Maggie's first feis

So I have been busy and not getting around to posting much, and I should.

Maggie's been taking Irish dance since last fall. April 19th she attended her first feis. I hadn't thought she'd be ready to compete for a long time, but her teacher wanted her to, and pitched it as mostly a chance to get used to how a feis works and be used to them so that it doesn't intimidate her when she's older.

So we did. Went Friday evening and got her gillies and the socks - she's been dancing with ballet shoes to start, but she needs the gillies to compete. Her teacher had contacted the shoe vendor to make sure she had some small enough, but they're still a bit big, she can grow into them. And they'll stretch, so she will be wearing those for a long time. She was excited, and spending time with her teacher's daughter, who's a good bit older but likes Maggie and is the type of girl to take younger girls under her wing. They were practicing together, and having a lovely time. Jamie wanted to get up on the stage and dance, too - I am so looking forward to when he's caught up enough to start dance classes.

Saturday was crowded and a bit chaotic for me, but we got through. Maggie's age group danced very early. She was only entered in beginner reel. She wasn't really doing her choreography, she was following the other girl who was up there with her, sigh. But, she went through the process well, quietly and did what she should, was in good positions, was good "on the line" before and after, and it's her introduction to a feis. So that's good. She wants a fancy outfit and the curly wig SO so bad. I told her no - repeatedly - that's for when she's a more advanced dancer in the future.

I entered the vocals competition, and found out last Thursday from her teacher that I'd tied for 3rd. We'd left before results were posted, as Maggie and I were exhausted and hungry.

Maggie'd had a lot of people who love her there to watch her dance - myself, her brother and sister, Karl, Miles, and her godparents Mary and Bruce all came. But the others had left earlier.

Here are pictures of Maggie before the dancing - you're not allowed to take pictures or video during the competitions.
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What I've been up to, and why I haven't been posting

So I haven't posted much lately, dunno if anybody noticed.

I've been busy in other new directions. And I've been having a BLAST, a lot of fun. But I've hesitated to post about it.

Because what I'm having fun with is a game. After Jamie's surgery, and a whole LOT of other chaos and stress, having heard fordprfct and mposa talk about it, I decided I wanted to try World of Warcraft, and got fordprfct to let me try a character briefly on his account. Oh my. That was FUN. Then we got me a trial account - and selenite, too - and those were VERY quickly upgraded to full accounts - and I've been having such fun ever since.

Part of me wants to geekily squee about the fun I'm having and the various odd things I pull off - odd difficult places I've gotten my character to explore at levels where she shouldn't be getting there yet, or the vagaries of the fishing tournament, and stuff like that. But - I'm expecting that many people will have no clue what I'm talking about and may be annoyed. And - in the past, I've made the mistake of sharing with friends enjoyment I was taking from a game, and pleasure in how I was doing, and got razzed for it, given a hard time for talking about the game. So - now I'm uncertain. It's like people think I shouldn't enjoy a game, that it's somehow an unacceptable pastime, a dirty secret. Yet - this is a lot of what I'm doing these days. So - not much posting.

And yet it's doing good things for me. I'm having FUN. I'm learning that my own enjoyment actually counts for something, and I can be a priority for myself, rather than just spend my life completely taking care of others. I'm learning to handle failure better, learning to be less conservative, improving situational awareness, keeping my dexterity up, finding something that challenges my thinking and keeps my mind going faster than caring for small children does. I'm making friends, deepening other relationships, and having something interesting to talk about with the others in my life who do this. And it lets me spend time with people I care about even if they can't be in the same zip code with me at that time.

So, autographedcat recently posted a poll on this, and I'm going to do the same thing.
[Poll #1179895]

Tooth #3

Alanna's upper right incisor broke through today. And clearly the upper left one will be coming after it very soon.

Poor kid - teething is rough!