Jealousy and Nostalgia

OR

"The Golden Age of Rachel"

A week ago I drove down to Houston to spend a couple of hours with Rachel and her carnie friends. I got to meet lots of interesting circus-performers, watch them warm-up, apply their make-up, do their hair, change into costumes and perform. Their costumes were gorgeous and elaborate. One (very attractive) man wore a single red contact lens. If you get the chance to see Vau de Vire, do not miss out. Rachel introduced me to all of her friends as her sister. When someone asked which of us was the older one, she quickly explained "No no, we're sisters by oath; not by blood." It felt good. Rachel reminisced, "you know, we went to college together, we were in a coven together, we were strippers together, we went to Paris together..... that's a ton of shit to do with one person."

Rachel is amazingly talented and she is traveling around the country with an amazingly talented group of people. She danced in the corps, en pointe and did pole acrobatics. (Stripping was clearly a good career move for Rachel. It was a good career move for me too, just you wait.) At the end of the show I got to go and play on the pole with her. Her acrobatic pole was thinner and made of plastic. I couldn't convert my spins to it and when I tried I just ended up with terrible burns down my arms. I couldn't play with her; I could only watch. It made me very nostalgic for the days when we were equally talented. Rachel and I have taken very different paths. Sometimes it's hard to believe that we started at the same place.

And now, pictures: