it's pretty much when I thought, anyways doesn't change what time I have to get there at. Also find out that no, I don't have any forms for my exam -- but she's pretty sure they have extras somewhere. (Stressss, please have extras. Clearly I should have made sure weeks ago.) Also find out how much I owe the BATD and the school. The BATD fees have to be paid with either certified personal cheque or money order... except that I'm paying with my mom's money and she says no, she's just going to give a regular cheque because they told us the same thing last year and she just gave a regular cheque and no one cared. (More stressss, what if that doesn't work this year?) Then I get to try and put all my costumes together. Find almost everything pretty easily, since I don't have to worry about kilt, blouse or vest, and mom hasn't finished making my hornpipe outfit yet. So I find my white dress, shawl, slip, white underwear, black underwear, three pairs of pantyhose, garters, hornpipe hat, hornpipe tie, blue ribbon for hair, suspenders. Got everything? No. My brooch is missing. Turning the house upside down eventually reveals it to be at the bottom of my closet. Meanwhile I've woken up my sister with my searching and she is kicking the walls and tossing her blankets around and crying and hissing every time I make a noise. Ughhh. Anyways, next thing to search for: hair stuff. There is a bag that's almost complete, which I had in my hands a week ago. Now, of course, it's nowhere to be found. Search for that for a long time, which leads to a lot more temper tantrum from the sister. Eventually give up. Bag of hair stuff - 1; Me - 0. The battle recommences tomorrow morning. It is the most frustrating thing in the world to know exactly what something looks like, but to have no idea where it is.

Anyways, the stress and nerves are mounting again. The past two days I've felt not too bad about everything. Now I feel like an idiot for not being more prepared ahead of time and like all the knowledge in my head is going to just disappear when I walk through the exam room doors. A familiar feeling, actually, if I think back to last year. Why do I do exams, again? Oh right, to qualify as a teacher. Thank god this is my last one for a while, then.

After the exam comes watching Pirates!! Yay! And, less immediately but also after my exam comes cleaning my room, research at the library, and plotting.

Okay, so, if I live through this exam, I get to watch Pirates. Motivation at last.

Word count: 880
All from a post with Sael. Listened to his song twice, this time.
Feelings about it: eh, it's decent. Ending trails off, but the beginning is strong. Also, re-reading what I wrote yesterday I don't like it nearly as much. So I'm thinking that maybe this sort of thing isn't terribly useful. Will probably stop after this.

The word count, however, is useful. It's good to keep on track of actually how much I'm writing and when, I think. Also, yay, I managed two days of writing in a row! Not much, but it's a start in the right direction.

Whoa, iTunes just messed up majorly. That was weird. Also even just typing this is very slow... I think my computer needs a restart or something. Well, it'll get a rest because I'm going to bed early tonight. I'm exhausted.

Oh, and I did call my old dance teacher today. Just got her message machine, which isn't really what I need, but again, a step in the right direction. Tomorrow my dance goal will be hornpipe theory, and my writing goal will be (as ever) 750 words.