Last Sunday, Matt and I went to a Kings vs. Sonics game, which was actually pretty interesting–at least more exciting than the Kings game in Sac. Seeing how both teams are just mediocre this season, they played pretty evenly. The last 10 seconds were the most exciting, as the Sonics tied it up, but then the Kings hit a basket RIGHT when the buzzer went off. I was the only one cheering in my section, but that’s OK.

But what I learned from that game was that I think Slamson, the Kings’ mascot is the coolest mascot ever. Sunday’s game was the birthday of Squatch (the Sonics’ mascot), so a bunch of other teams’ mascots–including Slamson–showed up for the birthday celebration. The first time we saw them all, they came out wearing these enormous inflatable versions of themselves. The hilarious part was that the costumes were apparently hard to maneuver, because a few of them flopped right over as they were running into the arena. Two of them had deflated heads halfway through their performance, and by the time the show was over, Squatch’s head had shrunk right into his neck, and he was running around headless.

But I have a couple of reasons why I think Slamson is the coolest mascot:

1. You can tell he’s funny, even when he can’t say anything. He has exaggerated hand gestures and body language, and just throws himself into his act. For example, when he saw a videocamera pointed at him, he started going off, dancing and wiggling around. He did this for a minute or so, and then stopped, exaggeratedly wiping a hand across his brow. He then grabbed a piece of paper from someone and wiped his butt with it. Throughout the game, he was out with the crowd more than Squatch was, and he was always giving people in the stands individual attention. He wasn’t obnoxious, either. He was always giving people high-5s or hugs.

2. He’s a team player. During halftime, all the mascots did a mini electronic bull show. All the mascots fell off the bull after only riding it for a few seconds, and of course, Squatch–the birthday boy–went last and stayed on the longest. But as Squatch was riding the bull, Slamson and another mascot (a yellow kangaroo(?) with a lightning bolt tail) were facing the crowd, trying to get them hyped up for Squatch. All the other mascots were just watching Squatch.

During another show, where the mascots bounced on a trampoline before dunking the basket, Slamson let himself get dragged off by all the other mascots. Of course, this is all show biz since, that night, the Kings were on “enemy territory,” but I thought, “Aw, that’s nice that he’s OK with getting ridiculed by all the other mascots.”

Anyway, I know this is just a silly observation, but I was very impressed with Slamson. He does have a funny walk, where he shakes his head so that the hair on his lion head jerks around, but again–it’s just part of him playing up his character really well.

Another highlight of the game was the Sonic Boom Squad–the b-boys!! This time, they had a little toddler out there who was SO impressive. As he was spinning on his head, I heard the crowd cheering more than they had cheered all night. And that was another thing, there were so many kids in the crowd because it was a special children’s night. It was so fun to hear all the kids cheering in the crowd. When everyone (but me) chanted, “Let’s go, Sonics!” you could hear mostly kids’ voices.

I told Matt that it was unfortunate that we wouldn’t be able to take our kids to Sonics games, since the Sonics are leaving soon. :( I guess we’ll just have to take them to UFC games or something like that, since I’m definitely not a football fan. Mariners would be cool, too.

Anyway……..go Kings!

It’s very rare that I’m up late enough to catch any of the late-night talk shows. And if I am up that late, we’re usually watching a movie. But last night, needing an excuse to knit, we stayed up late and just channel-surfed. After skipping around and watching a few of the shows (Diane Keaton, a guest on David Letterman’s show, was really strange last night), the intro for the Conan O’Brien show came on. The names of his guests began flashing on the screen, ending with….Lisa Loeb!

I guess had read somewhere that she would be on his show, but I disregarded at the time because, like I said, I rarely watching late-night talk shows. So, yes, I was psyched!

Lisa’s first album, The Purple Tape (and yes, the cover of the tape is purple!), made eons ago has never been made into a CD…until now. It will be released this month! It is a 2-disc album with extra features, like early recordings and interviews.

She ended the show (and the show ran out of time before she could be interviewed–darn) with “Snow Day,” actually a song from her Tails album. But what was REALLY cool was that earlier that night when I showered–even before I knew I’d be watching Conan–I was singing “Snow Day” in the shower!!! How weird and random!!

