mimi merlot and wanda wonderland do the uptown, clown style

IMG_4677

Originally uploaded by Suqzi

hell. yes. another amazing run with bombshell betty and the burlesqueteers!

clown win!

Matroyshka

Had dinner with my grandpa and brother tonight. Deda just got back from visiting Russia, Prague, and Bulgaria. Seems well-rested and happy :)

He brought me back a beautiful Matroyshka, 8 stacking dolls with colorful headscarves and rosy cheeks. I totally love it. He also got me a sweet blanket and a skirt.

Jon leaves for Russia with Bubbe on Monday. I’m so jealous… I mean, I’ll be in Detroit having a fab ol’ time, but I’d really like to go back to the motherland, maybe even live there for a bit…

Sigh. One day…

Black Strap Molasses Ginger Cookies

Tags: recipe

best. weekend. ever.

no words. <3

lots of new things, coming up for air, etc.

Well, the lack of updates have not been for lack of excitement. Quite the contrary. I’ve been too busy to think lately and it’s quite fantastic. Besides the wretchedness that is my nose this time of year, I have been feeeeeeeelin’ goooooood…

One. Aerials (Silks, Lyra, Trapeze)(but mostly silks)

I have been at this business for about 8 months now, but only seriously for about 2. It’s taken me a while to even be able to hold myself up by my arms, and i’m proud to say i can hang for a good 7 seconds on the pull-up bar (no full pull-ups yet). My basic and russian climbs are feeling waaaay more solid than when i started, and I can hold a straddle-up for a bit and *almost* climb out of it. Just this week, i finally got the hang of the scissor hip key, but many times of doing it wrong have tensed up my right hip pretty bad :(. luckily i have another hip to practice on, and the left side is getting it! rock!

hip key FTW!

I practice at the Athletic Playground, and have also been helping out @ the front desk. It’s such a cool place, you should come check it out (first class is free!). Learn acro-yoga, Parkour, Capoeira, handstands… and it’s, like, 3 blocks from my house so you can totally come over for tea after class.

Dos. Burlesque.

Just finished Bombshell Betty’s ® class, did 2 performances. Banana suits, super mario brothers (guess who was mario, ooooh yea, it was me), and a delightfully mustache’d drag number to Down in Mexico by the Coasters. Hot damn, this shit is fun.

Meet Mimi Merlot

I particularly like playing with gender, weaving in and out of society’s “clearly defined” boundaries of masculinity and femininity, exploring what is sexy and what is repulsive and where they might intersect, etc. You know, like what i always do… except on stage… with tassles. Oh, joy. Oh, adventure.

Work is well. Radical Designs is bustling!

III. Swap

I’m doing another clothing swap June 13 at rock paper scissors collective in oakland. it’s going to be a fundraiser for a local women’s shelter. not sure which yet, but i’m looking at free battered women in sf, here’s their mission statement:

Free Battered Women seeks to end the re-victimization of incarcerated survivors of domestic violence as part of the movement for racial justice and the struggle to resist all forms of intimate partner violence against women and transgender people. We achieve this through community organizing, parole advocacy, public education, media campaigns, and policy work.

check out swapforgood.org for more info, to rsvp for my swap, and to host your own! Hannahlove did one a few months back and it was a tremendous success, hooray to her!

stars when you shine, you know how i feel. sleep in peace when day is done that’s how i feel. and this whole world is a new world is a bold world for me…

…and i’m feelin good.

Sunny Side… down?

just wrote the following letter to the East Bay Express… does this sort of thing confuse anyone else?

-suz

1051 60th St. #C
Oakland, CA 94608

Letters
East Bay Express
620 3rd St.
Oakland, CA 94607

May 20, 2010

Dear East Bay Express,

I’ve never written a letter to a paper before, although I’m an adamant reader – I think EBE is one of the best local papers of all the places I’ve lived. It’s because I respect your conscientious attention to all the wonderful goings-on in the east bay, as well as your dedication to ‘promote truth, expose wrongdoing, and give voice to the voiceless’, that I’ve decided to write to you today.

