Gaiam outlet conquests!

Haha! This is what $70 gets you at the Gaiam outlet clearance sale! I don't see why men don't see shopping as a competive sport, its like hunting to me. I hunted it, I 'killed it' at the register, then I brought it home laid it out and admired my conquests. With yoga starting up again next month, I needed some stuff ;)
I love these sales, I had asked a friend to go with me but she wasn't in the mood. But she was kicking herself when I told her they had kettle bells, so now she wants to go next month :) Treasure hunting I tell ya.

Lots of irons in the 'business' fire atm. Massages are picking up, slowly but steadily. I'm going to propose to the owner of the spa I work at to set up a chair on Christmas Eve when people are coming in for last minute gift certificates. I got a lovely new batch of gift certificates and some new 'referral cards'. They're like business cards, but they're to be given to someone who has already recieved a massage. They can give the referral card to someone else, and that person gets $5 off a massage. If they do, the person doing the referring gets $10 their next massage. It gives me a little help with marketing and while giving clients a discount. I'm also thinking of suggesting a drawing for a free massage. Free massages are a touchy topic in my industry, mainly because the idea is to get someone to become a regular client, but the people who get free massages typically only want free massages. My idea around that, is this: Have a drawing for anyone who gets a massage in say February, is entered in a drawing for a free massage. That way, the person getting the freebie is already someone who has paid for massages. Unless of course, they want to give it to someone in their family, lol.

I'm also going to be starting my training in Ashiatsu in February, I can't wait! Ahsiatsu is when the therapist uses their feet rather than hands while hanging onto overhead bars for balance. I'm looking into getting the bars installed at my house before class starts so I'll have something to practice on right away. There are a few other trainings I was looking at, aromatherapy for one, thai yoga for the other. But I decided I didn't want to do too much training all at once, even though in later months I might regret that I didn't do it when I could. But I figure the aromatherapy was one thing I can impliment gradually as its just not regulated very well in the states, and I didn't think training for 40 hours in it would send clients running for my door. And the thai yoga I really wanted to learn in Thailand. One of the dancers I met in Costa Rica is also a massage therapist and we had talked about going together which would be way fun. I don't know if I'll be able to swing it, but I remain hopefull. So in the meantime I ordered a DVD showing how to use some of the moves with the client on the massage table, and I signed up for a local 'Thai-taster' class that is cheap and teaches a 20 minute sequence. I'm proud of myself for tempering my instinct to 'TAKE ALL YOU CAN NOW!!!' I'm going to be a massage therapist for a long time and I have plenty of time to get all the trainings I want, and I need to appreciate the time 'not training' and practicing and refining what I have learned. I trained in Bamboo Fusion in October and had planned on taking Ashiatsu in December, but I'm so glad I didn't. Its given me the time to focus on the Bamboo Fusion which I really enjoy and clients really seem to like it. I think if I had done the Ashi class already I would have all this new stuff swimming around in my head and not all of it would stick.

I need to get a website, thats another thing on my long 'to do list'.

Time for Change

Wow, so much has happened since my last post. Basically I'm no longer in my soul-sucking job that has had me in its grasp for the last 11 years. The terms of my leaving where not what I had wanted, but ultimately I was ready to go and glad to be gone! It was never a career for me, merely an 'in between' place while I work on getting where I want to be. While a bit scary I find that I no longer have to balance building a massage career, teaching yoga, and working on my bachelors with a crappy job I hated. I'll have to put forth more effort to make the paydays work, but its ultimately more fullfilling. Ironically about the same time I severed ties with this job I got a temp job teaching yoga at the YWCA for a gal going on maternity leave in January. I'm quite excited, and I hope to find something more long lasting after that....now that I have time in my schedule for a yoga class, yay!

Also I've been working on my polymer clay kitty ornaments. My kids school has a craft show this Saturday and I have a table reserved. Heres a peek at my inventory:

Lotsa kitties! Fishbowl ornaments on the left, ball and bell ornaments on the right. Found out one day that the egg cartons are a very nice way to transport and store the kitties, plus an easy way to count how many I have, lol. I have over 3 dozen at the present moment. I was just going with a dozen of the fishbowl ornaments, but I've decided to up that a bit as they're pretty high in demand. Cuteness factor I think, here a close up of the fishbowls:

Here fishie-fishie-fishie-fishie! I like how these turn out because the cats expression can be read as 'Oh crap, she caught me...' or 'Can't...hang...on....must..catch....fishie!.....

