(no subject)
Jun. 11th, 2025 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aurumcalendulaI've seen a bunch of wildlife around lately (fawns, a downy woodpecker, red shouldered hawks, cottontail rabbits, hummingbirds), which has brighten my day over the last week or so.
aurumcalendula
Daily Happiness
Jun. 10th, 2025 11:45 pmtorachan1. A lot of times when Carla goes back to visit her folks, she doesn't get time to hang out with her cousins aside from specific family gatherings where they're just hanging out at the house, but this time she went into Chicago today with one cousin and they went to a museum and got lunch, and yesterday she went with both cousins to a record store.
2. Work was kind of stressful today (just when I think the drama and issues at this one store are finally dealt with, I have three more issues pop up today) but I had a nice evening at Disneyland to make up for it.
3. Chloe and Gemma and Ikea Shark are having a party and you're not invited.
2. Work was kind of stressful today (just when I think the drama and issues at this one store are finally dealt with, I have three more issues pop up today) but I had a nice evening at Disneyland to make up for it.
3. Chloe and Gemma and Ikea Shark are having a party and you're not invited.
2025 Disneyland Trip #39 (6/10/25)
Jun. 10th, 2025 11:17 pmtorachanTook an after work trip to Disneyland for dinner. Traffic was not bad at all getting down there (and even better getting home) and as of this week both the lower level pass holders are blocked out, so the crowds are lighter. Nice weather, too!
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
I'll never see my mom's guitar again
Jun. 10th, 2025 02:47 pmsovayUnder the circumstances, I had different weird dreams than I would have expected: writing a poem, watching some incredibly threadbare film noir with no waking equivalent, hearing a performance from a musical theater star ditto. I am beginning to think the pop culture of my dreams actually is the hell of a good video store next door, leavened in the last few nights by dreams of re-reading real-life authors currently in storage like P.C. Hodgell or Joan D. Vinge. I remain physically fried, news at nowhen. At least the rain seems to have kept off the neighborly leafblowing which perforated so much of yesterday. The news continues to feel like stupidly lethal cosplay, which I remember from the last round of this administration, which doesn't make me hate it less.
They Never Asked: Senryū Poetry from the WWII Portland Assembly Center
Jun. 10th, 2025 09:42 amrunpunkrunThey Never Asked: Senryū Poetry from the WWII Portland Assembly Center, edited and translated by Shelley Baker-Gard, Michael Freiling, and Satsuki Takikawa:
An anthology of senryū poetry written in spring and summer of 1942 by Japanese Americans held captive at the WCCA Assembly Center in North Portland, Oregon. Senryū shares haiku's 5-7-5 sound unit form, but deals more directly with the business of being human, whereas haiku's focus is on nature and only tangentially references, or implies, human emotions.
The WCCA is the Wartime Civilian Control Administration, the government body set up to implement the mass forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. From the Densho Encyclopedia: "In addition to engineering the logistics of removing some 110,000 people from their homes and businesses in a short period of time, the WCCA also quickly built and administered a series of seventeen temporary detention camps to hold those who had been removed through the spring and summer of 1942, before overseeing their transfer to more permanent camps administered by the War Relocation Authority by the end of fall 1942." In North Portland, the temporary facility was previously the Pacific International Livestock Exposition Center, the horse stalls converted into living spaces for those detained there.
This book has a thoughtful design and a conscientious attempt to put this poetry—and the people who wrote it—into context, providing historical background and examining the cultural relevance of poetry in Japanese communities, including an exploration of the individual poets incarcerated at the camps as well as the poetry groups held at WCCA camps, and an explanation of the form itself. The book has several introductory pieces, an afterword, two essays on haiku/senryū, a timeline of relevant events, end notes for references, a full bibliography, and biographies of the poets. The one thing it doesn't have is an index, which I found myself wanting multiple times over the six months it took me to read this.
