Scottish Dance, Supernatural, End of Semester

I wanted to find an image that addressed both aspects of this post. Apparently this is what google comes up with for the search terms "haunted bagpipes" :)

Along with all of the work that had to be done, there was a mandatory rehearsal for the Scottish May Day demo tonight. We needed a chance to practice with our new music – bagpipes! They sound so perfect. The jig, Roaring Jelly, has been burned into my brain and I can do it in my sleep. The strathspey, Lantern Light has beautiful figures, however, I was not able to be very graceful after a minimal amount of sleep. I must also review the pousette right round for this dance. I switch genders from time to time for some reason. I am not a woman! Finally we went through the advanced dance, Pinewoods Reel/Founders’ Reel. I completely fucked this one up, and I usually don’t do that. I need sleep! The first figure is a figure of 8 around the couple next to me, not around my own place. Also, half rights and lefts comes after the crown grand chain, not burling! I need to stop going in the wrong direction. I must remember: shoulders back, head up, and smile. The footwork is generally good, but I need more turnout in my feet and more bend in the knee for the strathspey. I also need more patience for very particular/excitable people and dance instructors. I think it’s just that time of the semester.

After dance I stopped by a friend’s room to pick up a foil with major issues that needs fixing, so I can work on it before tomorrow’s fencing practice. I ran into another friend and started talking at length about a paper I will be writing for Lesbian Immortal next week, because it has to do with Supernatural! (squee of squeeness) I plan to do more research on the theory about the characterization of the lesbian other in horror film,and how she is demonized. My focus is a close reading of Supernatural, dealing with the character Lilith. My main points with her have to do with the queer child, possession, shared bodies, the uncanny, and the fact that it may seem like she has no future, yet she is triumphant in the end over the male demon hunters by breaking the last seal and bringing about the apocalypse. There will be more to come. This definitely felt like productive procrastination, but I have other work due before the end of classes that holds very little interest. I must get it done, because there are so many things to which we can look forward – May Day, interesting research, rewatching Supernatural episodes for class! This marathoning will begin with Lilith’s first appearance…Jus in Bello.

Wordle!

Stealing Mary's idea...

Wordle

Unpredictably Predictable

What did I do with my weekend? Fenced of course! Except it was not exactly as I planned. I thought I would be attending a women's sabre tournament on Saturday. That was cancelled, so I decided to try my luck at the mixed open foil on Sunday. It's a stressful semester, so I still want to hit things.

When I got there, my pool was hilarious. I was the only woman (to be expected at mixed events - there were only 4 in the entire tournament). There were multiple lefties (some of my best friends are lefties, but for the life of me, I don't have the point control to hit them. Although nothing will measure up to my pool at nationals last year - 4 out of 7 fencers were lefties). There was a novice, a veteran, a tiny youth fencer, a B rated fencer (compared to the rest of us who were D and under), the incredible hulk version of me on the strip, and Princeton dude (epic bout from the Princeton team tournament).

I started off fencing the novice. This was a good start. But, when I went to fence the veteran, my point control went to hell and I think I nearly hit the referee. I managed to run out the time, but he still won.

Then I had my rematch with the Princeton dude. 5-2, not epic at all, but I felt kind of smug that besides the B fencer and me, no one hit him at all.

Then I fenced a dude from Temple. This bout was just creepy, because he fenced EXACTLY like me, down to the insane footwork issues. I managed to secure that bout in the last minute, by making him miss. The thing about men's foil is that it can be like bull fighting sometimes. You piss them off until they charge, move out of the way and hit.

Then was tiny fencer. The final score: 2-1. i fail at hitting lefties, so it's not surprising that I only got one point, but this guy was so defensive that no one actually scored any points until the last 30 seconds of the bout.

Finally - B fencer. This was a disaster. Although, as much as I hate to admit it, I am super impressed by the flick over the head to score a point on my back. Kudos.

Pools are tallied, then direct eliminations. Murphy's Law: if more than one Bryn Mawr fencer shows up at a tournament, these two fencers will fence each other for the first DE. Sure enough, Camille and I fence. I move ahead to fence another DE, and lo and behold, who do I draw, but B fencer from pools. I tried to use his tactics against him, but it didn't work so well. I've had too much sabre. At attempted flick to the back hit him in the face. Twice. But, that was enough to piss him off to cause him to charge, so I got to walk away with one point! :)

Final placement: 14th. Not good, but respectable. Another funny thing about that day - It would have been 13th, but the 18th seed beat the 3rd seed to medal and earn his rating. that was kind of epic.

