I had no idea there was another Harriet the Spy book. [thanks, Hannah]

Obviously I've been neglecting the kiddy section of my local library. This must be rectified.

I didn't see much of the meteor shower this year, but it didn't feel right not seeing any, so my mom and I went out on the deck and decided to lie there until we saw at least one. And we lay there. And lay there. And lay there.

My mom's birthday happens to fall on the main day of the meteor shower, so she's always considered it "her" meteor shower. She kept making comments about how tired she was and how she really needed to go to bed, but if only we could just see one... Finally one really bright one streaked across the sky and we both exclaimed, and then there was a pause. "Okay, I just need to see two."

We lay there a while longer until she claimed to have seen one more, but I think she may have been making that one up so we could just give in and go to bed {g}.

Went to the Under the Volcano festival yesterday. Outdoor music festival: beautiful day, lots of interesting people, lots of good music, lots of enthusiastic dancing... fun times.

Best moments:

* two grown men gleefully taunting a couple of people dressed up as dinosaurs then running away with huge grins on their faces, pursued at top speed by the dinos.

* guy dancing very, veeerrry slowly (obviously high on something) who was suddenly distracted by a falling leaf -- he raised his hands to it, watched it fall every so slowly towards him, and then just put out his hand and caught it. People around him started applauding. It was a perfect moment {g}.

(Later on, I happened to be in line for the bathroom behind a girl who'd witnessed the scene, and he'd actually given her the leaf... she was quite taken with its "powerful energy".)

* played a theatre workshop game where everyone stands in a circle and joins hands, and one person squeezes the next person's hand who squeezes the next person's hand and so on, to send a "pulse" around the circle. (I'm sure everyone's played it at some time or other... I know I've done it in Girl Guides, drama class, whatever.) They got us to close our eyes though, and hand squeezes started coming from both directions, and by the time they stopped the game, I felt so completely calm and relaxed. It was very nice. (Although I think I may be a little starved for physical contact, cause hand squeezing has never managed to turn me on before :P)

Also had the best corn on the cob I've had for ages. (Although I think being extremely hungry probably helped just a little.)

I felt a little hypocritical at times, because my personal politics are nowhere near as extreme as the ideas being espoused at the festival, but it was still interesting. And I found out there's a volunteer television station which allows members to borrow its equipment, and offers workshops and so on. Neato. Now if only I'd known that at the beginning of the summer, when I might actually have had time to volunteer before school starts.