Category Archives: Contra Dancing

Dec 9 2011

A Glass of Christmas Cheer and a New Fuzzy Roomate

So I made my customary uber-chocolatey chocolate chip cookies tonight then a half glass of Bailey’s over ice. The Christmas season is definitely here if I’m drinking Bailey’s! Hang on…be right back. Went back for the other half.

So I invited someone over for a quick, light dinner (I made ham and cheese potatoes au gratin) and had just pulled some warm gourmet chocolate chip cookies from the oven. My fuzzy kitty friend darted in behind my dinner guest, quickly making herself at home. She noshed and is now napping. So I think it’s safe to say that I now belong to the gray booted kitty with golden eyes. Those eyes…are just so mesmerizing. Liquid golden pools. And she’s well mannered, too, and very sweet. I feel a featherstick will come into her life in the very near future. All really good kittys get feathersticks.

There’s dancing tonight. So off the computer and into a twirly dress and dancing shoes. I need to dance into the void of joy and the other dimension of laughter. To split the night and darkness with merriment.

Nov 14 2011

And here comes the holidays!

Thanksgiving Day planning, done. I am looking forward to some time to relax, enjoy a little down time to cook up something special, and decorating for the holidays. I will transform my apartment into a sparkly, twinkling winter wonderland and bake an assortment of cookies to finish the day. Love to bake. Love to make wintery sparkly.

I am looking forward to the holidays beginning this year, but not out of exhaustion and sickness like in so many years past, but out of gladness and joy. And December, well, it gets even better with tickets to Ballanchine’s The Nutcracker at Keller Auditorium and Magical Strings’ holiday concert. There are also things going on at church that I will attend. So life here is full, festive, and very satisfying.

I’ve been in the PNW for 30+ years now, most of my life, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else on earth. It’s home. I have lived from Seattle to the Gorge, and now that I have found the friendliest city ever with so much to do, I would really like to buy a home here and stay. I love to grow things so a little garden space would be perfect, and a patio would keep me elbow deep in potting soil, flowers, and vegetables.

And tomorrow night, one of the greatest contra bands ever will be in Portland. Wild Asparagus. So I will be dancing and reveling in the fact that they sound a lot like this! A good time will be had by all, no doubt. I really think it’s impossible to contra dance and not smile. It is so much fun.Now that I’m closer to Portland, I contra dance so much more and afterwards, it’s not an hour and half drive home. More like 25-30 minutes. Then The Nutcracker and Magical Strings is about the same. It seems most of my life I have moved closer and closer to Portland, namely Powell’s Bookstore, as well. It was all part of the master plan!

Okay, the hour is getting late and sleep calls.

Patricia

Oct 31 2011

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Happy Halloween one and all! Tonight I am home watching Corpse Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas…just a dash of spooky. I had a friend over. We knitted, talked about old times, watched movies, and noshed on chocolate. A warm fire made it all even better.

Last night was costumed Halloween Contra dancing. I danced with one gentleman who I am positive was channeling Mr. Darcy and quite well  (Jane Austen). He had on a satin brocade jacket with tails, the shirt underneath had lace cuffs and lace on the lapels, and he had an aire about him that suggested that he understood gentility, which he seemed to. It was an eery, beautiful, transforming, time traveling experience. So many of my friends showed up in hilarious, dashing, or intriguing costumes. We played the night away.

In the news tonight, a zombie was arrested in Portland for defacing the Bank of America windows. Yes, really.

–Patricia

Oct 16 2011

Oscar Wilde, Like Literary Dark Chocolate

Oscar Wilde is like literary dark chocolate… I can taste his words like chocolate, dissolving smoothly and slowly melting  on the tongue.  Delicious. Indulgent. Observant. Descriptive writing at its best, most beautiful. He paints like a European master with common language and a deft hand. I admire his style. This is real descriptive writing. Observing the ordinary and yet giving it just enough sensory detail for the reader to experience it. Brilliant.

CHAPTER 1 “The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flamelike as theirs…”

Wilde, Oscar (1994). The Picture of Dorian Gray. Public Domain Books.

Do you like to hear a good short story? Try Selected Shorts. The first story that I listened to was  a Neil Gaiman short, “The Thing About Cassandra” under Love in Real Life, and now it’s Israeli writer Etgar Keret “Suddenly a Knock at the Door” under The World of Etgar Keret. Masterfully funny and very clever! It’s like Shaherazod telling a story to live in the funniest way. I couldn’t help but listen to the rest. They are really good! So much literary goodness in one place.

Okay, off to knit and listen to stories.

Mar 6 2011

Megaband Contra Dance

The Megaband Contra dance is just a few days away. It is for me the first outing of Spring and an annual event that I really look forward to.  This dance, the Megaband Contra dance, makes me so incredibly happy…such a good time. I can hardly wait. After Winter’s icy grip, it is wonderful to get together with others, shake off Winter’s chill, and share in dancing and good, live music.  You can’t help but smile when you Contra dance. I remember the first time I saw this dance. I was hypnotized by it and had to learn. And so I did. And have passed many evenings dancing, smiling, and enjoying.

There’s the Megaband, a combination of many musically talented individuals.

And dancers dancing the dance that is Contra dancing. Such a good time!!