He's back!

Monday Jakob got back from a week long cruise with his family. No, I didn't go and no, I won't be getting into it here. But as I was looking through the pictures he took I realized two things:

We seriously need to take more pictures dressed up and I'm happy his goatee is back! =)

Gym buff? Not me

I have been lazy. There I said it. I have been extremely lazy. Since I stopped dancing full time, I let things go and my figure has suffered. Yes, many people who know me won't see too much of a difference, but I do (there is also a disaster of artificial hormones from 3 years ago that my body hasn't recovered from) and I don't like it. I like me and my personality but I don't like the shell that it's in. Is is alright to call it a shell? I guess that's the word I'm going to use right now. 

So earlier this summer we bought a gym membership. I never thought I'd be one of these people who goes to the gym at the end of the day but I have become that. Not after a lot of gnashing of teeth and some panic attacks. It took me almost a month after buying the membership to actually get myself into the gym. I don't really understand where my anxiety comes from but I would pull into the parking lot all ready to go in and PANIC! so I would sit in the car until it came down and when I would try to pull the door handle, the panic would come back so I would just drive home. Pathetic, isn't it. So finally I was able to take some calming tea before I went and I got myself in the gym. Luckily I think I go early enough in the afternoon that not too many people are around and that may help me in the long run. Also, Jakob is going to go about the same time I do and that may help.

But, because of almost 4 years of not really doing exercise, my body is revolting against the movement. A 30 minute moderate walk/jog plus stretching makes my hips and knees not happy for days after. Yes, I'm complaining because not being able to walk normally for days afterwards in not happy. 

My goal is to stick with it for the rest of the year and see how things go from there. 5 months should be a good amount of time to get me back into the groove of actually getting my butt moving again. Hopefully I'll be able to control these panic attacks enough to be able to attend a couple of dance classes for adults.

Wish me luck.

Springville World Folk Festival

So last Saturday night was the wrap up of Springville Folk Festival and I was able to be a part of the Springville Folk Ensemble and part of the production crew. I made the costumes for the ensemble's Charleston closing number. While we only danced twice (the opener and the closer), it was a fun experience; tiring but fun.

Some of the groups there were a bit. . . well, lets just say that it was not the "usual" goings on. The Austrian boys were a bit much at times, the Russian dancers were fun (but not the Russian you think of, they were from Siberia and had a very "asian" look to them), the Croatians were singing everywhere they went--including on stage. But it was fun to get into that environment again.

Photo by Janneke Marquez Photography

The 11 female costumes I made. I talk about them more on my costume blog.

Photo by Ananda Henriksen

Our "opening" number. We each had a country that we were supposed to represent. I was part of the Bulgarian section (and apparently I didn't get the memo on the bangs--you look great ladies).

Photo by Ananda Henriksen

After the Saturday night show they needed help taking up the stage since they were told last minute that it needed to be up by Monday morning and no one really wanted to come back on Sunday to get it done, so a few of us stayed and started taking up the stage. The show ended at 10:40pm that night and about 11pm is when they started getting it up. There were 4 other people helping besides those pictured. It was about 1:45am by the time I got home and I had to get up early to take Jakob to the airport the next day, so I didn't get much sleep. Plus, by the look on my face in the photo, I was already ready to drop when we finished.

All-in-all, it was a great experience, one that I want to do again if possible in the future.