Bulwark!

Inspired by the word of the day, Bulwark, and the fact that I saw people practicing for what I hope is a pirate-themed acrobatics act to be performed on Saturday. One which involves back flips onto bulwarks. These people were amazing. It made me want to take a tumbling class. But I could never get that good; I do not have the spring. However, I do have two classes to make up, from missing in Galapagos and Election Day. *intruigued* Tumbling class, or stretching class? Or perhaps one of each? (I've narrowed it down from "Oh my gosh classes!" to those. I'm glad I have only three options.)

“I’m just a simple sailor,” he claimed, glancing warily at his interlocutor. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

His interlocutor, from the shadows, laughed. “It’s no use hiding anymore,” the gravelly voice came. “I might have believed you once, but now? Your performance on the rigging was not that of a simple sailor.”

“I’ve been at sea all my life.”

“All the other sailors were hiding from the storm; you were climbing like a monkey. And the back flip onto the bulwark? It was a little excessive.”

He winced. The back flip had been his favorite part.

In other news, I think I totally freaked out a couple on the MUNI. I was riding home with Chris (from Silks), debating quarter versus semester, and lauding the joys and despairs of a liberal education. The funny thing was that I had forgotten my water bottle, and so had water in a cup without a lid, with which I jogged to the MUNI, spilling water all over my front while Chris held the bus for me. His reaction upon seeing me: "Are you okay?!"

Yes, they stared at us for the rest of the time on the MUNI. I think it helped that the first thing we talked about was dedication, and how it is easier if your friends know you have a strange habit and support it -- this morning, to my "Ugh I only got four hours of sleep last night. Maybe at six I'll take a nap instead of going to the city" the biochemists (Ruth and the Rooses, to be particular) responded instantly "No! You have to do your circus stuff!"

Maybe they just wanted to avoid me, but I'd like to pretend that they had my best interests at heart. And since I learned this really nifty new trick that looks like you're sitting on the silks (without, mind you, tying up your foot), I have them to thank. (It's one of those deceptively easy-looking tricks: where, if someone can do it well, it looks so simple and restful -- you're just sitting there with your legs crossed -- and then you realize that the only reason they're not slipping down the fabrics is because they are pinching it for dear life between their knees.) Also because my roll-down (a trick in which you wrap the fabrics around your waist and roll down them; you control your speed by how fast you feed the fabric through the loop, and you can spin as many times as you want until you hit the ground, but it's easy to lose the silks and get tangled, and body-position is supersuper important and supersuper difficult: it is, in fact, remarkably difficult to hold a hollow position while suspended from your waist, feeling the pinch of fabric and gravity on your lungs, kidneys, liver, etc) is making progress; I can almost sort of do it! w00!