belly dancing

Daily Post 148: Fresh Start Monday

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Today has gone well. It’s a fresh start to a fresh week.

I woke up with my alarm which is something I’ve been doing more and more lately. 7am. Bright and early. It lets me have my morning routine before having to go to the dojo.

I have my coffee. I put the dry dishes away. I make my breakfast. I plan out my day. The past few mornings I’ve cross-stitched. Not much. Just a single thread. But I let myself have that single thread rather than doing nothing at all. I let myself enjoy the quiet morning, the length of the thread, and for those handful of minutes, I let myself zen out and not worry about how the rest of the day is going to go.

I had three eggs scrambled today instead of doing the half sandwich I normally do. No real reason for the change, just what I was in the mood for I guess.

I wrote about the past week. A lot happened. I kept thinking I should write but I either wasn’t home to do it, or was tired by the end of the day and didn’t feel like staying up long enough to figure out my thoughts, much less make them sound coherent.

It was good to think back onto all of the positive developments in my life. The phone situation was great. I couldn’t have asked for it to work out any better.

I know I mentioned a lot about Big Bad. I’ve also been talking with my blacksmith. I feel I should toss that in there so it doesn’t seem like he’s fallen off the face of the planet. He hasn’t. We have plans to see each other on the 11th. It’s his birthday that day.

Jujitsu was awesome today. I actually got to tap two people out. It was also really rough emotionally. I sat out for the final round because I needed to collect myself. It was good, and I’m glad I worked through the emotions. I’m glad I’ve found this dojo.

I came home and rested afterward. I needed it.

My brother called me about thirty minutes later. He wanted to tell me about the presentation he gave for his class. It went extremely well and he wanted to say thank you to me since I helped him with the slide portion of the presentation. Nothing really overly involved… I just critiqued his layout and gave him tips from a design aspect, but I guess it really helped him out, so that was cool.

I did a bunch of errands once I was off the phone. The post office was a nightmare, but I needed to send out my old phone so I can get the credit applied to my account. I also had mail for the previous tenants that I needed to give to someone who knew what to do with it. So it was worth it, but waiting in line for 20 minutes sort of sucked.

I went to Micheal’s for a smaller cross stitch frame. That was nifty because everything was 50% off, so I got it for five bucks. Hooray. 😀

From there I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods where I found a pair of shin guards I like. I need them for the Muay Thai class. I also got a mouth guard and a new pair of sandals. I know I got a pair while I was in Vegas roughly three months ago, but the longer I have them the more I don’t like them. I hadn’t been able to find a pair in the style I used to have, so I tried this new style.

Well… I gave it a shot and it’s a no go. So I’ll be donating my old pair in the next few days. I can already tell I’ll really like the new ones. Good investment. It would be really cool if they last three years like my previous pair.

I stopped at Publix to grocery shop. That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but I was ready to be home by the time I loaded everything into my car.

Got home. Put groceries away. Chilled for a little bit before heading out to dance class. It was great to see the instructor again. There were only two other people tonight. I guess that’s odd for a normal class. Maybe it’s because it’s getting into the holiday season…

I’m getting more comfortable with the movements. It’s a better workout now that I can put more effort into it rather than being confused and having to take things slow so I can understand how I’m supposed to be moving.

Nicole wanted to hang out for a bit after the class so I met up with her at the pool hall. It was relaxing, but now I’m home and tired and instead of working on my project file like I had told myself I would, I’m writing my blog and then going to go to sleep.

I’m happy with how today worked out. I’m happy with all of the unlisted things that I got done, along with everything I wrote about. The shopping was something I had been wanting to do for a while so having it off the list leaves tomorrow completely open until the evening, which is when I’ll be doing my three hours at the dojo.

Something I realized while talking with Nicole tonight… Yesterday was the fourth. Month nine without mom. It was the first fourth that  I didn’t consciously count. I didn’t wake up thinking it was the fourth. I didn’t  go to sleep Saturday thinking I would wake up and it would be nine months.

I don’t feel guilty for that. I feel like that’s progress. That I’m healing. I  need to meditate on it more, but I think mom would have been happy that for the first time in nine months, the fourth was just a normal day for me.

And with that, off to sleep I go.

Daily Post 143: Sunday, Monday, and Belly Dancing

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Sunday I woke up early. 7am.

I got up, determined to finally, seriously, go for a run. I had breakfast, drank my coffee, got dressed, then realized as soon as I stepped out my door that it was 50 degrees outside and that I live in Orlando  and in no way was it ok for it to be that cold. That’s not taking  into account the added wind chill… Cold. So cold. And did I mention the, “not ok” part?

I’m happy to report I didn’t back down from the challenge, though. I put on long sleeves, drove to one of the bike trails and ran, reminding myself that it’s not going to be any warmer in February when I run my race so I might as well suck it up now and get used to it.

It wasn’t my best run by any stretch of the imagination. But any run is better than no run, and I was actually surprised my time was as good as it was. I could tell my hamstrings were tight and my quads were still angry from the jujitsu class but there wasn’t any hint of shin splint pain. And I’m pretty confident that the tightness in my hamstrings won’t be as bad the more I run and stretch them back out. My later intervals, once I was finally able to get warm, were actually really nice so I do think it’s more just working the rust out of some spots.

Once my run was done I came back home and started tackling the weekend chores. I got a bunch done, but mainly I was waiting for Warren to get up so we could do the grocery shopping.

