Adventures of a Maude in Training

Tonight Peter and I were talking about travel. I really want to travel as much as we can financially and logistically. He asked me where I wanted to go and off the top of my head I came up with the following.

Domestic travel focused on National Parks: Denali NP (Alaska), Glacier NP(Montana), Joshua Tree NP (CA), Yellowstone NP (Wyoming), Canyonlands (Utah), Arches NP (Utah), Zion NP (Utah), and Hawai'i Volcanoes NP (Hawai'i).

Other domestic travel: DC (focus on Smithsonian), Madison Square Garden in NYC to see Phish (hopefully there will be an opportunity to do this in the next couple of years), St. Louis (been there before and would like to see more), New Orleans, and San Diego (again, been before, would like to go again).

International travel: Iceland tops this list, then Germany (larger trip we hope to plan with Michael sometime in the the next 5-8 years), France, Amsterdam, England, Ireland (part of my family is from Ireland), Montreal, New Zealand, the Azores (other part of my family is from the island of Pico), Italy, Spain, and Antarctica (big reach).

The domestic travel feels within reach as does some of the international travel. Not sure if we will get to do all of the international travel, but I like to think about it and hope that we can do some chunk of it. I know that a trip to Germany could reasonably include travel to a few of different places (say, Berlin to Amsterdam, to Paris, for example), and England and Ireland are often done together, etc., but it is all expensive, but I try not to let that stop me from thinking about it. I have never been outside the US and Canada and would like to at some point.

Of course there are places closer to home that we will certainly visit again such as Yosemite, Lassen, and other state and national parks in Northern CA.

Just musing about travel and dreams and such.

Probably should not have had a coffee drink at 5:30pm, but I was so tired I could barely stand.

I danced more this weekend than I have since I took the four month break to try to heal my foot. I did full rehearsal yesterday and taught warm-up and one class at our Day of Dance today and I also did the belly dance class. I am really sore, but it was totally worth it. It was a fantastic day and I am so happy to be doing what I do with dance, the Fly Girls, and Big Moves.

Also, I got the video today from our show back in July and I was blown away. We (Fly Girls) just danced and performed better than ever before. Just really tight, really strong. I honestly almost cried. Our show in 2008 was very good, don't get me wrong, but I was very new as co-AD then, I had just started choreographing regularly, and dancing my style was very new to the dancers. Since then the troupe has grown and we are just so solid now. Three other dancers had choreographed pieces in the show and it was so great to see such a diversity in styles. Also, the show last year was the first time we had a tap piece and it was every bit as awesome as I envisioned and the tap sounded much cleaner than I hoped for. We have come so, so very far in ten years.

And the dance critic who didn't like a certain one of pieces, for reasons unexplained, that was in a dance festival back in 2009 can suck it--I fucking love that dance and it is one of the best I have choreographed and we are fierce.

That is all.

To sum up 2010 I am tempted to say, "I had a baby in December of 2009" and leave it at that. Because, really, a whole lot of this year was devoted to the care of feeding of that baby and his older brother.

That said, here is a run down of the year:

Dance
I choreographed one new dance, which was really two dances, as it was a combination tap and jazz dance. It was some sort of postpartum mania which moved me to do this ~two months before a show. It's a great dance though, and the debut of tap with the Fly Girls.

I started another dance, a lyrical/contemporary piece, which I am really excited about.

I excavated a couple of other of my older dances.

Performed a handful of times, including our big show this past July, "Go Big or Go Home", where I performed six pieces, three of which were mine.

Taught a number of folks in a number of classes and took one master tap class which was awesome but kicked my ass and everyone else's as well.

Activism
In June I attended the NOLOSE conference and presented two workshops there. I had a great time and was happy with what I accomplished with my workshops. I still want to write up and post more about my "What about the Children? Fat Panic and Kids" panel here.

I know I did at least one interview for a student movie/documentary (I think) and I sadly cannot remember if I did any other media this year.

I started the process to be photographed by an fine art photographer, which may not sound like activism, but it kind of is. She is shooting a number of the Fly Girls. It sounds promising.

Health
Had a few illnesses, including a bad stomach virus and one bout of food poisoning. Postpartum uterine injury which sucks and has impacted my dancing and general mobility. Stress fracture in foot (which I have been dancing on for over a year because it was misdiagnosed) and weird nerve thing down left side of lower body. Teeth mostly OK, eyes doing OK, skin OK...onward.

Kids doing well health-wise. L. got croup in June which was scary and required an ER visit and S. had handful of colds and stomach bugs. ptor had a number of sinus things which sucked.

Employment
ptor started working again in April after sixteen months of unemployment. This was and remains a very good thing.

