Put your hands together, if you're feelin' it - On Dancing, Kayaking and, of Course - Life...

I was definitely feelin' it at the Dakota Jazz Club with Nachito Herrera as the main act heating up this cool, gray and rainy Minnesota Saturday with latin jazz! Calling him hotter than the burning tip of a good Cuban cigar is only just about describing him! He brought 10 musicians, some of them seasoned and superb, some of them the next generation of great musicians and fresh, but all of them as energetic as kids in their single digits!

There was no way I was going to sit still with that music vibrating through my body! And I wasn't shakin' it alone :-)

It was one of those perfect evenings that only really happen on a whim. The music was pure energy entering not only through the ears but through every part of your body, the food and atmosphere was nurishment for the senses and the company of good friends was water for the thirsty soul. Why are we filling our lives so full that those things hardly ever happen anymore?

Crackling with energy at the end of the evening, plans were made to go out for some fun swing dancin' as soon as we can swing it :-)

The whole day had felt different than a lot of days in the last few months. Despite the grizzly day and having to trudge around my favorite neighborhoods hunting for a new place to live, there wasn't a cloud on my spirit, all blue sky! Ok, I wasn't singing in the rain, but I wasn't far off either :-) That is quite unlike the last few months, not sure when it started, because for the longest time I felt that 2007 was an exceptionally good year, just as I had predicted for myself at the end of the last one.

Actually the whole week had felt different. Starting my Salsa class on Monday to refresh my moves after a five year break from dancing quite intensively with one of the best and may I add sexiest Salsa teacher's in the UK! I wouldn't say we were friends, but passing by my hairdresser's as I am getting a cute new style, he would drop in for a chat. Nice huh! But I digress, although the class didn't quite live up to dancing in Carlos' classes I did two things. I looked up basic swing moves on YouTube that very night, immediately tried them and took to them like a duck to water, even if I say so myself. (What is the difference between a triple step and a basic jive step? 'Cos I can't see one!). And I went back to some e-mails from earlier this year, where I had asked Erik for advice on dancing shoes, he in turn (:-) got his friend Kian involved to comment on specific girl dance shoe issues. I was headed for their favorite outfitter the very next day.

I entered the store and it was love at first sight! Black velvet Oxfords that replicated a swing dance shoe from the 1930's and incidentally look like close sisters to a much loved pair of street shoes that I had bought some 15 years ago and moved first to the UK and then halfway across the world to the US. I tried many other shoes, but none could match the fit of the pair my eyes first fell on. Since I am not a perfect 10 :-( but only a 9 1/2 :-) they had to be ordered and and I should be holding them in my arms in about a week or so. My feeling is, that I could have gotten them much sooner, if I had ordered them on the Web, but where would I go to try on the shoes and get great advice, if I don't support the local little store! And sweet anticipation is definitely half the fun :-)

Again the next day I hear of a group of folks going to a swing party with a lesson to get you started. The universe seems to conspire to assist me with getting back into dancing! I signed up, although I can't believe I am making plans as far out as October, when going to the Dakota on a whim had felt so good!

Now why did I ask for dance shoes so many months ago? And what was it again I got distracted with? Ah, kayaking! :-) I had decided months ago, that this would be the year to start with Tango, which is when I decided that I needed the right shoe for that. Of course! Because what is more fun than shopping for gear or shopping for shoes? Huh? Shopping for shoes that ARE gear! But then the kayaking season was soon to be upon me and I was even more resolved that this would be the year, where I would put my best effort into this sport that had me hooked into a sado-masochistic relationship of desire and agony. No, kayaking had not been good to me last year, but my addiction demanded me to get as much "councelling" as I could, to try and reconcile. So I delayed the dancing to the months without moving water.

It's as if some kind of toxic fog had been lifted. - The week before I had felt so burned out that I said to myself, "This can't be life! And if it is, then I don't want it!". I wasn't being morbid - something had to change! And it had to change quickly. I didn't even care about my own company anymore, let alone that I really wanted to subject this distorted and mutilated version of myself to any of my friends. I felt dead lonely, which is a really rare thing for me even when I'm alone. I knew that it wasn't the absence of connection to others, but the connection to myself that was down. And I remembered that dancing and singing had always been my friends, had made me happy and had nurtured my sanity in stretches of strain. Burned out as I was I needed to reach out to an old friend like Salsa. Salsa and I were the kind of friends, where things are just easy and comfortable, the kind of friend who just get's you, effortlessly, like a good hipsnap in eskimo-rolling. Turns out that my bond with Salsa is like many of my friendships which, even if we don't see each other in years, we warm up quickly and pick up just where we had left off. Those are my favorite bonds...