If Sherlock Holmes was Gay...or had any sexual inclinations, really

Sorry, this post isn't really that interesting. It's just speculation to start out the next phase of my English major. I am going back to Gillette Castle and am continuing on my journey toward becoming a Sherlockian. After the English major's meeting I have even more motivation to do so. I have known for a while that I want to write my thesis on Sherlock Holmes. I don't know exactly what critical lens I will be using, but gender and sexuality studies has been my focus so far, and I am still fascinated by the subject. I can definitely use William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes play as a supplementary text. Last summer I spent a couple of days stewing jealously as an employee at the castle watching two grad students use the castle archives for research purposes, while not being allowed in myself. Now I have my own research purposes. This summer I may actualize a Holmes geek's dream - exploring the archives, and possibly drooling over the first editions and random Holmes paraphernalia at Baskerville Hall.

I will conclude with this clip from the recent Sherlock Holmes movie, which I must say was completely slashtastic...this may end up being the theme song for my thesis :P

If you were gay...

Midsummer Goals

After the end of this semester, I will be headed back to Connecticut, because of my job for the summer. Well, most of the summer. I will be spending a week in Atlanta for summer national championships for fencing! After completely tanking in the foil event, I took third place in the women's sabre event at the Philadelphia qualifiers and am headed to nationals!

However, I have my work cut out for me this summer - converting foilists. I didn't actually think I could even be a decent fencer until I got here, because I didn't discover my true weapon until I got here. It suddenly dawned on me that the reason I sucked so much as a foilist was the fact that I am actually a saberist. That was cool! I never got a chance to try sabre in Connecticut, because the fencing culture there is still a bit elitist. They want to preserve the old foil clubs. Recently some of these clubs have deigned to accept epeeists, but sabre is still shut out of all clubs on a regular basis except for one - on the complete opposite end of the state form me. However, some of the younger high school foilists have become fascinated by sabre recently. My job when I get back to my home club is to become a catalyst for this interest, so I can have some saberists to fence with. It's a cool weapon, I swear! July 9th is my goal!

A Bryn Mawr Tea

Tea – I think of a drink that is delicious, flavorful, spicy, and sharp. I can always focus on my work better if I have a good cup of tea, because it is so inherently Bryn Mawr to me. Bryn Mawr students, including my friends and I, have been known on occasion to brag about our extensive tea collections, and we will see who has the most exotic teas. I also think it is important to look into sustainable, fair trade teas as well. Tea is comforting, because it can always be expected that if someone is sick or extremely stressed out, someone will visit them and bring them a cup of tea.

Teas are also the name for meetings, small party/gatherings, etc on Bryn Mawr’s campus. These can be hall teas, dorm teas, club teas, open campus teas, etc. There doesn’t have to be tea present. Sometimes you can find tea there, sometimes you can’t. However, the essence/emotional response to “meeting for tea” or a classy “tea party” is preserved.

I also participate in Scottish Country Dance, and this activity incorporates the use of tea as a social fixture as well. Balls have a break halfway through for tea, allowing people to enjoy refreshments, actual tea and mingling. This is actually written into the program. Some of the more informal social dances are referred to as Tea Dances. Tea plays a large role there too. Finally, even the Bryn Mawr dance class concludes with a meeting for announcements and tea!

Microwaveable Endeavors

Over the past couple of years I have found myself frustrated by the fact that there isn’t a kitchen that is readily accessible in the dorms, especially after hearing about the baking adventures of some of my friends in the Haverford Apartments. Here at Bryn Mawr, we do have the SGA Kitchen, but it is rarely well stocked and it is hard to get signed out. It is also generally used for cooking in a group setting.
This year I have decided to be creative and find a way to prepare delicious food using the tea pantry that I do have down the hall. Therefore, my goal has been to find classy, delicious desserts that can be made in the microwave. There are actually a lot of recipes that are designed specifically for microwave cooking and others that can be easily adapted from traditional baking. Most of the information I found came from online searches and food blogs.

Once I had a few recipes to try, the experimenting began. I began with cookies and some individual cupcakes. These turned out pretty well, but the texture was a bit off with the cupcakes. A recipe for chocolate, peanut butter, oatmeal cookies was phenomenal, because they were meant to have an interesting texture anyway.
My best success ended up being my simplest recipe. Chocolate covered strawberries. All they take is two cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, two tablespoons of vegetable shortening (do NOT use oil or butter (otherwise the sauce won’t stay on the berries), and two containers of strawberries. The chocolate and shortening should be heated in a medium bowl in the microwave on 50% power for one and a half minutes, twice. Then the concoction should be stirred until the consistency is smooth and then it can cool slightly. Dip two thirds of each strawberry into the chocolate sauce and then place on a tray covered with waxed paper. Once the strawberries are prepared, they should be chilled in the refrigerator for thirty minutes. Then they are ready to serve. There is also a black and white version that starts the same way, but then, the strawberries coated in chocolate are given a second layer covering about one third of the strawberry with white chocolate. The white chocolate sauce is prepared the same way as the other one, substituting white chocolate chips for the semi-sweet. Both recipes are delicious, but I prefer the classic, myself.