A Breakthrough at Breakbone and Liz's Leaving Do

Breakbone classes are getting easier. I never thought I'd be able to say that but after a few weeks of throwing myself about I'm actually starting to get good at some things. I've mastered a freeze, balancing your whole body on your hand, arm and the side of your head, can do 40 press ups (not all at once, I'm not Fatima Whitbread!) and am pretty nifty with Belgian Rolls, despite sounding like a cake they're actually when you jump into the air with your body parallel to the ground, land on your arms and feet then roll. We also started doing them over other class members just for an added thrill. Terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

Then last night Liz, the girl I'm staying with, had her leaving party. She's moving back home to North Carolina at the end of the month and didn't want to pack a load of half empty bottles of booze so one of her friends offered to host a BBQ party for her. Great idea, but what actually happened was that Liz took all her booze over to Mary-Lee's then everyone brought wine or beer to drink and now Mary-Lee is left with all the half empty bottles of booze. Well, at least Liz doesn't have to pack them.

We had live music for most of the night courtesy of Mary-Lee and her Brazilian style band with guest trianglist, ME! I have no idea why people insist on handing me instruments at parties, I'm the girl who, in P7, was banned from actually blowing into the recorder as I was so bad at it. Mrs Morrison insisted that I balance the recorder on my chin and just practise the fingering. Scarred me for life.

Anyway, back to the triangle. It's much more difficult that you'd think. You have to hold it in one hand, releasing and holding in time with each strike so it either resonates or clinks in time with everyone else. Now my timing is fantastic, no problems there but my releasing and holding wasn't that great so when someone produced a dumbelek I claimed that instead. Much easier, no releasing or grabbing, just beat the drum in time with everyone else.

All in all a good night, Adam's BBQ technique was pretty good, Mercedes gave me a list of places to go in San Fran, her home town, Kelly offered to read my astrological chart and I got myself a part-time job as head trianglist with the band.

News Just In:
The Chicago Cultural Center have asked me to submit a proposal for their upcoming film festival based on the filming I did with the Chicago dancers, even though it won't be finished until after the deadline. With any luck I could be back here at the end of October.