Steph has got to stop posting about food on her blog. Oh, the agony! LOL!

Oh, and for those of you who have requested a recent photo, you can find it here.

I found out one really can finance a full-body lift, but I think I’ll just start with my neck and face. There are girdles for the rest of me =)

Have a great, great day! Mmmmmwa!

Losing someone who means enough to you results in the feeling that you’ve been kicked in the stomach.

I have that feeling today.

I wish I could understand why I feel this. I will inevitably get over it; we learn from an early age that we can feel this and somehow still survive. But this was so life-altering a friendship that I’m sure the pain will not go away any time soon.

Odd as it sounds, I looked forward to our talks, our flirts, our fun…because in this moment in my life where I had needed to “clean house” and restore my heart, mind and soul to its former feistiness, this person was the one who kept me focused and kept me in the right frame of mind. I do not think I will regress because he is more or less gone, but not traveling the road with his constant assurances to “get it going on” is a very disheartening prospect.

Sigh.

I’ve broken a nail again, so please forgive any typos in the “i,” “k,” “m,” and “,” areas of this post.

I have survived two nights and roughly 26 straight hours of drums and cymbals and 7 teams from Southeast Asia, Hawaii and San Francisco. The grueling lion dance competition is over. Though I have always wanted to see one live, I should have taken a pair of ear plugs. The music is painfully rhythmic, loud and pounding. It’s a good thing nothing required microphones; I would not have made it.

Lion dances are exceptionally artistic on the ground, but on poles up to 9′ high, they are mesmerizing. If you’ve never seen one, imagine two lithe, acrobatic Kung Fu students hoisting themselves up and down these poles as if they’d been doing it from birth. The plate on each pole is only about twelve inches wide — and they can’t really see what they’re doing because they’re draped with a lion outfit. It takes years of practice, and these people can do this to perfection.

The winning teams were, not surprisingly, from Malaysia (Team A took first place, Team B took second place) and Hong Kong. They wowed the audience with some of the most daring moves I’ve ever seen. Gymnastics, to a degree, pales in comparison. I guess it’s the outfit — you won’t find someone on a balance beam wearing a large Chinese lion head with floppy ears and cute eyes.

Music notwithstanding, if you get a chance to see a live Lion Dance exhibition in your home town, treat yourself. You’ll be amazed.