The poems are presented with the Japanese script given prominence in a bold vertical line down the center of the page, one poem per page, and then a transliteration of the Japanese and, finally, the poem translated into English, in three lines. Each poem has a footnote with a "literal" translation and any translation notes, including occasions where kanji have been simplified since the writing of the poem, or instances where the poet (or transcriber) seems to have made an error. However, the literal translations are anything but. They're of a more conversational nature than the actual choppy bits of language you usually get when Japanese is translated literally into English, and in some cases, I found them more interesting or nuanced than the final translations, which could feel a little melodramatic at times. But it's entirely possible that's just my bias for haiku showing up. Here's a poem by Jōnan that really struck me because of the way it mimics a common structure in haiku and through that offers an extreme understatement of human misery:
even autumn
comes on command here—
assembly center
This book was published in 2023 by Oregon State University Press, and I checked it out of the Multnomah County Library.
An anthology of senryū poetry written in spring and summer of 1942 by Japanese Americans held captive at the WCCA Assembly Center in North Portland, Oregon. Senryū shares haiku's 5-7-5 sound unit form, but deals more directly with the business of being human, whereas haiku's focus is on nature and only tangentially references, or implies, human emotions.
The WCCA is the Wartime Civilian Control Administration, the government body set up to implement the mass forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. From the Densho Encyclopedia: "In addition to engineering the logistics of removing some 110,000 people from their homes and businesses in a short period of time, the WCCA also quickly built and administered a series of seventeen temporary detention camps to hold those who had been removed through the spring and summer of 1942, before overseeing their transfer to more permanent camps administered by the War Relocation Authority by the end of fall 1942." In North Portland, the temporary facility was previously the Pacific International Livestock Exposition Center, the horse stalls converted into living spaces for those detained there.
This book has a thoughtful design and a conscientious attempt to put this poetry—and the people who wrote it—into context, providing historical background and examining the cultural relevance of poetry in Japanese communities, including an exploration of the individual poets incarcerated at the camps as well as the poetry groups held at WCCA camps, and an explanation of the form itself. The book has several introductory pieces, an afterword, two essays on haiku/senryū, a timeline of relevant events, end notes for references, a full bibliography, and biographies of the poets. The one thing it doesn't have is an index, which I found myself wanting multiple times over the six months it took me to read this.
The poems are presented with the Japanese script given prominence in a bold vertical line down the center of the page, one poem per page, and then a transliteration of the Japanese and, finally, the poem translated into English, in three lines. Each poem has a footnote with a "literal" translation and any translation notes, including occasions where kanji have been simplified since the writing of the poem, or instances where the poet (or transcriber) seems to have made an error. However, the literal translations are anything but. They're of a more conversational nature than the actual choppy bits of language you usually get when Japanese is translated literally into English, and in some cases, I found them more interesting or nuanced than the final translations, which could feel a little melodramatic at times. But it's entirely possible that's just my bias for haiku showing up. Here's a poem by Jōnan that really struck me because of the way it mimics a common structure in haiku and through that offers an extreme understatement of human misery:
even autumn
comes on command here—
assembly center
This book was published in 2023 by Oregon State University Press, and I checked it out of the Multnomah County Library.
(no subject)
Jun. 10th, 2025 10:42 amseekingferretThe Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
I wasn't quite sure what this book wanted to be, it was doing three genres of middlebrow novel all at once and not quite pulling any of them off, but in the end I was not too unhappy to have kept with it.
Sara Marsala, our heroine, is the daughter of a messy Italian-American family. She is dealing with a divorce, the failure of her restaurant, and a general sense of failure and helplessness. When her beloved aunt dies, her aunt's will sends her back to the Old Country of rural Sicily, to Find Her Roots and see if an old deed for a plot of land in Sicily, passed down from her great-grandmother who never made it to America, is still valid. When she arrives in Sicily she is informed that her great grandmother was Murdered, contradicting family lote, and the plot is afoot.
The book tries to be a historical fiction novel about life in early 20th century Sicily, an action packed murder mystery, and an eat pray love European adventure, and the three visions of the book war with each other, not helped by lazy plotting with unjustified expository leaps obscuring story details I wanted to see fleshed out.
