I had a whirlwind tour of the greater Boston area this weekend. I saw a little of Salem, Lowell, Haverhill and Braintree (geez! I was all over the place!) It was fun. It was a personal trip, wierd for me, and I kept wondering, why am I doing this? But it was so worth it. I got to relax and just "chill." To do this, I had to leave town:-) I saw a little bit of Lowell, enough to realize that I want to see more. They have lots of art galleries, culture, museums there that I should check out, given more time, such as the American Textile History Museum. I went to the hafli in Braintree and saw how the rest of the world interprets "bellydance." It's still very old-school there. I hear that tribal is starting to catch on, but what I saw was all classic Egyptian/American cabaret stuff. But who the heck cares? I got to dance with a crowd of wonderful people to live music!!! Everyone was having a great time. I was proud to be the lone ambassador of "tribal fusion."

My hosts were fab. They took such good care of me. I wanted for nothing. I was lucky to stay with people of such good musical tastes--I discovered a new favorite band: the Cowboy Junkies--and I had a moment of Zen when I heard the tune, Hallelujah, from the Shrek soundtrack (of all things, huh?). The lyrics just made me smile--you have to trust me on this one!

And then, I ate a lobster while waiting for my plane, and I'm home safe once again. It was a great weekend.

Here's another photo from the hafla in Pittsburgh...we did our dance to the tune "I will survive."