Holidays, dancing, and other random things

Well, I've finally decided to write something up, considering I haven't really written anything in a while except to promise something "shortly."

So, what's been happening?

Not much. I've spent the last month (ish) split between trying to keep my sanity through sleep deprivation because of essayfest (I had a LOT of essays to write, including a period when I ended up having to write 50 pages in 36 hours), and then exams. Because of that, I've become almost fully nocturnal--not quite, but between the blitzes to finish that paper in time, and the late-night studying sessions, I can't seem to get back into "normal" sleeping patterns right now.

I think I did fairly good in my classes, though of course I won't know for sure until the exam results are in. Still, I think my average will be more or less what it always is.

Other than that, life has been relatively quiet. There was the RMC Christmas Ball a few weeks ago, which was really a non-event for me; I played the pipes and got drunk with my friends, and that was pretty much it, thanks to being dumped by my date only a few days before the actual event. Lovely. Ah well, it was somewhat fun anyway, though I'm STILL unhappy about the whole theme debacle--if you say the theme is the Golden Age of Cinema, you DO NOT put on music from the 50s and 60s. And you absolutely DO NOT use posters of movies that came out in the late 50s, 60s, and even 70s, as background for the band. (The earliest movie I saw, that I remember, in the lineup, was A Streetcar Named Desire, which came out in 1951.) I don't mind the post-war era at all, but when someone organizes a party and specifies a theme, I expect them to do their homework. Otherwise, you just advertise it as a post-war era theme.

I've been keeping up with the dancing, much to my own surprise. I had a bit of a slump where I didn't enjoy it as much and left the social dances early, but that was mostly due to other circumstances. I'm back to full swing, so to speak, and loving it. So much, I might try bussing my way to Montreal during the holidays so I can get some more dancing in. I've also signed up for a big workshop (Quebec Swing Rendez-Vous), and I plan to sign up for the two in Kingston next semester, as well as (hopefully) Frankie Manning's visit to Toronto late in the semester--I will not miss a workshop with the best dancer alive today, for anything. I wouldn't go AWOL, but almost.

I'm actually getting rather decent, I think, when it comes to dancing. I'm not good by any stretch of the imagination, but I tend to screw up less, I find the beat a lot quicker, and I don't lose it as much. My main problem is that my repertoire of moves is rather limited, so I tend to just throw in the same stuff over and over, but I try to make little variations--or I just dazzle and entertain the lady I'm dancing with, with conversation. (I've seriously had dances when I did about five moves over a 3 minute song, because we were talking the whole time.) Still, I'm moving away from trying to not screw up the moves, to trying to actually dance to the music--musicality and me are slowly warming up to each other, but the relationship is still shaky. Still, I get more "that was fun" now than I did before, which I take as either a sign that, although my skills aren't that great, I'm still fun to dance with.. or a sign that my skills are absolutely atrocious and the ladies I dance with want to make me feel a little better. I think I'll go with the former.

Other than that, I don't have much to say, really. I'm looking forward to the holidays so I can watch cable TV and indulge in actually good food--and homecooked, too! Having food that's actually palatable and not made from unidentifiable products rejected by the prison system and the Salvation Army, will be quite the change.

Speaking of the prison system, a certain person who has some power within the mess, said, at some point this semester, that the staff were to give us smaller portions because, we are "officers in the Canadian Forces, not prisoners." I'm not quite certain, but I'd have thought that, being that we are officers in the Canadian Forces (though not commissioned yet), we should get more food than prisoners--after all, we have to train and do a whole lot more than sit in a cell and watch satellite TV. Also, I'd have thought our food should be better than prisoners', but I'm sure that certain person from the mess would disagree. I guess the Navy spoiled me, with its Wardroom with food that's actually more or less made when you order it, that's always tasty, and that never, ever looks like it's been sitting there for a few days.

I think I've more or less covered all that I could cover for today... My love life (or lack thereof) would not make for very interesting reading, and that's about the only thing I haven't really touched upon.

I should be writing more when I get home--just in time for everyone to have extra time off to read my blog!

If you don't read my blog again until after the holidays,

Merry Christmas,
Happy Hannukah,
Merry Kwanza,
And a happy forgotten-by-me religious holiday.

And, of course, a very happy new year.