But it's the wanted to see fleshed out that frustrated me, because the story concept works and there are some really great characters both in the historical flashbacks and the modern narrative and I really was hoping that things would get worked out with just a bit more craft.
I wasn't quite sure what this book wanted to be, it was doing three genres of middlebrow novel all at once and not quite pulling any of them off, but in the end I was not too unhappy to have kept with it.
Sara Marsala, our heroine, is the daughter of a messy Italian-American family. She is dealing with a divorce, the failure of her restaurant, and a general sense of failure and helplessness. When her beloved aunt dies, her aunt's will sends her back to the Old Country of rural Sicily, to Find Her Roots and see if an old deed for a plot of land in Sicily, passed down from her great-grandmother who never made it to America, is still valid. When she arrives in Sicily she is informed that her great grandmother was Murdered, contradicting family lote, and the plot is afoot.
The book tries to be a historical fiction novel about life in early 20th century Sicily, an action packed murder mystery, and an eat pray love European adventure, and the three visions of the book war with each other, not helped by lazy plotting with unjustified expository leaps obscuring story details I wanted to see fleshed out.
But it's the wanted to see fleshed out that frustrated me, because the story concept works and there are some really great characters both in the historical flashbacks and the modern narrative and I really was hoping that things would get worked out with just a bit more craft.
Daily Happiness
Jun. 9th, 2025 10:54 pmtorachan1. A few months ago I started having problems with itunes where every time I tried to add a song to a playlist it froze. I tried a few solutions I found online and nothing worked, so I just stopped listening to music at my desk and basically only listened to it in the car through Apple Music. Finally the other day I just gave up and uninstalled itunes and reinstalled it again, and at first I was really regretting my decision because even after logging in, it wasn't showing any of the music I'd downloaded over the past few years from Apple Music, only my library on my HD, but then I logged out and logged in again and everything showed up, and adding songs to playlists seems to work again, so maybe now I'll actually get back to listening to music at home.
2. There is DLC for Sea of Stars, a whole new quest that I've seen a few reviews say is about eight hours or so of gameplay. I started it the other day and am enjoying it so far. Sea of Stars is definitely one of my favorite games from the past year or so, so I'm excited to be able to play more of it. (In between Mario Kart World, of course.)
3. Our Little Tokyo store is right next to city hall, so things have been kind of rough down there the past couple days with the protests. Both yesterday and today the store had to close early so employees could get home safe. This morning there was a ton of graffiti (all varities of "fuck ICE") along the windows of one side of the building, but thankfully no actual damage to the store and the property manager was able to get it cleaned up easily.
4. Chloe also says "fuck ICE"!
2. There is DLC for Sea of Stars, a whole new quest that I've seen a few reviews say is about eight hours or so of gameplay. I started it the other day and am enjoying it so far. Sea of Stars is definitely one of my favorite games from the past year or so, so I'm excited to be able to play more of it. (In between Mario Kart World, of course.)
3. Our Little Tokyo store is right next to city hall, so things have been kind of rough down there the past couple days with the protests. Both yesterday and today the store had to close early so employees could get home safe. This morning there was a ton of graffiti (all varities of "fuck ICE") along the windows of one side of the building, but thankfully no actual damage to the store and the property manager was able to get it cleaned up easily.
4. Chloe also says "fuck ICE"!
(no subject)
Jun. 9th, 2025 08:55 amaurumcalendulaI've belatedly found a way to view timecodes with milliseconds, which should make it much easier (and faster) for me to time subtitles (I'd been using VLC and guessing on the millisends and rewatching and adjusting stuff a bunch of times).
Letter Writers!
Jun. 9th, 2025 08:52 amoracneLove for our Elders is a program to send handwritten letters to older adults. "Our mission is to alleviate social isolation among older adults through handwritten letters and intergenerational connections."
Murderbot reviews/meta, weather, fannish activity, and more
Jun. 9th, 2025 08:01 pmmificI've been reading reviews of the five Murderbot eps to date, by William Hughes. They gel with what I'd been thinking and give some interesting meta. Worth checking out, if you're into the show.
