Lullaby

Blurry hands, but I love the expression on my face in this photo that Annalisa took at Amy's baby shower today!

Normally I am not a baby shower person -- I don't like babies, I don't plan to have any children, and I'm not into cutesy shower games. However, this was a hafla to celebrate one of our local dancer's soon-to-be-born baby daughter, and it was all about dancing, eating Middle Eastern food, and having fun. Besides, when else was I going to have a chance to dance to one of the beautiful lullabies off of Azam Ali's album "From Night to the Edge of Day"?

I had a great time! Sinbad's is a little small, but really beautiful (look at those blue rafters!) and we had the place to ourselves for most of the party. There were about a dozen dancers there, half of whom performed a variety of numbers. The mother-to-be did a great Saidi cane dance, the same one that she performed before the birth of her son. What a sweet tradition!

And I got to wear my new belt! It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's two ropes of green seed beads with coins and kuchi dangles! I think I need to sit down and figure out exactly how many belts I have.