Random

I joined the executive board of S.'s preschool. It is a whole hell of a lot of work.

We started looking for a new place to live but kind of dropped it for the holidays. Need to pick it up again.

S. finished the three year old class at his school in June, went to summer school there, and entered the pre-K class there this past September. He is loving it and is starting to make friends which is great to see.

S. turned four this year and L. turned one. They are amazing.

I have cooked a lot and have expanded even more the type and variety of foods we eat. I have perfected my own banana-peanut butter-chocolate chip muffin recipe and have baked many other things. Not much time to fuss with yeasted breads this year, but hopefully soon we will get there.

I was really getting back into yoga, doing it while S. was at school and L. napped, but the stress fracture is forcing me to put that on hold for a while.

I got a new camera, a Canon Rebel, and have a very nice 50mm macro lens for it and a decent telephoto lens for it. I am working on my photography as I can in my mostly non-existent spare time.

Where we went and what we did

Due to the newborn situation and ptor working a job where he doesn't get vacation time, we didn't take any big trips this year. However, we've done a lot as a family and even more just me and the kids. Most all Saturdays were spent in Berkeley with me at rehearsal and ptor and the kids hanging out with catzen, then we all would have lunch and hang out together. S. had school three days a week through July and since September has been going four afternoons a week. In addition to that are trips to the library and park, as well as music and swim classes for both kids. There were bike rides and walks and lots of cooking and baking.
( For family bigger outings (or things I did with the kids), here is what our year looked like by month, according to my photo files: )

Long day. Open rehearsal today which meant I was teaching students as well as working with Fly Girls--always fun and great but more emotionally intensive. After rehearsal we drive homeward while the boys napped in the car and then went out for a huge falafel feast. So good. Later on I dug around in the garage and found more of S.'s old six month clothing for L. and located the nine-month pajamas--we will need them soonish. Sadly, those things completely wore me out. Of course, I am exhausted after being home for ~eleven hours a day with the boys by myself. This week for the first week at ptor's new job. Good in many, many ways, but sad for the kids who hardly get to see him on weekdays and my daily life has suddenly gotten a whole lot more challenging and busy. We made it through, but, yeah, tired.

Tomorrow we will hopefully do something outside--should be nice weather. S. wants to go to the butterfly garden so his dragonfly finger-puppet can smell flowers. We may just do that.

Up and around, trying to figure out what to do with the day outside of the obvious (nursing, diapering, cooking, and cleaning). I'd like to get outside and do *something*. My body hurts as I've done something weird to my lower back, left foot, and left hip. ::sigh::

Went to the Friends of the Library sale last night and scored some great old funky cookbooks, included a random Lutheran church cookbook form 1948, complete with funny old ads and newspaper clippings left inside. I love shit like that. Also got Jacques Torres' "Dessert Circus" book for $2 and some random books for S. S. enjoyed picking out his own books. ptor got a bunch of O'Rielly books for 75 cents an inch--can't beat that.

Not too much else happening around here. Just dealing with newborn life and life with the bigger guy. ptor had lots of activity on the job search front last week so we are really hoping something pans out soon.

Wish I had something more exciting to say but I don't really...just plugging along here.

Oh, I am thinking hard about some workshop proposals for NOLOSE. That is interesting and exciting. Need to get moving on all that.

We also need to start thinking about and working on our garden. We also have what I expect is a mold problem in the house which we need to get assessed and then start the fun of dealing with our landlord about it. Yick.

Onward.

I have a lot on my mind that I wish to write about but currently lack the focus. I am thinking about Haiti, George Tiller's murder and the continued erosion of female reproductive rights in the United States, the health care reform crap-out, increasing crime in our local neighborhoods, our continued unemployment, general fat activism, Michelle Obama jumping on the "obesity epidemic" bandwagon, etc.

So, I have mental capacity left, I am just ill-focused and tired and not able to sort it all out right now in the newborn haze.

My days and nights are still turned upside down as L. is typically not settling for his longer in-his-bed stretch of sleep until sometime after 2am. He is a really mellow baby, and for that we are grateful, but he is still a newborn and newborns need near-constant attention and care. Breastfeeding a newborn is tiring and a lot of work. I am trying to remind myself of that and not be too hard on myself for not being up to doing much. It is a a short-lived phase and it will pass....I know this intellectually, it is just hard to remember when the days blur and I lose track of when I last showered or took my last vitamin. I am also fighting some sinus inflammation/infection (for a month now) and that is slowing me down. When I am not doing direct baby care I am frantically cooking and cleaning--it is amazing how rapidly the dishes and laundry accumulate around here.

