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[merce]

No poblem. I have an abaya in white if that suits you.

Oh GOD.  We have to DRESS for the dance?  I was hoping for t-shirt and sneakers, which is my usual formal attire.  

Great.  I'll have to see if I can find my jalabiyyah or borrow an abaya.  With sneakers.

[dellaroux]

Oopss..just kidding, although it might be fun to show up thus dressed and see what happened...

:--}

Usedta be, there was at least one dance section (extended generously into early Renaissance for those 15th c. materials that could reasonably be said to be in the crossover regions where the Renaissance bloomed a little later than in Italy)...so the dresses and slops would be found there without fail, and a few might filter into "the dance," as well.

Of course, if we do any swing, I'll have to hold the train carefully since spins in swing can be a bit quick, and it's not very considerate to trip your partner by sluicing them off their feet with a swinging 3-foot train as you do a triple-step turn...or a lindy turn, for that matter...

Of course, if one is dancing with a competitor, who could blame you? Just lose hold of the loop for a moment, and....the job is yours!

Lenniel, how does one manage that with an abaya? Or are they as low to the ground?

[lenniel]

I'll take the white abaya, merce!

Abayas are not really the thing for swing dancing, dellaroux, though I'd pay good money to see someone try.  The end would have to be held, to avoid tripping.  They go to the floor, and cover one from head to foot.  If I add a chador, I can really go for the anonymous look.  Those are impossible to manage, unless you master the trick of holding the ends in your teeth.  Which I haven't.

I'll gratefully decline from dressing up for this one, and wear my standard boring comfort attire.

[merce]

Ooooh. I'm dressing!

I haven't made it to the dance (dinner always ends up lasting from 7 to after midnight) for years. But this year I'm going!

[dellaroux]

I have heard of holding the ends of the chador in your teeth but I always thought that was just while you were putting it on, or adjusting the hairpins, etc.

Do you mean people walk with it in their teeth the whole time? How do they talk? (Or is it a collateral gag rule, in effect?)

Hmmm...interesting.

The green 15th c. gown does in fact have loops to hold up the train with at the side, and also a nifty thing I saw on the back of a gown in a MS illumination, which makes it do a double-folded open thing so the gold lining shows.

Patterning that was fun!

Now, the other issue is, do we have enough good dance partners?

I can (sort of) lead...if need be, although I'm better at following. And I'm not abashed about asking others to dance. But as I recall, the group is sort of shy and there weren't as many good dancers as one might have wanted...good to be prepared...

One week to go...gulp!

[dellaroux]

Bump--

So, it's getting here.

I am in Ann Arbor at a new favorite place in Kerrytown, called Zingermans'.

It's a great place, everything is fresh (the cheese case made me homesick for France...) and they're playing old swing standards, it has a black and white checked honeycomb tile floor...Rosemary Clooney is singing "Sometimes I'm Happy" right now.

A buncha (I think) UMich colleagues were all sitting together having their AM coffee (they all scooted out at about 8:30....) talking about going on a research trip to Italy in the summer, etc....drroooll, drool..

Oh, yes, the food was good, too.

Speaking of food and getting together, any additions to the lunch list?

See everyone soon!

[merce]

Ack! I missed it! Only one day and I was already overwhelmed so didn't make the plans I'd scheduled for the Friday morning.
I hope you guys had a good lunch.

[mended_drum]

Ack! I missed it! Only one day and I was already overwhelmed so didn't make the plans I'd scheduled for the Friday morning.
I hope you guys had a good lunch.

I missed it too--fell asleep after the morning session.

And yes, that was a comment on the session.  The others have been quite good so far, though.

Did everyone enjoy discovering the identity of the Chaucer blogger?

[dellaroux]

Hmm..haven't seen anyone looking like Chaucer jogging by...

oh...you said "blogger?"

No, haven't caught that one yet...just got wifi connected in fact!

We missed you both, merce and M_D...we had 6 at table with a flute playing in the background under the gazebo.

We also had a pick-up dinner in my room just now, do PM if you want to still try to get together sometime tomorrow, I'm here until Sunday!
 

[lenniel]

I leave early Sunday and am around tomorrow; merce, I am coming to your session, in fact. 

Having gotten intel about the hi-jinks at the dance, I am definitely attending. 

The swans managed to kick most the geese out of the pond earlier this afternoon, and the geese were sitting, woefully, in a bunch on the grass.  Periodically they would wander into the road to annoy traffic.  This was far more interesting than the morning session I attended.

[mystictechgal]

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone who was at the lunch and the two panel discussions I managed to crash.  Don't know who the Chaucer blogger is but the papers on Chaucer and how he informed Scottish poetry was quite interesting.  Arizona's paper was great (all three were very interesting), as was the discussion that surrounded the papers in that panel--although the first questioner was kinda weird, imo.  (BTW, Arizona, your presentation style was, imo, much better than your panel counterparts'.)  Sorry I missed you at the pass-through dinner, lenniel.  Took me almost an hour to find the right blasted building.  Thank heavens I was hurrying through trying not to be late when I passed through the book room.  If I weren't already, I could have gone quite broke in there. 

The whole day was an inhale. (Well, except for the unfortunate incident with the possum on the way home--and I do wish I'd been able to catch the horse running loose on the highway but, after trying for a half-hour it became too dangerous for everyone concerned.  Hope he made it home safely.  Not entirely sure what I'd have done with him at midnight if I had managed to get hold of him, anyway.)