Present from a stranger
Thanks for the Bedrock Breaks, Jose Luis from Dortmund, Germany. I appreciate it! Now are you going to say hi?
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.: posted by Vera 
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Ascension
So, I was born and raised Catholic. Hence my middle name Maria. My Catholic upbringing wasn't very strict (as it doesn't tend to be in Germany; people there are religious but not fanatic), but it was Catholic nonetheless. Almost exactly twenty years ago I had my First Communion. It was on May 31, and it was a Thursday. It was Ascension day. Or Christi Himmelfahrt, as that's what it's called in German. I wore a pristine white dress and got lots of presents.
Ascension is a holiday in Germany and always falls on a Thursday. During my teenage years I started appreciating the holiday more and more as it always meant a four day weekend off from school.
After moving to America, I almost completely forgot about Ascension. It is not celebrated nationally here, and most May Thursdays I wouldn't have been able to tell you if it was Ascension day or not.
Recently I heard about a really cool party coming up in San Francisco. It was sponsored by Red Bull and was held at 1015. "The only good party at 1015 you'll ever go to" is what I heard. I was wondering why they were having it on a Thursday. They had the same party last year, also on a Thursday, and everybody I talked to said that it was a really good party. So I went. I had a really good time. There was a fashion show, dance performances, breaks breaks breaks, and I saw a lot of friends. I left at 2am, wishing I could stay longer, but dragging myself away anyway because it was a school night.
The next day it dawned on me. The party was called Ascension, you know? Since Ascension had been known to me only as its German sister "Christi Himmelfahrt" it didn't click right away. But then I started thinking "Wait, Ascension. As in Ascension of Christ into the heavens? Of course! A party on a Thursday! Oh my God, I just practiced Catholicism-inspired hedonism and didn't even know it! How blasphemous.*"
I wasn't the only oblivious one though. In fact, thanks to my Catholic blood, I was probably one of the few who actually got it. Everybody that I shared my discovery with had never even heard of Ascension the Holiday. They thought that they were merely ascending into a higher place of being via ecstatic dancing, not into the Heavens of the Christ.
*Just kidding. I could care less. I just find it very, very funny.
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.: posted by Vera
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BAH is in the SF Chronicle!
An article titled HOOPING IT UP appeared in the SF Chronicle today. It was written by Philo. There is even a picture of all of us hooping in Dolores Park. Watch out, the hooping revolution has only just begun. Get ready for the explosion. Thanks for spreading the word, Philo!
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.: posted by Vera
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I am going to ride my bike to work. Are you?
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.: posted by Vera
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Pictures from the fashion show
Apparently somebody took pictures at the fashion show on Saturday. Lucky me! Here are all the pictures Jon took. Here are only the ones of people in my posse. The people in my posse were Seth and I, Diane and Sam, Mark and Carolina, and Bessy the Bride.
Also, here is a close-up shot of my hair and makeup and the plastic boa(!).
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.: posted by Vera
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More awesomeness
Yesterday was one of the most exciting days of my life. It started at my fourth Get Freaky party, continued from the night before. It was a lot of fun although I was bummed out that they didn't let me bring in my hoops. When I got home early that morning, I slept for a little bit and then I had to be at the Sweet's Ballroom in Oakland at 2 to start getting ready for the fashion show. Hanging out with all the other models and designers and organizers and volunteers all afternoon was a total treat. A girl named Michelle did my hair and a girl named Sonya did my makeup. From about 5pm on, I was ready for the runway and running around in my outfit, which I absolutely love. Here is a little preview:
Since the designer of my outfit, Emiko, is really amazing I got a lot of compliments on my outfit, especially the plastic boa (not pictured). It was really fun bonding with other models over our outfits and such.
Shortly after 8 the doors opened, and the audience started streaming in. The show started shortly after 9:30 (about half an hour late). Luckily we were able to see most of the other designers' shows from the dressing room upstairs. It was super fun to watch, and most of the outfits were very hot and sexy. There was also probably more dancing on the runway than strutting, which I really appreciated. Our set was almost exactly in the middle of the show. It all went very well. Seth and I came on first and did our hooping thing. People seemed to really like it even though we didn't do many tricks due to space limitations and let's just say risk management. I was carried off the stage by the "mean dominatrix guy," another character in our set. We had rehearsed this beforehand of course.
I really liked the fact that I didn't have to walk down the runway like a conventional model, but that I just got to hoop instead. I know how to hoop but I don't know how to be a model. Since my character was a hooper and not a glamour queen, I wasn't nervous at all.
