Commitment, tornadoes and other scary things...

This week I took a big step towards committing to the Dockyard Derby Dames. I love the idea of wearing a costume and skating around with a team to earn points! I love the thought of having a crazy name like "Ida Slappedher" or "Ruth Less" (and will be taking suggestions, please!) It's so odd and so American and for once I don't need another language to help me better understand the music (unlike Samba and Belly dancing) - I can swear like the best of them. It's the time commitment - it getting heavily involved with a group when I'm still so new to Seattle. It's making I set those priorities I said I was going to - like writing. It's two days a week and then some. It's driving 45 minutes to Tacoma each way - though I've managed to find two other people with whom to car pool thus less my environmental impact (so Seattle!) and save some money on very expensive gas. It's going out on a limb, as always, to meet new people - which isn't the scary part - but being accept in a "group situation" always is. We all still dread being the last one picked for the kickball team. . . But I paid my dues for the month of April. I went to the Bomb Shelter today and bought a helmet. I think, I think, I really think I'm ready... so I'll start taking name suggestions.

Tornadoes ripped through my alma mater on Thursday reeking havoc on the small town of Iowa City where the University of Iowa quietly sits. Amazingly, there was only one death. My friend Sandra has been keeping me in the loop. We were in school when the Mississippi river flooded a great deal of the mid west in 1993 - living in displaced house (my dorm was flooded) and taking other classes besides those in the theater (also flooded). I spent 2 summers there, once having to evacuate to the basement because of the chance of tornadoes.

I have a great fondness for the University of Iowa. I picked it at the last minute on a whim. My father and I went to visit the campus after visiting my ailing grandfather in Minneapolis. It was February, minus 15 degrees, but the campus sat on the Iowa River (thus the floods) with a hilly campus and a strong arts campus - it took me a minute to make up my mind. Of course while I was there is was just fine - I wondered if I could have ever gotten in to NYU (could I have afforded it should have been the real question). My fondness started to develop when I was in the Peace Corps I was one of the few from a state school... but I've become very proud of it. I've met more people who know are familiar with its renown writing program which I was a participant. During the last few years, I've actually started to really appreciate the liberal arts education I got there - and the fact that our football team was so awful at the time that I was spared the opportunity to become a Hawkeyes fan.

The other scary things can be found in the news. I don't think I need to list all of them.