multiple kinds of "wow"

I just had a total blast dancing away the weekend. I got to spend time with my friends, make new friends, dance with so many of my favorite people, flirt with some very nice boys, and not sleep nearly enough.

And oh the singing! After making it to the last 10 minutes of the Amidons' harmony gospel sing at last year's festival, I made very sure to be there for the whole thing this time. Not only that but I now own fun technology that allowed me to bring the session home with me, because I am lousy at remembering songs after only one or two or twelve times through. And thanks to that technology I just remembered - as I uploaded the recordings to my computer - the moment when I looked up during the chorus of "I Will Guide Thee" ("All the way from earth to heaven, I will guide thee with mine eyes) and watched a deaf man and his hearing wife sing and sign the words to each other, and I wondered if anyone around me saw it too or if they just thought I was crying because the song is so pretty.

And did anyone else find it HILARIOUS (and kind of a bad omen) that in the closing ceremony during the farewell contra dance, nobody could find the thank-you gift for the outgoing director of festival logistics? I bet he'd have known where it was.

I love disappearing now and then into my weird little world.

But it's funny how life doesn't stop in the rest of the world just because there's dancing to be done (which is why, I think, I need so much to dance in the first place). This was a rough weekend for some people I love. Cycles of life and all that. Hug them if you see them, will you?

And did you know? A country was just born. And of course it's messy and there is struggle and who knows what will happen. But that's pretty exciting.

Go, universe! Way to keep things interesting.