Here's what's new

uh...sorry it's been two months. Here's what's new:
I have laryngitis and probably a sinus infection following a bad cold. Last week I returned from touring with Khambatta, which was a whirlwind following our performance in Kirkland. All in all it went as best as can be expected--some technical problems and lots of everything running behind schedule, (Heya, still setting light cues 30 minutes before the show!) but nothing disastrous.
Cyrus has started working on a few new pieces to present in June and I am in full swing rehearsing for three pieces for Full Tilt (that's a concert) in May. So that's happening.
In addition I've started writing reviews for the blog Seattle Dances, and you can check out my first review here: http://seattledances.blogspot.com/2012/03/boost-weekend-2-be-part-of-fury-yes.html
Writing reviews is definitely a challenge--word count, the right amount of positive, the right amount of negative. And tact. I am not supposed to editorialize at all, which is really what I want to do, but it's a start.
Nathan and I went to see the Hunger Games movie last night, which was fun, but I really don't understand where all the reviews I've read are coming from--where lovers of the book are really liking the movie. First of all, the book is not that amazing. Pulpy, addictive, and fun? Yes. The second coming? No. I did like many things about the book and I didn't think those were the things they chose to feature in the film. Let's just say I would have made a LOT of different directorial decisions. Then I think, Kaitlin, these people are PROS, you know virtually nothing about film-making, why do you think you know better? That's pretty arrogant. But maybe the problem with films is that there are too many people involved in making a film, each with their own priorities, and so the vision of the film loses focus. I don't know. All I know is that seeing Rue jump between trees would have been wicked awesome, and that wasn't even mentioned. Opportunity lost.
What else...my house is messy because I've been sick and so I am tired and lose focus really easily and tend just to dump my stuff when I get in the house and fall face first into bed. I read about this cleaning concept on Nice Girl Notes, which is that you pick a room and put the kitchen timer on for 15 minutes and all you do is pick up that room and don't dive into organizing or stop to check your email or evaluate whether or not you need that alumnae magazine by reading the whole thing. Just putting things back where they belong. Then you do 15 minutes in another room, etc. When you get back to your original room you can move on to more "cleaning" tasks like sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, etc. Fair disclosure: I've never actually done this whole sequence in its entirety, but when say, I have 20 minutes until I have to leave for rehearsal, it helps me use my time more efficiently if I set the kitchen timer, and have a small task to do. Anyways, thought I'd pass that along. Nathan, please don't read this and come home expecting the whole house to be clean. I'm still sick *cough cough* and will probably use that to justify my laziness as long as possible.

BIG update.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks--maybe more like 3 or 4 weeks. I know because the house used to be sparkling clean and now it is...not. And I don't know exactly when it is going to remedy itself. I was sort of hoping that upon my return from San Francisco, Nathan would have pulled his "I didn't clean, the house is just so easy to keep perfect when you're not here to mess it up" like he did when I returned from France, but alas, Nathan had finals and was too busy to "not clean." Anyways, a few weeks ago I performed in San Francisco with Khambatta Dance Company. We split a show with Scott Wells and Dancers (we were the first half, they were the second) and it was a great time despite the lack of sleep and the loss of voice.

First we left SUPER early from Seattle--I can never go to sleep properly when I know I have to be up by 4:00am--and arrived in San Fran by 8:00am. The six of us squeezed in a rental car (eric curled up on the floor of the back seat) and drove to Berkley to meet up with Scott Wells and go to breakfast at the Homemade Cafe. Huevos Rancheros--yes please! We were all staying at different places all over the city, so Scott drove us around a little bit before dropping us off at our various locations.

The view from Twin Peaks--what a pretty city! Recently read Travels with Charlie by Steinbeck and he described San Francisco as being Grecian. With the water, the rolling mountains, and the white buildings, I can kind of see it. It definitely feels different from Seattle. Pretty much all of Seattle is neighborhood-y like Berkley is, while SF is much more urban and concentrated. It has all this great Victorian architecture, which I love of course because I love all things old, particularly buildings. The climate is also completely different. Much drier and, well, California-like. There were some fantastic flowers blooming while we were there, none of which I knew.

Meredith, Scott Wells, Rachel, and Eric

Golden Gate Baby!

