Curvily Yours: Secret Class

I took a secret dance class the other day. Just to see how my body would take it. The result? My body felt fantastic. My back groaned a little through all of the stretching but has felt absolutely fabulous since class. My biggest complaint once I stopped PT was that my back was always tight. It's amazing how much one class loosened me up. Ok, well MOST of my body felt fantastic after class. There was a little bit of a groin strain incident. But that was my own fault for just not acknowledging mentally how inflexible I have become. Thou shalt not try dropping into a split from a standing position if one has not done the splits in over 9 months.

So I survived class with flying colors. I mostly just warmed up and danced. No pole tricks at this time. I'm not planning on pushing my luck. I have an MRI scheduled for next wednesday to officially clear me ( I hope) to start taking classes again.  I know that my family is going to throw a fit about this, and I don't blame them. But I want to dance, need to dance and if I can completely bounce back from this injury I am damn well going to do it. It makes me happy and it keeps me fit both mentally and physically.

How do I know that my family is going to throw a fit? Well because they have already made their position quite clear on the issue of me being back to playing soccer. Yes soccer, I know I am probably crazy, but I'm not ready to stop playing yet. Although I know there will come a day when I decide, enough is enough when it comes to this sport. Dancing for the rest of my life is one thing, soccer, well, we'll see.

In the meantime I am enjoying the ability to move freely. To run and jump, to bend and twist all things that I definitely missed. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks to my Mom and Dad for my awesome V-Day Socks! Wish we were all together too! xo

Reception Deception

Tuesday, Oct 2, 2012
Going shopping while waiting to pick your sister up from the airport is a great idea. Until you realize that you don't get reception in the dressing rooms and that she has been calling for the last 40 minutes because her plane got in 40 minutes early! I only realized that she was calling when I came out of the dressing rooms and got a call from Mr Mine asking me if I had gotten any of her messages. Which of course I hadn't, not a single peep from my phone. Poor Ms Bliss was stuck at the airport for an additional hour. Fortunately for me she forgave me considering I STILL haven't received any msgs on my phone from her and it's been over 12 hours!

Ms Bliss Residency Graduation

Friday, August 3, 2012
So unbelievably proud of my sis, Ms Bliss. Today she graduated from the Nurse Residency program at CHLA (Children's Hospital of Los Angeles). I know what an extreme struggle it was for her to get through the program. It's a tough program with a very steep learning curve and apparently it's also the place where residency programs were born.

I teared up several times during the proceedings. Once when they had a bunch of their patients come in and sing a song to the grads and once while the Head Nurse was giving an interview about why she's glad she became a nurse instead of a doctor. I'm paraphrasing here but it went something like "I get to be there for all of the moments, the happy, and the sad. When the doctors go home for the day I am the one who pays my last respects to the patients.."

It's an amazing achievement and I know she is experiencing a great opportunity. For now she will be staying at CHLA and I expect that she will learn a lot more in the coming two years. Congrats Sissy!!! All that hard work paid off!

The Baby Shower

I love Jack and Jill baby showers because it allows the men to be celebrated as much as the women. And since it definitely takes two to make these marvelous creations I think they both deserve the credit! Ms Ianthine and I made our final stop of the day at the main event of my trip. Mr & Mrs Pentagon's Babyshower. We created an awesome Diaper Bike in preparation for the big day and were excited to show it off!

Ms Ianthine and I    |    Our Awesome Diaper Bike

There was lots of simply yummy food. My favorite's being the prettily decorated Cake Balls. They were delicious, and I may or may not have eaten 3 or....5.

It was fun watching the happy couple open up all of their crazy shower gifts. My favorite though was a special surprise from Mrs Pentagon's mom. She wrapped Mrs Pentagon's own baby blanket with a note saying that she had to open it with a special somebody. That special somebody just happened to be the blankets original creator and it was a delight to watch the smiles all around as they opened it together.

