January ends

When things are going right - things are going right!
The last days of the great Southern Seasons January sale is coming to an end. Not to miss my last opportunity to shop for some bargarins, I could wait no longer. My favorite Sour Cherry jelly was out of stock, but the Ginger Preserves I use for sweetening salad dressings and dipping sauces was in stock. Of course one must look about just in case, this case finding a bottle of Espresso Martini Mix (2 Tbsp. 65 calories). As I write a tall glass with ice, vanilla vodka, vanilla soy silk, and the mix are chilling on my desk. The flavoring is just right, not too sweet and not to bland and the coldness of the vodka is perfect. Of course purists will want to strain the ice and serve it straight up, I'm not that perfect. And I do not even like coffee. Another perfect day at Southern Seasons.

Second blessing of the day. The winter term for OLLI Ballroom dance classes on Wednesdays and Fridays at noon has begun. Some of the students have asked for more practice time, the lessons are great but we have no place to 'just practice.' The director of OLLI solved that problem in quick time. OLLI rents classroom space in the education wing of a reform congregation in Durham - a space that just happens to have a Commons Room, which just happens to be empty on Thursdays from noon to two in the afternoon. Perfect solution.

Why a weekday? Most people would expect to dance evenings and weekends when it's party time. Not retirees. OLLI folks like dancing to add to their workout routines for keep limber and fit but most do not like to drive at night and lack the necessary energy after the dinner hour. So we dance in the daytime [before some grandparents have to pick up grandchildern after school], whenever we can find a floor that is not already occupied. Since Dear Hubby gave me an iPod and I now have a sound/dock companion, hours of dance music are in playlists that afford us great dance-able tunes [Fox Trot, Swing, Rumba, Shag]. How bad is that? OK, it's not sex, drugs and rock 'n roll but we've been there, done that.

There's more. My step-son is enrolled in a Graphic Design degree program at a west coast college. Last week I pulled nearly all of my used design books (Photoshop, composition, color theory, etc) and packed a box 'for his inspiration' to ship west. One of his classes is History of Graphic Design, the history part being the most problematic for him. Here's where my graduate degree in the History of Decorative Arts will prove handy. Thinking "what would I include if I were teaching history of graphic design" work began on an outline covering mid-nineteenth century to mid-twientieth century. The more I wrote, the more ideas came to me and before long I had a three-page outline and that's just the bare bones of the subject, I left out lots!

I encourage him to think of me as a 'weekly coach' and call me once a week to discuss his class lectures and the outline (which may be 30 pages by the end), and hopefully secure for him a respectible grade. What would his teacher say? Knowing his history-knowledge void I expect that any help he can get will be better than none; and yes, HE still has to do the library research and study. I can only coach him so far. The outline took a good deal of time but the exercise was challenging.

Lastly, we had an hour-long East Coast Swing lesson tonight in Carrboro and I got a tremendous workout. Whew! what upbeat energy this class has. We finished the last of a four-session Beginner class and are ready for the next level in February. It's a stretch for dear hubby as he has band practice from 3-5pm, but somehow we manage to get home for dinner soon after 7 pm. What's a late dinner? Cooked apples and oatmeal. Any dancer will tell you that dancing and eating a heavy meal is impossible. Another good reason to keep dancing.
bb

Aquacise with Noriko

Being Saturday my schedule, as it always is, takes me to the UNC gym about 1:00 pm to walk for 30 min. Then change into a swimsuit and get ready for the 2:00 aquacise class with Noriko. For anyone who's had Noriko's classes you already know this is as fit a body you'll ever find, perfectly tanned, dark eyes, THE personal trainer and aquacise teacher that EVERY gym wants. I see her once a week at aquacise and sometimes she talks to me in the weight room where I am working out with the puny 7.5 pound weights and she's bouncing thirty-pounds around like nothing. We speak a little after the pool workout but nothing very personal.

For some reason today I was ready to reveal the start of dancerCIZE and the ballroom classes this coming Tuesday. Would you believe her mother was a ballroom dance teacher in Japan and as a young girl Noriko was a jazz dancer. Yes? I asked if she had seen the Japanese version of "Shall We Dance?" She answered many, many times and that the lead in the film reminds her a lot of a time when her mother was younger and still dancing. That did it - if I wasn't already impressed with her fitness career the fact that she also dances did it for me.

AND while talking to Noriko, another lady (this is in the locker room), asks about ballroom dance lessons, who turns out to be an acquaintance from U.U. days. I may have yet another couple in the ballroom class (6). All out of the unexpected. Who said "chance favors the well prepared?"

I am stiff tonight - the workouts yesterday and today have challenged every part of my body and I still have the Sunday morning workout to face. EF is happy as a clam; early this morning he began the transition from Earthlink to Bell South and so far (???), my Email is still working. I was getting tense just thinking about lost files and interrupted connections.

Waiting to see what the blog from DR brings next and was roaming the Dominican Republic travel pages to find an interesting blog from a Peace Corps volunteer. This young girl wrote from mid-05 until recently about a two-year assignment in an impoverished village in the mountains of DR. Her experiences organizing a youth club, baseball and local cocaine dealing is the stuff of nightmares. Apparently a tourism-based economy can bring money to the beach resorts but does nothing for the lower-class population. I have pursued this research to learn more about the country, it's culture and geography - but it leaves me with many concerns about living there.

My research is now turning to aesthetics and philosophy: specifically Hume, Hutchinson and Kant. Now that I've skimmed over Kant's Three Critiques, I seem to be back at the beginning of asking "What is the meaning of aesthetics?" I keep getting caught between art appreciation, architectural history, and sensory perception. The difference between pure reason, practical reason and aesthetics compares to empirical vs. rational knowledge but I don't see how aesthetics fits into that schematic. Thursday I'll ask more questions.

Tomorrow night: dinner & dancing at Fred Astaire. We practiced cha cha tonight. Rumba in the morning.
nite, nite bb