Back from Memphis and Atlanta, and finally able to start to process it all after months of relentless work, and actually we've already started working on next year's event and that work's already backing up, but I have to attend to some other things first...
- After a few months of trying to make a hair appt (she's cut back her hours! she's sick! there's a pre-marathon marathon and the city is inaccessible!), it was down to the night before I left and the only option was to do it myself which I'd never done before, and...it didn't come out half bad. Don't think I'll make it a habit and I'll never try to cut it myself, but...hey, it worked.
- After exhausting every possible option and doing tons of research on how to get from Memphis to Atlanta after finding out that driving would be insanely expensive due to the "drop off fee", I found a $100 plane fare. Wee.
- As usual, the event was exhausting and difficult for me, but I got through it. On Fri, I judged the competition in addition to producer duties. Sat, I masterclassed 4 groups, taught 2 classes, sat on a panel discussion, did producer duties. Oh I also had a meeting with two WACA team members during my one hour of down time. The non-performing aspect is always difficult, esp when the headliners are the Swingles. So at the top of their game, so beloved. And it was the first time I'd seen N in a few years, first time married, and he didn't ask anything about me and his response to "how are you?" was, typically, "tired". He did tell some really funny stories (to the people gathered around), but...yeah. I just flashed back to when we were driving down to NYC and he said he knew noone in the community. He/we would meet and hear the Swingles for the first time that weekend. Now he's married to one, living in London, his life is totally different. Whatevs with all of that. Again, I wondered: what's it like to go into an event respected and beloved? My classes are getting incrementally better, to far too slow for my taste, and need tweaking each time I do them. There was also an issue with hotel rooms where we should have had our own but then the guy who set them up sneakily put me in a room with someone else without telling us, and she'd invited someone else to share her room so there would have been 3 of us, and truly, I need some downtime in these events where there's literally none, so I pushed back on and that and felt like a dick and it got worked out and they were fine with it, but that was our agreement and as someone who is very introverted, it's essential to me. Was amazing to hear so many people talk about how the event changed their lives and ultimately we had over 850 there. It is an amazing event.
- I saw even less of Memphis this year because I was there for less time. Wish that weren't the case.
- Then onto Atlanta. Kids are adorable, 2 and 4. Since I just saw them a few months ago, they hopefully remembered me. But they're at that age where they're just as likely to answer you when you ask a question as they are to ignore you. And lots and lots of tantrums. Which are tolerable to parents (biological imperative), but ug, not to non-parents, or not to me, at least. I know I'm not supposed to say that, and I've never said or expressed frustration to a child (and I've been a babysitter and nanny many times), but I have little tolerance for tantrums, though I understand very well that's what kids do. I mean, my own brother was my lesson in that, 10 years younger than me, and a tantrum machine, but absolutely adorable at other times. I know that non-parents aren't supposed to speak this out loud, because it prompts haughty people to say or at least think "well, it's a good thing you're not a parent then!" Fuck you. I'm just saying tantrums are annoying. BECAUSE THEY ARE. I don't care that they're part and parcel of what kids do. I get that. They're still annoying. And I'm allowed to feel that. But we worship parents and mommy-culture, and we shun non-parents, so we're not allowed to voice these thoughts. Anyways, Dave and Nath are very patient with them. But they are very sweet. V has a box of things she calls her "nature box" that just has, well, things from nature. I'm going to send her some semi-precious stones to add to it. That was - and is - always something I loved too.
- Went to World of Coke, Ga Aquarium, bbq, Mexican foodz, etc. World of Coke is a soda fever dream. Absolutely nuts.