Of course I like the single cats too. This particular one is my current favorite and I won't be sad if someone doesn't buy him cause then he'll live in my tree :)

Hoping to sell a bunch of these guys at the craft show. Its what I'll be using to buy my kids Christmas presents. Ironically, this plan was put into place before I lost my job when I found out we were no longer getting Christmas bonuses (another plus to no longer working there )

A 'Meowy Christmas' to all!

Time for dancing! I was unsure about performing since its been a while with me being in school and off the dance floor for a while, but I decided just to wing it. And I'm glad I did cause I really had fun and I really wanted to perform in the bra I had made. It was also my first time performing since I got my tattoo which didn't occur to me until I saw this picture: I really need to get that thing colored in, lol. It will be less of an 'ummm, what is it?' type of tat when I do. (pssst! Its a mermaid btw, and her boyfriend is on my back where you can't see ;) ) Also, if you notice the curtains blowing the wind kicked up during my performance, which was totally cool and spooky! Thanks to the wind gods for pumping up my performance ;)

I have missed performing. I think if I get more performing out of my system I won't be so resistant to teaching. I keep thinking once I start teaching that I'll have no time for personal exploration of my own style, so I'd like to have that more firmly in my mind before that. Though I'm realizing more and more that I don't really have a trademarked style, I do what I like, which is a little bit of everything.

BTW, the string behind me is attatched to a pinata, which was merrily bashed by a birthday girl and when the candy and confetti came out the Hafla (arabic for 'party') really got going. We had confetti fights, we danced free style, and just basically had fun. This was our last night so we really hooped it up.

Here you can see the confetti all over the floor like sand, lol. We were doing a circle dance and it was my good luck that someone across from me took a picture. I'm the only one with a bare midriff, which is kind of wierd in a room full of belly dancers now that I'm looking at it, ha! I had changed out of my bra and belt because I didn't want them to get sweaty, costume bras are a pain to clean. To the right of me is Valentina from Italy and to the left of me is Rachel Brice.

Here's myself pictured with Yumi from Japan. She was such a sweet heart, and I love the faces she made! She didn't speak much English, but we still seemed to manage and it was fun bridging the communication gap. She performed a traditional Japanese dance that was beautiful and delicate. You can see we both have confetti in our hair, woo wee!

And finally heres Rachel and I, somewhat shakey picture since it was a self done variety (Rachel did the shooting ;) Rachel is such an amazing teacher, I try to catch her at least once a year because she just has this thing about her that is so rejuevenating. Her assistant Manca from Slovenia was doing a documentary about her and she had me say some things about Rachel for it. Basically when you go to Rachels workshops you leave not only wanting to be a better dancer but also a better person. I used to always think that the reason I liked her so much is because she has a heavy background in yoga that flavors her dance and I'd say the same about my style, but now I just think she has a pure spirit thats contagious and an inner light that you don't find too often.

So thats the trip in a nutshell. Lots of zen time, but also some nature time and some party-hardy time. It was an amazing experience and I would so love to do it again next year. I had thought that this would be a one time thing for me, but now I'm not sure. When I first heard about this retreat I thought "Oh I have to do that one day...' and figured I'd do it once and be set. It is an annual thing, so I certainly could do it again next year.

I realize I am so fortunate to have been able to go once, much less considering it again. I am so happy that I got to have this experience and I will cherish all of my memories of it. I would love to do it again, but I have other things I want to try out as well. I owe my kids a trip next year and we're thinking of going to Washington D.C. While I crave adventures on my own I also love to pursue them with my kids. Helping my kids to see the world is a big priority to me and I know its something I can do right by them. You learn things while traveling that you'll never learn in a classroom.

Namaste.