And Of course every baby shower would not be complete without BABIES!!!! There was the beautiful darling Miss Mackenzie. Daughter of Mrs Pentagon's Besties Mr & Mrs Smiley.

And two twin boys who were only 5 weeks old. They both look like little orangutans. So absolutely adorable!

Sadly it was over way too soon, but we got some great take home treats! Wine glasses with baby inspired glass charms. A ton of pictures to remember the day by and hopefully sweet dreams after this extremely long and exhausting day.

Glad for the Grad

At my age, and I know that 33 is not really that old, there is nothing that makes you feel older than going to a High School Graduation party. You stand around and think about how young and innocent the Grads are. Thinking thoughts like "oh just you wait" and "wow, I can't even remember how it felt to first start college". You think about how many years it's been since you graduated (ouch, has it really been that many??). And maybe reminisce a little about first kisses, first dates, and any other firsts (or fifths) that you want to throw in there. 

Since this trip has been all about seeing my old high school friends I found it fitting that Ms Ianthine's cousin Tim was having his graduation party the same weekend I was in town for Mr & Mrs Pentagon's Babyshower. Since I was staying with her she asked if I wouldn't mind attending and cited the things that make you a sucker for grad parties. Mostaccioli, potato salad, cake, and more Mostaccioli...

So our third stop of the day was to swing by and congratulate Tim on surviving high school mayhem and wishing him every chance for success in his future at OU. This particular grad party, being of modern times, included not only the delightful cake and "wall of shame, but a Photo Booth, a slushee machine, and a fondue fountain. Fun, yum, and YUM! I'm sad to say that due to our tight schedule for the day we actually ended up heading out right after the rest of Ms Ianthine's family arrived. We completely missed out on both the magnificent mostaccioli AND the cake. 

Shower Prep: The Diaper Bike

In light of the impending Pentagon's Babyshower, Ms Ianthine and I decided we needed to get our butts in gear to create the ultimate shower gift, The Diaper Bike. You may have possibly heard of Diaper Cakes which have apparently been all the rage recently. Well, we decided to take that a step farther with a little help from Google. Because you know what happens when you google "better than Diaper Cake"? You got it, you get the Diaper Bike.

This would be a quick and easy gift, if Baby Stores were layed out in a sensible manner. But it seems that they decide to put a little bit of everything everywhere. So it took several hours of running around to different stores trying to acquire all the necessary ingredients. We gave up after an hour of searching for items specifically on the Registry. It just wasn't going to happen. So we instead tried to stay within the color guidelines and opted for "the cuteness factor" when it came to picking things that seemed to be eluding us.

Unfortunately we were so tired once we finally got home to put it together that I completely forgot to take step-by-step pictures along the way. You can find the tutorial we used here. The only thing we did differently is that we didn't use any pins. Enjoy :)

The Pentagons

Thursday Dinner with The Pentagons

Meet my dear friends, Mr & Mrs Pentagon. Really they should be Dr & Dr Pentagon but I figured that would just get confusing so Mr & Mrs they shall be. I met Mrs Pentagon when I was 17 on our high school track team. We bonded over heart wrenching losses, hot track coaches, and whatever else teenage girls pour their hearts out over. We sat together on the bus after every track meet and in between races where you found one the other was usually close by.

Mrs Pentagon and I at my '97 Graduation Party

I was a Senior and she was a Sophomore, but we just seemed to click. I can't tell you the first moment I met her, but she immediately became an important part of my life. When I went away for college we stayed in touch, but over the years drifted apart. I saw her whenever we were both in our hometown but  once I had moved out of state that happened less and less frequently. Until we were down to an annual or even bi-annual phone call. It just so happened that 6 years ago I woke up one morning at 8am and happened to call her for our annual check-in. I had been living in LaLa land for 5 months figured that it would at least be 11am her time and not a big deal on a saturday. Imagine my surprise when she grumpily answered the phone and corrected my misconception by letting me know she was in my time zone. Not only was she in my time zone, but she was living in LaLa land for the summer doing an internship. In fact she had been working less than a mile from me for the past two months! We immediately made plans to meet up and fell back into our long lost friendship. A little tenuous at first, but since that day we have both been to each others weddings and those annual phone calls are now more like monthly phone calls, the time inbetween peppered with emails, texts and now even blogs :)

I am grateful to have her back in my life and I absolutely adore her Mr Pentagon. I think that they are wonderful together. I can't wait to celebrate their new little life coming into the world.

