(no subject)

[sorcyress]

I think ultimately I am happier when I spend most of the day not on my computer, which is important and valuable information but also ugghghhhhgghghhhhh fuck.

I spent the majority of today packing, with a few briefish breaks for food and dumb phone games and now like an hour of Animal Crossing. In that time I managed to get all the games packed (three boxen), the rest of the books (1.5 boxen for dance, .5 for insect¹, 1.75 math² and .25 cook), and much of the craft supplies.

Big goal for craft stuff was to go from "Approx 3 bins worth of stuff" to one bin worth of stuff. I didn't totally succeed, but I got very close, especially because I still intend to go cull through the beads and take them down to *much* fewer beads. Even if I kept all of them, they're only like half a bin worth though, so accomplishments.

I haven't touched the LEGOs and I've been patiently ignoring the DVDs, sooooo that's fun times. I also have done the opposite of clean my own room, which is to say, I have absolutely covered every available surface with stuff and now it is going to be hard to sleep. I did not do any hotel packing at all, except I guess putting the three math textbooks I might want for the first month of school into the closet I have dedicated "hotel closet". (so far the only other thing in there is three paperbacks).

Some stuff to do tomorrow:

*Email the movers, sort some stuff including washer/dryer nonsense. Make sure I absolutely 100% understand the plan for washer/dryer nonsense.

*On a closely related note, do my last few loads of laundry. Hotel has machines, so like, that'll be good but still, I'd like to bring not totally dirty clothes there, and I have like...sheets and stuff.

*Adventures in Goodwill! Which are probably not actually going to include a goodwill, it depends on what's on the way home from Boomerangs. I am absolutely gonna drive my ass to JP though to drop stuff off at the fighting AIDS store because it is superior to all other thrift stores.

*Gwent, my DnD³ character, level'd up and I need to figure out how to actually...do that.

*I should set up an Animal Crossing Goodtimes which is to say do some time travel shenanigans so people can actually ask the naked dog to give me birthday wishes⁴.

*It would be cool to stop by the SCD thing happening for Cambridge Class, but hahahaa what are brains no.

*Really _really_ need to finish the "all my stuff from the dining room" packing adventure. Then I really really need to do some serious work on my bedroom. Wednesday is going to be all day packing nightmare day it looks (I will not be doing much packing Tuesday since Tuesday is busyday)

*Speaking of busyday I need to see if everything is on the up and up for my EquityTaskForce presentation since that's Tuesday. Whee!

Annnnnyways. Bedtime's in half an hour, let's see if I can get some of the beads culled before then. Whee!

(I'd apologize for my entries of late being boring, but it turns out that this is my journal and I don't care if I am boring to you. Not even to you, future!Kat, this was your life!)

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Okay, so like it's technically "nature" because really only 4 or 5 of them are insect/spider guides, which to be fair is *already* probably more than I need of such a thing but shh. But I have some other books about plants and stuff. I should get a bird book at some point probably.

2: An entire box worth of textbooks! I am a ~professional~ or something.

3: Technically Pathfinder but I am absolutely the sort of chaotic annoying who refers to all tabletop fantasy rpgs as DnD

4: See, KK collects wishes from friends for the two Saturdays before your birthday, except this Saturday was bug-off day, and he couldn't come today because fireworks. And it's a tiny dumb thing, but like...if it works I'd very much like to get those wishes! My birthday this year is already going to be such a triple chaotic mess (school, pandemic, moving) that I want at least a few of the things to go okay.

Comments

[sbrackett]

Is Boomerangs that store in JP? I think I got my favorite (hole filled) sweater there this past January! It is gray and very soft and would be dapper if it weren't covered in like 6 holes (mostly very small ones but there's a half inch big one on the shoulder. The cashier at Boomerangs had a theory someone had stolen it and failed to get the plastic thingie out without damaging the sweater) but I found it and was like "hmm I probably shouldn't get this because it already has obvious holes but I love it."

[sorcyress]

Probably yes! I am most used to the one in Central Square, but there is apparently a JP store as well (which is where I eventually dropped things off). Getting a very soft sweater sounds like a success even if it is full of holes --good to wear and enjoy around the house, certainly!

[sbrackett]

Around the house... or everywhere heh. Before the pandemic I kept wearing it to work despite the few holes because it was just So Cozy and I didn't really think anyone would mind. I tried to make sure I wouldn't wear it on days I'd have to talk to the public.

[choco_frosh]

*Adventures in Goodwill! Which are probably not actually going to include a goodwill, it depends on what's on the way home from Boomerangs. I am absolutely gonna drive my ass to JP though to drop stuff off at the fighting AIDS store because it is superior to all other thrift stores.

I've only been to the one in Central Square, but omg yes.

[jducoeur]

On the topic of "still getting to know you", this one made my ears perk up:

1.5 boxen for dance

Dance Nerd asks, which form(s) of dance?