Costa Rican serenity

Part of the retreat consisted of yoga and the other of dance. The resort we stayed at was primarily a retreat and spa having nightly yoga classes included in the cost and a variety of spa treatments available. This was like heaven for me, being a newly licensed massage therapist about to finish my yoga teacher training. Being here showed me how in harmony my vices are and helped to shape the image of what it is I want to do with the rest of my life. At the end of the retreat we were asked what we would take with us, and for me it was the whole feeling and idea of the retreat. It will be my carrot on the stick as I continue on with my school and journey down the road of being self employed. Heres a candid shot of me, I was pulling my socks off but it almost looks 'pose-ish'. This is at the watsu tub, I found it to be a nice place to practice.
Watsu is a massage form that takes place in a heated pool. The therapist doesn't massage in the traditional 'kneading' way, but guides the client thru a series of flowing movements. Supposed to be very relaxing and emotionally healing. I didn't try it myself, but everyone who did just raved about it so it is something I'd like to try in the future.
Now what I *did* try was a spa pedicure. I have never treated myself to a pedicure but I love having my feet babied so I put this on my list prior to going on the trip. Next time I'll know to bring more money for more therapies ;) But hey, check out my lovely tootsies!:

Toes are very happy with warm little stones between them :) I *love* the color I got, which you can't see too well, but its actually a mix of two colors. A dark almost black purple with an irradescent fuschia on top, made them a royal sparklie purple.

Heres just a random shot while we were getting ready for yoga. I loved this hall, it felt so open and airy, and the floor was very nice. I always notice the black pants on the gal at the left in this shot, the resort had a nice gift shop with some awesome yoga clothes and those pants came from there. I was good and stuck to my budget, but a pair I tried on I loved so much that I emailed when I returned and I'm going to have them shipped to me. My legs really liked them ;) They're longer, and purple with a lighter purple dragon on them. Can't wait to get them, its like prolonging the experience by getting them now instead of onsite :) I think its a sign that they were ment to be mine since they were still there after I left. They were waiting for me.

Heres some more lovelyness of the resort. To the left is the hot tub where I spent every single evening. I think soaking in the waters there helped me from getting sore after doing hours of yoga and dance every day. I thought for sure I would feel like I had my ass kicked every day as I've never done a workshop thats lasted this long, but I really didn't. Either she was gentle on us, or I was in shape from my yoga teacher training. I think its a little of both. But the hot tub was my sanctuary, it also had an awesome view of San Jose twinkling at night.

Is this not the coolest yoga hall you've ever seen? I called this the 'green house', because of all the plants. The 'walls' were a wire cage lined with mesh to keep the creatures out and it had a roof to protect the gorgeous floor during rain. Way. Cool. It was like doing yoga in the jungle but with just enough modern amenities to keep you comfortable. Nadia was my favorite teacher here, she had a lovely 'yoga-voice'. I told her I would have to adopt a spanish accent for my class because her voice was just so lulling. She also did this thing that I liked where she sprayed a lightly scented mist over us in savasana. Not enough to get you all wet, just a light spray that was quite refreshing. Apparently it was an ayurvedic mix called 'energy balance'.

I must say I love experiencing yoga in other cultures, its quite fascinating! And it was also educational to see how a non-american 'spa' approached body work. I would love to go back again next year and have more of the treatments, but its either Costa Rica 'part Deux' or Thailand to learn Thai-yoga massage. I would love to do Costa Rica again, but my sensible side (which doesn't come out often) is leaning towards having a 'different' stamp on my passport. And I could write the Thai trip off on my taxes since its to learn a massage modality rather than experience one. It depends on if I can catch Rachel somewhere else. If so, then it won't sting as much to not go again as she was the main motivator for my going on this trip.

So, that brings us to the dance portion of the trip. Stay tuned for the next update of the bellydancing sort ;)

Costa Rica cont.

So I left off with the touchie touchie bird. God he was cute! We then moved on into a butterfly room which was way cool. A particular butterfly featured was a gorgeous blue variety native to Costa Rica. They were quite friendly as you can see:

Now wait, didn't I say it was a blue butterfly? This is the cool part about these guys, they have this neutral (but still very pretty pattern) color on the outside of their wings, but on the inside its a lovely jewel blue. So when they're flying around its harder for predators to get a bead on them because all they see are flashes of color. This guy was too shy to open his wings for me ;) So I shot a picture of one of his buddies who had no problem showing off his blue.

