circus in santa cruz

lately i've been reinvigorated by my somewhat forget hobby of 'circus arts'. i've broken it into the different genres below

juggling:
i taught mike how to juggle, and now he is always picking up my juggling balls and coaxing/tempting me to pick up juggling again. we've been working on passing and we spend about 30 minutes working on it before we end up on the floor in a tangled-up giggly piles of limbs. it's pretty awesome. i can't wait to get him juggling clubs. i've also been passing a bit with the older men who attend all the juggle nights in town. there are two circus practice nights: sundays at the light house there is a hoop jam followed by a fire jam, and wednesdays at the vet's hall in town there is circus jam. john, a fantastic sweet man, is really amazing, and a fantastic teacher. some of you may have actually run into him before at the juggling tent at the oregon country fair. he is one of the main teachers there. he also owns a share on belly acres, the juggling commune in hawaii. i have met a few other very skilled jugglers through him and they have been good at pushing me to pass more. i tend to be a fairly independent juggler, but i'd like to force myself to play more with others when it comes to juggling.
i've learned new tricks too! i can now do flourishes in both hands, and i can throw doubles on the sides with one club in the middle doing tennis between the columns on either side(343 i think...). i am also learning to throw doubles while passing. pretty fun.

hula hooping:
i started hula hooping on the juggle farm, but when i moved away i was hoopless and remained so until my move to santa cruz. one of my burning man camp buddies is an excellent hooper and since hooping is 'totally hot right now' i bought the tubing and tape and started making my own. my buddy 'vanessa vortex' taught me the trade in pdx, but i actually started taping my hoops in santa cruz. i made a really gorgeous pink n' green hoop for the burn, and i've been rocking it ever since. the hoop jam at the lighthouse is AWESOME. full of fantastic hooper with skillz to share. i learned how to hoop around my chest vertically and how to hoop around my elbow horizontally with my head bowed out of the hoop. explaining circus tricks is silly. but, i am starting to feel like i have a nice arsenal of hoop tricks to play with. the next development on the horizon? FIRE HOOPING!

poi:
oh poi, how i've forgetten you. i rarely spin poi these days. i find that other people who spin poi are snobby and stuck up, unfortunately. this make skill sharing pretty lame. i never feel like people are jazzed about teaching in the poi community. i did, however, get my wall plane anti-spin 4-pointed flower happening the other day, SUPER EXCITING. i hope to work on poi more later, when it's sunny outside and i have EPIC amounts of time. it's funny, the better you get at poi the harder it gets to learn new tricks. antispin is KILLING me right now. way too hard. i feel like i can't break down the anti-spin wall. it's brick and 4 layers thick.

yup. that's the circus update. i am also interested in costuming more these days. i've posted a few fun hats, and i really want to put together some good performance costumes, so i don't just look like a laid back juggling hippy chick playing with different toys. but look more playful and performer-like.

okay, back to biaryl synthesis reading. i am narrowing my topic to innovative biaryl axially chiral cycloisomerization reactions. i know, the title needs work....

no time for editing! i'm sorry.