the danish outpost
updated when time and inspiration allow. latest and greatest always in the blog.
slow down, you move too fast...

2001-02-02

feeling kinda how a girl feels

whoof. it's been a long week, and it feels like it's been ages since i've written just an plain ol' all about me entry. well, i suppose they all are, aren't they? *g* no, i mean not a project entry. the last four days have been a lot of work. good work. i'm relatively pleased with how the four pieces came together, particularly the last one, as that was a topic that just baffled me. ::deep breath:: and that's enough for now. i enjoy the challenge, and i like the break that comes after it.

i worked a Celia Cruz concert last week, and that was quite the experience. for starters, we were a little understaffed, so it was pretty busy. and then... if you don't know Celia Cruz, she's a Latin jazz star. as in Latina. i have rarely been so embarrassed that, like the majority of lazy-ass Americans, i only speak one language. well, i could stumble by in French on a good day. but Spanish? no hablo. so trying to give people directions to their seats when we had no common language involved much hand waving and gesturing. i hope they all got where they were going.

it was an interesting mix in the crowd; i had no idea what to expect walking in. mostly older crowd, as in 50s to 70s, all dressed in their Sunday finest. Ms. Cruz herself is somewhere in her 60s, i think. may we all look so good when we get there. some families, and a host of hot gay boys. toreador pants were the fashion item of the evening. and everyone, i mean everyone, had good shoes. made me feel pretty frumpy in my Docs.

so a jazz flautist, whose name i don't remember, came out first. he and the band were all in tuxes, sharp dressers that they were. Celia came out a little later, and sang for a good two hours. all the between show banter, which was apparently quite entertaining, was all in Spanish, except for one bit, where the flautist asked if anyone there didn't speak Spanish. way in the back of the house, in the dark, i poked my hand up. about 5 other people did the same. i have not a clue what he said after that, but judging by the inflection in his voice and the laughter from the crowd, we timid few were royally dissed. and a good time was had by all. did i mention how embarrassed i am that i haven't learned Spanish? [note to self: get some tapes this weekend and teach yourself a little something new.] really, i did love the music. and i loved watching people dance in the aisles. the people who were dancing knew how to do it right. none of this deeply Caucasian off-beat flopping of which i am guilty. to a person, everyone dancing knew what they were doing, and looked fine. makes me wish ballroom and swing were more popular. it's such a joy to watch people moving gracefully. and it's fun to do, if you take the time to learn. [note to self: remember to sign up for some dance lessons after finishing Spanish course.]

there was one funny bit...i was watching one of the other ushers dancing, and i thought i recognized the guy she was with. so i sidled over to get a better look at his face - which was difficult, because the two of them were dancing ... rather closely. when i finally did catch a glimpse, sure enough, it was Felix, from a band we've heard. and that was not his wife he was dancing with. ChicaBeanie - you know exactly why that's so funny, don't you? ChicaBeanie and i were out one night and ended up chatting up Felix. things were going well, so we invited him to go out with us to another bar. his response? 'sure. can i bring my wife?' CB and i looked at each other, and mouthed in foot-high letters 'My Wife? MY WIFE?' let's just say that nothing about Felix's behavior led us to think that he led a married life.

this week at work has been rather taxing; i've got three major projects coming to a boil, and for a bit it looked like they were all going to explode. but one is shaping up nicely; i'm directing the development of an application, so that one really had me on tenterhooks. nothing like relying completely on someone else to save your ass to make you nervous. and another has settled down to be dealt with next week. the third one is a series of training classes i had to design and teach. i hate teaching. i've done it, i hate it. so what did i do? you got it - i procrastinated. i ended up pulling the course outline together the night before the first class, which i was giving for the managers. somehow, it went really well. it felt good to sit up there and have all these people pay attention to me. these are the managers whom i try to herd thru a status meeting every week, and they are a rough crowd. i was afraid the class would be just as rough. but no - they sat there, they shut up, they took notes, they asked good questions. and when they got out of line, i just kept right on talking over them, at which point it donned on them that they should shut up and listen, as i was not about to repeat myself. very interesting experience. we'll see how next week goes. i'm teaching that same session every day next week. and there are some even tougher nuts in those sessions.

but for the next two days, i'm not going to worry about it. for the next two days, i'm going to sleep, and snuggle, and maybe go out to a movie or dinner, and probably get over to the museum on Sunday. and maybe i'll make time to mess around with some stuff for the site. then again, maybe not. i might just nap. 8)

yesterday :: tomorrow

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