Lovely little fellow isn't he? Imagine a room full of hundreds of these guys flapping away. Makes you giggle like a little girl, and yes I was one of those wierd people that would 'baby talk' to the butterflies to get them to land on me, hehe. Butterflies have feelings too you know ;)

Which brings me to this cute guy. For some reason I was more taken with this green butterfly than any of the others. I know, its green. No pop or pizzazz amongst the foliage like his wings 'aren't ripe yet'. But I loved them, and I'm not even a huge green person. And doesn't he look just lovely on this yellow flower? Too cute. Also cute, this little shit was a smart ass as well. As I'm cooing at him to be a good little butterfly and hold still so I can get his picture, his next move after I got this shot was to flit off the flower and come land on my thumb. That was attatched to the hand holding the camera. And the other hand still had the blue butterfly on it, so there I was with a butterfly in each hand and unable to get a picture of either. Oh how I wish one of my travel mates was nearby and could have got a shot of that, I'm sure the look on my face was something along the lines of, 'Well....shit!'

And heres my favorite waterfall shot, I know, you can't see the waterfall all that well but tough! Cause lookie! I caught a rainbow! Now it gets to live forever in my computer ;)

This plant is awesome!! Costa Rica just has the coolest plants, bromeliads mostly, but also orchids. This? I don't know what this is. But if you look, the yellow parts are actually *furry*, too cool!! And I loved that it looks like a bunch of flamingoes stacked on top of each other.

This is the lazy ocelot. I think if I was a cat in the jungle that would be my favorite position too.

Oh, bigger kitty. They called this a panther, cougar, mountain lion, puma, and a jaguar. I wasn't going to correct the guy. Cougar, mountain lion, and puma are interchangeable, but not jaguar or panther. Long list of names and penetrating gaze aside, check out her muscles!! The massage therapist in me is way impressed and I would love to get my hands on her with out being puma-slapped. After swimming with the dolphins in Florida where I ended up palpating it and trying to assess its musculature (fascinating!), I've accepted the fact that I have a muscle fetish. Ahem.

These flowers smelled like honey suckles back home. They look kind of like them too, but ours are less 'tropically'.Another cool plant! This is like the upside down less fuzzy version of the flamigo stack plant from earlier.

So that was our out day. I'm saving all the yoga, bellydance, and 'spa-ish' stuff for my final post as its more reflective. Be back soon.

Costa Rica

I always seem to take pictures out the plane windows when beginning a journey out of the U.S., either out of boredom or to be able to say "Hey look, heres Mexico!' when I return.

I actually don't know if this is Mexico or not, but I know its somewhere in Central America. I love those flights where they have a map on screen so you know where your flying over, but this flight was not one of them. I thought the colors of the delta meeting the ocean were beautiful, the rusty browns and greens fading to sands and blues.

I arrived in San Jose and was transported to my resort, Pura Vida, which is also a catch phrase in Costa Rica meaning 'Pure Life', so it was easy to find a magnet with my 'hotels name' on it. I always buy a magnet where ever I go, so every time I get into the fridge I can remember my travels.

This is a shot of my resort grounds that I think gives a good feel for the layout and design. I actually took this on the last day during some rare sunshine. I'm standing on the terrace where we ate our meals, the palms you see surround the hot tub where I spent every night after dancing and yoga all day. The building to the right of them is where we practiced the majority of our dance and yoga. Its a beautiful building with windows on all walls save for one which is mirrored, so it gives the feeling of being completely open and the balconies overlook San Jose.

On the left is peering thru the dance/yoga hall, and on the right is the view from the balcony when you walk through. San Jose at night is beautiful with twinkling lights, and the always cloud capped hills provide a different type of scenery every day. The cloud cover in Costa Rica is amazing. The weather there changes at the drop of a hat (rather like Ohio ;) One morning it was bright and sunny then as we practiced our dance the fog rolled in, at first so thick that we could no longer see San Jose, then it actually started drifting into the room with us. It was pretty surreal.

So heres my 'Livin ma vida yoga' shot ;) This is pre pedicure btw, my toes looked much nicer after Marcella got finished with them. It was very nice to do some free style flow yoga on this balcony on our off times.