 Then Scott dropped me off at the home of two of his company members in a charming town house in the Mission district. I had a very comfortable futon in the living room.

They have pretty much the most perfect artist's apartment. Crammed full of lots of stuff, but all of it interesting. Beautiful art on the walls and wonderful architectural details like a sweet little marble fireplace. Also, clawfoot tub and great deck off the back. >love<

So after dropping off my luggage, I grabbed a couple of tacos (the Mission is the latin district after all) and was off to tech rehearsal at the theater. I had to take the bus, which I'm used to of course, but its a little different in SF. Fortunately, everyone was very helpful and the bus system there is significantly easier to manage and understand than the one here. The only tricky part was that the back doors of the bus are sometimes triggered by stepping down on the stairs, and sometimes you have to press on the doors to get them to open. In Seattle we just have to yell "back door" up to the driver and hopefully he or she hears you and lets you off! Very sophisticated. Anyways, to the theater, and then rehearsal from 6-11pm after waking up at 4. It was a marathon. Mostly a marathon of trying to keep my eyes open. Fortunately, the next day I had some time to sleep in. Unfortunately I woke up at 7:30. Why? Who knows. I walked around the mission a bit, did some grocery shopping, had breakfast, and then took a nap until rehearsal in the afternoon. That night we had our first show, and the premier of our new piece, Rush,  which should have been called Rough on that particular night, but the other two pieces went alright. Scott Wells and Dancers presented two really entertaining and delightful works, one doing Parkor work on big gymnast mats and forms, and the other using balls of all sizes--rolling on them, tossing them, juggling, etc. They will be bringing this piece "Ballistic" and another I haven't seen to Seattle next weekend when we do another joint performance in the Seattle International Dance Festival.

Back to San Francisco, the Saturday and Sunday night performances went better. I started losing my voice on Saturday afternoon and couldn't talk at all by Sunday, which was unfortunate because we had a little free time and I had arranged to meet up with Dave and Jane. We still got together for some delicious brunch at Starbelly Restaurant, and Dave and Jane took me around to see some sights!

Chilequiles at Starbelly YUM

Dave got a delicious looking pork sandwhich

Driving down the super famous switchback street!

It was very nice to catch up with them, even if I couldn't be as social as I liked. We ended up going to see the movie Bridesmaids because my voice was shot and we were tired of driving around. There were funny moments, but I didn't think it was hilarious as I had been hearing from everyone. To each his own I suppose. 

Also, there was Carnival happening on the street where I was staying. They had a huge parade Sunday that I watched for about an hour. 

Many Latin American countries were represented with a float and dancers following. I think these dancers were representing Cuba. I watched for about an hour.

Monday we had another super early morning flight back to Seattle, and then I was unexpectedly called into work. I was also scheduled to work on my birthday, but fortunately got that covered. Unfortunately I was not feeling up to doing Karaoke like I had planned. : ( I was pretty bummed, but Nathan and I made the best of it and used a gift certificate to a fancy restaurant we had been saving for a special occasion! 

Outside Wild Ginger. Happy to be dressed all fancy, sad to be wearing my coat in June...

Wild Ginger is an Asian fusion restaurant and Satay bar. We got to try lots of yummy things. First we got some fancy cocktails and satay. The satay (that means on a stick!) all came with fantastic sauces, sweet pickled cucumbers and this extremely sticky cube of rice that we quite enjoyed.

Nathan gazes lovingly at the delicious spread!

 Then we got two more entrees and another appetizer. In this one meal we had chicken, beef, scallops, duck, pork, and a completely vegetarian dish. I think that's a record. The duck tasted similar to the carnitas nathan makes and I have blogged about, except less greasy and still super tender. The other entree was Seven Spice Beef or something like that and it was amazing.

Full Bellies!

Thanks to Sherrie Kossoudji for the great meal!

The night after my birthday we were joined by a few friends at a Madonna/Lady Gaga themed dance party in Fremont. Nathan got me tickets to see a band we like perform in Ballard that we went to see last week, so my birthday week was filled with lots of celebration. Going to the concert, we discovered how great Ballard is; an area we haven't really explored yet for some reason. Hopefully we'll get there again soon and I'll take some pictures!

