wait, the weekend's over?

Okay wow, that went quickly.

I can't even remember what I did on Friday, it seems like a hundred years ago. Oh! Yeah, I cleaned the barn in the morning. I had to clear all the random crap out of the center breezeway and get all the skanky old bits of hay up off the ground and stack the remaining old bales outside. All of this is preparation for new hay, which will be delivered soon. This'll be the third year that someone else will be stacking hay for me. I don't miss doing it. Besides it's much more entertaining this way... ;-)

Anyway, after I finished that it was scrimshaw for the rest of the day. I finished one of the images I'm working on. There are three more to go in the set. Two of these are very personalized. Two are not. I am thinking I can probably get away with showing the two that are not.

Friday night I watched "12" (2007) which is a Russian remake of 12 Angry Men. I have not seen the original. I wasn't sure I'd like it but found it fascinating to see the characters and plot develop and unfold. I had NO idea what the ending would be.

Saturday I had to go pick up my art from the State Fair. I wish someone would have bought it. But that would have been pretty surprising!

On Saturday afternoon I met up with CS (who I haven't seen since I worked at the San Joaquin county fair months ago) and we headed off to a bellydance festival. Now, in the interest of keywords and people searching things, I don't really want to say specifically where I went (because I don't want this to be an official review that people would find if they searched online) but let's just say it was about two hours southwest of here in the Silicon Valley. I'd heard of it, our troupe danced there years ago (before I was part of it) and CS had been there years ago. I think we both expected something pretty big and glitzy like Rakkasah. Well, it was a letdown in that regard. Very small, not much seating, not a lot of vendors, and not a lot of impressive stuff. It took maybe 20 minutes to see everything, and as we sat there eating baklava and drinking chai, the question came up "how do we kill the next 5 hours before the evening finale performance?" We did not anticipate that we would be unable to entertain ourselves right there at the festival. I don't even think festival is the right word.

So we found someone who lived in the area and got some really uncertain directions to a movie theater. Except the directions didn't work, so we drove all over the place and eventually ended up in an entirely different city but still did not find a theater. Could we kill time shopping? Thrift stores, chocolate shop, adult shop...eh no.

You may be wondering why we didn't just drive back home. Well, it's a 4 hour round trip, and we really wanted to see the evening performance. Had to make it worth our while. Eventually we stopped at a hotel and CS went in and got directions and movie listings! And off we went again.

We saw the movie "9" (what is it with me and movies that are only numbers this weekend). It was the only one that fit into the time frame we had, and I wanted to see it anyway so that works out! Again, I was fascinated. The animation was amazing. The story was strange and interesting... but I don't feel like I really understood it. I had read a review in the paper that said there comes a point in the movie where you "get it" and realize what it's all about. Clearly it's a metaphor, right? I just don't know what it symbolizes. I can take it as just a story and be quite entertained, but I am bothered by feeling like I missed the big picture somehow.

Anyway, then it was back over to the bellydance thing for dinner (curry chicken and rice, yum!) and by some miracle we actually managed to score some seats to watch the hour-and-a-half finale. It was... loosely structured, but entertaining. I do enjoy seeing dancing in an atmosphere other than class sometimes. Different styles, different people, different outfits. There were some amazing dancers, and some I could have shown a thing or two. It ended up being a very fun day, and I sure enjoyed catching up with CS, but we were both disappointed by the festival and felt it wasn't really worth the admission price. I certainly don't plan to go there again.

I hit the sheets at 2am, wow was I tired!

This morning after I pried myself out of bed I did something really shocking. Brace yourself, are you ready for this?

I washed my car.

*Gasp!*

But wait, there's more!

AND I cleaned the inside. Are you shocked? Me too. It was getting pretty bad though, especially after it got dusty at the fair and then rained on yesterday. Yeah, rained on! It kinda feels like fall. I LOVE IT! I think it's going to get hot again though. Booo.

This afternoon I went to see my friend Amber. Her baby is 6 weeks old and I had not seen her yet. What a cutie! :-) I enjoyed my visit, always good to catch up with friends.

And somehow here it is late Sunday night. Wow. Even without doing the Draft Horse Classic show this year, the month feels as busy as always. Now I'm thinking I have so much to do before I leave for Kansas.

At least I have something to wear. :-)

Obviously nobody let me talk today.