Things I've Been Thinking About #001

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (South Africa)

I love it! I hate it! I feel funny about it! On the one hand, it seems wildly self-congratulatory for Oprah to be doing this ("Aren't rich people awesome?! I am so awesome! Check out my name on that banner! And that building! And on the girls' uniforms! And on that other banner!"), but on the other hand I totally love her for doing this. But on the other other hand I feel bad for all of the girls who don't get the chance these girls will have, but on the other other other hand I think, "Why should I feel bad that the girls who aren't included will stay in their communities and not have Western values trained into them?" I mean, one of the first things the girls did when they moved into the school was learn which fork to use at dinner!! This is not a cultural value that is crucial to these girls' lives or to their educations! This is a Western cultural value that seems ridiculously out of place when, outside the school's walls, people don't eat more than one meal a week and have no clean water!!!

On the otherest hand there is? I totally want to be a teacher there.


Losing Track of People

A long time ago, when I first became involved in circus arts, I discovered something very, very cool about being part of a small, albeit spread out, community--you never really have to say goodbye! Paths cross in the most mysterious ways and when you least expect it. And even if you lose touch with someone you care about, you can still sort of keep tabs on them through other folks in the community who know them. Or through the internet, of course, but that wasn't really true when I first made this discovery about how small and connected the circus world is.

For example, I went to Club Med one year and met this Circus coach (we'll call her Hollroll) there. We kept in touch for a while after I left and she totally encouraged me to keep doing circus however I could, etc. Meanwhile, she got an audition with Cirque du Soleil and ended up performing in two of their shows before falling off the face of the earth, as far as I knew. Turns out, she's now an aerial teacher at a circus school in Australia where my darling friend Meemo is getting her circus degree. Crazy!

Anyway, I lost track of someone else now and no one can help me, not even the internet! A very important former trapeze teacher of mine, "Poppy," has come in and out of my life, like, five times or something crazy like that (and I'm sure I was certain I'd never see her again when we said goodbye the first two times). We haven't been in touch for several years now, but it was all good because I knew where she was all that time: touring with Cirque Eloize. I just discovered last night that she has left the show, though, and I don't know where she is! And it's weird! Where are you, Poppy?


Five Pounds

I've lost some weight over the past year. 36 pounds so far. I still have five more to lose, though, to reach my goal and it's SO HARD. I have been at this "five pounds away" mark for a month or so now, so I'm apparently a maintenance rockstar. Too bad I'm maintaining a weight that's not my goal weight.

Note: I'm totally getting a new tattoo when I reach my goal weight.

'Nother note: Darty, Koala, TrainerLady, Pickolas, Chrissymine, and assorted others think I should cool it and not worry about the last five pounds. Maybe they're right? I dunno. I'm kind of obsessed with the numbers. And I still think I'm fat, so, you know, I'm gonna' keep on trucking for now.


Camp!

It's coming right up. And it's on my mind even more than usual because one of Chrissymine's staff members from camp is here for the month constructing costumes for a show Chrissymine designed. She needs a blog name. Hmm...Britches. There. Done. If she hates it she'll tell me and I'll change it. Anyway, we've been all about talking about camp lately and I'm totally ready to go.


Grading Papers

Because it's what I should be doing right now. Gotta' go!