Unexpected Sister Time

Ms Bliss and I. Cheers!

I found myself with a fairly free evening on Thursday night. Mr Timbre was out for the evening and I was waiting on a lot of people to get back to me. When enexpectedly my Sis, Ms Bliss, called. She wanted to know how I was doing and when I told her of my waiting pattern she invited me over for dinner. Ms Bliss was also in MI this weekend. Her best friend Ms Carolina was getting married and my sister just happened to be her MOH.

So I headed over to join the bride and bridesmaids for a drink and some girl chat. It was fun hearing Ms Carolina's mother and mother-in-law tell the stories about how they heard of their daughter/son relationship. Too soon I needed to be on my way to my next engagment. Time to see The Pentagons!

Breakfast Reunion

My trip has yield just one botched things after another. First the Enterprise debacle and then I woke up this morning at 6:15 only to try to go back to sleep, and then was woken up again at 7 by my sister calling me because she wanted to read me her MOH speech. Exhausted as I was I ended up falling back asleep and either slept through my alarm or it just didn't go off. So I found myself staring at the time at 9:17am and thinking "oh f%#$" I was supposed to be at my good friends Mr & Mrs Green's at 9am! A flurry of text msgs and an hour later I finally found myself meeting their littlest, Brady, in his adorable rainbow skull pajamas.

Brady in his adorable skull pajamas.

It had been about three years since I last saw Mrs Green. She and I have been close friends since High school. We met at a mutual friend's birthday party and bonded over throwing popcorn in a theater at some rather inappropriate older men. Our friendship really solidified our freshman year in college where we were completely inseparable. To the point where we could have whole conversations without speaking and it drove our guy friends nuts.

Mrs Green and I on Spring Break 1998

We even took our Spring Break trip together in Florida. Where we actually froze our butts off because it was freezing the entire time we were there. We share a love of dance, superheros and fantasy novels. In college we used to rush home from class so that we were in time to watch Spiderman together. Of course it didn't hurt that we watched it with several cute boys from our "Brother" floor as well. Oh the memories. All of which were rehashed on our trip down memory lane portion of our conversation. Deciding it would be fun to go out and have some adult conversation as well as breakfast Mrs Green and I headed out to the nearest Coney Island. Where I learned about her participation in the 48 Hour Movie Challenge and more about the novel she just finished writing.

Mrs Green and I July, 2012

Yummy Breakfast! We split Blueberry Pancakes :)

Since we were reminiscing about the "old" days I mentioned looking at pictures and she whipped out her high school/college years photo album and I was surprised to find there were quite a few pictures in it that I had never seen before! I think I will be completing a whole post with just those in the next day or so. I hope that some day she gets around to scanning them because there were some priceless moments captured. When we got back to her house I had a surprise waiting for me. Her oldest, Caiden, had created a gift bag for me. What a clever boy, it was full of stickers, pirate accessories, a bookmark, and even a brand new pencil.