Very cool. The end.

Now that the deadline of my 30th birthday is in sight (four more months, but still…), I’m also counting down the time left for me to reach a few more goals. I know the deadlines are self-imposed, but I now find myself planning any free evenings around my goals. Should I write up a query to send to a magazine? Or should I work on my next Toastmasters speech? Or maybe practice my handstands for a few minutes before *dare I suggest it* relaxing in front of the TV (and, of course, knitting my sweater). I know I’ll reach all the goals that I set to attain by my 30th birthday, but that only means I’ll have to set even more goals for…say age 35?

But as I think about getting older, I realize just how important it is to stay connected to my youthful side. And that was most apparent to me this past Sunday in my second of two low-flying trapeze aerial dance classes. This form of trapeze was born out of modern dance, and is different from the typical circus trapeze. This swing ends in one point on the ceiling, whereas circus trapezes are attached to the ceiling at two points, thus limiting the movement of the swing. With aerial dance, the swing can spin and move in all directions.

During the two classes, we learned how to flip onto the swing (ranging from 4-6 feet off the floor), we learned certain poses, and we tried to get familiar with the movement of the swing. Let me tell you–those days on the monkey bars during elementary school are far gone, but I honestly think that my playing on the bars as a kid helped me in these classes! Unfortunately, I’m lifting a lot more weight onto those bars nowadays…

To end the class (after learning a horribly painful, thigh-bruising–but absolutely gorgeous–pose), the teacher ended with an easy, fun exercise. While one person sat on the swing, another person held onto the swing and moved it in a circular motion. Once the swing got enough momentum. the person on the ground released the swing, allowing the person on top to swing freely and even try out some of the poses we learned. This would finally give us a chance to actually pose in motion.

When it was my turned, I sat up on the swing and looked around at the three other classmates who also were swinging in their corners, wearing grins as wide as mine. I wish I had a video camera to capture the image of four adults, swinging around a community center room, absolutely giddy with joy. How often do we get to do something like this, that makes us feel like kids again, that gives us a two-hour break from our reality of sitting behind desks five days out of the week and going about our responsible adult schedules the rest of the time?

I think we all need something like that every so often. It doesn’t have to be swinging on a trapeze, but I imagine we all have our little versions of aerial dances that remind us how to be young again.

This past week, Matt and I watched the first two episodes of “American Gladiators,” a remake of the old show from back in the 1990s. Buffed out gladiators with intimidating names like Crush, Titan, and Fury battle it out with everyday Joes and Janes who want to prove their strength by getting beat up and worn out on public TV.

Watching the show reminded me just how fascinated I am with fighting (though under a controlled, skilled environment), and I think the reason for this is because I am not a fighter, but wouldn’t mind being one. I don’t like boxing, but mixed martial arts fights and martial arts in general are cool. Muay Thai was great because we got to beat up punching bags (which actually left bruises on me) and got to make contact with other people. Capoeira has the same one-on-one sparring opportunity, but without the contact. But in actuality, I’m timid and afraid of getting hurt–or hurting someone else. So real fighters live out my fantasy, and I get to sit on the sidelines and watch.

I think that also explains my dedicated viewing of “America’s Next Top Model” (along with detailed weekly recaps with Melanie, although I’m more interested in the photography aspect than the modeling), and my fascination with anything related to breakdancing, acrobatics, and dancing. Aside from dance performances and cheerleading in high school, these performance-type activities are beyond my reach. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have the persona to be a b-girl, I’m slightly fearful of trying acrobatics at this age (too many images of coming down on my neck), and enjoy my full-time job too much to pursue acrobatic arts to join Cirque du Soleil. All these things I would love to do just are not who I am, as much as I’d enjoy them.

As part of my vicarious living, I just finished a book called “A Fighter’s Heart” by Sam Sheridan. Sam is a writer, but also has a deep interest in fighting, so he sets out on a journey around the world, training different fighting forms. He starts out by training at Fairtex in Thailand, and that’s pretty much why I picked up the book in the first place. From there, he’s in Rio, Japan, Oakland, and trains with, interviews, and watches other well-known and up-and-coming fighters. All the while, he examines his own desire to fight.

