Getting hit with the perspective stick

I had to get that whine about the loose skin out. If I didn't, I would have been feeling it as I danced for my first competition this morning, and it would have affected me. As it is...my dance partner Mona and I got second place!!!! We felt really good about it. Another of our classmates *won* her event. Our instructor looked proud of us all.

L'Ailee made a really beautiful white djellaba for me with elaborate turquoise and gold embroidery; I wore full-cut turquoise satin lingerie beneath and felt extremely sexy. I wish I could always feel as confident as I do when I'm dancing. Maybe that's why I always have music going...?

Well, the second place showed that I have reason to feel that way, anyhow.

I learned new words. Pannicule--that "apron" of formerly fat-filled abdominal skin that isn't needed anymore. Panniculectomy--the removal of said apron that seems a bit less traumatic than a tummy tuck. (I could forget all about dancing or swimming or a lot of other really fun forms of exercise for a while if I got that, it looks like.) I posted my question to the Sweet Potato Queens' Message Board of Love, because they're very non-judgmental about plastic surgery. One of them told me that some hospitals accept skin removed by these surgeries to graft onto burn patients! It's very cool that they can do such things with it. And talk about hitting me upside the head with a perspective stick! I forgot, some people would kill to have "excess" skin. Some people have really been hurt. Some people *need* plastic surgery; I just sort of want it.

My grandfather once told me that when I have small complaints, thank God for my problems. The older I get, the more I understand what he meant. Thank the Gods for small complaints and small problems. Thank the Gods for *my* problems.

And then of course, there's Katrina. I'm grateful to be away from it. I have relatives in south Alabama, an aunt and three cousins, by the Gulf. They have evacuated. I hope they'll be okay. I hope their house will be okay. And the one who is engaged to L'Ailee's boy cousin probably thinks moving in with him, in Canada, sounds *lots* more attractive now! She's with him now. I thought it was extremely romantic that my and my bride's cousin met at our wedding and got engaged seven months later; I didn't think my cousin would also be getting an evacuation site.

There were people massed outside the Superdome in New Orleans, looking like they were attending the Super Bowl from Hell. My first thought, as weird as it seemed, was that this is the only way most of them probably ever went to the Superdome, or will again. They're only there because they're too poor to leave the city. It's heartbreaking to think of the whole thing. I remember the awful feeling in Florida last year of living in relative calm and peace, and the nail-biting anticipation of the thing that is too close and too far all at once about to come and wreck it all to hell for at least a few weeks. And Katrina's worse than what we dealt with in Florida last year by far.

*ow*

Perspective stick again.

I hope the damage to lives will be extremely minimal...elements of air and water, please have mercy.