My Delightful Gift Bag :)

We rounded my visit off with me finally getting to see her wedding photos. Now she has been married since 2006 and I was actually IN her wedding party so it's pretty bad that I am just now getting to see these photos. But as I remembered she made a beautiful bride. I love this couple they are so much fun and both sweet, warm, considerate, caring people. I was sad to leave. But we left off vowing that we will stay in better touch than we have in the last few years. I look forward to my monthly update calls!! Thank you for my breakfast Mrs Green, your a peach! xoxo

Mrs Green and Brady

Mrs Green and Caiden

Mr Green and Brady

Mr & Mrs Green and Caiden

Memory Central

I was born and raised in Shelby Township, MI for the first 19 years of my life. Driving down the streets of my hometown after so many years has been both confusing (because a vast majority of my landmarks are gone) and emotional. I can't help but be flooded with memories. From silly ones like passing the McDonald's where I laugh snorted my first Shamrock Shake to my old neighborhood where my old house is now owned by complete strangers (which just feels..weird). Everywhere I turn there is some sort of memory, or there is something missing. The old Donut shop that used to make Hamburger and hotdog shaped donuts. I wish I had pictures, those things were amazing. The little white bridge in the sidewalk that I used to ride my bike over all the time. Even my elementary, junior high, and highschool all look different. So many changes have been wrought over the decade and a half that I have been gone. Fortunately a few things remain the same, the people I grew up with are mostly still here. It's been wonderful getting to see them and catching up on all that I have missed.

My first day here was a complete whirlwind with the little amount of sleep and the three hour time difference. Once out of the airport my friend Mr Timbre drove me to Enterprise to pick up my rental car. Or Not. Did you know that you can't rent a rental car from Enterprise with an out-of-state driver's license without using a major credit card? Neither did I. And since they failed to mention that was necessary when I booked the rental I failed to bring one with me. They also failed to rent me the car. Fortunately my friend Mr Timbre likes to live on the edge and offered to allow me to borrow his car, and he ended up renting the car for himself. Well since I plan on paying for it I guess I technically rented the car for him. :) It's all a bit complicated and the bottomline is my friends are awesome, and Enterprise at least in this instance, is not.

Ms Tink and I @ the Rochester Mills Beer Co.

We made dinner plans with our mutual friend Ms Tink and her new boyfriend Mr Auto. We ended up all running late but met up at the Rochester Mills Beer Co. Where we ate, drank, and played several games of pool. The food was pretty decent. I got the pulled pork sandwich with sweet potatoe fries. Yum and Yum! After our pool games we weren't quite ready for the evening to end so we walked up to the neighborhood Dairy Queen and enjoyed some old school Blizzards. I didn't realize they came in a mini size or I probably would have gotten a smaller size!

We rounded our evening off with stopping at the Paint Creek Tavern where our group enjoyed a last round of drinks before quitting time.

During our walk he couldn't help but notice the plethora of sheep statues in the downtown Rochester Hills area. It reminded me of the Parade of Cows that went on in Pittsburgh while I was still living there. In fact since Ms Tink liked how's so much I actually got her collectible replicas of the cows over several years for her birthdays.

TOP: Superhero Sheep, one of my favs  |  BOTTOM: DQ Blizzard!!

Ms Tink and I met in high school in a most random way. She was a sophomore and I was a Junior so we really hadn't had any classes together. Then one morning we were both at school early and the Seniors had release a bunch of mice into the commons area at school.  Seeing that they were obviously store bought I swooped one up and walked over to the nearest teacher with it. Once I got up close I realized that the girl the teacher was currently talking to was also holding a mouse. We both looked at the mouse the other was holding and just burst out laughing. I don't remember what happened to the mice, but our friendship was born in that moment.

Oddly enough even though Mr Timbre and I went to school together I never really knew him. I knew of him as he was dating a girl at the time that I took my Orchestra class with, but it wasn't until college when Ms Tink, Mrs Green and I were all suitemates that Mr Timbre came officially into my life. He and Ms Tink had become fast friends and as he's a very friendly and easy going guy he ended up extending that friendship to me. We've been friends ever since.