One day was a free day for excursions to explore Costa Rica. I had thought I would want to do the zip line as I had always thought it would be cool to go thru the jungle on one. But after they explained the excursions to us it sounded like the zip line was more of a 'Weee---look at me!!' type thing and I wanted to see pretty plants and animals. So I opted to tour the Waterfall Gardens. I'm glad I did because this is where I got my favorite shot of the trip:

I loved these toucans, it was so funny watching them hop about. They gave us fruit to feed them and they'd tilt their heads this way and that before deciding to eat it. This guy here had finished his fruit and was trying to eat my braid, lol. They had us take off our earrings for that reason it seems.

I'm going to stop here for now and will continue on with more pictures on the next post. I'm still trying to work out whats easiest when it comes to blogging, adding pictures as I go, first, or last. I think I'll try adding pictures first next time, that way I can just type around them ;) Till next time!

Catching up!

I don't think I have any readers as of yet, but even though I thought I'd just post a 'be back in a bit' post.

I got back from Costa Rica (amazing!) last Monday and by Tuesday was back at it in school working on my Bacholeors finally. Yay, big girl school!

My chemistry class wasn't as bad as I had fretted about. It seems most of the people in my class have had no chemistry and I had thought since I needed permission to sign up that it was a slightly more difficult class. I guess the permission was dependent on you major or something. I have my first lab in about a half an hour and hope I'm not as much of a Beavis as I was in my last chemistry labs.

Anyways, won't bore my absent readers with the school stuff, but when I have the time maybe later tonight I'll post about Costa Rica. It was a very inspiring week!

This week I found out I'm an Associates Degree Grad, and a Licensed Massage Therapist!! Yay me! Now gimmie that vacation cause I NEED it!!

Trig was my last class for my degree and I feel dumber having now taken it, lol. Then the board results which were supposed to take 6 weeks ended up taking TEN!! Out of 800+ people sitting for the massage boards in my state 403 people passed, and my entire class of 18 made it.

Out of worrying that trig would beat me delaying my degree and not passing the boards, I. is. tired. ;) Conviently, 10 days from now I'll be bound for my week of yoga, bellydance, and spa-ish stuff in Costa Rica. Bring on the zen.

When I get back, I have my last yoga class and will be a Registered Yoga teacher. Its been a productive summer :)

Pose triumph!

They say yoga is not a competitive sport, but for myself it is :)

I tend to be drawn to mastering 'pretty poses', and set goals for myself in the pursuit of them. For instance my first achievement was one legged wheel, where your doing a back bend and extending one leg up towards the ceiling. Full wheel is usually hard enough, and adding the leg up version makes it a balance posture bordering on inversion. Strangely you don't see too much instruction on the more difficult versions. Usually if your trying one of the harder variations its just something you need to work with a teacher and they spot you until you feel steady enough on you own. I dedicate alot of my practice to finding those little tricks that make poses more attainable. So I threw myself into getting comfortable with one legged wheel, and like a mad scientist of extreme bending I have some conclusions :)

When you first attempt to bring the leg up, your instinct is to increase pressure with your grounded leg. This is a mistake, because it throws your weight into the least supported direction, like pushing a tripod over by shoving a support between two of the supports. The 'trick' to be able to raise say your right leg, is to resist with your right arm as well. The arm then takes on the weight the leg is adding and distrubutes it to your left side which is fully grounded. So, as you begin to slowly lift your leg you want to imagine you are pushing harder against the ground with that same arm. So yay, success! I'm still experimenting with bringing the grounded foot to midline first, giving a more even tripod position, but for now I like being able just to bring my lifted foot down without having to switch foot positions. Next time, I'm going to work on getting my elbows down in wheel, *then* lifing the leg, muhahahah.... If I get realllly ambitious, I may try this:

One legged wheel, elbows down, while grasping the grounded foot. Holy shit! Isn't that amazing?!?

This is probably why they say yoga is not competitive, because you'll never be told your not doing the posture right as there are so many variations and you use the one the works for you. But for me, things like this are something to strive for. I think its fun ;)

Another pose goal I have on my list is 'Get my foot on top of my head in King Pidgeon'. Before class last week, the best I can do is catch my foot in the crease of my elbow and grasp hands over my head. In class my teacher helped me reach over my head and actualy grab my foot! This is one of those instances where a spotter comes in damn handy, I had felt like my foot was a mile away from my hand and I could never find it. She simply took my hand and placed it on my foot. It was funny, even though I was reaching for it when my hand first made contact with my toes my foot screamed 'AHHH! Somethings got me!' Like I said, my brain was telling me my foot was way far away, lol. And another funny thing, I was so elated when I got ahold of my foot that I broke out in a sweat, including my toes. Which made it very hard to hang onto my foot, which wouldn't have been a big deal except another class mate was taking pictures of me at the moment. In one shot I'm trying so hard to not let my grip slip off my sweaty toes that my front foot looked like a claw going 'raaawwrrr' with my toes going every which way, lol. So much for 'pretty poses', lol! She said she'd email me the pictures, I'll post them when she does cause they are rather amusing. But in the mean time, heres the same pose performed by one of my dance idols Rachel Brice, albeit way more flawlessly...:

Bellisima! Now *that* is a pretty pose! I'll be experiementing with this some more and see if I can come up with any 'tricks' to it to share. I've tried working with a strap before, but its tricky since your foot has to be pointed which makes the strap slip off. Not a good thing when your in a balance pose, which this does not look so much like one, but it is. Whenever you've got a foot off the ground, your balancing. But I'll give it a try again, seeing as I now know my foot is within reach behind my head ;)

The fun stuff I get to play with when schools out, squee! It is so nice having a few weeks off before going back for my 'real' degree. Grades still aren't posted for summer semester but I'm fairly confident I've got straight B's. I'm not 'officially' an associate college grad, but I think I'm good to go. Will be nice when I finally have that paper in my hands ;) Also another thing I should find out about this week are my massage boards. The outcome is either 'You are now licensed' or "Sorry, come back in December'. I should know by this Friday, the 14th. I'm trying to keep busy so I can forget about that ;)

Clay ornaments

I have one week of class left then a brief period of delightful nothingness before it starts up again. I keep saying I'm not going to take summer classes again, but yet I always seem to end up there again, bitching and moaning the whole time about how I'm not going to do it again.

This time I mean it. I don't care if it takes an extra year to finish my Bachelors, next summer, I'm taking it OFF! I'm thinking of taking the kids to Florida again anyways.

Once I'm done with this school nonsense this week I've got several piles of craftyness I've been wanting to dig into. I've got dance costumes that need assembled, I want to dabble in my water colors and work on my drawing skills, but mostly my fingers are itching to get into my polymer clay again.

For the last 2 years I've made 'cutesy' ornaments and sold them at Christmas time for extra Christmas money. Mostly cats hanging off of glass balls, but last year I came up with an extra cool version that I thought was way cute:

The kittys vain attempt to capture the fish made his expression seem more comical than cute. 'Cute' usually isn't my style, but if its something that makes you laugh I'm all for it. I visualize the fish thinking 'Dude, your sooo totally not going to get me...'

The tricky part with this original design was orienting the cat so he didn't completely make the ball hang crooked so the fish inside rests against the glass (which ruined the floaty swimmy fishie effect). My first solution was to put another cat on the other side to balance the ball, which is also cute because then it looks like a conspiracy to catch the fish, but its also makes the whole presentation a little more fragile. Another tricky part was constructing the fish in a way that I could get him inside the glass after cooking him without breaking him. I totally pulverized a few unfortunate uncooked fellows before getting it right.

This version of my cats was quite popular, and before I knew it all the clear glass balls I had bought were gone and Christmas ornies aren't something that are usually available year round. I had people asking about them well after December but had no supplies to make any. But recently I found a huge stash of them at Hobby Lobby, in larger quantites and *on sale*. Yay, now I can premake plenty before Christmas time and not worry so much about running out. And I also have plenty of extra to play with some other ideas I had as I'd like to try out some non-Christmasy stuff. Though I know alot of people leave theirs out all year long, especially the ones that I did memorial cats for. I'll have people send me pictures of their cats and I'll make the cat to look like theirs which is tricky sometimes, but a fun challenge. I especially like when I can make an angel cat for someone such as this guy:

This is actually a version of my parents cat Tina who died right before Christmas. I like doing angel cats, a more sentimental version of clay cuteness.

