NYC Trip & Update

Well, I don't have much to report right now. Things are rather unexciting. Since getting back from my adventures out west I've been spending almost all my time at my parents' place, trying to keep myself entertained. Although I did take a trip out to NYC to visit Rabbit and Wolf, and that was quite wonderful! It was very good to see both of them again, it had been too long. Mostly we wandered about town, loafed around at Rabbit's cute little hobbit hole in Brooklyn, hanging out, being silly and eating cheap, delicious delivery (wonderful thing about the city!) We did take a trip out to Coney Island one afternoon, which was quite nice. The weather was beautiful and the beach was not very crowded. We talked about life and dreams and enjoyed being in the sun. Sadly we were not able to get out for a hike like we had wanted, but, maybe another time. Like I was expecting, the city was too crazy for me, interesting, but just too many people and too much concrete. Where Rabbit lives is not too bad. I did enjoy being able to just walk down the street for groceries or whatever. But still not a place I'd like to live. Very interesting though, to see how so many other people live. Overall it was a good trip and I am very glad we all got to hang out again!

It has been good to see my family again. My nephew is growing fast! He is quite adorable and almost makes me like babies ;-) I have been here long enough though and am ready to get on the road again. Thankfully I'll be headed back to Montana next week. I am quite excited! It sounds like folks at the campaign are looking forward to having me back, and that's a warm, fuzzy feeling :-D I think I am almost ready. I splurged and bought myself a fancy new pack so I will be at least more mobile in my future travels, and so I can go backpacking, duh! I've gotten together mostly everything I think I will take, and it didn't even fill the bag! I was almost shocked, I have learned how to pack light! What a novel concept! Although, knowing me I will probably fill it in the end, hehe.

Tomorrow should be interesting. Owl is coming by to pick up some things he left when he moved (oh yeah, did I mention he has moved back to the mainland?) and I'm not sure if I am ready to see him again. I have come to the point where I just don't feel like I want him in my life anymore, but I don't know if I will be able to tell him that. Honestly I have enjoyed not communicating with him, it's not even something I think about. Although now that I am actually going to see him, I know I should stand up for myself and tell him all the things I have been feeling about our relationship and all that happened. But a part of me feels like it's just not worth it. Does he deserve even that? Would it make me feel any different? I just don't know. Sigh. I am so tired of this.

I don't want to end on that note, so here's something exciting! Yesterday I learned a couple of new hooping tricks! WOOT! Just a simple jump through trick, and a behind the back pass. When I'm trying to learn new tricks from videos I always really wish someone was actually there to show me in person. I think I'd probably pick things up a lot quicker that way. Although, mostly what I've learned I've gotten from videos online, so it obviously hasn't been that difficult ;-) It felt good to work on new things again! Huzzah for hooping!

Spiral hooping at Center Camp, Burning Man '06

I found this before I even started hooping at the end of last year. I remember being completely wowed by this woman, and I find that I still am. I absolutely love the way she moves with the hoop! It's beautiful, inspiring and almost entrancing at times. This may not be her best video (more here), but it is still a favorite of mine, as it was when I was a brand new hooper.



p.s. I may be developing a weakness for youtube...

Ready to Firehoop!

Since going to Burning Man, my desire to add fire to my hooping has greatly increased. Every time I see someone playing with fire, whether or not they are hooping, it makes me wonder what the hell I'm waiting for! I watched a few people firehoop at Burning Man and I made sure to pay attention to what they were doing and how it compared to my own skill level. Mostly they were doing things I already know how to do, so that gave me some more confidence. There is so much more I can learn and so much more room for improvement of course, but after seeing other folks firehoop who aren't necessarily "performers" I felt more inspired to just do it. If they can do it, so can I! ;-) All I need to do is acquire a firehoop and start practicing with it. Realistically it might actually be a while yet before that happens, but it just feels good knowing that at this point, I could do it. Woot! Now for an inspiring (and kinda hot) video...

For a laugh...

