It's an April kind of day.
Rainy and cool and generally not nice to be out in. Luckily I have an umbrella, a nice warm coat, and gloves to keep me warm and (mostly) dry.

This morning, my roommate and I very nearly didn't make it out the door. It just shouldn't be that dark at 9:00 in the morning. (Okay, to be honest, we were both up by 9:30, and our first classes are 10:10s.) I blame this on (a) the time change, which means it takes longer to get light out, and (b) the fact that I was up late last night, and quite worn out.

After a marathon gospel choir practice, I had a dance lesson last night. Much rumba, and a little paso doble at the end. Paso is the bull fight dance. The guy is the matador, and the girl has an indentity crisis. "Look, I'm the cape!" "No, I'm the bull!" "Wait, strike that, I'm a Flamenco dancer!"

I made a doll last night, and some of today. Ritha is not her full name, but it will do for now. She's from one of those obligatory warrior cultures within a large empire. (Generally considered both backwards and very dangerous—they keep to themselves and don't get out much, so no one really knows much about them.) As far as everyone in the imperial court knows, she's elderly Emporer Andorian's latest and youngest wife, but she's really his highly-qualified bodyguard.

One of Ritha's people has always served the Emporer. (It's part of the compact that grants them a certain degree of autonomy.) Her predecessor is off fighting a war with the man who is going to be the Emporer's heir. He's going to be very surprised when get gets back to find he's been replaced by a wife rather than a bodyguard, and Ritha isn't able to talk to him right away in the confusion after the Emporer's death. (She's also not inclined to talk about it. Aldorian was very much a father figure for her, and Ritha is not the sort of person inclined to accept that there are things—like old age—that she cannot control.)

The story is that Ritha is a dancer. Actually, among her people nearly everyone dances, and the rare professional dancer would be someone who couldn't measure up to being a warrior. (It is a respected occupation, but this is a culture devoted to one thing.) Thus, the clothing... she's been practicing. Ritha generally scandalizes the court. She cultives an elusive barbarian dancer persona, and spends all of her time with the Emporer (no one questions an old man spending time with his pretty young wife!), thus avoiding social interaction whenever possible. Partially, she's doing her job, but she's also learning to speak the language and trying to figure out a very foreign culture.

I might do Ritha again, sometime. This doll was supposed to be an exercise in skirts, of all things, but I got distracted. I'd like to take another crack at it.

In other news, Neopet's latest game, Word Poker, is actually a lot of fun. I am such a sucker for word games!

~Erin, 5:31 PM