Birthday fun over and back to the grind! I've been preparing for a lot of shows lately.  For instance last night I danced in a thong for a room full of people. Don't worry--it's not what you think. It's the Seattle International Dance Festival! I was part of a collaboration with a Japanese choreographer that was put together this past week. 

Here I am in "costume:"

creeeeeepy

I can't really get into the details of this piece, but lets just say I think maybe strange Japanese art is not for me. Also, I have showered three times and I still feel like I'm covered in chalk dust. Yuck yuck yuck. I have just finished reading Black Like Me which is a really fascinating and important book about a white journalist in the fifties who traveled around the South in black face and writes about the discrimination he encounters. I couldn't help but think of the scenes where he writes about applying (and then removing) his black makeup in the mirror. Except it would be White Like Me. We also compared my frantic scrubbing to an "Out damned spot" moment, to which Nathan cunningly remarked, "having trouble removing your white guilt?" Oh, Nathan, how I love thee.

 Ok, house cleaning time...

news from the sick bay

Well, I'm starting to feel human again, so this is good news. This weekend was a busy one because of a very special person's birthday. That's right, our very own Nathaniel James was born 24 years ago!!!! A cause for celebration--so we had a little get together with some of his friends from school, Steph and Ben, and our old friend Staci and her boyfriend, Derek. And everyone actually showed up! A tax day miracle! I pulled myself out of a near comatose state to go to the grocery--twice--and make a boxed cake. That's love.
I made a Peanut Butter Cup themed cake. Here it is!

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup whipped topping
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Prepare and bake cake mix according to package directions, using a 9-in. fluted tube pan. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.
2. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add the peanut butter and confectioners' sugar; beat until blended. Fold in whipped topping. Split cake in half horizontally; place bottom layer on a serving plate. Spread with the peanut butter mixture. Top with remaining cake. Refrigerate until chilled.
3. In a small heavy saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Stir in chocolate chips; cook and stir until chocolate is melted. Refrigerate until spreadable. Frost top and sides of cake. Refrigerate until serving.

Here is the URL: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/peanut-butter-chocolate-cake/Detail.aspx

I didn't use a tube-pan obviously, just baked half (or what I thought was half but in fact was not even close) of the batter in my 9" cake pan, then the other "half" and layered that way. And put PB cups on top. It was easy. The only think I might add to this is read the instructions on the "whipped topping" (which is cool whip.) I read "Keep Frozen" and so didn't realize before I made the filling that you are supposed to defrost the cool whip in the fridge for 4 hours before you use.

Nathan: about to blow out all 24 candles. That's a whole box. The cake is on fire basically.

Enjoying his first bite of cake.

The innards!

So that was a good time. I also hosted book club this weekend. We just finished reading The End of the Jews by Adam Mansbach. The title is misleading. It's about a Jewish family with multiple generations of writers who are immersed in Jazz music, graffiti art, photography, and hip hop. Lauren gave it to me for Christmas and so I suggested it for our book club. I don't want to write a book report here, but it gave me a very interesting perspective into writing and how it differs from dance and other art forms. Mainly that it seems like a very lonely, solo journey. Dance is so collaborative, it's reigning in a different animal. Pros and cons to both I suppose. Here was the spread for book club. I got totally out of control at trader joe's and so I didn't even put all of the food out.

I made bread again and macaroons. Both are recipes I've shared on this blog. The previous two books we read were White Teeth by Zadie Smith (which I enjoyed immensely) and War Dances by Sherman Alexi. All three books were modern, had huge casts, and dealt with identity/race/cultural blending. It made for a nice trio actually. Next we are reading Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck to do something a little different. I am about halfway through The English Patient (not for book club) which so far is lovely and so dreamy. A really beautiful book. I haven't seen the movie, but would like to once I finish.

Also, last week we had a little home-improvement project, which was recovering our chairs! We have four--two gross, two not-so-gross, but not really our style anyways.

BEFORE

Recovering chairs just takes a little elbow grease if you've never done it. If you look at the bottom of a chair it is pretty self explanatory. You just unscrew the seat, and then remove the staples or tacks holding the old fabric on. Staple on new fabric, and re-screw. Of course there were about 80 staples in each red chair (someone got a little trigger happy) so that took forever, but now we have:

AFTER

Here is a close up of the fabric. Nathan picked it out. I couldn't decide what I liked and so I went with his choice:

So nice.