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-premiere-recap-episodes-1-and-2
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-3-risk-assessment
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-4-escape-velocity-protocol
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-5-rogue-war-tracker-infinite
We've had a cold snap here - temps down to 7C (45F) - which I know is nothing to you tough Northeners but it reminded me how much I prefer summer. I broke out my oodie (a massive hooded sweatshirt of velour fleece lined with fake sheepskin fleece - mine has slices of pepperoni pizza on it) which was amazingly warm and comforting for a while, then when I'd warmed up, rapidly became claustrophpbic. I'm keeping it in reserve for more wintry dips in temperature.
I'm working on a NSFW artwork of John Sheppard and Rodney McKay as "always a girl" lesbians, and managed to turn myself on! Unusual - it can happen when I write sex scenes, but never before with a high-rated pic I've been drawing. I really want the pic to work so will need to run it by at least one art beta when it's a bit more finished - John/Joan's hips are proving elusive. Meredith's looking nicely lush though.
Lots of podfic-related activity lately - the longer one I'm recording is going well, plus the regular Voiceteam festival had an archiving challenge so we've been hit with >600 podfics to archive, some in weird, tiny, Yuletidey fandoms that are a puzzle to categorise.
I had a brief brain melt and panicked that the due South Big Bang deadline was June 16th (it's August 16th), and having come to my senses, relievedly abandoned the punishing podficcing schedule I'd invented. But I do need to get onto my into-a-bar fic asap. Writing - so much harder for me these days, goddamnit.
The Mexican sunflower is still flowering up a storm, even in the cold and rain. It's a keeper! Not a lot of choice about that as with big ones like mine the roots can be several metres deep, and they come away again cheerfully when cut back.
I had a moment in a comment over onminoanmiss's journal, when I realized the phrase "trumped up" charges now has a horrible new meaning. So I've written an imaginary future entry in Etymology.com:
trump (v.2)
"fabricate, devise," 1690s, from earlier trump "deceive, cheat, impose upon" (late 14c.), from Old French tromper "to deceive," a word of uncertain origin.
Trumped up "fabricated out of nothing or deceitfully; forged; false; worthless" is recorded by 1728. Since 2025 the origin has become conflated, especially in the US, with the second Trump presidency (January 2025 to his September 2025 impeachment) in which Trump and his lackeys were notorious for illegal executive orders, false charges, and widespread abuse of power.
Hope you're all keeping warm, or cool, depending!
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-premiere-recap-episodes-1-and-2
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-3-risk-assessment
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-4-escape-velocity-protocol
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-5-rogue-war-tracker-infinite
We've had a cold snap here - temps down to 7C (45F) - which I know is nothing to you tough Northeners but it reminded me how much I prefer summer. I broke out my oodie (a massive hooded sweatshirt of velour fleece lined with fake sheepskin fleece - mine has slices of pepperoni pizza on it) which was amazingly warm and comforting for a while, then when I'd warmed up, rapidly became claustrophpbic. I'm keeping it in reserve for more wintry dips in temperature.
Discussion of an NSFW artwork and TMI
I'm working on a NSFW artwork of John Sheppard and Rodney McKay as "always a girl" lesbians, and managed to turn myself on! Unusual - it can happen when I write sex scenes, but never before with a high-rated pic I've been drawing. I really want the pic to work so will need to run it by at least one art beta when it's a bit more finished - John/Joan's hips are proving elusive. Meredith's looking nicely lush though.
Lots of podfic-related activity lately - the longer one I'm recording is going well, plus the regular Voiceteam festival had an archiving challenge so we've been hit with >600 podfics to archive, some in weird, tiny, Yuletidey fandoms that are a puzzle to categorise.
I had a brief brain melt and panicked that the due South Big Bang deadline was June 16th (it's August 16th), and having come to my senses, relievedly abandoned the punishing podficcing schedule I'd invented. But I do need to get onto my into-a-bar fic asap. Writing - so much harder for me these days, goddamnit.
