I'm still here

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore: arvo (post your best guess as to what this is. and i mean GUESS. no posting if you already know, no asking anybody, and no looking it up, etc)

No, I have not fallen off the face of the planet. Even though this hemisphere is upside down (and I haven't updated in ages).

I had two assignments due last Friday. Ones I knew about much longer than I worked on them. Enough said.

And then I got up at 6am Saturday. The Scottish Dance Society - have I even mentioned it before? - volunteered to help a group from the film school with one of their projects. They were filming a pretend commercial for "Granny Panties". Granny panties are basically bloomers in terribly ugly fabric. They were filming the actress wearing them doing all different kinds of dance. She was supposed to be the only one who looked happy and comfortable. So I was at the school where they were filming at 8am. And four guys under 30 were wearing kilts. Three of them (Andrew, Ian and Tim) I know from class, the fourth was my partner and a former member of the club. His name is Tom. I have to say, with all due respect to new dancers and the great effort and enthusiam they put into it, it is so incredibly wonderful to dance with an experienced dancer. And Tom has been dancing long enough to joke "I'd tell you how long I've been dancing but that would reveal my age". And it's not just dancing with someone who's directly on the beat, and who turns in a circle not a squiggly line, and knows when to drop hands and change direction in wheel, etc etc. The technique is only part of it. It's the subtle things. Being led into place in the set, a natural acknowledgement on the chord, eye contact and a little nod when turning or passing. I only wish we'd been able to dance an entire dance.

But this is filming we're talking about. They're only interested in a couple of formations, so they're only going to film a couple of formations and not waste time letting us finish the dance. This is exactly what all of us (with the exception of June, our dance teacher, who didn't really understand how these things work) expected. We stiffened up standing in place while they set up shots and took light metre readings. At one point I turned my head only to find a light metre right in front of my nose! By the end though I was an old pro. Light metre stuck in your face? Don't even blink. Light metre held up right behind your backside? Don't even flinch. And they were taking readings on our backsides because they were doing a film for panties and if they were filming the actress at that level, they were filming us at that level! What WAS frustrating was hearing the word "CUT!" and having the music stop in the middle of a formation. It's like having a tiny stone stuck it your shoe. Didn't bother the less experienced dancers, or the ones who have been dancing for quite a while but just with the club and not at actual dances or balls. But it was making Tom and me a little twitchy. Probably Martin too (June's husband, and Scottish, and dancing way longer than I've been alive), but I have no confirmation of that. I'm pretty sure that Tom shared my sentiments about dancing with someone experienced. When we turned into allemande hold, I heard him say "oh it's so nice to dance with someone who knows how to turn into an allemande!"

I'm going to have to end this sounding like I'm planning a marriage to Tom. I have so much catching up to do with this journal but I'd like to be awake for Marine Science. The current lecturer is so much fun. And so technologically challenged that it hurts.

Ok, I know I said I was ending this, but I have to write this before I forget. There's an election happening in Australia right now (although the campaign is now on hold due to the bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta. I'm assuming that made the news in Canada and I don't need to elaborate). Adele (my Marine Science lecturer) mentioned the election in class the other day and started trying to make sure the whole class was registered to vote. She made an excellent case for voting. Adele has dual citizenship in Australia and the United States (her accent is very, very American). So she's registered as an absentee voter in the U.S. So are several of her friends. Last American election, they just didn't manage to find (ie make) the time to vote. Guess where they're registered?

The one time absentee votes would have made a difference.