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You're making a Mix Tape titled "8th Grade Dance." Share the first song you'd put on it.

The song I most associate with junior high dances would not be the first song on my tape, because it's a slow song. And everyone knows that you don't start a mix tape with a slow song.

Every JH dance ended with Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin. All except for one, which ended with Whitney Houston's The Greatest Love of All. So Stairway would definitely be the last song on my tape.

Yes, I realize that it's March, but I just finished my January book. This is a reflection on me, not the book. Clearly I've lost the challenge, but I will post my review as planned and then move onto the March subject from there.

January's Theme: Time
The Time Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
Fiction, Adult

This book is about Henry, a man with the ability to travel through time. Unfortunately for him, he can't take anything with him when he time travels, including the clothes on his back which puts him in precarious situations as he pops up naked throughout time. He also can't control where or when he travels. But he has found that he continues to visit Clare, his future wife, throughout her childhood. And so the story is of these two people who are connected through time for their entire lives.

It's a sweet, touching and inventive story that weaves different parts of their stories together from different parts of their lives.  It's interesting that the author removes the entire idea of the space-time continuum that Star Trek is so fond of screwing with. In this story, time is static.  It's already all been done, and nothing can change. It certainly simplifies the concept of time travel and and the story ends up being not about changing the past, as so many of these stories are, but about just living a life.

My only criticism is that the story is written from both Henry's and Clare's perspectives alternately, and while this works for the story I don't feel that the author made their voices distinctive enough.  Henry sounded like Clare, and Clare like Henry, no matter what their ages, so sometimes I had to go back to see whose section I was reading. But apparently this was the author's first book and therefore was really impressive in how a complicated story came together and had real emotional impact.

Now on to March: Craft

So last night I performed in a show in Dixon in a theater.  It's interesting doing these kinds of shows for me because of the very different environment. I'm used to day shows, causal atmosphere etc. whereas last night we were in a theater with lights and makeup and such.  A little strange for me. You can't really see the audience and it feels more like *performing* rather than dancing. I know I'm always performing, and I am aware of that, but with a theater environment it really *feels* like performing.  So I was more keenly aware of my feeling that I was not performing up to par.  I think the show went well and I did fine, but my dancing doesn't feel as strong as it once did.  I feel like I'm getting worse rather than better, which is kinda sad.  Don't know if it's just that I need more practice or more exercise or what, but I like to feel like I'm improving and I don't feel that way right now. 

So last month I got some bookshelves and some storage shelves and baskets so that I would have places for my stuff and my apartment would actually start to feel livable.  My apartment feels good now, although I still have a bit of work to do.  Also there are several more things I want to get that would make it even better and more comfortable.

1. A new couch
I like my couch a lot and it has served me well. I got it probably around 10 years ago and it's held up fairly well except for one thing.  The cushions are foam and you don't have to sit on them long before you start sinking.  I bought it as a cheap pull-out, but I don't use it for that purpose anymore so there's no need for me to sink any longer.  A less bulky, more stylish and more comfortable version would be good.

2. A real mattress
I feel like I'm almost to the point of being a real adult with real furniture, so the last thing I must do is get a real mattress.  Right now, I'm like the princess and the pea, sleeping on multiple futon mattresses piled on top of each other. These also have a permanent sink and are really not that comfortable.  The price of a mattress is a little off-putting, but it must be done

3. A countertop dishwasher
OK, so this is a luxury item, but one I'm really interested in. I just found out these things exist, and I think it would really like one.  It's not that I dislike doing dishes, but they pile up so quickly and many nights I'm not home to take care of them. Also, and this is only a minor rationalization, but I do have extremely dry skin and eczema so hand dishwashing is just not good for me.  yeah, I could use gloves, but they're a pain and water always gets in them anyways.  So I don't know what brand I want yet...the Danby and the Edgestar both seem like good models, but I don't know and don't know yet where I could actually go take a look at one.  So does anyone have any experience with countertop dishwashers they'd like to share?

The Noise Pop festival is here again!  Since "noise pop" is my absolute favorite type of music, I am very excited about this. 

The festival describes itself as six nights of "unforgettable performances by nationally-known indie rock, electronic, punk and cutting edge musical artists teamed up with the best local bands, transforming the city into an almost week-long celebration of the finest that the underground and not-so-underground has to offer."

I'm definitely seeing Magnetic Fields this Friday, whom I've seen twice before (never mind their other offshoot bands) and I love, love, love them! It will be great fun. I don't know if I'll get to see anyone else because a lot of the bigger names like the Gutter Twins and The Mountain Goats are sold out already, but it's still a great chance to see some great bands. In past years I've seen Smoosh, Dressy Bessy and The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players (pure genius.)  All were great and I highly recommend trying to catch a show.

I got my Master of Library and Information Science diploma in the mail today! So I'm officially done with school! Go me!

I got another pair of Fluevogs!!  This time, it's the Tillie, from the Friends family of shoes, in petrol green.  I bought these online because I've always liked them and they were on sale, and I ordered the size that I always buy with Fluevog.  And of course, they didn't fit. So I finally went into the SF store today and exchanged them. So yay for new shoes! Yay for Fluevog!

Oh, and I finally made a set of all my other Fluevogs on Flickr.

So it's been almost two weeks since I got back. Where has the time gone?  So I figure it's now or never if I want to write about it. Otherwise I'll probably forget. And if you haven't seen them, I have all my pictures up on Flickr.

