Juggling Couches

The beanbags on the bottom have been traveling with me
for close to 20 years! Wow!

I love the synchronicity of the universe. Days after I changed the subtitle of my blog to the thing about juggling, I encountered some jugglers who inspired and motivated me to start practicing my juggling again. To be honest, I suppose the seed was actually planted this winter when I was in Estonia and an old friend of mine asked me if I had done much two person juggling and suggested that we practice. Juggling is definitely a nice skill to have in one's arsenal; it makes for a great ice breaker and it is great deterrent of awkward silences and the like. I took a juggling class when I was a kid (thanks, Mom!), but I never advanced much beyond a simple 3 ball cascade (and a tiny bit of partner juggling). Over the years I have definitely spent more time traveling, busking and playing with devil sticks and fire poi than with juggling balls. When I was in circus school, my focus was more on acrobatics and "con-torture" and I didn't do much juggling at all. Now, however, after this long hiatus, I'm discovering that balls are a little easier to tote around than, say, a fire staff, and take less room to use than poi. Juggling balls and beanbags also just seem to be a little more sociable somehow.

But I digress; after doing a little juggling in Estonia, I headed back to the states with great plans of digging out my juggling balls and starting to practice every day. Arriving home, I did get out my balls, but a couple of months passed and that's about as far as it got... until the aforementioned juggler(s) made their appearance.

This appearance was exciting in and of itself because the jugglers came in the form of couch surfers.  I signed up on Couchsurfing.com a couple years ago, but never really expected that anyone would request to surf my couch; I don't exactly live in a place that is on the way to anywhere else. (The girls and I did couch surf in Italy this winter, but that's another story.) Needless to say, I was quite excited when I found a request in my inbox a couple weeks ago, and even more thrilled when I saw that the request was from someone with a serious juggling habit. Spending a couple of rainy days with a skilled juggler seems to have sparked something in me and I have barely been able to put my juggling balls down this past week (ok, I'm exaggerating a bit... as noted I'm also juggling a bunch of other stuff).

I'm not doing anything too fancy, but I'm having so much fun! I've learned a couple new three ball tricks and can *almost* juggle four....so close!! I'm glad to finally be moving beyond the most basic moves.

Just for fun, a picture of me busking years ago
 with a set of my handmade devil sticks
(just before the cops showed up, haha)

Your turn! Have you ever dreamed of running away with the circus? ...or are you afraid of clowns? (Personally, I have a bit of a clown fetish!)