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?

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!

Pole Dance Isn't Always Sexy, Aerial Isn't Always Graceful

Back in March, I signed up for pole dance classes (with two awesome friends, actually, one of whom also lives in the blog sphere and resides at The Invincible Blog).  My hopes are fairly simple – to transform my ungainly, clumsy self into a strong and sexy beast. About a month later, I also started aerial silks classes (also with the same two ladies – Kate and Tini, you are fabulous and should feel fabulous). Honestly, I’m just hoping that both classes will help make me harder to kill in case of the dreaded Zombie Apocalypse. Oh, and I’m also participating in a Tough Mudder competition this September, so if I can learn to do some pull-ups before then, that would be really great. Anyway, main motivation aside, my excitement at the prospect of swooping and spinning and generally looking really, really awesome pushed me through the first few classes even when I could barely do three push-ups in a row. I knew it would take a lot of hard work, and guess what – I’m still working really, really hard to look really awesome. Most of the time, actually, I’m working really, really hard to try to look even a little bit awesome. Many silks practices end up somewhere around here – 

I call this the Floppy Scorpion. Done correctly, I should be hanging by that raised leg and it should look something like this…

*Real Scorpion. Photo from stephaniefoundit's Flickr

…but I haven’t yet developed the core strength to throw my legs over my head while I’m hanging in mid-air (inversion, woo), so when I try this trick I have to stay close to the ground. Despite my wry look, though, getting into this was fun! Botched moves also help remind me not to take myself too seriously, which keeps me from getting super frustrated when I can’t immediately force my still-weak body into complicated poses.

One of the stranger things I’m noticing throughout all my pole & silks classes is that the left side of my body is decidedly weaker than its right side counterparts. It’s a little strange to have to strength train unevenly in order to bring my left side up to par with my right side, but it’s been catching up fairly nicely. Fortunately in the two and a half months I’ve been at this, I’ve only had one semi-major silks-and-pole related injury (I tore my left forearm muscle, which took almost two weeks to heal). I also had one other setback, but that came from a tumbling accident. I've learned that I am clumsy and shouldn’t be tumbling (yet). I have since broken up with gymnastics, at least until after Tough Mudder. I’d rather stay healthy and hale for silks and pole classes than learn to do a front tuck (even though front tucks are really, really cool).

As far as pole class goes, well – let’s just say that my inner sexy beast hasn’t made an appearance yet. I love pole class, and fortunately have a really amazing instructor, but I can’t help feeling a little off and self-conscious. It simultaneously helps and hinders me that the two gorgeous ladies I signed up with are naturals and are learning everything quickly. Watching them is definitely inspiring and gives me hope for my future in pole dance, though! I’m determined to stick with this because despite my current lack of sexy, I have a great time and generally leave class feeling bouncy and happy and pleasantly tired. Also my stubbornness won’t let me quit yet, but whatever it takes to keep me going, eh?

My most recent pole class exhausted me and I ended up dragging my wrist along the pole way more than I should have, which left me with this – 

For the past three days I’ve been walking around feeling very dramatic about my bandaged wrist (because it's definitely bandaged, except when I get creepy and take pictures of it). I also get a real kick out of the furtive looks my coworkers have been giving it.

All in all, I’m thrilled to be taking these classes with my two wonderful friends, and honestly can’t wait for the progress we make so I can continue taking pictures, and swooping, and falling, and giggling, and generally keep feeling awesome about life.