The Mexican sunflower is still flowering up a storm, even in the cold and rain. It's a keeper! Not a lot of choice about that as with big ones like mine the roots can be several metres deep, and they come away again cheerfully when cut back.
I had a moment in a comment over on
minoanmiss's journal, when I realized the phrase "trumped up" charges now has a horrible new meaning. So I've written an imaginary future entry in Etymology.com:trump (v.2)
"fabricate, devise," 1690s, from earlier trump "deceive, cheat, impose upon" (late 14c.), from Old French tromper "to deceive," a word of uncertain origin.
Trumped up "fabricated out of nothing or deceitfully; forged; false; worthless" is recorded by 1728. Since 2025 the origin has become conflated, especially in the US, with the second Trump presidency (January 2025 to his September 2025 impeachment) in which Trump and his lackeys were notorious for illegal executive orders, false charges, and widespread abuse of power.
Hope you're all keeping warm, or cool, depending!
All that skin against the glass
Jun. 9th, 2025 05:11 amsovayIt would be neither entirely fair nor completely accurate to say that the second season of Andor (2022–25) holocausted too close to the sun for my tolerance, but it got a lot closer than I had thought was possible.
( Nervous, tired, desensitized. )
tl;dr we will be returning to the series once I cool down and the news out of L.A. and D.C. could stop being quite so bleeding-edge at any second. I should decompress with some queer film.
( Nervous, tired, desensitized. )
tl;dr we will be returning to the series once I cool down and the news out of L.A. and D.C. could stop being quite so bleeding-edge at any second. I should decompress with some queer film.
Daily Happiness
Jun. 8th, 2025 08:41 pmtorachan1. I had another quiet day at home, though I did go out for two nice walks, including a longer one in which I stopped for ice cream to cool off. (It wasn't that hot today but it was late afternoon and quite sunny and muggy.)
2. Molly is a super cutie.
2. Molly is a super cutie.
OCs
Jun. 8th, 2025 06:09 pmesteefeeI just had an interesting question from a reader, who asked what actor or famous male I was thinking of when I was visualizing my OC. I don't! I mean, I do visualize people, but they are people of my own invention (I believe). I don't think they are real people, just features I come up with.
How about any writers out there? Do you choose actors or people you know? Or do you make up your OCs in your mind palace?
How about any writers out there? Do you choose actors or people you know? Or do you make up your OCs in your mind palace?
Nintendo Switch for sale
Jun. 8th, 2025 03:16 pmtorachanAnyone in the US interested in a used Switch? No original box, but I've got the dock, AC adapter, HDMI cable, two sets of joycons (black and red/blue), the holder thingy that turns the joycons into a regular controller, one set of wrist straps for the joycons, and a charging station. It also has a memory card already installed.
I'm looking for $100 including shipping.
I'm looking for $100 including shipping.
I stay quiet, but I'm seeing ultraviolet
Jun. 8th, 2025 05:33 pmsovayApparently our particulate pollution levels are officially unhealthy for sensitive groups, which explains not only the light brass tint to the afternoon but the rather massive asthma attack I had instead of sleeping for the entire morning. The day before, I couldn't enjoy the rain because it came with a headache so skull-crunching, I actually sort of passed out from it at a terrible hour to the rest of my schedule. I was under non-joking doctor's orders to rest up this weekend and it has not vaguely happened. I keep being light-headed, ear-ringing, unfocusable. My brain feels like a flickering commodity and I don't like worrying about false flags.
#659, Bashō
Jun. 8th, 2025 09:42 amrunpunkrundon't be like me
even though we're like the melon
split in two
-1690
Translation by Jane Reichhold.
( 俳句 )
even though we're like the melon
split in two
-1690
Translation by Jane Reichhold.
( 俳句 )
(no subject)
Jun. 8th, 2025 04:09 pmcopracatI'm been reading a few pages of my DW network link lately and discovered I'm not following people I thought I was following. I suspect I have accidentally unfollowed because on my current layout reply is close to the drop down list that has unsubscribe and ban user. I need an icons to the left layout.
