Is the answer Jesus?

Sore, exhausted, but somehow I wouldn't trade the weekend's events for anything. Even for sleeping in and lazing around the house. Now that *says* something, as I am, by nature, a rather lazy creature.

Saturday started with some much needed chores being finished, including getting some more cat foot at the vet and discussing with them boarding costs for the holidays. I like that they do a boarding test on the animals first to make sure they're not too stressed before owners leave them there. That tells me they're smart, compassionate, and concerned. I already knew I liked this vet's office, but now I really like them.

Lessee, then I talked to my mom and finalized my trip plans for the holidays, which was cool. I changed my dates home by a day on both sides and ended up saving $200 on the ticket by doing so, go me! Still taking the train as I am a) a big chicken, and b) in the mood to be pampered and relax on my trip rather than go through all the stress of an airport. Once I get checked into my little bedroom on the train I can relax in peace and quiet and just enjoy the scenery. *happy sigh*

After that aelfsciene and I packed up and headed to downtown SJ for Desert Dance Festival. As expected, we power shopped for about 4-5 hours and both finished with armloads of new costumes and elements. We also saw some great performers, though usually just from the floor level while between vendors. We always say we're going to just sit and watch performers, but somehow it never happens *G*

Afterwards we ran home to try on our goodies and I was inordinately pleased by a gorgeous brown skirt I acquired. It's all patch work with an autumn leaf motif. It inspired a new brown costume which I've been yearning to put together for a while now. A velvet halter top that I picked up for $6 made a nice addition. I'd have had the housemate take some pics of me in it, but was feeling particularly bloaty and icky so opted to wait a bit.

The Aelf ran off to parties and, though a movie with cyranocyrano got cancelled I did manage to complete my plans with technocowboy, and we had a delightful Mabon ritual out in the backyard. Unfortunately our festivities seem to have driven the local dogs nuts, as both our neighbors' canines tried to come through the fence on several occasions. After chatting a while I dropped him off and zoomed back home to clean up (basically dragging everything in from the yard) and then passed out with the cat around 1.

Up bright and early at 9 to make it to Alyne's double veil workshop at 10 down in SJ. She went through the routine once for us, as a reminder of what we were learning, then we jumped right into it. One of the moves worked beautifully when I did it on the right side, but doing it on the left just didn't work for me. Practice, practice, practice. I managed to do reasonably well and was very pleased with the new veils I'd picked up at DDF the day before. They're not my usual colors, but they're chiffon, and they were incredibly cheap which made me happy. I am a complete bargain hunter when I hit these shows and getting a set of veils for about $30 is a good thing.

I like the chiffon, even if they are heavier and a bit more difficult to control than the others. My original ones were twice as heavy and far more difficult to handle, so to me these seem like sheer bliss by comparison.

After two and a half hours we were tired and exhausted, with aching shoulders and arms. We made plans with eilonwey to meet at the Camera 3 cafe for refreshments before hitting DDF for day two. After fortifying ourselves with bagels and a lemon bar for me, we prepared for some serious shopping.

It took about ten minutes for eilonweyto settle on the hip scarf she wanted, and an additional half an hour to put together her first real costume. It's all gorgeous reds and blacks and looks amazing on her. She also tracked down just the veils she wanted so she can get in some practice with the routine we learned, and some pretty little odds and ends to start other costumes.

Meanwhile aelfsciene was busy networking her way around the festival and being mistaken for a performer. Her blue/green/purple costume so perfectly matched the outfit she wore yesterday that everyone assumed she was dancing that day. She also managed to get herself hooked up with dance space at Shamshiri whenever she desired it, so we may just get her performing solo stuff in the not too distant future. Quite a ways from the gal who was terrified by the thought of performing with an entire class full of students *G*

We met up with princessmei and oohed and aaahhed over various pretty things before bumping into Aelf's friend S- who joined us in shopping and helped me pick out a lovely necklace that will complement my new brown outfit. We headed upstairs for a bit to sit down and watch some performers, which, alas, weren't too great. The best troupe of the day was this urban tribal group who danced to some truly amazing music, including No Doubt's "Hella' Good", which made Aelf and I squeal and bounce happily. We also saw a gal dance to the dance music from "Legend", which provoked a similar response from the two of us. It was just way too cool.

By about 5 in the afternoon we were beginning to seriously wind down but didn't end up leaving until 7 or so as we had to make just one more sweep around the dealer's area. Then we trooped back to the car and were home in about 15 minutes. At which point there was food, some vegging, and then for me, bed nice and early.

I'd like to think next weekend won't be quite so hectic, but I know better. }:)