Canadian Bacon Barbie

I think I have salsa addiction:

Salsa Addiction

You used to go to a salsa class a week, and maybe go out dancing once a month right? You used to go to movies, bars, maybe even a show or two. You used to have a group of friends who didn’t dance! Slowly but surely, you started taking more classes, maybe even two or three a week, who knows, maybe even more . . . You suddenly started making excuses to your friends who don’t dance. “uhhh, can’t go out tonight, sick . . .”, or “busy tonight . . . got a date”, when in reality, you were sneaking out to dance.

You’re family hasn’t seen you in over a month, you’re friends (who don’t dance) think you’ve entered the witness relocation program, your job receives one tenth of the attention it once did, you’ve become known in the salsa circle, people recognize you wherever you go, your dance teachers know you by name, club owners warmly greet you, what the hell is going on?

You’re a Salsa Addict.

Don’t worry about it! It’s really not such a bad thing. Thinking back on it, you’re probably much better off. What did you used to do with your nights anyway? Can you even remember? Could it possibly have been this fun? Could is possibly have been this aerobic (alright, maybe it could)? All of a sudden your social life is jam packed! Could you remember the last time you went on five dates a week? Now your social calendar is filled! You’re meeting new people every single day, you’re staying out until 3 a.m. every night, you’re walking down the street counting 1-2-3, this is living.

Not everyone becomes an addict, but I’ve seen it too many times now to discount the fact that such a condition DOES exist! I’m not sure what exactly predisposes a person to salsa addiction. Maybe a study someday will uncover the truth. Which bring us to the point, salsa is a great life! Am I addicted? Hell yes! Am I having fun? Oh yeah! But now I need my FIX . . .

And I need this:

A Salsa Fix (a.k.a. Salsa High)?

It’s been days . . . I’m getting irritable, snapping at people, a little shaky . . . I break into cold sweats now and then, finding it very hard to pay attention to . . . anything . . . I’ve been out dancing, but it’s eluding me . . . I need it! I need a fix . . .

What is the elusive Salsa Fix? If you’re an addict, you know what it is. In the beginning, when you started dancing, these seemed to be easier to come by. Every night you’d be able to get a “fix”. You’d be satiated. Now, after years of dancing, you’re lucky to get your fix once a week. Sound familiar? Many people actually have equated the elusive salsa high with drugs (imagine that . . .). The more you seem to take, the more you seem to need in order to reach your old “highs”. It might be a single dance, a series of dances, whatever, but it just transports you and makes you feel great. It’s almost dreamlike. At the end of the dance, you just sit back and say “wow”, it’s magic. So what is it? It’s that feeling of dancing on air, and being one with the music. Where every move you and your partner make are in sync, and play off of each other. When you’re in the groove (the same groove as your partner), and you both just fly to the music. Super fast and sharp or snail slow and graceful, it doesn’t matter. It’s that one dance that can make your entire night.

At some point I will link this to my current interest in rhetoric, the body, embodiment, affect, and some other stuff. I’m not sure what my claim is… except that I’m starting to notice that my mind automatically goes to salsa when I’m not concentrating or something else, or even when I am trying to concentrate on something else. I’m always thinking about some move I just learned or am trying to figure out. It’s kind of like being in love, except it is the kind of unhealthy love where you are obsessed with someone and can’t wait to see them again, and are always thinking about conversations you had with them or whatever. I’ve never felt this way about a hobby, not even ballet, which I’ve done for 20-some years of my life. But it definitely seems to fit the addiction/habit model… Maybe Jodie can offer some insight? Jodie? Are you around?

Apparently there is even an online support group for this.  Of course, now that I have named the affliction I have also constituted myself as a salsa addict and therefore in need of certain kinds of intervention and/or therapy. Hmm. But it is interesting that there are so many people talking about this phenomenon.

I have taken procrastination to a whole new level thanks to stumbleupon. If you find that you are not wasting enough time online, then you should definitely install it. Anyway, I loved this: Why Can’t I Own a Canadian?

So, I’m writing up my packing list for Cuba, which includes, so far, typical things like toilet paper, sunscreen, shampoo, hand sanitizer, aspirin, etc. But I’m wondering whether or not to bring some stuff to give away or to trade with locals.

I’m staying in a casa particular (i.e. in a room or small apartment run by a family) rather than a hotel, so I thought I would bring something for them, the same way I would if I was staying with friends or family. But I asked the travel coordinator what to bring and he said he never brings things to Cuba because it kind of assumes a colonial attitude (oh, you poor people, here have my used clothing). On the other hand, I’ve read some travel sites where people have written about trading clothes, medicine, or other items for rum or cigars. That doesn’t sound like a bad deal to me, and at least it is a trade rather than a donation. And lots of people say that bring extra stuff because locals would be happy to have items like razors or sanitary pads or other things that are hard to get there.

