Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Foray Back into Dance Instruction

I got an emergency call, around 5:00 yesterday, from a woman whose husband teaches ballroom for cancer survivors. He was sick with the flu and her previous attempt to teach the class was a failure. "P. gave me your number and said you would be excellent. It's at 7:00 tonight."

Gah! It's been ages since I taught, but I couldn't say no. I mean, cancer survivors? How could one say no? So, I did it. With a whole two hours of preparation and four couples in the class. Sheesh. Everybody seemed to have fun, though. God knows how well I did. I remember talking constantly, but not exactly what I said.

I tried to give them the J. the Sadistic Czech Dance Instructor (JtSCDI) hints and tips without the Sadistic part and with a greater command of English, using the same stupid jokes that I've heard so many times in ballroom classes. So! That's how stupid jokes propagate, 'cause we can't think of anything else to say. They propagate into a Joke Vacuum.

Ah, well.

Yarha, Incorporating as a Gigolo Even as We Speak

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Update

It seems I've gotten a large-ish raise for this year, effective Jan 1 2008.

We've won a very large contract over a period of 3.5 years which shall keep us gainfully employed for some time. There is some discussion of cloning me.

I've started dancing regularly with the elderly at a nursing home for extra cash. Many people seem to assume this is sweet of me, and it's true it does seem to make the nursing home inmates happy. However, I do get paid for it. "The pay's the thing with which we catch the conscience of the king."

I'm supposed to present a paper in Las Vegas in Feb and am sweating pre-approval of it by the sponsor of the research at the moment.

My grandmother, at whose house I spent Christmas, passed away a few days after I returned, so I had to go back for the funeral. She was 91, however, and starting to not do well, so it's rather a blessing.

I note that inheritances are the devil among relatives.

Currently fighting some sort of chest cough or cold thing.

Yarha, Crap Flies Fast

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Well, I'm Here Now

Testing, testing, is this thing on?

Still fleeing the Tsar of All the Putins on Livejournal. I've had a brief sojourn through the Siberia that is Greatestjournal and have arrived here. Is the climate sunny? Are the authorities friendly? Time will tell.

Yarha, Testing the Waters Under the Bridge