Mayo condish - no diff

My hair turned out, meh, just okay. Son said, "Mamma, is that mayonnaise on your head?" The mayo was no great shakes. I don't think I'll put any more food products on my hair, ever, except for oils.

Mayonnaise conditioning today

11:15 am Applied mayonnaise in sections and put my hair all up in a high bun and covered le bun with saran wrap. Think I'll leave it on till about 5:00pm.

In a quandary so I phoned our pastor's wife

I've been in such a quandary over my dancing, or more specifically, the performing part. I phoned the church office and talked with my pastor's wife today about middle eastern dancing and being Christian. In a nutshell her reply was that if it glorifies God, it's good. If it's overtly sexual or sensual, immodest, a potential stumbling block to others (probably to the dancer too, I would think), it's bad.

We went shopping yesterday for a cabaret costume for me and, oh dear, I didn't find the perfect one (even a beginner costume can cost two to three hundred dollars). They all pushed the bust way, way up. Lord love a duck, as my mom would exclaim, I can't wear my boobs under my chin in front of people. Only one costume had a top that was my proper size and still, there was far too much cleavage to be seen. I went online and ordered one, pretty cute and for only $129.00. I'll see if I can wear a mesh bodysuit underneath it, but if it doesn't work I'm going to tell my dear teacher, Aziza, that I just can't do it. I believe she'll be just fine with that. And I did decide to join the troupe to begin with because I liked the tribal costuming, not cabaret.

It was tough trying on the outfits because cabaret costume tops are not elasticized like bras, plus the straps are quite long to allow for sizing, so I'm there trying to hold two straps at the top, two straps in the back, and the belt all at the same time, and get a good look at myself in the mirror too. Very doofus. And the belt with all the sequins and beading is quite heavy. Sunday night I thought it peculiar that all the belly dancers all kept a copious supply of safety pins. Well it's because they safety pin everything. I was doing plenty of pinning when I helped out as a dresser for the last show.

While the cabaret costume is currently causing me some heartburn, the tribal costuming on the other hand is much more fun! Today I ordered a flying skirt from Gwen at Flying Skirts website. It would be a cinch to sew but I haven't got the time anymore on account of we're emptying our house of all our material things to get ready for our trip around the North American continent. I own a fringe belt that Gwen sewed for me and I get lots of compliments on it. To cover my arms and tummy I ordered a long sleeved, black mesh body stocking by Janie. I need a coin bra real bad but haven't decided where to buy it yet. I'm not even quite clear as to how you wear a coin bra cover. You pin it on a bra or choli I guess.

After we saw the show my little boy said to me in the truck, "Mamma, when are you gong to dance for me?" At the festival he got to see a fire dance, sword dancing, cane dancing, and snake dancing and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. There is one male in our troupe and my son especially enjoyed his dance.

On to another topic, in the evenings I've been doing Old Yeller by Fred Gipson as our read aloud. Even my husband is enjoying the story. It is a classic after all and I hoped it would appeal to him when I selected it. I'm reading it aloud in my best southern Texas twang though technically it may be more of a southern drawl!

Wore my hair down today, but was home all day. Wore it up in a tight triple twist bun to church. It's slightly oily but looks fine in a bun.

Better is One Day

How lovely is your dwelling place
O Lord Almighty
For my soul longs and even faints for you
For here my heart is satisfied
Within your presence
I sing beneath the shadow of Your wings

Better is one day in Your courts
Better is one day in Your house
Better is one day in Your courts
Than thousands elsewhere

I'm burned out, Baby

I've been shopping online all night for belly dance costuming. I need a cabaret costume and I need a tribal costume.

Sunday night I went to the Indio Date Festival and helped the girly girls get dressed for their dances. It was sixty minutes of dance, both tribal and cabaret. The costumes are to die for. Just gorgeous and mucho dinero to purchase. It didn't begin well because the troupe got the boot from the fair management and was told to move to another stage. This took about half an hour. They had props and bags and swords and a snake and people to move all the way across the fairgrounds. The show was good. Really, really good. The audience stayed and watched the whole hour! I expected to see people wander in and out and about like you do at the fair but the people in the chairs stayed in their chairs.

My friend Maya, who started with the troupe about three weeks before I, performed for the first time. She was so anxious yet she performed beautifully. Flawlessly I would add. There was a huge audience and she danced, gosh, in about four pieces. Amazing ability. At show's end the director and I were chatting about how the dance went when she looked at me with a sparkle in her eye and said...I was next! Yipes. I have nothing but a couple fringe belts. I have to buy everything I will need. Quick!

