The Year 2003 of Darkthreads in Review...

Had another fun weekend, got another piercing. Aw, come on, like tattoos and potato chips, you can't have just one. Got it in my nose/septum and it hardly hurt at all, although it is quite sore now. Bactine is my friend. Already some comments from ppl here at work, "is that for real?!" But hey, my employer dropped the dress code. Also had a pleasant holiday with mom and bro. Got some cool stuff from Santa, the coolest item prolly being the acoustic guitar. No, I don't play guitar, yet, so I guess I'll learn. My bro has been teaching me how to play chords. Being a violinist/fiddler and not that good with theory, chords are unknown territory to me. I also moved my drum kit back to my house (my bro was taking care of it for me). And, pretty much spent the holidays just jamming with the bro. He is a musical genious, plays everything and I wish we knew more folks to form a band. Anyway, this is the time of year that most everyone reflects on the past year, and so am I. I even went back through my blog to help jog my memory about some things and here's the recap. It was prolly one of the best/worst years for me. I lost 47 lbs. Changed my hair and my appearance is completely different to the point where some people who haven't seen me in a while don't recognize me. I travelled more for work than ever, including a trip to Europe. I got divorced and found myself in the dating pool again. Made a lot of new friends. Changed my head about a lot of different things. I pretty much RE-INVENTED myself, inside and out.

Recapping a year of blogs:

December: You're reading it now. I made some declarations about my new attitude towards relationships...pix from the Mosaic dance show...some cool club dancing photos by Russ (TwistedView.net).

November: Got lots of cool pix from a photo shoot with Russ in Homewood cemetary, including the impressive red corset pix...took a second trip to Boston...pix from the hafla at the Quiet Storm coffeehouse...got something rather daring, pierced...still adjusting to changes in my life.

October: Realized that I like myself again but still working through the rough spots (had one difficult week where I was quoting Sylvia Plath!)...went as The Devil for Halloween--and looked really hot in the red corset...made my first trip to Boston (work) and had a wonderful time, and drove up to Portland to visit friends.

September: Completed my first corset after significant weightloss...played first bar gig with Khafif at Bloomfield Bridge Tavern...first trip to Calif. (work) where I met a nice dancer...scenes from the Pittsburgh Irish Fest.

August: Dealing with the aftermath of Pennsic and splitting with my husband of 7 years...played with the Wild Geese at the Harp & Fiddle...some scenes from Pennsic and my personal review of the event.

July: Still working hard at weightloss...attended Lollapalooza with my bro...had a birthday...discovered Between the Waters and they became my new favorite local band. What is not captured in the blog at this time is the pain and anxiety I felt over thoughts of separation and ending my marriage.

June: Got bellybutton pierced...posted photos and wrote about my trip to Switzerland and Germany (work)...what is not captured in the blog is the fact that I returned from this trip irrevocably changed, not by anything that happened there in particular. I think that I just had a lot of time to myself to think there.

May: Scenes from Aethelmearc War Practice (SCA event)...some pix with the new red violin.

April: Scenes from Blackstone Raids (SCA event)...addressing my ergomic issues at work--you can still see that I have some weight yet to lose...I was shopping for a new violin at this time...I talk about some stuff that was pissing me off, such as the war in Iraq and antique dealers who are assholes...posted a very old old pic of Chris and I before we got married, funny, it's not there now...my review of the FLUX9 event.

March: I joke about the media coverage of the war...I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and really liked it...I am disgruntled over cancellation of Farscape...I read some Henry Rollins early prose...review and pix of some Khafif activities including Spirit of the Tribes.

February: Finished designing my now famous Raj choli pattern and started selling copies of it on eBay--it's still selling pretty well in my eBay store...attended a conference for work in Las Vegas--lots of pix and review from that...starting to notice a difference in my body after starting to lose some weight. Also feeling more confident. At this point, I could not have predicted the drastic sweeping changes that happened later--the divorce, having a new body and pretty much reinventing myself. I even refinanced my home at this time--NOT something you want to do if you are contemplating divorce.

January: I joined Weight Watchers, having no idea of the changes it would have on my life...dealing with sickness and cold weather...review and pix from winter hafla...review and pix from NYE.

Wow. Had such a good time this weekend that I don't think I can write about it in my blog. Sorry. Well, it's just that, like, if my mom ever reads this, I'm just not ready to have THAT conversation. So I guess I can be vague. I went to some places and I did some stuff with some people;-) It was fun.