Anyway, happy long weekend, Australians. At least those Australians who get the king's birthday holiday this week. I'm listening to the Classic 100 countdown to not-celebrate. Can we have a republic now, please?
Anyway, happy long weekend, Australians. At least those Australians who get the king's birthday holiday this week. I'm listening to the Classic 100 countdown to not-celebrate. Can we have a republic now, please?
LCFD camp!
Jun. 8th, 2025 12:53 amsorcyressI am at Pinewoods!
I mean, I arrived yesterday around five thirty (over 2.5 hours drive from Somerville, _oof_), but it is Saturday night of my first actual session as a camper this year. Of, I guess, four (not counting the work weekend or the crewunion).
I'm very pleased about it!
It's LCFD's spring camp, which has been running in general since 1989 or so, but at Pinewoods since 2023. Pinewoods is starting off the year Gay As Hell, since last weekend was their first camper session --the Boston Queer Tango-- and now is us, the Lavender Country and Folk Dancers.
It is _so good_ to be at an explicitly queer dance camp, full of explicitly queer people. Yes, absolutely, some of those people are the kind of weird where they have never felt misaligned about their assigned gender or are only interested in people with different genders from themself, but even the cishets are the kinds who are excited to be at a big gay camp full of lovely queer people and it makes the space _amazing_. Just...loving, open, gentle, good-hearted, and fucking funny and sexy as well.
(As I remarked to several people tonight, as I looked around the wide range of finery that is the "dress up in fancy dress or costume" Saturday evening dance, "oh no, everyone is hot and I am gay".)
I saw ballgowns, leather hot pants, loud print Hawai'in shirts, mesh tops with harnesses, at least two people with tails, and the usual evening dance array of swoopy twirly swishy fun. I myself was fairly understated, which is to say, my black-and-rainbow kilt, a formal black collared shirt and grey vest, and a loud-as-fuck rainbow bowtie. Oh, and my makeup is essentially "Furiosa, but make it gay".
Beyond the incredible highlights that are just "queer community" and "gay dancing", I am having such a lovely time with the regular programming. This morning I went to a "contra refresher" class explicitly named as a "show up and tell us what you want to work on" sort of basics class. It was being taught by Chris Ricciotti, who is an _incredible_ teacher --I quite literally sat down after it was over and frantically scribbled notes about his flawless ability to mix the dancers around and the fascinating parallels between a robin's chain and a hay.
After lunch, Chris was running a "queer dance history" panel, which was half him sharing and half open to the class. It was amazing --something like 40 people were crammed into the camphouse to hear and share their stories. I cried repeatedly --tearing up at the tales of the first time someone ever tried a skirt on (including one gentleman, at 89, doing so to show support of his trans granddaughter, and then discovering that he _loves_ skirts and immediately sought out more) and of a couple celebrating their twentieth year together, and tenth year married (and especially counting back in my head to remember that means they very well might've married the first year it was legal country-wide. Remember that the DoMA is not even ten years old.).
Mostly I cried with joy at the earnest, soppy lovefest happening back and forth at the panel between the elders, who were expressing their joy that other people are taking up the torch and keeping the community going, and the youth, who were expressing their joy that they didn't have to start from zero, that the groundwork had been laid. Everyone joyous at how far we have come, and excited to find out how far we can go.
The straights don't know what they're missing, when they box themselves up miserably into binary assignments and strict policing of their own and each other's presentation.
The only mar has been how incredibly _tired_ I am in general. But even that is coming with comfort: this afternoon I took a ninety minute nap, and I settled in to sleep while listening to the soft sound of a light rain in the nearby trees. I woke up to the delicious pounding of pouring rain on the roof of my beloved little cabin, and mama nature did me the courtesy of even ceasing shortly after so that I could walk to the dining hall without getting entirely soaked to the skin.
(Yes, the subtext is that I am once again in Kitty Alone, the best cabin in all of Pinewoods. I truly try not to be a diva about it, and I truly am grateful that I keep winding up in this perfect little paradise, where I'm so familiar with the space that unpacking is a breeze.)
