Mary Haley

I have spent the past week in Portland, OR at the International Supercomputing Conference, aka SC. Have I ever mentioned I love getting free stuff? Conferences are great for that.

I will write more on my thoughts on this conference later. Craig and I are getting ready to head for the airport for 2 p.m. flights. I would say that we are both departing for warmer climes, but I hear there may be record lows in Fairbanks tonight.

I have lost my voice. I'm sure the very idea makes some people happy, but it's really annoying. Example:

I am at work right now. (Yes, at 10:20 on a Sunday night. I figured I could do some stuff tonight so I can stay home tomorrow.) I decided I wanted to get some Taco Bell on the way home. Comfort food, you know? Except I can't use the drive-thru window. Only commoners go inside!

I started battling the illness with Italian penicillin. Forget the Jewish treatment of chicken noodle soup, I made some zuppa toscana. Then I moved on to Indian penicillin - fresh paneer curry. I also started the "drinking tea" plan and gargling with warm salt water.

Yesterday someone suggested eating something cold to soothe my throat, so I just had malted milk sorbet for breakfast.

Best. Illness. Ever.

I have taken ill. It's not as bad as in the past, since I have yet to proclaim that I am dying or demand that someone care for my cat after I am gone. But still, I am under the weather. In fact, I am taking the day off from work to recover.

The day after the Harvest Ball, I got the chance to celebrate Diwali. No, not just celebrate Diwali, but perform at the UAF Diwali celebration! Cold Fusion did three Indian choreographies, and then the gorging on Indian food began. We don't really have Indian food in Fairbanks, unless you count the secret menu at Pizza 4 Less, so normally if I want it, I have to make it. We got an overwhelmingly positive response to our performances, including several people who commented on how authentic the dancing was. That made Rachel, our main Indian choreographer, very happy.

So to sum up, great dancing, delicious Indian food, and a date with a student. Oh, did I not mention that part? On Saturday, I went to a coffeehouse with a grad student I met at Diwali. We talked for more than an hour, and I didn't get bored. Given my tendency to get rapidly bored with most people, I am taking this as a good sign.

Sometimes I love Fairbanks. Saturday was one of those times.

My main goal for the day was to get done up for the evening. It was not just any evening, but Harvest Ball, the biggest gay event of the year. Naturally, Gary was my date, but he had promised to dress up for me. In turn, I took a shower around noon and set my hair in fingerwaves. I've been obsessed with vintage hairstyles for a while, and my fingerwaves have been coming along nicely. With my hair and makeup did, I pulled out my trusty prom dress. Vintage green polyester with some nice beads - I got it for $1 at a flea market in 1993 or 1994 and wore it to my senior prom. Since I'm still wearing it 15 years later, I'd say I got my money's worth. However, it lost the "best bargain" title because I also wore my full-length fur coat. $0.99 at Value Village!

Gary, Liz, Hayley and I met up at the Carlson Center. Being a gay event, naturally there was a drag show. I've seen some of those ladies give better performances, but the crowd was still going crazy.

Liz and I also performed a poi fusion routine. I was conflicted, because generally in a drag show, performers collect tips. Collecting tips form the audience while dancing is just too close to stripping for me. I already have a co-worker who refers to every performance as a "hoochie coochie dance." I have no issue with other performers collecting tips, and honestly I think we should be rewarded for our work, but we certainly weren't going to deviate from our choreography to accept crumpled dollar bills. Sorry, it's not something we work on during our two hours of rehearsal each week. However, while we were dancing, several members of the audience came up and quietly placed money in a tip basket near the stage. I assume it was shared among all the performers at the end of the night. I don't know, since we were long gone by then.

Rather than sticking around until the bitter end, the four of us grabbed some more folks and headed over to the Boatel. If you've never been to the Boatel Sleazy Waterfront Bar, it's pretty much summed up by its named. One fellow bought Liz some Scotch to celebrate her passing another milestone for her Ph.D., and I had an unfortunate martini involving green bean juice, as they were completely out of olives.

As I left the bar that night, I saw my first northern lights of the season dancing across the sky. It's still unseasonably warm, so I stood outside in strappy sandals and my senior prom gown, taking in the beauty of the aurora. Sometimes that's all that it takes to make me happy.

It was a weekend of creative endeavors. To wit: I appreciated the creative endeavors of others when Dara, Joel and I went to the Pub to see Paper Scissors on Friday night. Have I mentioned that the band just plain rocks? I'm glad Craig is back in town for the winter. I ran into David there, who taught me some basic salsa. We attempted a Viennese waltz when the music came up, but the dance floor was very slippery due to dirty hippie students spilling beers. After David nearly wiped out twice, we opted to sit out the rest of the song. We were the only ones dancing, anyway.

On Saturday I finally had the materials, power tools and will to buckle down and make curtains for my bedroom. Well, most of the materials. There was some annoying math involved, as I was sewing in a blackout lining that would only cover the window but the curtains were pretty much floor to ceiling. I could have taken the easy route and done a full-length lining, but I didn't want the curtains to be so heavy. I managed to do one window perfectly, but had to wait until the next day to go buy more grommets. I did manage to finish the other window on Sunday. Pictures to come.

Since I had the sewing machine out, I decided it was time for a curve-hugging dress a la Joan Holloway. There was some great stretch suiting at the fabric store, but it had vertical stretch, not horizontal. Bizarre. This involved more math to figure out how to lay out the pattern pieces in the opposite direction. Again I say, pictures to come.

Liz and I also met up on Sunday to rehearse a choreography we're performing at the Harvest Ball this weekend. We made a costume run to Value Village for new tights since we've destroyed our last pair in a few performances.

This coming week should be interesting. I have to wrap up one aspect of a large project at work, and I have two performances. I don't really have any free time scheduled until Sunday night. Apparently stress is part of my daily routine.

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