One (of a thousand) things I’ve let slide in the last year of struggles is one of my most favoritest: dance.

I haven’t been to belly dance class since at least last summer, haven’t learned any new moves or choreographies, and have barely practiced on my own.

I told myself that “when everything was more under control”, that I’d go back.

Well, that “everything” got under some sort of “control”, but then recovering from that was exhausting, and then healing stuff that’s been askew in my life forever is too all over the place.

The thing is I know not to wait for life to get to back to “normal” before living it. I’m already living it, however it comes. Live it like I want it to be.

So when a buddy said, “Hey, let’s try this West African dance class,” I said, “Sure!”

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SkiFree was such an integral part of my childhood gaming experience that I couldn’t resist an offer to go skiing for a weekend at Sugar Mountain in Boone, NC. Greg, Deana, Meg, and I stayed in sleepy Blowing Rock (awesome food!) in a cozy little inn/motel.

Unfortunately, I was sick. Quite sick. Snotting and coughing and sneezing. All the classics.

When we arrived at Sugar Mountain on Saturday morning, I was feeling distinctly unathletic. A cold plus asthma generally makes for chill time. Deana was like, “No, no. Skiing isn’t really athletic. You’ll be fine.”

Okay, then!

As I watched people stomp around on their skis, I also got increasingly worried for my shoulder. My pain had generally been at a workable, low level for the month before, but all that poking and pushing with the ski-sticks (technical term!) could present a shoulder endurance problem. By the time we were filling out forms, I’d talked myself out of skiing, but was totally up for tubing.

The ladies (and Greg, although he backed off), made such a fuss about me not participating that I caved and shelled out the moola for skiing. I got fitted for all the shoes and such–the skis were much shorter than I expected–and we hobbled outside.

Greg and I? Never skied before.

Greg? Decided that instead of worrying about lessons, we’d try experimentation first.

By the time experimentation was over, I was sitting over on the deck crying and Greg was limping with a bad knee. We never left the bunny slope.

That was January 21, and my shoulder really hasn’t stopped hurting again since then.

So what happened? Keep reading >>

Happy post-Halloween! I’m increasingly sure that official trick-or-treating got moved to a night other than the 31st, because not one childish soul came to my door last night.

Greg heard a rumor that it might have been Saturday, which sucks for them. I was out having a blast.

A colleague/friend pleaded for me to come out to Sidelines and partake in the comic superhero costuming. I’m not so much on the comics (or the superheros), so I was kinda at a loss, because I was definitely not rocking a body suit or bikini. Greg suggested several folks including Amanda Waller, and I opted for a Pam Grier-esque version, since I don’t have a lab coat like this one.

Pam Grier as Amanda Waller. Image originally from Green Lantern / Smallville Connection.

Greg showed off his GIMP-fu by crafting up an appropriate nametag for me, because really, a chick in a suit? I coulda been anybody.

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Last December, Nayna found herself without a dance studio, making it rather difficult to teach class. All of her students–me being just shy of one year and ready to move to intermediate–dispersed woefully.

We spent all of 2011 nagging the hell out of her.

Ten months later (?!), she’s back with an email to the masses the day before classes began. So tonight I dug my hip scarf out from the back of my underwear drawer and giddily bounced my way to the pole-dancing studio where she held class tonight.

It was awesome. It was amazing. It was like the first time, except with that fun disjointed experience of your mind knowing what to do and your body almost sure it remembers how to follow. If I want to move up to intermediate (which I totally do), I’ve got to get all that in sync before I get bored and wander off.

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This week’s internet cruising:

• Microaggressions submission – I love microaggressions.com, and this one is actually cute.
• Learning from Fable III’s UX Mistakes | UX Booth – A nice look at the usability issues of Fable III.
• Email Management Made Fun | The Email Game – Okay, this is a cute and fun spin on the (in my mind) GTD principle of fast processing an inbox. I got 2375 points in my first game, and 2250 on the second.
• Make Love, Not Flamewars – bitquabit – I don’t care about mercurial vs. git (I use and enjoy both), but I like the approach of giving up the silly flamewars and debates over which is best. Pick the right solution for the job you’re on. Learn the tools to give you options. All else is moot.
• An Integer Programming Model for the Sudoku Problem – I spent quite a bit of time pouring over this and related Wikipedia articles in tandem with some new thinking on the granny squares solution I posted last week.

And, by one of my favorite choreographers: