envie

Time to blog... I have been remiss about recounting my latest adventures.

My apartment is mostly settled in. I have no couch and no bed frame, but I have a sumo bag (kind of a cousin to bean bag chairs) and a mattress. It will serve me well enough for now. My TV is off the floor and so are my books. As long as I have nice sheets (mmmm, sateen) my mattress will be ok.

Aside from books, games, and electronics, most other stuff is new as well. Dishes, microwave, towels, hangers, trash cans... the works. It's amazing how much stuff I didn't have. I've never had my own place before. I've lived with family and boyfriends. When I moved from Utah to California I left pretty much everything behind with my ex--shelving, tables, dishes... everything I might have claimed as my own. It didn't fit in the back of my dad's little toy truck so I left it.

I was worried about the loneliness of living alone, but I'm actually OK. I listen to music a lot and I'm trying to get new stuff to expand my horizons here and there. My cats have also come home, and that also helps. I left them with my ex while I settled my place. It emotionally scarred my siamese when I moved with her before, and everything kept changing and moving around. She was terrified and had a really tough time settling. This time I got the majority of the furniture placed before they came, took the next day to work from home so I could stay with them, and spent a lot of time soothing them individually. I'd say 48 hours saw them at 99% and now they seem really comfortable with the place. They have windows for the first time! Nutmeg (siamese) may remember windows from Utah, but the loft I was living in only had skylights. 3 cats in this apartment has the potential to be crazy, but they're all very well behaved. My real challenge will be to keep them active. I want to take them outside sometime. Wow, I am a crazy cat lady! Awesome!

The day after I moved in I bought a skateboard. I'm about a mile from anything useful: train station, grocery, restaurants, etc. That's not a long walk at all for me. I have been accustomed to walking a mile from the train to work. It adds up though. House to train to work and then back home again becomes around 4 miles... every week day. I decided that instead of walking all of this I might as well do something I've always wanted to do. I got a 1977 Alva reissue (single kick) with enormous 62mm wheels. I'm not looking to do tricks or be fancy. I just want to cruise. This board is great for that.

About a week and a half ago I noticed the back of my right ankle getting sore. I put it down to muscles unaccustomed to skateboarding, but another day and the pain got bad enough that I had to put up the board. I looked up some foot/ankle anatomy, and it turns out there aren't many muscles down there! I have an overworked, underpaid achilles tendon and it's gone on strike. After I figured that out (it took a few days of the pain not getting better before I broke down and made sure it was't a muscle) I started icing it and it's gotten better, but I still have some recovery to do. I've been walking and after the convenience of the board it's a pain in the ass. It adds 20 or more minutes to my commute each direction. I fought an internal struggle with my inner snob, and finally broke own. I ordered a razor scooter off Amazon. I may as well buy kneepads and a helmet now because my cool factor has disintigrated, but it will save me some time while I let my ankle heal and do some work with the other foot. Please heal quickly! Please heal quickly! The pain is mostly gone now, but it still feels tight and gets tired easily. I don't want to start working it again before it's ready and put myself back to square 1. The scooter should come on Friday. I can use it to get around all weekend. ...Yay?

But skateboarding isn't the only new thing! No way!

Chronologically, the next new thing on the list is yoga. I can't skateboard, I can't run, and walking doesn't make me feel active. There's a yoga place near my apartment (well, a mile or so off, of course) that sounded kind of scary--it's bikram yoga meaning they heat up the room to 100+ degrees and all the poses or whatever they're called (I haven't gotten into the yoga lingo) are done in the extreme heat. This accomplishes 2 things: the heat makes your muscles stretchier, and it also wears you out faster so what seems like an innocuous set of stretches leaves you panting. Maybe not panting. It's not that demonic. Breathing heavily though, at the very least. I went for the first time last Sunday and thought I was going to pass out or bolt from the room a few times, but I held myself back. The instructor was really nice and chill. I've heard people say that Bikram is kind of militant, and I can see a little bit of that attitude in the instructor I had tonight, but I don't think anyone in Berkeley really has it in them to be militant, and the first instructor was really laid back.

The stretching was difficult but I felt good that I did it. I've lost a lot of the flexibility I had when I was a dancer, even though I was never an easy splits kind of girl, and I've missed the feeling of being bendy. Even better, after the class I felt absolutely cleansed. They say to come dressed for the beach, and they're not kidding. I have what amounts to a sporty bikini for class, and I come away as wet as if I've just come from a pool, except instead of chlorine it's all sweat. I really have never sweated so much in my life as I have in this yoga class. I don't know if "sweating out toxins" is real or if it's some hippie bullshit, but I know how I feel after I sweat that much and it's squeaky clean. After a shower. I also have more energy, which was a bad thing to learn on a Sunday night as I tried and failed to sleep. I woke up repeatedly and slept very lightly, dreading the exhausted day of work that must follow.

Except it didn't. I didn't sleep much but I wasn't tired at all for work. I felt good, actually. Energized. I went again tonight, pushed a little harder, stretched a little further, sweated buckets, and I feel good. I have a post-workout lethargy and my muscles tell me they're quite satisfied. They'll change their mind and stiffen up throughout tomorrow, but that's what muscles do. They're fickle creatures. Not unlike tendons.

New item #3! Bellydancing.

I had my first bellydancing class yesterday evening. It's been years since I took bellydancing classes in Utah, and even then I didn't really have that much of an education. I don't even know if it was a particular style. Either way, I'm glad I'm doing this again. I find bellydancing to be beautiful and really sexy--as long as I don't have to get a belly to do it. I like mine flat and toned, thank you very much. I've shaken off much of my winter/Europe travel squishiness and the tone is back, baby!

I have to be honest... I thought I was going to be better at it than I am. I'm still good, and I pick it up quickly, but I expected more of myself. I wasn't realistic, certainly. What did I expect? To go in and immediately impress everyone? That would have been pretty cool, but it's not reality. I really am at beginner stages. Once I have the formula of movement down I'm in pretty good shape. It seems I'm a physical chameleon in addition to being a social one. It's just getting that first click of understanding. I can now do hip bumps, egyptians, and arabesques. I'm still having trouble with the shimmy, but I'll get it. I just don't have much to shake around, and that makes it a little more difficult!

In 6 weeks I should have all the basics. I could possibly do it in 3 weeks, but we'll have to see how this studio's schedule works. I don't yet know which classes are repeats. Then I'll move up to level 2! I'm excited to be good. This is American Tribal Style so it's meant to be done improvisationally with a group--one leader that changes depending on the direction the dancers are facing at any given time. It's a really cool concept, actually. I could stand to learn how to follow. However, once I feel I have a solid grounding in ATS I might try to branch out as well to a cabaret style, which is typically solo and has some super sexy costuming options!

You know what's kind of crazy? I'm not playing videogames very much right now. I'm being outside and active--and with my commute+work I don't have much spare time anyway--but I don't feel bad. Or I'm trying not to. I've defined myself as a gamer for years. It's what I DO. But... I can do other things too, and have other interests. Like learning to surf this summer in San Diego. I like this active me. I'm going to need a lot more food in the house to fuel the activity. Which, oddly enough, means more walking to the grocery store and back.

I'm really thrilled with my active life. I worried that I would become a hermit who stirred from home only to go to work, but that's not the case at all. In addition to my classes I've been hanging out with friends and Saturday night I'm actually going to go see Arcade Fire play a the Greek Theater. I've lived in the bay area for 2 1/2 years and I've never gone to a proper band show. The only thing I haven't brought myself to do is start dating again. I'm not torn over my ex or in need of time to get over that relationship. I'm just so hung up over my Aussie that no one else seems interesting enough to bother with.