Day 1
I'll start by saying that I really don't speak any Spanish and Kristin (my travel partner) has some from high school and college, but was pretty nervous about having to speak it again.  We were waiting in the Oakland Airport for our flight, when an airline employee started speaking English with an accent and we couldn't understand a word we knew we were in trouble! 

So the trip down to La Paz was very smooth. We took a small plane (only three seats across and 18 rows) down to LA and the same type of plane on to La Paz.  We had a very fussy-yet-clueless woman sitting in front of us who we named Princess Silver Feather who demanded a lot of attention, but other than that it was fine. We landed at the La Paz airport, got to take the stairs off the plane to the ground and went inside. We went through "customs" and were on our way. We took a cab to our hotel, gave our taxi driver an outrageous tip (what's the conversion rate again?) and checked into El Angel Azul.

This hotel is great. Its  B&B so they serve breakfast every morning and have a happy hour every evening. It had a beautiful courtyard full of plants, and a cat, dog and birds. Our room had two twin beds and its own bath (although strangely with no ceiling). We also met the largest fly we'ver ever seen on our wall. We named him Clyde. He didn't move so we let him be and we were soon out of the room and down to the Malecon.

The Malecon is a strip along the beach where you can walk, check out the many public sculptures, shops and restaurants.  We had some fabulous "avocado dip" (a.k.a. guacamole, as my waiter helpfully pointed out. well duh!) and checked out the shops, the local skate park, and contemplated the bars. But it was Monday night, and very quiet, so we went back to our hotel and chilled. Clyde got a little wild, and tried to shoo him out of the room.  Unfortunately there was an accident and Clyde didn't make it. Sorry Clyde. R.I.P.

Day 2

The second day we slept in, despite some hammering and sawing going on outside. We stopped at a coffee shop where I got an ultra sweet vanilla chai, and then we decided to walk in the other direction on the Malecon. There we discovered that the pelicans rule the waters. They took over a few of the boats and were just perched out there, or near the guys who would occasionally throw them a fish.  We then walked over to the Restaurant Bizmark that we heard served pabil and had lunch. Sadly there was no pabil, but there were these beautiful glasses of sangria with fruit juice that were delicious! After that, back to the Malecon for more shopping, and ice cream in these cute waffle bowls called liria (best idea ever!). 

We went to our hotel to check out the happy hour.  We were greated and offered margaritas. "Si!" we said!  And they were real margaritas - no mix. They were good and strong. And we also got to meet some of our fellow hotel dwellers, which was nice.  But then we were hungry again, and went out to this great looking taco place that we had walked by a dozen times already that was cooking the meat right on the sidewalk. They were excellent, and we sat at tables on the sidewalk an enjoyed the atmosphere.

Day 3

This was beach day. We took a bus out to Playa Balandra, which was a beautiful secluded little beach with a famous rock they call la hanga (the mushroom). The waters were really shallow and sandbars soon popped up everywhere, so you could walk out into the middle of the cove and still only be up to your knees in water. It was beautiful.

However, when we took the bus out there, we weren't really sure how we were going to get back.  It's still unclear whether this beach was a real stop or if they just went there because we asked.  Anyway, we flagged down a nice Canadian couple who drove us to the next beach where there was a restaurant. So we had lunch and a few beers and met Manuel, who was pushing boat trips to Isla Espiritu Santo the next day. We were game, so he said he'd pick us up the next day at the hotel.

We took a cab back to the hotel and this is how we met Javier our amorous taxi driver. When our trip began, he had a girlfriend.  As the trip went on, all of a sudden he was single and wanted to take us out dancing or something (I just got the Pictionary version of all this - Kristin was doing all the talking, and apparently, telling Javier I didn't have a boyfriend. Thanks Kristin.  So Javier goes in for a kiss on the cheek (eek!) and still wants to pick us up at 10 for dancing, but we "forget our room number." Once again he goes in while shaking my hand, but he wasn't going for the cheek this time. As i turned my head, Javier managed to kiss a tooth. Ewwww. Needless to say we did not go dancing with Javier that night.

Day 4

Manuel shows up bright and early to pick us up for the boat trip.  Unfortunately that wasn't meant to be. The other couple who made the necessary four for a trip never showed. But we hung out on the beach for a while with Manuel and his friends and ultimately he gave us a ride back to town. Oh well.  In the afternoon we got to go to the biblioteca and met Victor, the local librarian, who had us write down our names for "statisticos."  Ahh yes, we're very familiar with those.  We also went to the local museum and saw a saber toothed tiger skull with sharp pointy teeth!

Later we went to Restaurant Tres Virgenes.  We had a little trouble finding it ( trouble finding three virgins in La Paz? hee hee. yes, I'm silly), but it was sooooo worth it. I had an appetizer of roasted baby octopus. Very yummy!  Babies always taste the best.  And then I had three steak medallions on avocado risotto.  That risotto was worth the entire trip to La Paz. It was delicious! I almost didn't want the steak because it was interfering with the flavor of the risotto!  I'd go back just for another trip to Tres Virgenes.

Day 5
The last day was just getting everything together, some last minute shopping and heading to the airport.  I actually left out a lot of stuff, but this post is already too long. It was a good trip and I'd go back again in a minute. Our hostess at the hotel was fabulous, and the people were friendly, although sometimes too friendly.  But it's all good.  Next time, I just need to learn Spanish first.