I’m really disturbed by the fact that you have taken on advertisements for Camel cigarettes and SNUS, product that warn, inline, that they cause lung and gum disease and tooth loss. Not just little ads either, EBE, full-pagers and coupons! I love all your articles about healthy lifestyles – biking, yoga, eating well… and I was just so shocked by these ads! I have a little brother, EBE, he’s 17 and gets a real kick out of reading your stuff. He’s a smart kid, I don’t reckon he would see an ad for this crap and make a dash down to the corner store, but I hope you see my point – who needs to see this crap?

I guess what I’m really asking is – it really so necessary for you guys to contribute to this multi-million dollar death campaign? Don’t you feel at least a little hypocritical?

Thank you for your time, and thank you for all of your excellent stories, they make me proud to live here.

With hella love,
Suzi Grishpul

From the bottom of my lazy heart

Dear Morning,

Long time no see! Sorry i’ve been neglecting you, the late nights keep tricking me into hanging out with them. How’ve you been? i figured i should write you a letter to remind myself of all the things i love about you, you know, in case i forget again.

Thank you for taking the rush out of things. Waking up to a sun barely risen gives me time to shake off the sleep, make coffee, stretch, etc. Here i am, in the office, at 9 am, reading blawgs, writing blawgs, eating an incredible breakfast burrito, just sorta easing into my day. It’s so lovely i can barely stand it.

i love you 11 am, but i’m not in love with you. i really don’t like the way you make me feel hurried and late and just sorta guilty about everything. really breaks my heart (and probably my coworkers’ too). i’ll see you around, maybe in the middle of the day sometime.

back to you morning – thanks for believing in me. i like the way you inspire me to believe that so much is possible from any one day. even if it’s an illusion, it totally works.

and 5pm! thank you for taking me home! especially now when it’s still light outside, makes me feel much less like a robot.

Ok so i’ve strayed from my original letter, but the sentiment is just the same. early to bed, early to rise, makes the suz healthy, wealthy, and wise. or at least not sleepy and grumpy all day :P

I’ll see you tomorrow, I hope?

With dewwy-eyed love,
Suzi

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

coop loves my muffins

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar (white or light brown) plus more for sprinkling on top of the muffins

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon fine salt

Freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup whole milk

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a 12-muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl; set aside.

Melt the butter in the micro-wave. Whisk the milk, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla with the butter.

Pour wet ingredients into the dry ones, then stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened but still lumpy. Do not overmix the batter or your muffins will be dense. Gently stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin and sprinkle the tops generously with sugar. Put the muffins in the oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking. (Insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin to check if it is done. Toothpick should come out clean). Cool muffins in the pan on a rack for a couple minutes. Turn the muffins out of the pan and cool on the rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. Goes great with coffee.

Yay! Muffins!

Tags: housewifery, muffins, recipe

Pinball Palace!!!

Holy crap. Do you know about this place? It’s in Berkeley… that’s about all i can say. 50ish old school mechanical pinball machines, and this wonder:

shufflebowling!

and even some super-old racing games…

this game makes the most horrible noises. just like real cars!

Good times. Look for the purple light…

Tags: adventure, pinball

On needles

i’m a little shell-shocked from acupuncture this morning. what a trip.

…a little embarrassed that it hurt too. as we were walking out of the office my grandma asked me if i felt relaxed. no! i was totally jittery and freaked out. i can still feel the needles in my skin. maybe this is an exercise in masochism. ::shrug::

it’s just a sensation, it’s just a sensation…

My grandma has been getting acupuncture for her asthma and she swears by it, and convinced me i should try it for my allergies. I’ve been severely afflicted by the damn things my whole life, and yea, i could do without all the drugs (that all tend to only work sometimes anyway). what the hell.

my nose felt really clear after a while of lying there all stuck with pins. it took me a while to notice because i was having a mini panic attack, trying to

a) focus on my breathing

b) not  think about how much it hurt (it only hurt when she first put them in, but the memory was strong)

c) not wonder if she was going to come back and stick me with more

d) hold back tears

e) unclench all of my dumb, scaredy cat muscles.

i finally started to relax at one point, and i could breathe so clearly; it felt like my nasal passages were huge tunnels, like big open fields of wildflowers, made for running through and not for collapsing in a pathetic pile of sniffles in.

i’m curious to see if i do better or worse next week.  might not be such a good idea to do it before work, i feel super weird.

Tags: acupuncture, eastern medicine, pain