So that is what is going on here. If you haven't heard from us, or we haven't commented back that is why. We really are in a haze, sleeping in shifts and trying to manage the craziness of a 6 week old and an almost 3.5 year old. I am trying to make one Baby and Me group a week and that helps me feel a little more human. I am hoping in the next weeks to start walking some regularly (as in, going on walks, not just up and down the hallway with the baby), and plan to be dancing again by March. We are back on the work schedule at S.'s school next week, so I will have that as well, but ptor may do the work shifts for a while. We shall see.

The continued rainy weather here has been sucky for me emotionally and seriously works against me getting out. I hate the rain and cold and I am loathe to go out in it.

But, really, I didn't mean for all this to sound so whiny. We are doing well overall, we love L. to pieces, S. loves L., and we are generally quite happy. It is just hard and disorienting having a new baby. It is a lot easier than last time and there is nothing bad happening, it is just a rough phase and I am trying not be beat myself up over not feeling 110% and not wanting to do a whole lot. Slowing down is a challenge for me, even when it is necessary.

We are up and starting on a slooooow Sunday. S. and I are still rather sick. Poor S. has beens sick since Monday with a bad cold...I've had the same thing for the past few days. Ugh. I don't want to do anything today except rest. S. is tired of being in the house but, well, he's a sick little guy. His cough is starting to not sound good. :-(

That's about all I have to update. Since we didn't have fevers we were able to get our H1N1 vaccines at the county clinic yesterday--we only had to wait in line for an hour...woo-hoo! S. has to get another shot in 3-4 weeks and I really hope he can get from our health care provider by then (they currently have only a super-limited supply restricted to those with immune issues, etc.) so we don't have to stand in another clinic line. Last night S. kept asking us, "Why are some people scared of a poke from a little needle and some blood?" The crying and screaming kids at the shot clinics perplex him. Now, he didn't want to go because he said the shot hurts, but he did go and doesn't scream. He just winces a bit.

I am hoping to finish Baby Pickle's blanket today or tomorrow. It is looking nice. And I just want to sleep more.

We had S.'s preschool Halloween in-class party today and that was fun. He didn't want to wear a costume, but he was happy to wear the pumpkin hat I made him along with an orange shirt with pumpkins on it. He was really rather cute. The kids who wore costumes with masks seemed to scare him a bit. :-( Wednesday night we had pumpkin carving night at school and he helped make a nice jack-o-lantern. We have two more pumpkins to carve tonight or tomorrow.

It is warm here today, as it often is in the Bay Area on Halloween. Despite that I am pretending we are having fall weather and I have a quadruple batch of Pepper Potato Fennel Soup in the crockpot and will be making a chard strudel to accompany it tonight.

We are going to try to do something relatively low-key yet Halloween-y tomorrow. If nothing else we can all sit on the porch and hand out candy.

Not much else. Too much baby prep to do, but first I need a nap after too many days of not nearly enough sleep.

ptor is on his way home from yet another job interview. Here's hoping for the best.

S. had a bit of a cold earlier in the week (he has it the "snufflies") and now I have a sore throat and sinus stuff. Bleah. I took a nap and don't really feel any better. He's still asleep (three hours already). He was a tired guy.

The chocolate tasting is on Saturday. You really should check it out if you can. Halloween themed goodness! Come in costume for a discount at the door (discounted tickets can also be purchased online, but you really should still come in costume). I am dragging my 31-week pregnant self up on stage to perform...all you have to do is show up, eat chocolate, and watch the show.

Got our cable wiring fixed today after losing a whole bunch of channels. Not having access to Bravo (and hence, Top Chef) was the final straw and I called Comcast last night.

Not too much else...just busy and a bit stressed.

Onward and upward.

Last night I skinned, seeded, chopped and froze about twelve cups of our garden tomatoes. Overnight we dehydrated a number of apples that weren't so great fresh anymore. The dried ones are a success and S. is quite excited about them. S. didn't really want to go anywhere today (except to a store to look at toys and I was not up for that) so we made pumpkin bread together. It was about 100 times better than the last time I made that recipe and I wonder what went wrong last time. Oh well. He wouldn't leave the kitchen during the seventy minutes it was baking. ;-) He found red quinoa in our grain and bean drawer and wanted it for lunch so I made him some. He happily scarfed it up. Now I have a huge pot of vegetables and water on the stove slowly becoming vegetable broth and tonight I will make tomato-cheddar soup with some of our tomatoes. We are thinking we might try drying some of them over the next couple of days as well. Then I will need to relieve our plants of many more pounds of tomatoes later in the week and I will start the tomato cooking and storing process all over again. S. wants to bake with me more so later in the week we will make multi-grain bread together.

On top of all that I mopped the kitchen floor which is something I hate doing. Now I just feel extra-productive.