But where does the swing come into all of this and where does this leave the Tango? I love Jazz, so it is only natural that I would like to be able to swing. It's as easy as that. And the Tango, well the Tango is going to be something I want to build up to with Salsa and Swing as well as further working on my body. Tango is the most sensual dance. I want to feel ready to play this sultry game of advance and retreat with every fibre of my body.

Recycling worn out gear

So you’ve got this completely worn out piece of gear, that you’ve worn on all these life changing experiences and you’d really rather hang on to it because you remember when… but then you need the space for those other pieces of gear that you bought because they’re going to be great for…and also when you… with N. and N. and A. and J. and maybe even T., C. and R. … Wouldn’t it be easier to let go, knowing that it will reincarnate into a new life on a higher level as an even gnarer piece of gear, forever remembered on all of those pictures posted on your and your friend’s blogs?

Did you know that Patagonia accepts a lot of their own products as well as Polartec fleece from other companies to recycle it and make new gear out of it? They say that they’ve also been using plastic bottles etc. to make new fleece. Which makes me hope, that a lot of our trusty fleece layers make use of those old bottles!

I just came across it and so you don’t have to search around for the info and have more time for the fun stuff, here the skinny on this cool way to reincarnate your experienced gear with links to where I found the info and hopefully without making this some kind of advertizement.

What you can recycle:

- ALL Polartec fleece from ANY manufactuer
- P. fleece (including Synchilla® and Regulator® insulation)
- Capilene baselayers
- P. cotton T-shirts

They say that they are constantly trying to expand the categories until they can take back and recycle anything they sell, so it may be worthwhile to keep an eye on them adding more items in the future.

Where you can send it or drop it off

Ideally and to maximize the invironmental benefit you'll drop it off at one of their retailers, while you are running an errand in the area or going there by bike or on foot or send it to their service center.

What that does for saving the planet according to their website

"By diverting worn-out garments from landfills, we reduce solid waste. Diverting them from incinerators results in an energy savings of 76% and a CO2 emissions [greenhouse gas] reduction of 71%. Garments made with recycled fibers use 50-100% less virgin polyester, which reduces our use of oil."

They also state that transport energy needs are minimized by using ships that otherwise routinely return empty and by encouraging customers not to make extra trips for drop off.

Anybody else doing this?

This is just one company. Hey, if you guys know of similar ops to recycle, please post your comments!

Flood Stage Kayaking

let me find out, what happened to the video clip that used to be here...

OK, this has got nothing to do with anything that I'll ever do, but you just had to see this!!!

He's going at over 225 rph (rolls per hour) and on top of that probably as many bph (braces per hour).

The music is awesome too so I reactivated my French and actually found it:

Carla Bruni: Quelqu'un M'a Dit

Enjoy!

What is the meaning of this?!?

I just came back from an evening of poker having one straight and one flush, Ace high and everything, after the other beaten by one BOAT after another!!!

"Boat" (also know as full house)

What is the universe trying to tell me?

That I should have ignored that weatherforecast and demoed that Project 52 playboat instead? Definitely!

That I should not have passed on no less than three splendiferous paddling opportunities this weekend?!? Two with fabulous females and one with a mystery male...

Well the latter was for a good reason: I need to recharge, build energy reserves so I'll have a better charc, physically and even more important mentally the next time I'm on the river or for my next crack at rolling!

Well I hope it meant that I should buy that CR250 river running playboat, because I just did :-)

That's her and in this very color :-)

Siren's Call

Friday July 20

Nora had asked me, if I wanted to go to Taylors Falls on the St. Croix with her. I somehow rationalized myself into taking the day off despite looming deadlines - and what a gorgeous day it was!!!

The pictures below are from another equally gorgeous day at the same spot but taking the steam boat. You have to look close, but there are actually a couple of playboaters who I may meanwhile know, but I don't quite recognize their boats and gear. At the time I got all concerned, because I saw this one guy working it really hard and still not escaping this spot. When I told my friend, that we need to get help for a rescue, she explained to me, that no, he's just surfing. Aah. You can imagine I felt a bit like an idiot :-).

Exhausted from the week's grind and too little sleep I didn't have the fight in me to actually run it, although the current low water level would have made it a fairly mellow run. Tried not to beat myself up for letting Nora down on that one. And I didn't have to, because she nearly wacked me with her paddle, after I had "learned" what trespassing is :-) The guy and his wife were super-nice about it and extremely eager to help me out and show me a good route. After all, they clearly could tell that I had in no way meant to be, where I had ended up. "Vat, sis is not se vay to se osser side of se britch? Sorry!" So no harm to the reputation of good kayakers done, phiew!

