B-A-N-A-N-A-S

A small sampling of what my Monkey Mind was trying to bring to my attention whilst I was trying to meditate this morning:

I am feeling extra foxy today.
I wonder if meditation is making me look better.
Is meditation as good for your body as it is for your brain?
Maybe if I give my brain two things to focus on it will stop jumping.
(starts slow, meditative thumb twiddle in addition to slow, meditative breathing)
Nope, looks like I am totally capable of thinking of three things at once.
It's probably defeating the whole mindfulness thing to be twiddling my thumbs, anyway.
Hey, I should make a list of all the random thoughts I have while I'm meditating!
Oh no, now I can't stop thinking back to what I've already thought!
I really miss hoop dancing.
I should google classes in the area.
I wonder how much I could still do?
Maybe I'll give it try this afternoon.
Ugh how much longer.
Oh good, I've started to think how much longer- that usually means the timer will go off soon.

Yeah.  Meditation, man.  It takes practice.
 

Updates and Composting

My articles and illustrations were received with as much enthusiasm as my query letter, so hopefully sometime this summer I'll be able to officially refer to my work as, "As seen in!"  Hah, I slay me... now I just need to get paid to write something... baby steps, O, baby steps...

Read two excellent books recently.  I just today finished The Way of Kings (Sanderson), which was so, so satisfying.  Sometimes you read a book and you get to the end and it's not particularly believable and you think, "Eh, well, it's made up so whatever."  But not this book- no, this book remained true to itself.  The ending was exactly as it should be.  The same is true of the book I read earlier this week- Across the Universe (Revis).  That one is Young Adult scifi, and just fun.

As for my own writing, I've been tooling around with a story seed from about five months ago, about a super-weak vampire.  Maybe you remember it?  It was based on a rather disturbing dream I had.  Anyway since that time it's evolved quite a bit, until I hit a snag in my world-building that had me stuck for a few weeks... but today I woke up and the solution just popped into my brain, which was a relief I tell you what.  So I was able to pound out about two-thousand words of world/plot-building/refining, until I hit another couple of snags, but they are the sorts of snags I fully expect Nathan to be able to help me with when he gets home.  He is so good for that sort of thing...

But maybe you'd like to know how things have developed?  Here,  have a quick update...

Pippa, her father, and her three (yeah it was two before but now it's three) brothers are in a horrible car wreck that kills all the males, and leaves Pippa clinging to life by a thread.  Pippa's mother (who, unbeknownst to Pippa, is actually fae) strikes a deal with a vampire: the vampire turns Pippa in exchange to access to her mother's blood (fae blood being a particularly valuable commodity to vampires).  Because of Pippa's half-blood nature, the fae half of her blood tries to reject the vampirism, which results in the cancer-patient-like status.  But of course she gets better(ish) eventually (it would be a terribly boring story if it was just her laying around being ill- I'm no Lurlene McDaniels) and that's when the vampires reveal that as far as they're concerned the "blood" of their bargain referred to Pippa herself.  They have a use for someone with her unique status...

Anyway on to other things in my life that are not fictional.

When I first started hooping, my great goal was to be able to go and practice down in the park without humiliating myself.  Well, as of this past Sunday I have achieved that goal.  It was such a gorgeous day that I packed up my backpack full of fun (books, etc), grabbed my hoop, and headed down to the park, where I plugged in my earbuds and proceeded to play for almost an hour.  At first I was a little self-conscious, but then I became overwhelmed by the people smiling at me- and not pity-smiles, either: more like "good for you" smiles.  So.  That was a Goodness in my life.

We leave Birmingham in less than a month.  That is more than a little freaky.  We are maybe two boxes away from having all the books packed up, and I've begun breaking down the shelves.  Our AAA cards came in the mail today, and I've created our Road Trip Itinerary.  According to my To-Do list there's really not that much left beyond getting Nathan's car checked out, selling mine, and packing up all our stuff.

You know, little things like that...  ::sigh::

Spinning Out Some Magic

One of the things I like best about hoop dancing is that it's basically magic. Oh sure, some might call it physics- but I've always felt physics was just another word for magic-we've figured-out, anyway...