New Year's Eve, I recommend two places to be. One is, there will be an "International Fashion Party" at the Shadow Lounge in E. Liberty, 9:30 pm to 3 am. My roommates and friends are organizing this. It's BYOB. Should be fun. More info here. There's also a special Ceremony (goth night) at The Upstage that evening. I'm torn. I want to go to this too. This year is the first time in about 15 or so years that I'm not hosting a party at my house, so it will be a little hard for me, letting go of that.

Had a cathartic weekend, maybe? I dunno, I was PMS-ing pretty hard...anyway, I decided that I should prolly "come out" more about my sexuality rather than play games with rules that I can't follow, or rather rules that I'm not aware of. I haven't been reading the memos for the past 10 years, so I'm a little out of touch with the current trends in dating and relationships. Anyway, I have my own set of rules. Well, they're just guidelines, really. I don't like rules to begin with. Here you go:

• A relationwhip should be a haven from stress, not the cause of it...I actually stole that one from an advice column, but it's a good one.
  
  
• Sleep with your friends, because if not, who are you going to sleep with? People you don't like?!!!--that one comes from a dear friend of mine;-)
  
  
• Sleep with as many people as you want. Who's counting?
  
  
• And lastly...release your jealousy. There's no need to feel possessive of another person. If you love something, set it free, etc. I've been testing this one for the past few months, and it has been so tempting to back down, to comprimise on this one, but I've been sticking to my guns so far.

And where did I have this epiphany? Why at the Cradle of Filth/Type O Negative/Moonspell show last Saturday of course! It was awesome...I could not have as much fun as I wanted at the show, though. I hurt my back earlier that day and spent most of the show sitting in the vending area. I had to sit around at Ceremony too, like a "mopey goth." It was so frustrating--I wanted to scream. I was not good company that evening, with my PMS and lack of mobility. I literally wanted to kill people...but I think I stumbled upon some enlightenment, anyway.

...and I will leave you with another pic from Mosaic. This one is of "Claire's Intermediate Students," left to right: Laura, me, Wendy, Melissa, Judith. We did our choreo to "Hot Stuff" this time, hence Melissa and I are wearing our flamin' harem pants. It was fun.

Oh, and I think that with this posting, the one with the red corset pix is going to drop off the bottom of my blog, but you can still see all those pix in the archive, or go to TwistedView.net. Warning! Some are not safe for work;-)

So here are a few photos that I took at the Mosaic dance expo at SHY:

Leta and Kari, the organizers of the event, sporting corsets that I made...

Here it looks as if Narah (Khafif) has sprouted a second evil head (me)...

Here are all the SHY students who performed to Daft Punk "Around the World" and did such a great job...

And, Brrr, it's cold here in da 'Burgh...

Russ has done it again, taken some amazingly awesome pix of my friends and I at Ceremony this past Saturday. You can see all the pix HERE, but here are a few of my favorites:

Saturday was also the big dance expo at Schoolhouse Yoga and I will be posting pix when they are available. It was a wonderfully diverse collection of dance troupes and individuals performing at what we now realize is too small a venue. Hopefully when the next one rolls around in spring, the Schoolhouse Yoga will be relocated at a bigger venue.

Christ Analogue was awesome, a great band to see live. They gave a great hi-energy performance and the music was very danceable. I also instantly liked Trak Addikt, a local band, very grindy. I must also give honorable mention to Terra Firma Sky--I really enjoyed the music and would love to get a CD (hint, hint!).

TONITE: going to see Christ Analogue, with Trak Addikt, Terror Firma Sky, Transylvanian Terror, I,Parasite at Club Laga. Review to follow. Also, THIS SAT. is the big dance expo, Mosaic, at Schoolhouse Yoga. I will be playing fiddle with Khafif, as well as dancing with Claire's intermediate students and with the Schoolhouse Yoga students.

Had probably the most calm and peaceful Thanksgiving holiday ever. Considering what I've been through this year, I was glad to have just a quiet dinner with mom and bro. Also had quality fun time with friends. Went on a second date, woohoo! Saw The Missing, which was really very good. Not your typical Western with amazing performances by Kate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. Checked out a new club near my house out in the 'burbs, B-Witches Tavern. It was cheesy but fun to hang out there with friends. Thanks to russ@twistedview.net, have one pic of me and me pals in garb:

Last night, had a movie night at home and saw one of the funniest movies about the music biz, ever: 24 Hour Party People, about the punk/alt music scene in Manchester and the rise and fall of Factory records.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the biggest news--I got a new piercing, yay! Um, in an intimate place...