Vesperwood & Contra Dancing
Hello again, journal (and journal followers),
This was a good weekend. Saturday I drove about 40 miles over to Eastford, Connecticut to visit some friends of family and listen to a pleasant little concert in a backyard amphitheatre. However the term 'backyard amphitheatre' doesn't do the elaborateness of the event justice. I also spent the night there on what is an absolutely gorgeous property (complete with sheep, chickens, the friendliest cats you've ever met, and beautiful well-tended gardens). This morning, before leaving, my aunt and uncle who were also there for the event (and to visit me, which was nice!) as well as the friend of family had a morning swim at "Black Pond" not far from the house. I swam for about 30 minutes in what was murky, but pleasantly warm water. The lake was absolutely pristine. I think I should start becoming more of a morning person (I say as I write this at 1:45 in the morning...go me!).
Anyway, that was a nice visit. It was good to be with friendly, home-y people and get away from the city. Yes, Providence still feels like a city! Forget all you naysayers out there who think Providence is a shitty "town." Whatever. It's definitively urban. And you definitely realize it when you make it out to the countryside on a weekend.
After getting back, I quickly got into "cook-mode" because I was planning to make a dish for the Sunday Night Jammers' pot luck. The SNJ (I'll abbreviate it here) are a group of contra-music-playing musicians who practice on Sunday nights. They had an 'open house' type thing this week and had people over to dance (all free) and a pot luck before hand. I kind of knew coming into this (especially the dinner prior to the dance) that I would be this weird youngster among all the older people (think all 50s+). And while that was the case, I didn't feel tooooo out of place. And my potatoes au gratin seemed to be the only dinner-ish thing was brought! We chatted, it was nice. And then the dance happened. It was dreadfully slow and simplistic. Like "oh my god, I'm not five years old anymore!" type of thing. I really wanted to learn the hambo tonight, which eventually happened. In the last half hour, we took some time to learn the hambo (a swedish folk dance for those unfamiliar). I struggled with it. It's known to be the hardest of the swedish folk dances, but it's always played at the intermission of contra dances. It really calls for a strong male lead. While I can make the effort, I honestly don't know if I'm physically capable of doing it with risking taking a tumble (which actually happened once tonight as I was learning it). The dance centers around the couple clutching shoulders and leaning back, and culminating in a wild turn down the hall. It looks cool, but leaning back while spinning a 1080 really quickly is daunting. Maybe if I work out a little bit more, I'll maintain better balance.
On a side note, I'm contemplating buying a Nikon D50 for my birthday (off ebay because the retail prices are phenomenally outrageous...even the eBay ones leave a big gulp in your throat). I'm hoping to do a lot of photography on our road trip in August. Also for the record, Ben will be joining Chris and me from Philly to Dallas. Kelly will be joining us from Phoneix to Chicago. After Chicago we'll be in Detroit with Britt. Eventually we'll make it to Buffallo/Niagara whence I'll take a plane to Portland, Oregon for my conference. Man...talk about a lot of travel!!
Okay...it's really time to go to bed.
G'night
-S
This was a good weekend. Saturday I drove about 40 miles over to Eastford, Connecticut to visit some friends of family and listen to a pleasant little concert in a backyard amphitheatre. However the term 'backyard amphitheatre' doesn't do the elaborateness of the event justice. I also spent the night there on what is an absolutely gorgeous property (complete with sheep, chickens, the friendliest cats you've ever met, and beautiful well-tended gardens). This morning, before leaving, my aunt and uncle who were also there for the event (and to visit me, which was nice!) as well as the friend of family had a morning swim at "Black Pond" not far from the house. I swam for about 30 minutes in what was murky, but pleasantly warm water. The lake was absolutely pristine. I think I should start becoming more of a morning person (I say as I write this at 1:45 in the morning...go me!).
Anyway, that was a nice visit. It was good to be with friendly, home-y people and get away from the city. Yes, Providence still feels like a city! Forget all you naysayers out there who think Providence is a shitty "town." Whatever. It's definitively urban. And you definitely realize it when you make it out to the countryside on a weekend.
After getting back, I quickly got into "cook-mode" because I was planning to make a dish for the Sunday Night Jammers' pot luck. The SNJ (I'll abbreviate it here) are a group of contra-music-playing musicians who practice on Sunday nights. They had an 'open house' type thing this week and had people over to dance (all free) and a pot luck before hand. I kind of knew coming into this (especially the dinner prior to the dance) that I would be this weird youngster among all the older people (think all 50s+). And while that was the case, I didn't feel tooooo out of place. And my potatoes au gratin seemed to be the only dinner-ish thing was brought! We chatted, it was nice. And then the dance happened. It was dreadfully slow and simplistic. Like "oh my god, I'm not five years old anymore!" type of thing. I really wanted to learn the hambo tonight, which eventually happened. In the last half hour, we took some time to learn the hambo (a swedish folk dance for those unfamiliar). I struggled with it. It's known to be the hardest of the swedish folk dances, but it's always played at the intermission of contra dances. It really calls for a strong male lead. While I can make the effort, I honestly don't know if I'm physically capable of doing it with risking taking a tumble (which actually happened once tonight as I was learning it). The dance centers around the couple clutching shoulders and leaning back, and culminating in a wild turn down the hall. It looks cool, but leaning back while spinning a 1080 really quickly is daunting. Maybe if I work out a little bit more, I'll maintain better balance.
On a side note, I'm contemplating buying a Nikon D50 for my birthday (off ebay because the retail prices are phenomenally outrageous...even the eBay ones leave a big gulp in your throat). I'm hoping to do a lot of photography on our road trip in August. Also for the record, Ben will be joining Chris and me from Philly to Dallas. Kelly will be joining us from Phoneix to Chicago. After Chicago we'll be in Detroit with Britt. Eventually we'll make it to Buffallo/Niagara whence I'll take a plane to Portland, Oregon for my conference. Man...talk about a lot of travel!!
Okay...it's really time to go to bed.
G'night
-S