I'm trying to expand my range from cats, so far I've also done foxes and racoons because they're almost the same shape as cats. Dogs are trickier because they have very breed specific ears, muzzles, tails, yadda yadda. But experimentation is in order, and I do have some fun ideas I'm going to work with. If I come up with anything noteworthy I'll be sure to share some pictures.

Zen blood

~~~Yawns.... I am *way* tired at the moment. Worked last night and had to get up with 3 hours of sleep to get to my yoga teacher training class. Today we were doing our hour long practice teach with warm ups, pranayama, sequence, cool down, and savasana with visualizations. Theres 4 of us in the class, so that equaled 4 hours of yoga for all of us. Oy.

Its very interesting how different our styles are. One gal is very calming and soothing, another is somewhat more whimsical and you spend several poses giggling. Me? Well I guess I'm the bellydancing massage yogi, I like things to flow like a choreography and I like to address specific muscle groups. My style is most accurately described as vinyasa, which is a more up and moving form of yoga (vinyasa means 'flow'...I like flow...) so it was a good workout as well. I like to encourage laughter as well ;)

After class I'm on my way home and see a sign for a blood drive. One thing I tend to do when I'm tired is when I thought enters my befuddled mind my body just dumbly says 'Sure, lets do that!!' I had no appointment, so I basically crashed a phlebotomist party, lol. I've got big pipelines for veins so they're always happy to see me. I'm like a blood keg on tap for them.

One funny thing was when I was explaining my Essure placement to the gal taking my vitals (they were trying to determine if it affected my eligibility), she called another nurse over to confer. Actually I don't think she was a nurse, I'm not even sure she was an aide, because I heard her ask this lady another time 'What does 'ambulatory' mean?' You can't work in health care and not know that, and here she is getting ready to make me bleed. But anyways, I explain the procedure to these lovely older ladies and they were practically high fiving me for annihilating my fertility. This was a pleasant change from the 'Oh, don't you want more kids? Your still young...' reaction. Too late now, they've already installed my 'Black Knights' and 'None shall pass....' I could hang with those grannies ;)

Oh, and I'm really glad I ended up donating today because I also learned that where I'm going in Costa Rica makes me ineligible to donate until I've been back for a year. They had a map of the country and Alajeula was just beyond the safe green area and into the red area for Malaria risks. Pout.

But at least I got in a nice pint of Zen loaded blood before my hiatus ;)

Ebaying between reports

I have never been a strong math student so I've spent plenty of time freaking out about my Trigonometry class. I need one math class for my degree, and I need trig to get into physics, so it was an easy decision. But I tell ya, once we get past special triangles and Pythagorean theorem, I'm lost. How in the world did these people come up with this stuff. Sin and cosine and tangent? Bleh... I bombed my first quiz which was OPEN BOOK! Which has me feeling like a total moron, and of course I fret about not passing. Not passing means I have to start on my bachelors in fall without finishing my associates first, so no major derailing of my plans. But I'd still need to take it again to satisfy my math requirement. So I keep clawing my way thru, because I cannot do this stuff again!


Its made me fall behind on my anthropology class unfortunately, but the upside is that class is online and as its summer the due dates for assignments are rather flexible. So I'm madly catching up on those reports at the moment. And obviously I'm taking a break to write this, heh.


I have the internet up so I can google something quickly if need be, and can never just have one tab up so I also am listing stuff on ebay at the same time. I have dial up and it takes so long to load the pictures so I like to multitask while doing it ;) One day, I will have high speed wireless internet when I'm done with school, heh.


Anyways, about the ebaying; I am liberating myself from all my old scrapbooking supplies. I hated looking at them and feeling obligated to do something with them when I had other stuff I wanted to do more. Plus they take up a lot of space as I, uh, tended to collect more than scrap ;) I had avoided listing them on ebay because I hate ebays fee's and I figured I wouldn't get my monies worth back. I finally said 'You know, I don't care if I get $5 for this, lets just get rid of it!' And many times I've been pleasantly surprised at how much an item has gotten bid up when you list it low. So now my pile is gradually dwindling down to nothing and theres not much left now. What a relief! And its given me some extra moolah for some things I would really want. For instance these bracelets from rajasthan:
