abundance

I finally made it to the Sunday drum circle, on an afternoon with absolutely perfect weather. I took my sketchbook and took advantage of people sitting still and listening to the beautiful beats. I didn't draw for very long though, because there was so much to look at. There were two men doing some kind of slow motion acrobatic play-fighting. There was an ever-changing group of people doing what I can only think to describe as jamming with their bodies instead of instruments. There was a baby running between the legs of the dancers, bobbing his head and shaking his tiny shoulders.

And then it really started. Two beautiful men wearing headbands and animal skins and not much else, and they danced like fighting. Making fierce eye contact, they held their heads still while their arms and legs whirled in wild but tightly controlled motions. Sweat was flying and you could see the whites of their eyes as they puffed their chests and feinted forwards and backwards, left and right and the beat got faster and faster until the drums all stopped. Then they slowly built up another beat and the process was repeated.



While I was at the drum circle I remembered something that I found interesting. I'm not always too self-conscious to dance--I can dance when I have a baby in my arms.

Last night I went to Zainab's birthday party, although I thought it was Jalene's birthday until I got there (the phone call was hard to hear). I even brought a present and everything. Who was it at Olin who made the basket(s) out of keys for Sustainable? When I was in the hardware store the other day I noticed that they had a box labeled "key boo boos" that was full of keys, so I asked what they do with them. The guys who work in the hardware store are really nice, and he told me they don't do anything with them, and I could have them if I wanted. So I gave a big box of keys to Jalene for her [non]birthday. She's very excited about the possibilities for art projects.

I was talking to one of Jalene's friends at the party last night. He also works at Whole Foods ("I was a History major," he explained). He was very excited that I am an engineer, or at least went to engineering school. That doesn't happen to me very often--that non-engineers get really excited about engineering. He later decided that I, the engineer, would probably know the best way to make a drunk watermelon. I protested, but it's true, I ended up being useful, in a way. He wanted to cut a star-shaped hole out of the watermelon so he could pour in rum, and the first step is to draw a star, which he was unable to accomplish... and he hadn't been drinking. Also, he's from Russia, which I guess means he didn't grow up carving pumpkins, so he was very impressed at my skills in that area. He left the watermelon in the Swann house refrigerator, and I think we'll be meeting up again to eat the melon in a couple of days.

I am really, really loving the farmers' markets around here. I haven't bought produce at a grocery store in weeks, and I love knowing that I'm eating what is in season within 50 miles of where I live. Since arriving in DC I've seen the strawberries at their peak, and now they're completely gone. Blueberries are here now, and cherries were at their peak, I think, a couple of weeks ago. Within the past week peaches and apricots have appeared everywhere. I also get eggs and bread at the market. I hardly ever make trips to the grocery store.