The Roaring 20′s

Friday night was the 1920′s party at the Norva and it was fantastic.  Quite a few people showed up, although it wasn’t too crowded which was nice.  They had tables set up on the bottom floor, and a few on the second floor.  Jeff and I got there early enough (too early according to Jeff) and managed to get one of the last tables on the bottom floor.  We mainly hung out and listened to the band (who were awesome) and watched people dance.  I wish I could swing dance, it looked like a lot of fun.  They did do a short lesson, but I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t make it over there when they started, and I didn’t want to jump in in the middle, so unfortunately I did not learn to do the Charleston. 

Our friend Leonard (and his friend Andrew) finally showed up around 10:30 an we hung out until the party was over at midnight.  We got quite a few good pictures. 

Leonard waved us over to take a picture with this guy, since he wanted one with the guy in the baseball costume.  We found out just after this photo that the guy in the baseball costume owns the Norva, as well as the National in Richmond.  I wish I owned the Norva and the National, what  a cool job that must be. 

The party was put on by an organization called the Party Angels, and this was their first event.  If I understand correctly, they’ll be putting on events to raise money for charity.  The charity for this party was For Kids, which helps children who are homeless. 

I think it was a great event, and I hope they do more like it.  Jeff was reluctant at first, since he doesn’t do costumes, but everyone had a good time and I think we would all go to another event like this.  Of course, I wouldn’t mind another 20′s party, so I could wear my dress again.  And maybe learn to do the Charleston ahead of time.

Creativity eludes me

I realize I haven’t blogged in 6 months.  I’ll chalk that up to my first semester in grad school, which means that all I do is read and write, and I don’t have time to do anything interesting.

But I did find something today that is incredibly interesting to me.  A history teacher in Hawaii has created fantastic videos for her World History class, using popular songs.  This absolutely floored me, her videos are fantastic.  She has 50 on her Youtube channel.  I’ve only managed to go through a handful of them. 

I thought this one on Napoleon was great, although my favorite one so far might be about the Black Death, set to Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” which is my favorite running song.  I’ll work my way through them, but they really make me wish I taught World History so I could use them.  I like to try to do creative things, but this is way beyond me.

And just a quick wrap up for the second half of 2010:  I did well in both of my grad classes (Indian Identity and Research Methods.)  I set a new PR at the OBX half marathon in November (2:06:39) which is over 4 minutes better than my time there last year, and a minute and thirty three seconds better than my PR at Shamrock last March.  I shouldn’t have PR’d, with grad school I didn’t train at all.  But I just had a good day, and the weather was nice. 

Classes for this semester begin on Wednesday.  I’ve got European Fascisms and Africa and the West.  We’ll see how it goes.  Maybe if I learn something interesting I’ll take a minute to post it. 

And something I’m really looking forward to is a 1920′s party at the Norva coming up on January 21st.  It sounds like a lot of fun.  They’ll have an orchestra, a speakeasy, and a casino set up, and you have to dress for it.  My flapper dress is on the way!

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