I wore my hair in a braid to the side today. I measured it despite this being mid-month and it seems to have not grown at all so far this month. Aaaaugh!

Homeschool holiday

This is what a day off of homeschooling looks like at our house. Diagram drawn by our seven year old son yesterday shows materials needed to construct additional drainage in front yard. My husband then wrote down all the figures and our son came up with a sum. See, you do use mathematics in real life. (And this is from a boy who hates to write so Mamma is glad to see him writing for any reason!)

Show at The Babylon

Dinner was so-so. My husband's lamb was full of gristle. Bummer. But we were really there for the show.

It was supposed to start at 8:00pm but didn't begin till 9:10pm. I think they expected people to sit at the tables and order drinks but boy did we fool them. We ate dinner, dessert, and afterward didn't order any drinks. My husband had wine with dinner but he later said the wine wasn't very good wine. We weren't there for the wine though.

The show was great! It started with three guys playing drums and one guy playing what looked like a guitar but it wasn't a guitar. It sounded different than a guitar too. Our son's attention was riveted on the players. Finally the first group of dancers came out called Devadasi. The girl with long black hair flubbed up the choreography but she laughed so much that the audience was entertained by her, and all of them. A woman came out and danced an Indian folkloric dance and was splendid. Next was the troupe I'm practicing with, Fringe Elements. They were so fun to watch. Afterward my husband commented on how fluid one of the dancers was and how all the women were so feminine and so beautiful to watch. He was struck by how many of the women were built so womanly. Most of them are not what you'd call hardbodies, but as my teacher explains, we are women not eight year old boys. Things are supposed to jiggle. And they do!

I wore my hair in a French braid, tucked underneath. It's grown so much I had to double fold it and then tuck it under. I don't like the braid to hang down at all so I tuck everything under. I wore my sparkly ruby mini clips. Okay, they're not real rubies.

I've been back on my treadmill and practicing for an hour a day. I feel ever so much better. My thighs are sore, but it hurts good.

Forgot to mention that at the belly dance show they announced the first dance was in celebration of one of the dancer's last chemotherapy treatment. It tugged at your heart strings all right. She danced beautifully, had a beautiful body and a joyful demeanor. You could tell she was wearing a wig due to the effects of the chemo treatments.

Mediterranean cuisine and belly dance show

I'm taking my men out on the town for Valentine's Day. We're leaving in about half an hour for dinner and a show! If it's Mediterranean food, why do they use the French word 'cuisine?'

What a splitting headache

I awoke with a raging headache. It's better now but still hurts. My son is a complete chatterbox wiggle worm while he's reading aloud and that doesn't help my head at all. I have to keep asking him to be still - which is no small task for a seven year old boy.

I'm all olive oiled up

I slathered on the olive oil for an overnight deep conditioning treatment. My husband came in the bathroom and saw me dipping my ends directly into the bottle of olive oiland he rolled his eyes at me. Hhhmph. Little does he know I have really good ends on account of dipping them in oil.

Belly dance class was inspiring last night. I was feeling unworthy over the week-end. I had cobwebs in my head and kept tripping up on the choreography Friday night. Last night I asked my teacher how to improve a particular move. I don't know the name for it but it's when you do two small rib circle isolations, then you widen it way out and do two great big rib circles, side, back, and side. The effect on the audience is perceptible because after you do the little circles (performed slow with nothing but background drums) when you switch to large ones and lean alllll the way back, at can cause the audience to move forward in their seats. Very cool effect. Anyway, I was next to two long tall drinks of water. Tall, shapely, lithe and lovely, young and experienced, and then there's me, 5'2", struggling to be cool, and lucky I have a waistline at all. I felt stumpy and so little and short doing my rib isolations in comparison to them. Well I showed my teacher the move and she said, "Liliana, I can't do it as well as you just did it." Then she launched into a "love yourself" talk. Heh. So this week I'm working on appreciating how this body moves without comparing it to everyone elses. That's the beauty of middle eastern dance. It's actually folkoric dance we're doing and all body types are acceptable.

Tonight at church we had a guest speaker. He was, I'm sorry, not a very dynamic speaker, but I did benefit from some of what he shared. He mentioned in passing, a book called Living in the Light of Eternity. I like that title. Makes me remember to be mindful and to live each moment to its fullest. I should try to dance like that.