We had lunch at a Chinese buffet. We had tried going there the morning we picked my bike up but they weren’t open at 10am. Since our first attempt had been a bust we decided to give it another shot, which was successful.

It was an alright experience but I’ve noticed that I don’t eat much at places like that anymore. Just not a whole lot I’m interested in and I usually feel like I can make better-tasting things at home.The conversation was light and pleasant, and we weren’t too far away from the oriental market I wanted to go to, so overall it wasn’t bad.

We ended up going to three different stores: the oriental market, a fresh produce store, and then Publix. By the time we were done and back home I was running on fumes. It was nice to be in the kitchen on my own prepping the food and decompressing from being out and about so much. I needed the recharge since  I was supposed to meet Nicole for dinner.

It was fantastic to see her again. We had so much to catch up on since we haven’t seen each other in roughly three weeks. We parted ways around 9pm with plans to hang out again the following Monday since that’s when she will be celebrating her birthday.

I guess I really need to add birthday and Christmas present shopping to my list. I haven’t even begun to think about Christmas. I really don’t want to right now because I’m sure that will be all sorts of emotional hardship to work through so I’m going to keep typing away about everything else instead because procrastination is a thing. : D

I went to sleep pretty much right when I got home from dinner.

I woke up this morning at 7am again. I allowed myself to have a slow, lazy morning. I cooked eggs with spinach, mushroom, and onion mixed into them instead of doing the egg half sandwich I’ve been doing. I got a container of peach mango salsa at the store yesterday and it actually went amazingly well with everything.

I boiled eggs to mix into the tuna I planned to make later. I finished doing the laundry. I cleaned up the few dishes that were dirty… Not really a whole lot else happened until around 11:30am, which is when I got ready for my jujitsu class.

After how busy I felt things had been the previous day, and with how busy they were going to continue to be throughout the day, I didn’t feel bad about having a slack morning. It was actually really nice having my coffee in the empty living room listening to silence.

Jujitsu was fun. I met another instructor today. I learned the entry point for the back hook. I learned another choke, too. This class wasn’t as intense as the first one. Another thing I was ok with since I’m still sore. Pretty sure I already mentioned the soreness, but I also feel I need to mention it again because holy crap I haven’t been this sore since my first aikido class.

Totally non-related segway into a completely different topic…

Something that’s been itching in the back of my mind is belly dancing. I guess I didn’t get my ass kicked enough at the dojo today or maybe I need to be reminded on what the word “recovery” really means, since “doing an Internet search to find out when I can do more physically demanding things” seems to mean “recovery” to my brain.

Anyway, ever since I’ve moved to Orlando I’ve had to drive past a belly dancing studio on my way to the campus. I always thought it would be interesting to check it out. You know. See what it’s all about. Maybe have some fun with it.

While I was going to school I felt like I never had the time to go.  Then I was employed and with a constantly fluxing schedule I never got around to it, or other things had my attention, or I didn’t have  the financial means.

Now, I have both the time and the means to look into it, so I’m looking into it.

I looked up the times for beginner classes and decided I was going to go try it out. Now. Tonight. Today. Now or never sort of thing.

With that set in my mind, I went and had dinner with my brother. I got to meet his friend / boyfriend. I’m not really 100% sure what their relationship status is but he seems like a really nice person. We had great conversation while we ate and then played an extremely interesting Commander game for Magic the Gathering. Jon’s partner won the match, but I did pretty well and was happy that it was a fairly competitive match for all three of us rather than it feeling one-sided.

After dinner I went home, changed, then went to the belly dance class.

It was amazingly fun. There was only one other student there tonight. I guess with it being the holiday week most people are out of town. The dojo has been pretty empty as well. I don’t mind, though. It’s allowing me to figure out myself in the environments without the added pressure of a billion people who already know what they’re doing.

Going to the belly dancing class means I missed out on Muay Thai tonight, but I’m thinking I sort of like this arrangement. The beginner belly dance classes are Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. So I can alternate Muay Thai and belly dancing in the evenings which will give me enough of a difference that I won’t get bored with anything. At least, in theory, it seems like it will work.

In theory, I’m also apparently Wonder Woman and need no rest days… So… yeah… As nice as all of this seems like it will be inside of my head I’m not 100% sure if it will be within my range at the moment. I might end up doubling up jujitsu and muay thai and doing the belly dancing on its own as a recovery day. Not sure yet. I have options, though, so I’ll adjust as I need to.

I was supposed to see Big Bad tonight but we decided to rain check it instead. While I do want to see him I’m sort of glad we both agreed on canceling our plans. It was already sort of late so we wouldn’t have gotten much time together since he has to wake up for work. I want to go to a jujitsu class at 6am, which means I’m looking at being up around 5am because coffee…

Since it’s the holiday week he has a lot of social obligations, but we’re going to try to meet over the weekend at the park again.

I’ve made the  most of the  extra time I gained tonight. I been able to work through all of my daily chores, install Maya 2015 on my computer once again, and battle plan out  my day for tomorrow so I know what I want to get done and how to do it efficiently.

I’m also getting a chance to write my blog which is always nice and lets me have closure to my day.

I might write a prompt post depending on how involved it is. I also want to brush Scarlet a bit before tossing in the towel for today. But overall, I’m happy and content. Tomorrow is going to be busy. It’s also going to start early.

I’m looking forward to it.