Once home we actually still had enough energy to watch an episode of Coupling and then headed to bed. Mr Mine was online so I got to stay up chatting with him for a while as well. All in all, a very long, but enjoyable first day :)

Steel Bird to Hockeytown

Leaving Las Vegaaaas, you know, I am used to long flights. But today 3.5 hours feels like forever. It is usually hard to get comfortable in airplane seats. But with my back as agitated as it is, it’s been nearly impossible. Nothing feels comfortable. And the 600mg IBuprophen that I took this morning might as well have been candy for all the effect it is having. Thank beezle I brought our laptop. It’s given me a chance to catch up on a few blogs. And the earphones and trusty cellphone have been keeping the crying baby at bay. Thankfully I only have an hour left before I will be touching down in Detroit, MI. This weekend is my dear friends Mr & Mrs Pentagon’s Babyshower. I am so excited for them that very soon they will be bringing a new little life into the world.

So amazed by them and I hope that we will be following in their footsteps soon :) 

I've been away so long that I know I'm going to keep getting lost! All the old markers will be gone and I won't have a clue where I am. 

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I just had to leave you with this adorable guy. Who was apparently sitting in front of me the entire flight, and I had no clue. What a good cat baby! I don't think I could ever take one of our guys on a plane. Leo won't leave the apartment, Qweenie would get us kicked off the plane, and Norman would find a way to escape and run lose all over!

CAFAM: EHREN TOOL

Simply. Amazing. Several months ago I became a member of CAFAM or the Craft and Folk Art Museum located in the Mid-Wilshire area on Museum Row. I was happily walking down Wilshire Blvd thinking about how I felt light hearted for the first time in a long time and decided to wander into this tiny museum's gift shop. It was full of all kinds of beautifully handcrafted items, you can read more about that adventure here. This museum is tiny, but has a wonderful array of workshops and the current exhibit EHREN TOOL: PRODUCTION OR DESTRUCTION is fantastic. It's one of those exhibits that really makes you think. That touches a place in your heart.

The exhibit, is a must see. War veteran turned ceramic artist, Ehren Tool captures the viewer's attention with fraught visuals and the haunting words of our past leaders.

"Emblazoned with the haunting images of armed conflict, Tool creates handmade ceramic cups as a medium to address war and the violent rhetoric and imagery used to perpetuate it."

Accompanying the multitude of ceramic cups are signed letters from The President and First Lady as well as several other prominent people. Also a wall, with a request that people write about how war has touched their lives. I suggest you spend a little time and read some of the index cards on this wall. Some are just silly, but others are obviously from other veterans or families of veterans.

The pieces themselves are both beautiful and intense. I had so many favorites, but there were so many that it was hard to even go back and find them after I had walked completely around the room!

The exhibit will be open through Sept 9th and I encourage you to check it out. You won't be disappointed. I initially thought it would mainly be something interesting for Mr Mine, but the works speak loud and clear and will not be ignored.

One of the things that I loved most about it, is Ehren Tool's assertion that his pieces should last between 500,000 and 1,000,000 years and possibly will come through that completely unscathed. He hopes that his messages will be inspiration for many generations to come.

As we were walking out the receptionist at the ticket counter called us over and asked us how we liked it. I couldn't help but notice that there were a set of Ehren's cups on the shelves behind her and asked her if he ever sold them. She reached behind her and gave one to Mr. Mine and then one to myself. My first thought was "fantastic!" the one thing I had really really wanted to do while I was looking at the exhibit was to take every single one of his cups off the shelf and turn it around to see the other side. So I eagerly started turning mine over in my hand and almost missed what she was telling us.

"The Artist, (Ehren) never sells his cups, he always gives them away." And it dawned on me, the cup I was holding in my hand was now officially mine! What a wonderful keepsake to take home. I love both of our cups. Apparently he has made over 14,000 cups and of those he has given away well over 12,000. You can read more about the artist and the exhibit here.

These photos really don't even begin to do these cups justice. But I am very happy to now have a small piece of this exhibit to keep with me, and possibly pass on someday to our son or daughter.

Baby Yoga...

When we were driving around on our family day I noticed a new business across the street from our fav Chili place Tubs Chili. It was a place called Zooga. My eye was initially drawn by their logo and then I took in the advertising for children and family yoga. What a wonderful idea! Although how do you get babies to do yoga?

