i have now earwormed myself. oy, self.
today was the open house at my curling club, yes the one where i volunteered for six hours, and i'm stiff everywhere because a. i'm embarrassigly out of shape, and b. i spent a lot of my day showing people how to curl, showing people how to sweep, chasing rocks, and standing around. (i was on a team of three, so we switched off who got to do what.) each group of attendees got twenty minutes on the ice and everything was very well organized - the on-ice volunteers had an actual schedule! with breaks built in! - but we ran late anyway because everything always takes a little longer than you expect. i think everyone had fun, tho. we had one group that was four adult and two little girls who might have been six, and those little girls tried VERY HARD. but one of them just. could. not. throw her stone. our curling stones are solid granite and weigh like forty-two pounds - how much does the average six-year-old girl weigh? there were a bunch of little kids, actually, and my team also got a boy who was probably closer to ten who apparently had some motor control issues altho i gotta say, he did pretty well for ten, and we had a poor woman who seemed to have signed up without realizing what she was getting into. like, she was VERY nervous on the ice. you're supposed to push off and slide when you throw your stone, but she just... stayed put and pushed her stone down the ice so at least the other folks in her group could sweep it. and that's a legal move! which i did not know. i gave her credit for at least trying, even tho she was clearly very nervous about falling. there were a non-trivial number of people who fell - one woman on the sheet next to us kind of faceplanted and ended up sprawled out on her stomach on the ice, which was more funny than alarming - she was laughing when she rolled over - and a couple of women in our groups fell very slowly and gracefully - but no one was seriously hurt and there was no blood and no one seemed to mind when they lost their balance and went splat.
i think my team got our first break at three, so we could eat - the kitchen had fried chicken and chicken piccata and potatoes and caesar salad - and pee and sit, and then we went back out onto the ice, and then we got another break, and then we went back on the ice but we only had two more groups and then it was over. and i was SO RELIEVED to take my curling shoes off and sit my ass down because did i mention that it was exhausting? but everything moved right along and we were well hydrated and fed and had a couple chances to sit for a minute or pee or go outside or whatever. and i got a t-shirt! it's red. :D and it wasn't cold on the ice - i'm so used to being cold - but probably because there were so many people out there.
and now we're done for the season and you probably won't have to listen to me talk about my weird sport until the fall. :D lucky you.
yesterday my sister and i were supposed to see the lost city which gives me very strong romancing the stone vibes but ended up not going, and instead went to her place to watch prince of egypt because we're going to our cousin's for passover and said cousin's husband gave us homework, and that homework is to watch the movie. (his seders have themes, and i guess prince of egypt is this year's.) it was ok? i'm so used to the ten commandments that any other exodus movie kind of pales in comparison. it had a lot of recognizable voices, tho, including sir patrick stewart as the pharaoh, helen mirren as the queen (she got like three lines, hmph), ralph fiennes as rameses and val kilmer as moses. also jeff goldblum as aaron, sandra bullock as miriam, and ofra haza as yocheved, moses's mom. she was one of the few actors who also got to sing. (it's an animated movie. there's songs, altho none of them were super catchy.) i only know who she is because she's in the eight-minute remix of the sisters of mercy song temple of love. i didn't know she was an actress too. but anyway, i have now seen the movie per my cousin's husband's directive, altho it's anyone's guess how much i'll remember by the time passover comes around.
also i completely forgot yesterday was april so there was no poem for poetry month, so consider this one the poem for yesterday and today.
i stand before you to say
that today i walked home
& caught the light through
the fence & it was so golden
i wanted to cry & i lifted
my right hand to say thank
you god for the sun thank
you god for a chain link fence
& all the shoes that fit into
the chain link fence so that
we might get lifted god thank
you & i just wanted to dance
& it feels good to have food
in your belly & it feels good
to be home even when home
is the space between metal
shapes & still we are golden
& a man who wore the walk
of hard grounds & lost days
came toward me in the street
& said ‘girl what a beautiful
day’ & i said yes, testify
& i walked on & from some
place a horn rose, an organ,
a voice, a chorus, here to tell
you that we are not dead
we are not dead we are not
dead we are not dead we are
not dead we are not dead
we are not dead we are not
dead
yet
--"testify", Eve L Ewing
i think my team got our first break at three, so we could eat - the kitchen had fried chicken and chicken piccata and potatoes and caesar salad - and pee and sit, and then we went back out onto the ice, and then we got another break, and then we went back on the ice but we only had two more groups and then it was over. and i was SO RELIEVED to take my curling shoes off and sit my ass down because did i mention that it was exhausting? but everything moved right along and we were well hydrated and fed and had a couple chances to sit for a minute or pee or go outside or whatever. and i got a t-shirt! it's red. :D and it wasn't cold on the ice - i'm so used to being cold - but probably because there were so many people out there.
and now we're done for the season and you probably won't have to listen to me talk about my weird sport until the fall. :D lucky you.
yesterday my sister and i were supposed to see the lost city which gives me very strong romancing the stone vibes but ended up not going, and instead went to her place to watch prince of egypt because we're going to our cousin's for passover and said cousin's husband gave us homework, and that homework is to watch the movie. (his seders have themes, and i guess prince of egypt is this year's.) it was ok? i'm so used to the ten commandments that any other exodus movie kind of pales in comparison. it had a lot of recognizable voices, tho, including sir patrick stewart as the pharaoh, helen mirren as the queen (she got like three lines, hmph), ralph fiennes as rameses and val kilmer as moses. also jeff goldblum as aaron, sandra bullock as miriam, and ofra haza as yocheved, moses's mom. she was one of the few actors who also got to sing. (it's an animated movie. there's songs, altho none of them were super catchy.) i only know who she is because she's in the eight-minute remix of the sisters of mercy song temple of love. i didn't know she was an actress too. but anyway, i have now seen the movie per my cousin's husband's directive, altho it's anyone's guess how much i'll remember by the time passover comes around.
also i completely forgot yesterday was april so there was no poem for poetry month, so consider this one the poem for yesterday and today.
i stand before you to say
that today i walked home
& caught the light through
the fence & it was so golden
i wanted to cry & i lifted
my right hand to say thank
you god for the sun thank
you god for a chain link fence
& all the shoes that fit into
the chain link fence so that
we might get lifted god thank
you & i just wanted to dance
& it feels good to have food
in your belly & it feels good
to be home even when home
is the space between metal
shapes & still we are golden
& a man who wore the walk
of hard grounds & lost days
came toward me in the street
& said ‘girl what a beautiful
day’ & i said yes, testify
& i walked on & from some
place a horn rose, an organ,
a voice, a chorus, here to tell
you that we are not dead
we are not dead we are not
dead we are not dead we are
not dead we are not dead
we are not dead we are not
dead
yet
--"testify", Eve L Ewing