I guess the whole situation raises larger questions about tourism and, frankly, race and class and globalization and everything else. I’m thinking that I’ll stockpile some things I could give away and then just play it by ear…

Thanks to my wonderful sister Megan and her husband Liam, I have this brand new blog that is way cooler than my blogspot site.

I had a great birthday weekend that included lots of food, cake, salsa dancing, and friends. I also decided to give myself a big present to celebrate being 27 for the last 3 years (I’m not going to admit my real age here) and to celebrate having sent my entire book manuscript out to a press for review. So I’m going to Cuba for two weeks to take salsa classes and explore Havana. So when I come back I may or may not look something like this:

Yes, that’s right, we’ve got you your own blog at CanadianBaconBarbie.com! I hope you didn’t have some reason for being on blogger We should be able to import your existing posts from blogger so you’ll be able to keep all that content here.

We will also be able to customize the design any way you want. I can create a custom design for you or you can choose from tons of free templates that are available. You’re currently looking at the default theme.

Let me know when you get this message (you can just leave a comment here) and I’ll send you an email with all the passwords so you can get into the admin interface. The system we’re using here is Wordpress - I use it for my blog and it’s really easy to use.

The domain is registered for two years and we’ll be providing hosting for you on our dedicated server. Nothing to worry about!

Have a great birthday!!!

I also found this vintage travel guide for Sweden, which I thought was pretty enjoyable. I’ve wanted to visit Sweden for a long time now, but if I have a chance to wear a red or white leotard and frolick in the grass while doing some sort of rhythmic gymanstics, then I am *definitely* on board!

I like this one because I lived in Pennsylvania for 5 years and was often in precisely this position, with two kids and a dog in the backseat of my car, all rolling about with no seat-belts. I used to have a yellow hair band and matching cardigan just like that one, and my man always wore a crisply pressed shirt and never got pissed off when we had to stop and ask for directions.

When people took car trips together without the aid of electronic mindnumbification devices so the kids would shut up and stop annoying them. When the friendly guy at the Esso station in a bow tie and matching cap would give you directions, and everyone had a cheerful grin rather than the pouty expressions that car trips currently evoke. I found these at the thrift store for 25 cents a piece and couldn’t resist.

I was in the library today looking for some stuff on the history of women’s education and got side-tracked by some weird old books on women, education, and bodies. I found this 1880 text, The Coming Woman: The Royal Road to Physical Perfection, where a lecturer and teacher of anatomy, physiology, and hygiene named Eliza Barton Lyman provides the following useful advice: (seriously. You can’t make this stuff up).

1. Don’t marry someone with a large brain and small neck, especially if he kind of looks like you: “Take a man and woman of equally refined nervous constitutions, with large brains, small necks and chests, weak muscles, similar color of hair, eyes, complexion and conformation of head; let them marry, and if children come, they will be puny and short-lived in most cases, intensely excitable, disposed to brain and nervous disturbances” (195).
2. Pregnant women should not have sex since they “as a rule, are averse to the sexual union during the period of gestation, and if a desire should be manifested at the time, it may be regarded as the result of some abnormal condition: perhaps from ulceration of the womb, leucorrhea, granulation of the vagina” (219). According to Lyman this can also cause epilepsy in the unborn child and give it a “stupid, animalized look” (221) and “the idiotic condition” (221).
3. Men should be forewarned that “an excessive loss of semen is just as destructive to physical, mental, and spiritual upbuilding, as a daily drainage from the arteries would be” (222). Semen is composed of “the best arterial blood” and would otherwise be directed to the brain or muscles. One ounce of semen equals 40 ounces of blood.
4. After a baby is born, you should coat its entire body in vaseline or, if that is not available, oil from chickens or turkeys (which is preferable to vegetable oils since it is “more penetrating and softening, and less gluey” (234).
5. Don’t let your baby wear a diaper for too long, since this can destroy “the balance of the body” and produce “the extreme of ‘toeing out,’ bow legs, halting gait, etc.’” (240).
6. “It is the duty of every woman to make herself as attractive as possible, and thus be enabled to do a greater amount of good in the world” (298). If your husband cheats on you, it is your fault for not keeping yourself “sweet and pretty”.

As a preward for sending my manuscript out on Monday. (or Tuesday. At the latest.) I checked out the following books from the library:

• Laura Esquivel - Como Agua Para Chocolate
• Cristina Garcia - A Handbook to Luck
• Mahmoud Dowlatabadi - Missing Soluch
• Neil Bissoondath - The Unyielding Clamor of the Night
• Barbara Gowdy - Helpless

Yay! Fun reading!

I also bought myself a rubber tree plant. It seemed appropriate.