My favorite example (that I'm actually able to do) (sometimes) is moving the hoop on and off my waist by using my hand to bring it up to (or down from) above my head. Really you hardly do anything to accomplish this feat- you just sort of gently move your hand along with the rotation of the hoop and guide it up (or down) to where you want it to go. To me it always feels like the hoop is supporting itself- I'm just along for the ride. Add in a spin while you do it, and it really looks like the hoop is floating. Crazy and awesome and good.

Anyway, today I was showing Nathan some of the exciting new things I can do with my new, lighter hoop (or, to be more accurate, the things I am learning to do, but still kind of smacking myself in the head while attempting), and I even got him to take some photos (since it is action Saturday) of the more successful demonstrations.

And now Behold! Jenny O floats in mid-air, all thanks to the magic of the hoop!

(New Maneuvers)

Synchronicity

Do you know what my favorite day of the week is? Some of you do. But others of you don't, so I shall tell you: it's Thursday.

Why Thursday? Well, it goes all the way back to 2006... back then I was working at Borders, and my "weekend" was Wednesday/Thursday. And Thursday was the day I used to make the two-hour (one way) trip to go surfing.

Ah, surfing- my one true (non human) love. Until I discovered that sport, I'd thought myself incapable of being passionate about anything (again, non-human). But then... oh, then I found passion and love and a place in the universe where I belonged. And faith, actually. It also brought me that.

And then I had to leave it for a greater love, which made me sad, but it had to be done. (Totally worth it, Nate- just get me back to a coastal state soon, okay?)

But then I discovered hoop dancing- and discovered I can have passion for other things, too. And I was shy about it for a while, watching videos and practicing in an alley where no-one could see me, and then I got more bold by poking around on forums, and then last week I finally broke down and went to a class and met some other hoopers.

And this week I went back. And by the end of the class I was so happy- not just because I was doing something I loved for an hour, but because I feel like I've finally found community again. I feel like these women are people I can really be friends with... it's so good to share a passion, you know? I feel like I belong again. So as I was driving home I started smiling to myself as I realized...

Thursdays are still my favorite day of the week.



(PS I got my new hoop and it's so sweet... I plan on making Nathan take some pictures this weekend...)

I Fell Into a Hooping Ring of Plastic

Today's excellent adventure was finally going to a hoop dance class. And it was excellent. It was wonderful to be able to see other people doing it up close and personal, but even more to wonderful to interact with them. Wonderfuller still was that there were different sizes and weights of hoops for me to play with, which leads us to the most wonderfullest of all, the fact that I learned exciting new tricks. Woo! I'm going back next week, and I'm going to bite the bullet and buy a new hoop (yeah yeah- I make my own, but I wanted a lighter-weight hoop that is sparkly and pretty, and I don't have the equipment for that... sooo... happy early Commercialmas to me?) so that I can do a lot of practicing over the holidays.

I'd meant to get a chunk done on my novel this afternoon, but a drained battery meant that I was only able to put down another couple hundred words. In a way I think it is good for me to be thwarted at writing, because it keeps me eager to get at it again.

Here We NaNo Again

Today was a low-key day for me- Nathan is back on the road and I was feeling at loose ends. That's not to say there weren't things to work on and do (there were and I did), but I just wasn't particularly motivated to go above and beyond today. As such I brought my word-count up over 36k and didn't strive for any more- although I probably could have. I wasn't really tired of writing, or out of ideas or anything... I just didn't feel any particular need to carry on.

Instead I played with my hoop! (That picture is actually from yesterday, but whatever...) I've neglected it for far, far too long, and as such I am rusty to the point of being pissed off at myself (you know how it goes- you used to be able to do "that one thing", but now your body isn't used to it and you're left being frustrated with how everything is awkward now, in spite of your perfect mental image of you being able to do it in the past). But I put a couple of hours of swearing into it today and it's starting to be fun again. And I found a couple of classes here in the Ham, so I'm thinking it's time to get some instruction beyond YouTube, you know? First one I can go to is this upcoming Friday... wheee!

No excerpt tonight, because I don't feel like opening my netbook back up. Maybe tomorrow. I may just get insano and strive to break 40k. Although maybe not, since I'm teaching two classes tomorrow night... hmmm, we'll see how the schedule works out...

PS I baked cookies. Good times. Also, I'm pretty sure it's time for new tattoos...