After the entire show was over, I briefly mingled with some of my friends who had come to the show and let them admire my outfit, and then I drove back to San Francisco to go to a psytrance after party by the beach with a very nice boy. We hung out by the fire until the sun came up, and this is what we saw on the way back to the car:
A very nice day indeed.
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.: posted by Vera
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Sexi Reware
So on Saturday my friend Seth and I are going to be partners in the Cloud Factory fashion show. We will be hooping on the catwalk while wearing outfits made by Christine Dhein and Emiko Oye.
Tonight Seth came over and we made special hoops for the fashion show. They have both glow-in-the-dark and black light-reactive tape on them. I can't wait to wear Emiko's sexi outfit along with my sexi new hoop.
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.: posted by Vera
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Foot in your face
Min Jung took a nice action shot of me hooping at the park yesterday. I like that the sole of my shoe is almost exactly parallel to the camera lens.
Check out the rest of Min Jung's hooping pictures.
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.: posted by Vera
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Awesomest awesomeness
I had the best birthday ever. I felt loved all day long, and I'm going to brag about it, damn it.
I woke up to find that Philo had written me a little birthday wish on his blog. Philo is the best birthday wisher ever.
I also woke up to find a package from my friend Starrie. She had gotten me a book of my choice and a CD of her choice. Her choices in music tend to be very good and this one is no exception. I love my Anthony Rother CD! Starrie knows best.
My friend Lura gave me the best wrist cuffs ever. I love them to death and have been wearing them 24/7 ever since unwrapping them.
Lura also gave me a pile of what she calls "hook up cards." You know, to hand out to all the cool people I meet.
My sister sent me the most beautiful card I have ever seen. She also sent me this little blinky thing from Spain that she wants me to hop around some dance floors with.
When I got into work, I found that the nice people at work had decorated my cube. There were balloons, ribbons and a hand-made Happy Birthday sign.
During a meeting, the nice people at work presented me with a huge cake. It was the coolest cake ever. I have been telling EVERYBODY about it. I will be telling EVERYBODY about this cake FOR YEARS.
Then the nice people at work took me out to lunch. We sat in the sun and ate and drank beer and margaritas and shared international childhood stories.
Later during the work day I got a call from the receptionist saying that there were some flowers for me to pick up. I raced over there and picked up a blooming bunch of pink, orange and yellow - from my roommate Zaina! What an awesome surprise.
My ex-boyfriend from '94 to '98 and my ex-boyfriend from '99 to '03 both thought of me and called. That must be because I tattooed "May 5 is Vera's birthday" onto multiple parts of both of their brains multiple times.
After work I had dinner with my roommates at the neighborhood Thai restaurant that we can roll down the hill to. Joe brought me lots of candy and the most special birthday card I have ever gotten.
After dinner I headed over to Mezzanine where Meat Katie was going to be playing. Lura, Carolina and I had some drinks, freaked out on the dance floor, and decorated the toilet seats with little stickers. It was so much fun and the music was really good and I didn't want to go home, but eventually I did.
I went to bed sweaty and thanked my lucky stars for all the nice people who have made my birthday such a joy yesterday.
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.: posted by Vera
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Tomorrow
Exactly half my lifetime ago today I was pacing in my room, and I didn't want to go to bed. I wanted that night to last forever because I didn't want to turn 14 the next day. I felt that I was getting older too fast. But the earth kept turning, and since then I have turned 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 (believe it or not).
Tonight is a full moon. Two full moons ago I had a wonderful day and night involving geek friends, party friends, a nice boy, and an outrageous spiky disco ball. I am very attached to dates and numbers, which is why I like to point these things out. I have high hopes for the future.
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.: posted by Vera
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Verabug
Today in our weekly bug scrub meeting at work, we came across one of the bugs that I had filed. My coworker J. said "That's my bug, isn't it?" Then this other guy R. said "No, that's a Vera bug." That amused me to no end. Thanks for putting it that way, R.
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.: posted by Vera
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I can't relate
There are two things that I see quite frequently in blogs or in blog comments that I can't relate to at all:
1. Somebody tries to express how funny they found something they read on the Internet by saying something like "I got sprite all over my monitor."
2. Somebody tries to express their frustration by saying something like "I wanted to jab a screw driver into my eyes."
I just can't relate to either of those types of statements. I have never spewed a beverage all over my monitor, and I have never felt the desire to mutilate myself just because something was annoying me. Am I taking things too literally? The weird thing is that I have never heard anybody make these claims out loud and in person. I only see them expressed online.
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.: posted by Vera
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