I have always wanted a pair of these, I love that they look like raspberries. I think they're called gajre bells or something. But authentic rajasthani jewelry is quite expensive, they're a silver alloy and usually antique in nature. Plus all of the well known tribal dance gals wear them so demand has gone up. I'm not usually a trend joiner, but I've always loved this style of bracelet and have trolled ebay on and off for them. The cheapest I'd seen for one quality authentic piece was $150. I found mine for $40 including shipping for the *pair*. I am so stoked. I also bought another rajasthani piece that I had been watching on ebay for so long that it had been relisted multiple times. It was $70 but it 'called' to me. So now its mine too and I love it! Its not pictured, but its smaller and something I can wear when I'm not performing because its not as much of a statement piece as the gajre pair.
So I've replaced a pile of guilt inducing junk with 3 lovely bracelets that I love love love. And they take up so much less space, lol.

Alright, time to get back to my report on the Maya and Aztec.

Greetings bloggers!

Hello everyone. I'm not completely new to blogging but this is my first time having one on a site specifically for bloggers. This first post may be somewhat long as I'm using it as an introduction and I feel the need to define what this blog is going to be about.

I had a really hard time picking my title. I mean this blog is mostly about my life and how in the hell do you sum up your life with a little title? Then theres the marketing aspect of it, what can be taken the wrong way, and what kind of readers do you want to attract, that sorta thing. I picked this one because it was the best way to sum things up in under 5 words.

Want the long story? Muhaha, you know you do. Okay, here we go. I'm a mom to two boys, I've worked in a hospital labor and delivery unit for a decade and just finished massage school. Hopefully by next month I'll have my board results and will have the initials LMT behind my name, whoo hoo! Further more, I started back in school once I had both boys in school full time and could maybe have my Associates of Science next month as well. That is, if I don't fail the trigonometry class I'm currently taking, which I *HATE*! Math is not my friend, I saved it for last because I know I suck at it. Ahem, after that I start directly on my Bachelors in Exercise Science which I thought would go well with my massage career. Plus I'm fascinated with the muscle system if you can't tell. A third project I'll be finished with in August is my yoga teacher certification, whoo hoo! I'm also a bellydancer and hope to teach that and yoga, and combine it with my massage practice to promote movement as therapy. So thats the big picture goal for my next few years. I think all that does pretty much equal a quest for zen, as thats what I imagine a life of 'being done with school' after so many years means, especially when you've got 2 kids to provide for, heh.

So you now know I love science, and hate math. I also love art, many forms of it. Dancing would be my favorite, I've been bellydancing for many years now. Thats one thing I've had to let go somewhat with all these classes and its been hard not having that outlet whenever I need it. I also work a fair bit with polymer clay, I like the process of manipulating a nameless lump into something recognizable and intriguing. I also like working with textiles, I used to cross stitch and do hardanger but don't have much time now, and I also make alot of my dance costumes. Theres an extra little reward of pride to perform in something you've made yourself :) I *used* to be good at drawing, but its a practice I rather let go which I now regret because I struggle with it now. Not a big deal I guess, except for the fact that I'd like to try my hand at watercolors and thats sort of difficult when you don't have a drawing to add them too, hehe. I love watercolors because of the way they behave on paper and the transparancy they lend. I really want to play with that so as a result I've been working on the drawing skills again.

So what am I going to be yapping about in this blog? Well due to HIPPA, I can't talk much about work ;) Which is fine with me as I don't like to carry it around with me anyways. And I don't make much of a habit of talking about my kids online because I'm paranoid like that. Mostly I imagine I will spend my time bitching about my college classes and bemoaning whatever artistic muse is eluding me at the moment. I figure most blogs do better with some kind of steady subject matter anyways.

Anyways, thanks for reading and for bothering to show up! Forgive my page while I figure out how blogger works and how to get pictures up and all that fun stuff. Till next time!