One of the most amazing outfits EVER. Not really, but I had fun putting it together. When Pine was here for a visit I was playing with all my funky clothes and putting together the weirdest outfits I could for Burning Man. I really doubt I'll actually wear this at Burning Man, but I had fun wearing it for a little while. Besides, how often do I wear a bikini AND thermal undies?

I'm busy this week. I worked both jobs yesterday and will do it again tomorrow. Today I had an interview with the health food store and starting next week I'll be working there as well. Although I am now officially off the schedule at the juice bar because of major changes in the business, which is fine with me. Just means I won't have to quit. Tomorrow will be my last day. I'm just a little bit sad, but it'll be very good to shake things up as being there can really get on my nerves. And I don't think I could actually stand to work both jobs per day. If yesterday was any indication, then I'd end up feeling very drained all the time. Mmm, no thanks.

This weekend I'll be going out of town with my friend Pet. It's going to be a surprise as to where exactly we are going, so that's kinda exciting. Oh, and ole Wolfie's 40th birthday is on Saturday! This evening I'm going over to a friend's place who has kindly offered the use of his sewing machine so I can finish Wolf's present. It's looking good so far, so I'm excited to see how it will eventually turn out. I'll post pictures soon.

Monday night I spent some time hooping inside one of the places I clean that has a lot of room AND a way for me to play some music. It was nice finally having some room to roam about with my hoop AND have good music, instead of one or the other. I worked on shoulder hooping for a bit and I think I've almost got it! I'm really excited because that will open up lots of other possibilities for tricks and moves and whatnot. WOOT!

Fire Hooping

I'll be doing this one day...

Domesticity and Fun in St. Louis

This is me being the Domestic Goddess. The tough, fiercely independent Domestic Goddess, who sometimes likes to make sugar cookies. Delightfully awesome and tasty sugar cookies.

So, as I am sure is obvious by the photograph, I had a good time in St. Louis this past week. The sugar cookie making madness was enjoyed by both Pine and I. He was not afraid to step in and get his hands covered in flour. It was quite cute. I learned that Pine likes to bake, so score yet another point for Pine and his awesome-ness (first the fire-eating, now the baking! whew). It took us at least a couple of hours since I made the whole recipe, so there will be no shortage of sugar cookies at either of our houses anytime soon (that is unless my roommate who is even more of a whore for baked goods than I am gets a hold of them). We even mixed up several colors of frosting and laboriously iced each cookie. That doesn't mean they look very good...I mean really, there is not much finesse involved in icing cookies with a butter knife. However, they are quite colorful and very tasty, and that is all that really matters. It had been a while since I was so domestic. My other domestic activities of the week included making yummy vegan enchiladas, leek soup, late-night pancakes (great munchie food btw), a couple breakfasts and cleaning Pine's kitchen. I know how bachelor men's houses tend to be, and I need a clean kitchen to work in, so, voila! Clean kitchen.

I also spent a lot of time hooping this past week. Pine and I watched a few basic hooping videos, and while Pine was out one evening I finally got the hang of the one hand beam me up, although I have only perfected one rotation at a time. It made me feel good to learn a trick so quickly. Pine was impressed I think ;-) I can definitely feel where the hoop has been rolling around my hips, I even have a bruise already. Ha.

Remember the Shoes video that everyone loved so much a year or so ago? I remembered that I was very impressed with the fire hoopers towards the end, so I looked it up and watched it again with Pine. The fire hooping is pretty hot I have to say. One day, that'll be me.