Sister Hood

A couple of weeks ago I helped my sister paint and move into her new apartment in Silver Lake see more here. So this past Monday I had promised her that I would come over and help her organize her place. My sister is exactly the same as I was at 28. Nothing really has a home, everything seems to be disorganized chaos. It drives us both nuts. Housekeeping is truly a constant battle.

So after finally admitting defeat due to my back and fun daylong seasickness we ended up taking a walk around her 'hood. It's an interesting area. Tons of Vegan and Vegetarian restaurants, juice bars, coffee shops. All things that make my sister one happy girl. Did I mention she has a yummy Gelato place just around the corner from her? Also the weekly Farmer's Market takes place right outside her front door. I'd say she has a pretty fantastic set-up.

Checking out the stores. Lots of art pieces everywhere. Ended with a nice dusk walk.

Memorial Weekend Madness

Otherwise entitled The Things You Do For Family. My sister informed me last Thursday that I would be helping her move over Memorial Day weekend. Not only move actually, she also informed me that I would be helping her paint. What she failed to mention was that she hadn't even decided on her paint color, nor had she packed a single thing. Enter long long weekend here.

Fortunately she and our good friend did all of the heavy lifting. I mainly scrubbed her floors and carried all the light stuff. Since there were only a few of us there to help it took the majority of the day to get it all done. 

Family Time: Girls Day Out

We had family time for the girls on friday. Our Aunt Angele and cousin Anna were in town and we jumped at the chance to hang out with them. We all visited Joz's yoga studio for some body healing and relaxation. I'd never taken a Kundalini yoga class before and since my sister loves the practice so much she is training to become an instructor I thought it was time to give it a try.

It was very different than other yoga classes I've taken. From the opening chanting you feel like you are a connected part of the class. I also felt it gave me the opportunity to really check in with my body. Similar to the way I get to check in during my beloved poles classes. We take so much of our bodies motion for granted. Our class was all about releasing blocked energy and I have to say that afterwards my body did feel like tension had been released. Especially in my shoulders, abs and back. Also, the movements were simple but the class was hard. I'm in ok shape, but swing my arms in a circle over my head for over a minute is tough! I really enjoyed our chanting towards the end of class. The instructor played a chant track and had us listen to it for a minute or so and then asked the class to join in. Humee hum brahm hum was the actual chant. There was something about it that just resonated and made you feel happy inside.

Afterwards we convened at the apt my Aunt and Uncle were renting while they were staying in town and just enjoyed some good old girl chat. I love these women so much!

SXM: Remembering Loved Ones

A few minutes walk from the market is the cemetary where many of our family are buried. We decided to pay our respects to our beloved Mama and Papa Daniel, Miss Liso, and the lovely Ms Arlette. They are all sorely missed.

My Dad also pointed out that his grandfather Carl was also buried here. I got to learn something new about my family.

A lovely picture of Arlette and Hayes as kids. 

Digital Art Age

I was perusing Wacom's website the other day and came across an interesting contest called "A Thousand Forests". It requested that people upload something that expressed their creativity and passion to create. You can learn more about the contest here.

Intrigued, I started randomly clicking through the different things that people had uploaded and I was startled by some of the descriptions this one for instance says "Digital painting using a scene from Google Street Maps for reference."

Digital Painting, I can only imagine what people would have said if you had told them two decades ago that the newest art era would be digital painting. Instead of using beloved mixed media and crafts people now talk about how they used raw photos, photoshop, illustrator, and in this instance even google maps to create their latest masterpieces.

It made me wonder, will the appreciation for all static art be lost with these new generations that need everything Now Now Now. These kids who start using ipads basically at birth. Will these "digital paintings", and ever changing digital art now become the new norm.

More and more people are starting to use digital picture frames. Why frame one photo when you can have one frame for hundreds. Will we lose the stillness?