And hey, ferry work is good too and since I had lost my ferry this spring I definitely want to get a lot of practice in. And I can tell that my abs are getting stronger from concentrating on better body rotation on the flat stretches, I can still feel some arm toning, but I can live with that :-).

We broke for lunch and had greasy food. Just as well, that I don't usually get to do that. I don't think it would do anything for me and my "under water work" :-).

Nora showed me a great way of getting the boat over a stretch of too shallow water without us looking like bent old hags. Sticking the paddle into the bow of the boat and pushing it probably made us more look like housewives with very strange pinafores and even stranger hoovers before we were afloat and on our way back upriver again. But we were not alone...in fact we were being "ferreted out" by a cute little and wet wanna-be otter who ran alongside with us on shore with his head peaking out over the rocks every so often, checking up on what we were up to. And yes, we bumped into Jeff, a hard to mistake greenland paddler with his homemade yellow boat.

It's such a pretty river, so here's some more impressions from my first trip to the St. Croix with my kayaking friends Roxanne, Courtney & Tom, a couple of years ago and just a little further downstream from the rapids.

Cross-Fertilization

No no, I am not talking about unspeakable things between a kayaker and a canoer!

I am talking about some of my different worlds seeping into each other.

I didn't even mention, what kind of a blog I was starting to my toastmaster friends and it ends up right in a newsflash: "Buoyed by her ice-breaker success, Rosie to publish blog ..."

Buoyed?!? My investigation ended up as a Letter to the Editor faster than you can say "gorilla-arming"!

And it is getting worse!!! I just found another newsflash reading: Eskimo Roll -- like cow-tipping, only with mittens ... you can imagine that I wasn't taking this insult rolling over and immediately the wires ran hot as I was sending another letter! They haven't published that one...but I will get you guys back come September with speeches back on the schedule!!!

(You can see my Toastmasters Club is all about friendly word fights to show us how much we love each other :-)

Making love under water

Will have to wait for another day.

Yesterday morning was all about learning the roll

and

a) Convincing my brain that just because there is a sprayskirt involved, water doesn’t all of a sudden turn into a terrifying monster. And I kid you not, Alex (rolling instructeur extraordinaire) actually did check under my boat, that there were no monsters under there!!! (I told my non-boating friend Laurie later, that I behaved like a complete baby, which she didn’t believe, but then again she has not experienced me in a ww boating situation...)

I just heard from Nora that Ron had posted a picture on his blog.

b) Convincing my stomach, that no, those antibiotics do not cause stomach upset. I said NO! Stomach to Rosie: "So why is it that the lake is swaying so badly?" I successfully negotiated with my stomach once and commenced rolling, but soon after it told me to f-off and something about “fool me once...” It was VERY clear about not wanting to roll anymore while having to deal with the bloody giardia that I caught, doing guess what, as well as the bloody antibiotics that I was taking against that Vermillness.*

But I would like to commend at least some of the parts of my body that did not fail me that day.

Number 1

A big hip hip hurray to my hips! Years of intense bellydancing have not been in vain and a hip kick and a hip snap really only differ in the kind of skirt you wear. (Remind me of that again in a combat situation...)

Number 2

Paddle thieves beware. I have strong arms and I am going to cling on to my paddle for dear life, if you try to pinch it, while I am setting up for a roll and I am not watching. (Sadly that didn’t help Alex with moving my paddle to where it shoulda gone...hindsightsigh!)

All in all, while I did not actually and fully roll, I got a lot closer and given more time I would have I'm sure. I also had an excellent chance to practise looking at an experience in a positive way and I can’t get too much of an expert in that!

I distinctly remember Alex saying: “That is going to make me cry.” (But I think that was in anticipation of me executing a beautiful sweep in combination with that hipsnap of mine. I did not make him cry that morning. But be ready, not if, but when. :-)

I don't have pictures, so I am borrowing this one of Freya (DE) from Peter's (DK) blog.

It was fun to watch those greenland guys roll and do all sorts of balance tricks with their boats and paddles, before I made my way home.

I had to get ready for a picnic with my non-boating friends - that restful tranquil eddy, where things like a roll and the fear of “being under” cease to have meaning. Where Laurie asks me, “Who’s Giardio?” As we catch up on recent love interests and her sister’s wedding to her Mr. Darcy. And my non-boating friends were all what yesterday afternoon was about. And it was good. I love you! Even if I haven’t been writing as much about my time with you. And yes Roxanne, let's paddle Lebanon Hills, Lake Rebecca or maybe even better, both and the St Croix to boot!

Gone paddling.

* A term somewhat coined by PaulE, who measures the flow of the Vermillion River by Hastings not in cfs (cubic feet per second) but cpps: cow pies per second :-))

Images: Qadesh the Cat