[sorcyress]

:D!

I am Damn Serious (tm) about Scottish Country Dance, to the point where I am currently the youngest fully certified teacher in the Boston Branch, and probably one of the youngest in the country. I started in late 2007, and have kept it up ever since, except, yanno. That's certainly what the boxen I was referring to is full of --SCD books (with a handful of other random resources for other folk dance). I may be the only certified nonbinary SCD teacher in the world? I would be disappointed to find that was true, but not necessarily surprised.

More expansively, I do contra and English Country maybe once every two months each, and Modern Western Squares (I've learned through C1 once and A2 twice but am definitely most comfortable at Plus) for several weeks at a time and then not at all for months, repeat. Regency is my Absolute Favourite Forever, but I still haven't much managed to fall in with Commonwealth Vintage, maybe partly because I don't costume for shit and their good stuff is usually high recreation (and Susan dG stopped hosting invite-only serious workshops when she began her whole Russia experiment).

I teach the basics of cross-step waltz every opportunity I get. I lead and follow with equal skill (generally high) --cross step and turning waltz, one-step, foxtrot, polka, east coast swing, blues, and fusion. I have learned many random chunks of rounds dancing, but never enough to fully know a level, and can fake my way through phases 1-3 with a partner who is leading (or backleading) well (and I've never actually figured out whether or not I like called couples dancing).

I did about four years of weekly Highland practice, which was tapering off around the time of the pandemic. I don't like Highland, it turns out, but I think it was good for me to spend a lot of time with a dance form I'm not intrinsically good at. I competed twice, and medaled pretty consistently in last place in every dance I competed at (which, to be fair, they don't *have* to give you a medal, so...)

When I am given the opportunity, or when I decide to create the opportunity, I dance by myself to loud music, piped over speakers or through headphones. I am very very good at it, largely because I actually can dance like no one's watching. I don't necessarily smile while I'm doing it, because it's not _for_ anyone else. When I have the space, I typically close my eyes.

Currently, I am on two committees for SCD in Boston (the Teaching and Music Committee, which hires for events, and the Cambridge Class Committee, which directly runs the Watertown class (which used to be in Medford, and before that, several years before I ever started, I'm told was in Cambridge). Last year and next year I am co-running the Scottish sessions at Pinewoods dance camp (this year I helped run them virtually). I also used to help run ESCape --English Scottish Contra week at Pinewoods.

I have a blog that I do not update nearly enough called Ambidancetrous in Boston: https://ambidanceboston.blogspot.com/. I talk about dance, gender, and role (in varying amounts) and really *really* ought to write more posts for it, and update some of the ones that are there.

Oh, and my mother founded and ran Three Left Feet dance troupe for the UMD College Park branch of Markland. She was mostly out of it by the time Us Kids were born, but I got to do bits and pieces of medieval dance here and there growing up.

***

When I was sixteen (fifteen? somewhere thereabouts), my clone gave me the title "Demigoddex¹ of Dance", in that silly joking way that sometimes someone uses to get something absolutely permanently right. It is one of the most fundamental parts of my identity and self-concept, one of the first words I will ever use to describe myself², one of the best and most joyful and most overwhelmingly important things I do.

~Sor

1: I mean, at the time it was Demigoddess, but we were both a bit confused on my gender at the time.

2: Dancer, teacher, writer, queer. Close-followed by mathematician and bellringer and time-traveller, depending on the context.

[jducoeur]

Heh -- okay, we continue to be half a degree of Kevin Bacon from each other.

I sort of suspected that "SCD" was Scottish Country, but wasn't quite sure. I basically teach all the stuff that's ancestral to what you teach -- Renaissance English Country particularly relevant here, but also early and late Italian, the French Bransles, the English Almans, etc, etc. (That is to say, pretty much the whole SCA repertoire. I do many things in the SCA, but Dance has been my "home" pretty much from the week I joined.)

I know Susan, of course (she was the one who gave us some key clues about late Italian) -- I suspect you also know Barbara and Antonia, who have been friends forever, and Patri was one of my mentors.

When I am given the opportunity, or when I decide to create the opportunity, I dance by myself to loud music, piped over speakers or through headphones. I am very very good at it, largely because I actually can dance like no one's watching. I don't necessarily smile while I'm doing it, because it's not for anyone else. When I have the space, I typically close my eyes.

I don't actually do this much by myself (although I should probably do more of it), but one of my traditional high points at Intercon is the dance party, which is pretty much where I let loose. I'm pretty good at the "dance like no one's watching" even there in public, because it's among friends and it's a desperately needed outlet. (I was taught this particular art by my friend / sometime apprentice Becky, who is fabulous at Ballo Dimenio (Modern Wiggle Dance) -- no idea whether you know her, but given the sheer level of crossover we have, it wouldn't astonish me.)