I am not a fighter, a martial artist, or anything remotely close. Yes, I take a capoeira class once a week, but I don’t have the heart of a capoeirista because I simply cannot give it the priority that it demands. Through this book and through my own experiences/insights, I can at least try to understand why fighters do what they do. Here’s what I wrote in my book journal after reading the book:

“A theme that resonates through this book is that true fighters who do well and carry on longest are those who truly love it. Those people are most self-driven and dedicated to the purity of fighting, rather than the money and show biz aspect. Sam sums it up by saying that, on the surface, fighting seems like a test of manhood or courage. Yet really, it’s about the fighter’s own examination of his or her life and motives.

Through the intense training and fighting, you learn so much about yourself that goes beyond how you fight. You want to see if you have courage, skill, speed, loyalty. Through capoeira, I have recognized my inability to improvise, to live without strict rules–and because I’m so rigid about guidelines and instructions, it’s hard for me to be a skilled, crafty capoeirista. And that extends to other areas of my life, too. I don’t want to do anything wrong.

And to end with a quote from the book: ‘These men who have fought, and who really understand what it’s about, have left their egos behind…it’s a form of enlightenment; lack of fear leads to nobility of character…Having a fighter’s heart, having gameness, is about knowing yourself and not being afraid of losing. You become a better version of yourself.’”

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry,
but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die,
it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other,
we may even become friends.”

                                                   - Maya Angelou -

“Happy new year, happy new year, May we all have a vision now and then of a world where every neighbor is a friend. Happy new year, happy new year, May we all have our hopes, our will to try. If we don’t we might as well lay down and die, you and I.”

“Happy New Year,” ABBA

Barely an hour into the new year, and I’m already in my pajamas. Matt and I had an early dinner at Cheesecake Factory, one of my favorite restaurants–not so much for the food, but more for the best part of the meal–the desserts! Our evening after that consisted of a lot of puttering around the house, working in the bathroom, putting away Christmas gifts, making a grocery list, etc.

Then at 11:30 p.m., we bundled up (more like *I* bundled up, putting on a pair of tights under sweats, wearing two pairs of gloves, and covering half my head with a warm scarf) and walked to the opposite end of 57th Avenue, where the street dead ends and overlooks Seattle, Lake Washington, and the surrounding areas. We could already hear the pops and booms of fireworks going off in the residential areas.

You could tell when the clock struck midnight, because you could see bursts of fireworks all over the place–on the Eastside, further down south, right over downtown, over the homes along the lake. It was hard to know where to look, because you feared looking at one show and missing something better elsewhere. We could see the fireworks coming off the Space Needle, too, and that show ended with a constant spray of glittering fireworks from the top of the needle. It was as if someone were standing atop the Needle with a hose going full blast. But instead of water coming out of the house, you saw streams of gold, red, and green glitter.

The excitement for the night was when a man standing near the parking lot where some of us had gathered began to yell out comments. Whenever he heard quick successions of pops from fireworks, he’d yell out, “That’s not fireworks–that’s a gun! Yeah!! Keep it popping!!” The first time he heard the “gunshots,” he yelled, “That’s right–you’re in the South End! This is N****rville! Welcome to 2008! Let’s see how many people get drunk and go crazy and end up in jail!” Well, that’s definitely not on my to-do list.

During dinner, I pulled out my “Things to do before I turn 30″ list, and realized that I had written up the list April 2005. So nearly three years had already passed, and I hadn’t accomplished all my goals?! The one original remaining item on the list that is unfulfilled is to have queried (and hopefully published) two travel articles (and get paid for them). Knowing that the deadline was looming, I grabbed the airline magazine from the plane on the flight home, hoping it’d give me inspiration. Also, early this year, in March, I added the goal of being able to do a handstand onto my list. I felt like I just set that goal, but already nine months had passed.

Aside from those things, I’ve been thinking a lot about other things I’d like to work on. And if you have some you’d like to share, feel free to leave a comment!