Pine and I didn't go out much, except for Friday night. We met up with our cool friend Pet, who we have both been wanting to hang out with. I'm going to go off on a tangent here and tell the story of how I met Pet....
Last May, on a lark, (which seems like eons ago now) I went to a Beltane festival at Ozark Avalon with Owl, who is already very familiar with the land and folks who spend time there, unlike me. One of the first people we ran across after we had arrived and set up camp was a tall, tan man wearing nothing but sunglasses and a lacy sarong draped around his hips with a bikini clad woman in tow. I was only slightly taken aback by such a character, as Owl had informed me I would see oddly dressed folks and strange situations at this event. So, I was introduced to Pet. To be honest with you I wasn't very interested at first. I was actually quite guarded for most of the time I was there. I didn't speak with him much at all really and didn't think about him again until a couple of months later when I got a random phone call from an unknown number. The man said he was looking for Owl (who at one point was giving out my number as a way to get a hold of him) and we got to talking. It turns out he was the scantily clad man I had met months earlier at OA. He remembered me as the pretty woman Owl had brought along. It was a nice conversation, albeit a little odd considering the circumstances. He stopped by my work one morning a few days later when he was in town and I almost didn't recognize him because he had so many clothes on! He encouraged me to call him later on since we seemed to get on so well, and I was open to making a new friend, so...we started talking and became instant friends. At one point he told me something that a friend of his had said, "good people know good people". So true. We met again at Pagan Pride Day right around the time of Mabon this September and spent some time together chatting. So, it was nice to finally get to see him again.

So, like I was saying, Pine and I met Pet at a pool hall (where we did actually play a game and have some drinks) in preparation for going to an event which Pet had suggested, Journey to Bethlehem. This is something that he apparently used to go to years ago when some of his family members attended the same church. He wanted to go experience it again with friends he knew would understand the silliness of it all (he said to us at one point during our "journey" that he could "smell the hypocrisy", hehe). Wow. It was quite an odd experience. I think now I have had enough "church" to last me for quite a while. So after "walking to Bethlehem" outside in the very cold weather and being slightly disturbed, we headed back to reality. Pet suggested hitting up the casino just for fun. I wasn't ready to go home yet, and really, what would be a better way to end such an odd Friday night? So, away we went. We didn't actually go inside the casino itself, but we wandered all about and people watched. They all looked kinda sad, or drunk, or both. It wasn't overly exciting, but as I told Pine, it was a good way to balance out the church craziness. It was just great getting to see Pet again! I'd love to spend more time with both Pet and Pine, we seem to make a great trio.

So, that was my week in St. Louis. It was great getting away from my house for a while. I was actually able to sleep rather well at Pine's house. It's so much quieter there than here, without all those crazy dogs running about. I swear this house is like a circus....

Sugar Cookies and My Hooping Beginnings

I'm in St. Louis for a visit right now, just keeping myself entertained while Pine is away for a few hours. I mixed up dough for sugar cookies this morning (frosting to be made next) so this evening we will go crazy with the cookies. I am so excited! When I was little, my family had a great sugar cookie tradition. Once a year during the holidays, we would gather in the kitchen and make tons of sugar cookies. My mom would mix up the dough and my sister and I would help her roll it out and cut them into shapes for baking. We would make all different colors of frosting and pull out our ridiculously large selection of sprinkles that we had acquired throughout the year. Then my dad would come along at some point and we'd all sit down at the table with the cooled cookies to frost and decorate all of them. It got quite crazy at times, with all sorts of weird colors and oddly decorated shapes. It was great fun! I really wanted to do that again this year since it's been a few years and Pine thought it was a great idea. So I'm really looking forward to it. I'll definitely get some photos!

Last night Pine and I made some hoops! It was quite easy and they turned out well. I've been playing with mine quite a bit, although I pretty much just have the basic hooping action down. I've been watching videos for some help, although I'm not finding a whole lot of super basic videos. It'd be helpful to have someone around who really knew what they were doing. It's still fun though and I feel like I'm getting a good workout when I do it. So, woo for hooping!

Did I mention I'm going to start hooping?

That's right kids, I think I've found the toy I've been looking for. Pine and I will be acquiring the necessary supplies next week to start making hoops. I'm so excited! I've been spending a lot of time reading about hooping and watching videos. Here's one that, while not very trick heavy, is just sweet and so like me.



Some other cool hooping videos:
hooping at Santa Monica Beach
Bassnectar Jam
Spiral at Earth Dance Festival
Spiral Dance at Burning Man 2006
Hoopnoxious w/ LEDs
The Good Vibe Hoop Tribe
Blindfolded hooping to Old Dirty Bastard (you'll like this Willow ;-)

My hooping links on del.icio.us