Last night I had a dream, a recurring one. I'm lost, surrounded in all directions, as far as my eyes can see, by a wide expanse of freeway and overpasses and cloverleafs. Very gray. Sometimes the place I'm lost varies, for example sometimes it's in downtown San Diego and I'm in the barrio and I'm afraid of the people. I walk in fear of danger. I need to be with my cousin Laurie but I can't find my way back to her. Always in the dream, I do not have her phone number. If I had her number I could tell her where I was and she could come get me. Always, I go into a room and there's no phone, or it doesn't work. It feels similar to when I was 20 and I'd get lost driving and I'd go in a gas station for directions and they'd give me wrong ones or I couldn't remember them after they told them to me, so I'd continue to drive. Lost. This time, the room was a dank, quiet, depressing childcare center with one person sitting in a child's chair, an open book in his hand, but no children in the room to listen. He looks at me blankly, no help at all. I go back out to the empty freeways and walk and feel like if only I can remember which way to go I can get back to the house. I never do get back.

The whole caboodle

All at once.

A group shot! These were all handcrafted by me in one, single, solitary night. Amazing, they say. I spent $44.50 at the bead store so geez Louise, I better be able to make something I really like!

Sparkle Pop and Eye Candy side by side

The two together.

Sometimes I like to wear unmatched but coordinated sticks in my hair. I might like these two together. A girl can never have too many sparkles in her hair.

It's Eye Candy

Eye Candy

The head pin is sterling silver with miniature dangles at the end. All of the beads are genuine Swarovski crystal. The top bead is called Alexandrite. It changes from lavender to light blue in different light. I was quite taken by it.

It's Sparkle Pop with a Dangle Drop

Sparkle Pop with a Dangle Drop

The crystals are Swarovski and even the dangle drop is Swarovski! What a find that was. I don't know if the dangle is sterling or not, I suspect it is but I'm not sure, but the caps holding the top bead are sterling silver, as is the eye pin.

More hairsticks I made - Iridescent Autumn

These dichroic beads are beautifully iridescent. They dance in the light (a static photograph really doesn't do them justice). I love dichroic glass beads. This set sparkles with copper, green, blue...

Tangerine Sky

I made up a batch of hair sticks. This one is everyone's favorite.

Tangerine Sky
This vintage tear drop Swarovski crystal
bead (the color is called Fire Opal) sits atop a genuine
sterling silver cone and is complimented by a Swarovski bicone
of deep, deeper, deepest sky blue.

What's so big about Swarovski crystal beads? Excellent inquiry. Swarovski crystals are manufactured in one place and one place only. Austria. Swarovski crystal beads are simply the highest quality. There are other crystals, mighty pretty ones too such as Czech crystals (I have lots of those), but Swarovski is special because of their reputation.

Almonds, air drying, and a teensy bangs braid

Don't you hate it when the days are dreary and go on and on? Well I'm feeling better, like my old self again. I'm eating almonds now. For three months I've been eating cashews. I got a wee bit tired of the cashews so almonds are a welcome change. They're like Lay's potato chips. You can't eat just one, but they're very good for the hair, skin, nails, and joints.

I've let my hair air dry several times. Today I let it air dry. I nearly took the blow dryer to it at 3:00 pm because the dampness made my head so cold, but I didn't. It's wavier in back and has a bit of the fuzz factor around my head which I'm not crazy for, but we'll give it a whirl.

About six months ago I let part of my bangs grow out so they could be more wispy and now it tucks behind my ears nicely but I don't like the way it curves, so today I braided the grown out part into an eensy, teensy braid and pinned the braid to one side. Looks kind of nice.

As for hair washing, over the past month and a half I have been going hog wild, literally washing my hair whenever I wanted to. Whenever I wanted to I say! Imagine that. I'm tired of trying to stick to a schedule to keep washing to a minimum, and most of all tired of trying to fix smelly hair. On occasion, I washed my hair twice in a row. Crazy, huh. In my estimation, I'm still progressing in my journey because though I'm washing more than I'd hope to, I may be on the brink of setting aside my blow dryer. That seems like a fair trade to me. Or is that called a big, fat rationalization.

I've been dedicated about doing a scalp wash at least once a week. That should be good for something.

Happy February 1st!

Can't believe February 2005 is here. I'm drinking Gatorade to replace my electrolytes and I'm eating medical chocolate. Medical chocolate - similar in concept to medical marijuana only requires no doctor appointment and no prescription - just a trip to the cake and cookie aisle at the supermarket to pick up a bag of Tollhouse Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels. It's working.

I need to do my measure-in with everyone at The Loom soon. Gosh, I read back a few days and looks like I've missed lots of fun. I can't believe all the great pics, and hairsticks, and French twists, etcetera, etcetera. Seems the board picked up speed while I was out!