Crashing a belly dance performance...

Well, my dear readers, another week has gone by and I am taking the opportunity to write about some of my adventures.  Let me start with the one that inspired this week's title (even if it's out of order).  I am on vacation and am visiting family.  Last night my Mom had a belly dance show and I was planning on going just to watch (originally I had offered to dance but had never heard back so I was going to enjoy myself in the audience).  Mom was the star of the first half of the show and I truly enjoyed watching her performance.  When the show got to intermission, I turned to Dad and said that I felt like the show was missing something.  A moment later, Mom joined us from the dressing room and I asked if she thought the group would mind if I crashed the show and danced.  We grabbed the coordinator if the show and I presented my offer.  She agreed and I hastily gave a piece of music to the sound guy and we tossed a costume together.  I kept on the shirt I had on (it was covered with sparkles and we tucked it in the front and left it long/draped in the back), I pulled on the harem pants my Mom had worn and we used two veils to make a makeshift skirt.

The coordinator had me open the second act and introduced me as a special guest performer (which was pretty cool).  Since I didn't bring a sword with me, I opted instead to dance one of the choreographers from my home troupe.  I chose to dance my troupe's "story dance" and something about it was very freeing.  I have loved this dance since the first time I saw it, have danced it with the troupe and solo but last night's performance felt different.  I don't know if there was a different feeling because there was absolutely no pressure to dance, if it was the energy from the crowd or what it was but I felt absolutely alive on the stage as I danced.  It didn't even phase me when one of the veils slid and pooled slightly around my feet - I just kept kicking it out of my way and continued to dance.  I loved being on the stage last night even if it was utterly impromptu and thrown together; I was sad when the song ended.  After the show was over, I got lots of compliments so I was glad that I crashed the performance.

My travels to get here were fairly uneventful and I even had a very nice surprise.  As I checked in at the airport kiosk there was a pop up that asked me if I wanted to upgrade my longest flight to first class for a very low fee.  I wasn't going to turn down that opportunity so I signed up.  I was SO glad that I did!  I have only flown first class once before but it was nothing like this!  It was a larger plane so first class really was like being in a different world! I was offered a beverage as soon as I sat down (I ordered a Baileys which I have never had before but I thoroughly enjoyed it!) and was even served a meal (they called it an appetizer but it was a meal).  The seats were very comfortable and I even found myself being able to sleep a little on the plane which I usually have a pretty difficult time doing.

Maybe one if the things that helped me get some sleep on the plane was the long work hours I put in this past week.  We have been gearing up for an inspection which could happen at any time and my boss just discovered that they wanted documentation different from how we had prepared it in years past.  Since I was getting ready for my vacation, there was a mad scramble to work on consolidating the required documentation (there was one day I worked 12.5 hours, one 11.5 hour day and two 10.5 hour days and one 9.5 hour day - that was the day I left to get to the airport).  I got as much work done as I could and finally just had to say that I did what I could.  We don't necessarily know when the inspectors are coming but my piece was as done as I could get it and I turned it over to my boss to finish it up.  I didn't even feel guilty passing it off to her - major accomplishment for me!

I was very surprised by the number of times my blog was viewed this past week.  I don't know if what I wrote last week surprised/shocked/offended/inspired/etc. but whatever it was I am glad that it happened.  I felt better after writing the things that I did and I was glad to see that there were so many visitors (for whatever reason).  It is my plan to do some more soul searching and write more insightful posts (if I can call last week's post insightful).

Well, my dear readers, since I'm still playing catch up from my long week, travel/time zone changes and crashing a belly dance performance last night, I am pretty tired.  I hope that each and everyone of you have a wonderful week ahead full of possibilities - I know I do (joys of vacation!).  Let your freak flags fly and have an adventure!  =)