holy dancing queen batman!

i have to talk about my weekend. of course...it's my post, so i can say whatever i want. so it may not be as exciting for everyone as it was for me, but whatever.
friday i headed down to francesca's to hang out with her and the girls. sofia is my buddy; she's such a little booger!! we went to barnes and noble trying to go to story time, but the newspaper was wrong and there was no story time. so we hung out a bit and went to lunch. after lunch we rented harry potter 3 and watched that. i didn't read the story, so i didn't know what to expect. it was pretty good.
isabella had an upset tummy, so she was cranky. being that she's the new one, she needs to be held more. unfortunately, sofia feels a little slighted. francesca called isabella a mama's girl at which point sofia broke down and said "i'm your girl, too". anyone who knows sofia knows that this was a big deal. sofia is the epitome of independence. she's not even 5 yet and she already knows that she doesn't want to be married (married people are boring, according to her wisdom). she fired francesca multiple times on friday (before the comment). so it was so precious when she needed her mama. even if it was only for a moment when she decided it was ok to sit in mama's lap and be held.
from there i went to dance practice. getting ready for the show on sunday. there was a lot of stress going into the show. one of the girls in the other class dropped out at the last minute, so our teacher was upset. plus we had a choreography that we'd been working on during our classes, but were supposed to perform as a group. the two classes only had one rehearsal together, so everyone was a little nervous about that one. and this group i danced with is all very sweet and very concientious. everyone wanted to do their best to make our teacher happy. after practice, i drove out teacher home. she's egyptian and has been in the states as a permanent resident for about 4 or 5 years. she is such a treasure. it's truly an honor to dance under someone who can truly express the power of middle eastern music. there are some excellent teachers in the dc area, but for true egyptian (cabaret, folkloric, oriental) faten is by far the best. other teachers will instruct you to hold your hands just so, check your posture, mechanically check your execution of a movement. but faten expects you to dance. when you hear the music, you feel the music and your body moves to the feeling. not just how someone told you to move your body. it's amazing the power you have in your dance when you work with someone like her.
i am unbelievably fortunate to have found faten. bonita has been such a good dance mama! she not only taught us the basics of the movement, she worked us into learning to handle choreography that's "flexible" and she taught us to work together. and then she kicked us out! but she still lets us come back and learn from her. through bonita, i met faten and artemis. artemis is very much like faten in terms of skill and teaching style and expectation; she's the turkish version. i gotta get these ladies to chicago!!!
ok...i know i'm long-winded. i'll have to continue this later.