Black lipstick for coffee

I'm sitting here at Pennsylvania Perk (because it's on Pennsylvania Ave, not because it's in Pennsylvania) and some guy just walked in wearing an oxford shirt, tie, black jacket, floor-reaching black satin skirt and black lipstick.  Why write about it?  Well, because that's about the most interesting thing that's happened in the past week. 

Life here in Denver is very much like life would be in Brooklyn right about now, but with less capoeira and nephew time.  Oh, and of course, less sweat. My best buddy works from about 8am to 8pm, so I'm on my own most of the time and I'm filling the hours with some online work (prepping for next semester), taking an online class (for TESOL certification), walking in the park, biking around town, and cooking whatever is on sale at Whole Foods (last night: chicken thighs and mustard greens). 

I've taken a few classes with the two capoeira groups here. The folks from Capoeira Luanda are really great - strong capoeiristas and very nice people.  Their batizado is next week, so I'm looking forward the workshops and dance classes they're going to offer.  I took a maculele workshop with the other group, Canto do Galo, the first weekend I was here during their batizado.  The class was really great -- it was taught more like an african dance class (moving across the floor) and was full of high energy. They do maculele differently than I do -- hitting just on the 4th beat instead of the 3rd and 4th, so it was interesting to adjust. But other than the maculele, I wasn't that into Canto do Galo's training/playing style.  I took a class with Mestre Acordeon, which was a good experience, but I couldn't help thinking that Foca is better teacher by far, and even that all of our visiting teachers who give classes during batizado week (I'm thinking of Ralil, Bahia, Papiba, Nagi, Bikudo) are better at the actual teaching part than Acordeon was on this day.  I'm not intending to talk shit about Mestre Acordeon; it's just that every time I've trained with anyone outside of Raizes, I notice again how amazing my teachers are and how lucky I am to have found them.  And these teachers from other groups are realy great, so it is an even higher compliment to my group that they're the cream of such a good crop.  During roda time, when Acordeon was singing, I really felt privileged to be there -- the man's voice is so beautiful.  Anyway, I'm going to Luanda classes two or three times a week and am really glad that Profesor Gaviao and all of his students have welcomed me as they have.

We're working on plans for the holiday weekend.  We were going to go tubing down Boulder Creek or the Cache la Poudre river, but water levels are too high, so the waterways are closed for tubing :(
So, the back-up plan will include some biking & picnicking. Not bad for a back-up plan.