Special Events
Don’t Play Well with Balls
I’ve always thought of myself as the most uncoordinated person who was still motivated to do coordinated things. With lots of practice and determination, I’ve become quite decent at salsa dancing, swimming and training capoeira, but note how none of those coordinated activites involves balls. I finally realized when I was a young adult that … Continue reading
Hanging Out with Family
My two-week visit “back home” is nearly drawing to an end, but at least my visit will end with a bang since tomorrow’s the Fourth of July. I love coming home to attend my family reunion and then spend additional time with my immediate family. Some people find it hard to believe that I’m so … Continue reading
Family Reunion 2011
Last year, I missed the annual family reunion on my mom’s side of the family because I chose to study and in between the two summer sessions, I changed apartments. This summer, I fought for my right to party! And since I”m a workaholic nerd at heart, that pretty much means that I’m not working, … Continue reading
Connections and Reconnections
Proving yet again that even on a two and a half month vacation, I cannot truly bring my routine to a screeching halt. I even temporarily stopped taking tango and Spanish conversational classes to free up my schedule, which made me one of the perfect people to volunteer for the ProArts sponsored Black Arts Movement … Continue reading
Enraptured with Life
This past Thursday, my students started asking me if I believed that the world would end on Saturday. As a way to comfort them, I said that this was about the fourth or fifth time that the world was allegedly going to end; so I was quite confident that an earthquake wouldn’t hit at 6 … Continue reading
Capoeira Conditioning
Coming fresh from a capoeira performance, I hit Zilker park all decked out in my best white capoeira uniform ready to condition–at least I thought I was. There are some activities that painfully remind me that I’m 40 years old and have less stamina than I used to. Capoeira, as my first teacher in Monterrey, Mexico … Continue reading
Unofficial 40.5 Birthday Celebration
Had I paused to think about it, I would have brought my camera with me on Saturday. Yet, I was in the midst of juggling several activities, starting with writing, filing my on-line sales taxes then dashing off to school in order to water the school garden and prune the spice plants, both to keep … Continue reading
Louisiana Swamp Thing Presents George Clinton & Parliment
As soon as I’d read that Buda (pronounced byu-DAH, despite its spelling), a small town a few minutes south of Austin was hosting a crawdad festival, officially called the “Louisiana Swamp Thing” that included a free plate of crawdads and all-day music with headliner George Clinton with Parliment, I immediately started singing “Atomic Dog.” My … Continue reading