So because of that, I'm off to bed now. No more rain, but the trees are gently dripping, and the moon is shining through the clouds. This is my home.
~Sor
MOOP!
I mean, I arrived yesterday around five thirty (over 2.5 hours drive from Somerville, _oof_), but it is Saturday night of my first actual session as a camper this year. Of, I guess, four (not counting the work weekend or the crewunion).
I'm very pleased about it!
It's LCFD's spring camp, which has been running in general since 1989 or so, but at Pinewoods since 2023. Pinewoods is starting off the year Gay As Hell, since last weekend was their first camper session --the Boston Queer Tango-- and now is us, the Lavender Country and Folk Dancers.
It is _so good_ to be at an explicitly queer dance camp, full of explicitly queer people. Yes, absolutely, some of those people are the kind of weird where they have never felt misaligned about their assigned gender or are only interested in people with different genders from themself, but even the cishets are the kinds who are excited to be at a big gay camp full of lovely queer people and it makes the space _amazing_. Just...loving, open, gentle, good-hearted, and fucking funny and sexy as well.
(As I remarked to several people tonight, as I looked around the wide range of finery that is the "dress up in fancy dress or costume" Saturday evening dance, "oh no, everyone is hot and I am gay".)
I saw ballgowns, leather hot pants, loud print Hawai'in shirts, mesh tops with harnesses, at least two people with tails, and the usual evening dance array of swoopy twirly swishy fun. I myself was fairly understated, which is to say, my black-and-rainbow kilt, a formal black collared shirt and grey vest, and a loud-as-fuck rainbow bowtie. Oh, and my makeup is essentially "Furiosa, but make it gay".
Beyond the incredible highlights that are just "queer community" and "gay dancing", I am having such a lovely time with the regular programming. This morning I went to a "contra refresher" class explicitly named as a "show up and tell us what you want to work on" sort of basics class. It was being taught by Chris Ricciotti, who is an _incredible_ teacher --I quite literally sat down after it was over and frantically scribbled notes about his flawless ability to mix the dancers around and the fascinating parallels between a robin's chain and a hay.
After lunch, Chris was running a "queer dance history" panel, which was half him sharing and half open to the class. It was amazing --something like 40 people were crammed into the camphouse to hear and share their stories. I cried repeatedly --tearing up at the tales of the first time someone ever tried a skirt on (including one gentleman, at 89, doing so to show support of his trans granddaughter, and then discovering that he _loves_ skirts and immediately sought out more) and of a couple celebrating their twentieth year together, and tenth year married (and especially counting back in my head to remember that means they very well might've married the first year it was legal country-wide. Remember that the DoMA is not even ten years old.).
Mostly I cried with joy at the earnest, soppy lovefest happening back and forth at the panel between the elders, who were expressing their joy that other people are taking up the torch and keeping the community going, and the youth, who were expressing their joy that they didn't have to start from zero, that the groundwork had been laid. Everyone joyous at how far we have come, and excited to find out how far we can go.
The straights don't know what they're missing, when they box themselves up miserably into binary assignments and strict policing of their own and each other's presentation.
The only mar has been how incredibly _tired_ I am in general. But even that is coming with comfort: this afternoon I took a ninety minute nap, and I settled in to sleep while listening to the soft sound of a light rain in the nearby trees. I woke up to the delicious pounding of pouring rain on the roof of my beloved little cabin, and mama nature did me the courtesy of even ceasing shortly after so that I could walk to the dining hall without getting entirely soaked to the skin.
(Yes, the subtext is that I am once again in Kitty Alone, the best cabin in all of Pinewoods. I truly try not to be a diva about it, and I truly am grateful that I keep winding up in this perfect little paradise, where I'm so familiar with the space that unpacking is a breeze.)
So because of that, I'm off to bed now. No more rain, but the trees are gently dripping, and the moon is shining through the clouds. This is my home.
~Sor
MOOP!