Rakkasah 

March 19th, 2005

Woke up around 9:30 and crawled out of bed with the usual moan & groans associated with growing miserably old and did the morning rituals dispelling waste matter. Ughh! Of course the phone rings and I answer "Kato, warm up the Black Beauty were hitting the streets" and without missing a beat Rachel responds in her best anime voice "Yes, Green Hornet, it shall be ready" we conferred that given an hour or two I shall arrive to collect my faithful companion (she rides shotgun) and we will venture forth to foil evil doer's everywhere.

Screamed & Shivered in the cold shower, attired myself suitably, collected my costume pieces and made for the Batmobile. Actually the Jedi Mobile. Refueled, checked the oil, wiped down the windows all the way around, added air to the tires as needed, and they most surely needed it, and then finally went off to collect my faithful sidekick.

Rachel reminded me that there was a Rally & March to Civic Center today and made the detour to avoid it and we were off to the bridge, over to Berkeley . I promised her that we would stop off at Canned Foods, and then go get some breakfast some where? Amazingly we were so ravenous to consume the repast with gusto and back to the Jedi Mobile for a quick side trip to REI to check out the deals, don't ask.

Eventfully we got back on track and heading to the Belly Dancing convention, missed the turn off in Richmond and almost ended up in Vallejo, but barely managed to avoid going across that bridge, we were so turned around that it took some time before we found our destination of the Richmond Civic Convention Center and some parking which took an age and then some.

Finally got ourselves inside at around 3pm and were immediately looking for the little girls’ room and anyone else we could find. After looking nearly everywhere, we located the pretties sitting in the eighth row taking in the show. We settled in for a pleasant afternoon schmoozing with beautiful women and taking in the show of nearly unlimited feminine beauty undulating, pulsating, gyrating and dancing suggestively to the music.

My heart & pulse rate soared while I desperately hoped they had Oxygen close by for this dirty old scoundrel, before he succumbed to palpitations from his over reacting libido. My head would surely have swiveled right off from rapid head rotation, because no matter in which direction I turned there were women scantily clad shaking their money makers, trying on costumes, demonstrating moves to friends, or waiting for their moment to go on stage.

Can ones eyes develop cavities from looking at all that eye candy passing before me on display and parading their charms. I was in such heaven (sigh) I was wondering why even after posting it on the web site as "Targets of Opportunity" none of the boys would show up for this virtual feast of beautiful women...?? Oh well, I tried.

At 7:30 , Kathy taps my shoulder mentioning that we should get ready as we go on at 8 pm. a costume change would be ideal and standing in the wings awaiting our queue to go on, would look very professional. There was a guy back there with a very professional photo set up taking candid photos of the performers before they went on. Good work if you can get it, a voyeur’s license to ogle and drool at the dancers. So why was he taking pictures of me??

It's Show Time, that's our queue to go on and I step out onto the stage. I'm listening to the music trying to pick out my queues, marking my spot on stage in relation to the other dancers; I look out at the audience and into the harsh glare of the spotlights. It's easier to look side long at the other dancers and concentrate on the performance.
Damn, I'm hoping to God, that I don't do something to screw up the performance or face the wrath of the Goddesses and her hand maidens or my own shame.

Finally it's over with, we’re filing off stage to applause, other performers in the wings offer their congratulations, I can only mumble a few words of "thank you very much" and vaguely remember we’re supposed to get photographed after the performance, yeah maybe they want to paste it across the web, "Fakes Exposed" at Rakkasah, but we keep running into people that rush up to us an offer their own congratulations of a job well done. They can't mean me. I'm still shaking from stage fright.

Hey wait a minute I'm still alive, I've not been lynched by a mob, maybe we might have been good on stage even great, no way we were FANTASTIC. I'm such a ham that I should be ashamed but not me. I totally fabulous darlings and don't you forget it....... Hugs & Smooches Darlings we’re on our way out with my entourage to celebrate over dinner and drinks, Love you all.

obi-Have