Tuesday, September 24, 2013

What an incredible couple of weeks!

I have had an absolutely amazing couple of weeks. Weeks that have once again made me realize how amazing my friends are.

I went scuba diving for the first time because of my friend Craig. And then we stopped by a reconstructed grist mill, where I got a bag of flour that was ground for me, which I will be making pancakes with!

I was inspired to push my glass blowing skills further in exciting directions because of my friend Paris. More sculpture, more motivation to watch good glass blowers work their magic, and an invitation to visit her glass studio in Joshua Tree when it's running this winter.

My friend Deb recommended me for a show, the Big 400, and I am in. We attended the funky artist party to pick up wooden blanks for the show, and got to feel the eccentric artistic fun of the younger Portland art scene (Portlandia has nothing on us), enjoyed food and drink, met some new people, and I had a random guy come up and give me extravagant compliments. Deb and I also had artist geek time inspiring me to create some new products that I'm hoping will prove both lucrative and help me get into some additional shows. And I'm planning on going up to Best of the Northwest, in Seattle, with Deb as her support later in October, possibly with an eye toward applying next year myself.

This weekend I attended Bridgetown Swing, the local Portland West Coast Swing dancing convention and competition. I ended up going because my friend / dance instructor / fellow aerial student Trina asked if I would be willing to make some of my glass slugs as prizes for one of the competitions. I agreed to take a weekend pass in partial trade, something that not only enabled me to go, but encouraged me to spend more time there, where I remembered my great love of dancing, plus improved my admittedly rusty swing dancing skills.

Last Friday night my friend Doc and I attended the opening night show and gala for Fiddler on the Roof, put on by Portland Center Stage. It was a great show! And there were all sorts of wine, and beer, and tasty foodz, and sparkly people to hang out with later. And then after that we ended up going out to drinks with some of the crew and cast. The tickets came from my friend Lexi, who I hadn't seen in WAY too long, and now I'm hoping to hang out with her more, and hopefully go blues dancing with her and some other friends soon.

I know AMAZING and generous people. Maybe it's just because I am a nice and interesting person. But some how I have managed to gather the right people around me. And I am SO grateful. Right now I am poor, tired, and still having health problems. But you know what? It doesn't matter. I am surrounded by awesomeness, having fun, and it's the people and the love in my life that make it so. :)

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Back to exercise and back to ME

I have oficially shaken off the feeling that I just can't do stuff. I put on my music and started my own weird version of circuit training again tonight. No more excuses. Do stuff when I feel good enough, and make it happen.

I have some long-term, and shorter term goals.

Do pull-ups.

A big one: Be able to do straddle ups in the air. I have never been able to do this, and it is holding me back from advancing in aerial. It's a little bit mental, but more upper body and core strength, and less weight, will help a lot too. Being able to do pull-ups will also help SO much.

Be able to jugle 5 clubs. And then 5 knives. I need to get off my ass and practice.

Be as comfortable on top of the stacked rola bolas as I am on a single one now.

Balance stuff! On me. Wherever.

Be able to do two rola bolas. I was practicing a bunch for a while and fizzled.

Do more "machine/factory" type juggling tricks, with both hands. And back crosses.

Loose about 20 lbs in fat and gain about 10 in muscle. Or something like that.

I didn't keep very close track of reps of things, or exact time, I just pushed hard and did as much as I can. I did silks climbs, jumprope, and hula hoop for cardio. Oh, and meteor with a monkey fist meteor, which also counts as an awesome upper body wor-out in it's own right.

Additional silks work: Straddle up, and held, several more fairly sad straddle up and inversion attempts, various foot locks and a wrap, used the silks for an anchor while doing meat hooks.

I didn't do much trapeze, I'm trying to make sure I can still blow glass tomorrow. But I did catcher's hang crunches, which are always awesome.

I practed balancing on the rola bola. Just one is easy as pie for me, after not being on it for maybe a year (!!), so I stacked some yoga blocks and another board on there and got practicing.

Other aerial type exercises: the weird straddle/plow/crunch ab exercise, crunches, hanging as long as possible with bent elbows (since I can't actually do a pull-up).

Juggling: 5 balls with heavier and larger balls, mill's mess.

Pell work - 100 blows (maybe more actually). I forcussed on using my body, using my core to push through and be powerful, and leaving my arm almost staionary and using my body a lot, because I am really bad at using my body well for fighting right now. And stepping while throwing to help with power. And punchig short-sticking, just 'cause.

Things I didn't get to and wanted to do: hand stand practice, and diabolo. I can't find the hand sticks for my diabolo! And I just forgot the hand stands.

I feel like I got a pretty good work-out, I was craving protien a little while after I was done. I'm going to have to get set up to make smoothies again. Instead I fried up some tofu and had it with rice. It was the Best Tofu Ever. Seriously. Oh, and there was baby corn too.

I'm not doing a strict diet, but I am trying to be rational about what I eat.


And now... reading a lot about various aerial work outs!


Oh and one last thing. My knee hurts. And my right hand/wrist. Both have been sore on and off for a bit, no idea why. So I pushed things, but not so much that I would aggrivate those areas too much, hopefully.





Monday, September 9, 2013

Wow, last week was a heck of a week in adventure girl land! I really can't believe how much was crammed into it. I purchased an awesome antique chair, went bouldering with friends at the Circuit bouldering gym, went for a ride in a side car, went to a new-to-me tea house, saw the mummy exhibit at OMSI, got to hold a real child's skull, was introduced to some cool new places around town, helped work on constructing my friends' viking pit house, went scuba diving for the first time ever (something I have ALWAYS wanted to do), visited a reconstructed water-powered grist mill and got a little bag of flour from them, started taking the tile off of my bathroom floor, purchased a bunch of small tiles at the Rebuilding Center, and Re Store, and have been spending every spare moment trying to make my house so it isn't a disaster. Which all goes to show that you don't have to travel to adventure! :D