Horrifying Trip to the Farm!

For Halloween weekend, one of my best lady friends was awesome enough to invite a gaggle of people down for a mini-vacation to her parents’ farm - it was 100% fabulous. We somehow managed to cram a hiking trip through the woods to a pre-Civil War dam, a trip to an orchard, farm animal befriending, lyra practice, three delicious home-cooked meals, and a Halloween costume party all into ONE DAY. I’m still amazed, to be honest, and still a little exhausted thinking about it! We got in on Friday/Saturday around midnight and left on Sunday around 9:30am (it was a four hour drive each way) – I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Plus, I got to combine two of my favorite things in the world – aerial practice and zombies. 

My life is a little more complete than it was before this trip.

So, then life happened...

LIFE! It’s HAPPENED! And this poor blog has been severely neglected, shame on me. What’s been happening since the summer, you ask? Plenty of the following:

-RuPaul’s Drag Race, Workaholics, and The X-Files on Netflix.

-Aerial silks, and a second mini-session of Lyra practice! I’ve been on a self-imposed 6-week hiatus from any sort of physical activity to let my back injury finish healing, but everything seems to be going swell! My first aerial class since September 19^th is tomorrow – I don’t have words to express how excited I am!

-Lots and lots of wedding planning – we now have all of the basics covered! Photographer, florist, baker, officiant, venue, caterer, and dress are all accounted for. Plus, Tyler’s family is stocking our open bar and providing the audio equipment and DJ for us! Now, for the details…after I rest for a month or so. ;)

-Sporadic drawing and other arty nonsense, including commission and cosplay work.

-Finally selling the pile of clothing, shoes, instruments, furniture, and fabric I’ve been meaning to clear out of the house for ages.

-And of course, lots and lots of time spent with friends. Of course. J

Lately, since October is Halloween season, I’ve been diving into all sorts of horrifying and wonderful situations! I’m trying to stock up on good horror genre entertainment while the season’s right – it’s just not the same at any other time of year. I’m currently eating up the second season of American Horror Story and the third season of The Walking Dead. MORE PLEASE!! I also experienced Markoff’s Haunted Forest for the first time ever – it was AMAZING, can’t wait to go back next year.

This weekend I’ll be trucking down into the boonies of Virginia with a gaggle of friends to spend a weekend with Kate and her family on their farm! Yet another adventure I am quite excited for. Hopefully this time I’ll document with pictures and an actual write-up, instead of a hurried and incomplete list in January. Ttfn, ta-ta for now!

A Post For No Reason

I am overflowing with feeling today. This morning was beautiful and I drove to work with my windows down. I had an amazing weekend filled with physical triumphs and many wonderful people. It feels like my heart might burst with how happy I am. And that’s really it. I just wanted to write out how lucky, special, and joyful I feel today. I hope everyone is having a fantastic day!

July In A Nutshell

I keep meaning to make a big, colorful post full of pictures, but alas - at this point it would need to be a five page essay to cover all the ground I want. Instead, have a bullet-style list of all of July's shenanigans.

•  Dropped out of pole dancing after finally accepting that my back just isn't healed enough to handle pole lifts or climbing - bye bye, sexy pole shoes. Maybe next year.
• Had a wonderful birthday party with all of my nearest and dearests - water fights, sparkly mustache stickers, and copious amounts of food made it a great day to officially age.
• Visited the Freer Gallery of Asian Art with Tyler and my parents for my Mom's birthday.
• Went on a fantabulous beach vacation, and also got to experience an outdoor silks practice and my very first lyra (aerial hoop) session. Now my desire for my own rig and silk has become an obsession.
• Still working on the same two drawing commissions since May - and have become determined to finish them up in the next couple of weeks. They're daunting.
• Had a couple intense sessions of massage therapy to work out all the nonsense my muscles have been up to.
• Unfortunately made negative progress on my Pay Off My Debt mission.
• Had a couple of intense baking sessions as well, since I tend to bake when I'm stressed out. My coworkers were well-fed during July.

 And now it's August, which is a much less busy month, so I'm hoping to catch up on the more mundane aspects of life, and also to finally pull my bike out of its garage hibernation. I've had this thing since mid-July and have still not ridden it yet because I can't figure out the tire pump to inflate its flat, flat tires. Maybe I'll make that my project for tonight.

Another project I'm starting this month: keep a journal of each spending temptation that I successfully resist. I've tried so many different strategies over the years to curb my urge to overspend myself into oblivion, and none have really taken thus far. Hopefully keeping a record of all of the positive attempts I make to learn how to spend responsibly will be more encouraging than my current and repetitive pattern of punishment and self-hate when I break down and make an irresponsible purchase.

Happy Independence Day!

I hope everyone here in the ole USA had a great 4th of July! I didn't celebrate in the traditional manner - no fireworks, no boozin', no neighborhood or family gatherings - but I did exercise my freedom as an American to do what makes me happy! And what makes me happy is friends and aerial class. Tini and I made our way down to Urban Evolution (the best gym on the planet, hands down) for our weekly silks class and, quite frankly, we kicked its butt. Our goals this time were tons of conditioning, and to climb up and string three tricks together before descending. It took a few tries for each of us, but we both ended up with a cool mini-routine on video. I also finally mastered single- and double-ankle-hangs, did another hammock drop just for funsies, and left with that great euphoric feeling that only comes after a spectacularly fun workout.

Pose transition: Bow & Arrow, to Bow of the Boat, to Lotus Hang

My knee doesn't seem to be bothering me much as long as I'm careful not to pivot without also moving my foot. I'm just happy it doesn't inhibit my aerial practice or walking!

How did you spend your 4th of July?

Everything In Moderation

My life for the past few days has been shark movies, smoothies, cookies, and cats - after a series of small victories, I supposed it's only fitting that life came along and kicked me in the butt. Quick rundown -

• I've been unable to work since June 30th because my company is having trouble getting government approval to continue employing its subcontractors (this is temporary, but I could be out of work for another two or three days, unpaid).
• Got slammed with a series of unexpected bills totaling about $700.
• Wrenched the PCL in my left knee during silks practice on Saturday.

I got out of the house on Saturday to go to a birthday party for a couple very dear friends, but other than that I'm a little ashamed to say that I've been wallowing in the doldrums. I do plan on being productive today, but so far I've been infinitely lazy while I baby my knee. Things could be worse!

Small Victories

Ignore the giant sweat marks, this victory was hard-won.

 Small Victory #1: After my back injury kept me from silks class last week, I was able to go back yesterday. That triumphant picture is from last night. I FINALLY got into a silks move called the cross-back straddle on my own for the very first time! Prior to this I've always needed a boost to get my legs over my head. It was possibly one of the most exciting moments in my life this week. Anyone else have any small-but-super victories lately??

Fresh-from-the-plant basil is an amazing smell.

Small Victory #2: The sweet basil bouquet I harvested from my basil plant for dinner tonight. I love my baby deck garden. <3

Small Victory #3: Lately I've been feeling run ragged and just plain overworked and was desperately wanting a day off to recuperate and catch up on work around the house. I'm hosting my birthday party in about a week and I'd love a chance to actually get my house in order. Then, out of nowhere, my boss called me last night to let me know that my company hasn't gotten government approval for sub-contractors to charge to the new project #'s that came into play yesterday, so none of the sub-contractors can work today. I feel like the Universe heard my plea and decided that I deserved a break, so thank you, Universe. I appreciate it more than I can say!

Small Victory #4: I finally got around to staking up my listing tomato plants & blackberry bramble, and they all seem to be doing better for it.

As for now, I'm going to go back to watching Hook and working on my very first color commission drawing. I bid you all adieu!