Thursday, August 28, 2008

Terrified...and a white girl in a brown girl's body


The most incredible, amazing, dream-come-true thing has just happened to me! My good friend Megan, who teaches dance class at Westlake Dance Center---the premiere dance studio for adult drop-in classes in Seattle---asked ME to take over her weekly CardioFunk class! Did she know that I've secretly always wanted to teach a dance class, but have been too afraid, not ready, unsure, insert-excuse-here, etc.? The owner of the studio called me to ask me and before I knew it, I heard myself saying "I'd love to!" Then, when I got off the phone, I thought, "What have I just done?" Let me explain.

Megan and I have danced at Westlake since the mid-90's. We were at pretty much the same level when we started. Then I pursued my career in radio, took fewer dance classes, and started working full-time at an all-news radio station that shall go unnamed (this too, I blame on you! haha)...meantime, Megan started teaching dance class and getting better and better. Why, oh why, didn't I choose dance over radio?! In any case, Megan, who is a white girl with red hair who could be mistaken for Sunny Jim's sister, has turned out to be the funkiest hip hop dancer and is just so GOOD. As for me, I consider myself to be a pretty good jazz dancer and decent at hip hop. But when I do hip hop, I feel like a jazz dancer trying to do hip hop. I just hope they can't tell!

So, to make sure I could handle the class I went to Megan's class last night, thinking, okay there'll be like 8 to 10 people, it should be pretty easy, and she wouldn't have asked me to take over if she didn't think I could handle it, right? There were like THIRTY people in this class! And they LOVE Megan, who's so bubbly and energetic. Do you know the size of these tennis shoes I have to fill?? And she made me dance in front, which, for the new teacher, shouldn't be a problem. But inside I was terrified! At least it was in a good way. Megan was kind enough to remind me that she chose me to take over her class because there ARE so many hip hop classes, for the 'kids' (under 21). This class is for people who want to try a little bit of hip hop, who are too scared to take a full-on hip hop class because they can be so intimidating (oh, you mean, people over 30?). And for people who want to get a good workout. Okay, so I haven't done cardio regularly since Sweet Pea was born, but it shouldn't be that tough...should it? BTW, the class last night kicked my ass!

Another thing, now I have to start keeping up on current hip hop and R&B music. I'll be one of the few KUBE listeners over 30!

So I'm scared, but excited. I start teaching CardioFunk, all by myself, every Wednesday from 6:30p to 7:30p at Westlake Dance Center in north Seattle on September 10th. I hope you'll come and support me!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

"It's easy"



This isn't exactly what the .html from my website looks like, but it might as well. See, I was asking my web guy if there's any way he could show me how to do simple updates to my own website (since it takes him quite a long time and I have to keep pestering him), and of course he said, "Sure," followed by the dreaded, "it's easy." Two hours later, he was still showing me how to "make sure you don't screw up the code when you add a picture" and how I "shouldn't touch any of this over here" but it should be "easy."

It's been two days since I tried to go to where my site is hosted, download content files, save them to my computer, edit them without screwing anything up, and upload them back to the hosting site to update my site. I am not anywhere near completing that list of tasks. And as you may have guessed, none of it is "easy."

That's why I hired a web guy! Now I need a new one.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Sometimes



I'm not sure how old I am in this picture, but sometimes I wish I could go back...when the only thing I had to worry about was... nothing.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

No nap


After working full-time all week last week, Sweet Pea's sleep deficit exploded all over the house a few days ago. See, when she goes to daycare, I'm never sure if she gets a nap because she's so excited to be around other kids, and if they aren't sleeping, she doesn't want to sleep, even though she's exhausted. Only she doesn't know she's exhausted. I don't know if you've ever been forced to stay in a room with a tired toddler, but everything makes them cry. And not just weep, I mean, full-on screaming cry. Dropped your ba-ba? Cry like someone's stabbing you in the leg. Bumped your head on the table? Scream like mom's abandoning you on purpose. Can't get your shoe on your fat, little foot? The world is ending and you need to shriek as loud as possible.

Thank god she's asleep right now.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Time? What time?



I'm working full-time this week, so Sweet Pea is in daycare full-time too. I can barely get us out the door on time in the morning---AFTER I make lunch for Ian, feed Sweet Pea breakfast, pack her snack bag, coat her in 45 SPF, make sure she has her sunhat, her baby and her binkie and finally get her strapped into her carseat while she's doing little backbends and flailing her arms...then I rush home to make dinner, clean up a little and put her to bed at night. That's it. No time to attempt to do things on my list-of-things-to-do. Only time to squeeze in domestic chores: pay bills, buy groceries or do any laundry. Really, I feel like when I'm working full-time, that's all I have time for. Take care of family, work, take care of family, go to bed. How do working moms do it???

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Welcome to the World of Fitness Competition

This is my sister Rose. She is doing a 'toe touch' jump during a fitness competition last weekend. I choreograph all her routines. Her theme was MONEY!

Here, she is not only doing a one-arm push-up, but she goes down on her forearm and then comes back up, on one arm.

She also does a one-arm, one-leg push-up.

In a Fitness routine, you have two minutes to show strength, flexibility and endurance. There are also two rounds in which your physique is judged. There were 7 other girls competing. Rose won.

All these pictures were taken by David Aboody, a great competition photographer. Thanks, David!

Tia's First Haircut

Sweet Pea's bangs were in her eyes, so I finally had to bring her in for her very first trim (sniff) earlier this week. She sat on my lap so she wouldn't be scared. I saved some of her little fallen curls.



Sun, the Korean lady who cut Sweet Pea's hair, said she was a very good girl for her first haircut.

This is what a Fitness Routine looks like



This is Rose at the 2008 NPC Northern Classic Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships in Lakewood. Since Rose's theme was 'Money,' we used songs like "Labels or Love" by Fergie, "Money" by the Flying Lizards and "Gold Digger" by Kanye West. There are 5 required moves in a Fitness routine, including a one-arm push-up, high kicks and the splits.

And you have to smile and make it look easy.

Our Anniversary

We had a quiet, but incredible dinner at home (after Tia went to bed).



Ian grilled steaks on the bbq and we ate out on our deck to watch the sunset.

He said he didn't want any gifts...but now I know better! See that gift on the table? That was for me! Now I'll have to get him something really good when we celebrate 'non-officially' on the weekend. BTW, he got me a TomTom GPS!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

It's our Anniversary today!

I can't believe it's already been two years that Ian and I have been married---how weird! But I didn't plan anything, didn't buy anything, or even get a card. Is that terrible? We just decided to wait til the weekend to celebrate, but still... it's today. I don't even have a picture from our wedding to go with this post. That's lame too. Boo.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Co-workers, friends

I had lunch with Helen the other day. She came up to the house to see Tia, who really enjoyed trying on Helen's fabulous shoes.



She's gone back to Australia now. But that reminded me of the last time I saw her, at her house in Ballard after she jumped ship at work and went back to Australia the first time, last November. It took me awhile but I finally found those pictures!



And it dawned on me, that all of us are no longer co-workers, but we're all still friends.