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ROCO Friday – Teddy’s Jam

Let the congregation say….ROCO!

If you’re unfamiliar with ROCO, just type it into the little search bar up there on the right and read up. I’ll be here. Back? Great, now…

Let the congregation say…ROCO!!

First things first (I, Papa), how did we do this week? Not too badly. Not as great as I would have liked, but, with a funky week, I’ll take it. Got in my exercise and stretching as well as 3 blog posts. Hopefully I’ll get some time this weekend to work on book writing.

Jam, oh jam, Teddy jam for me. Yeah, it’s Friday. Get your groove on. And while you’re getting that groove on, go read this then come back and jam some more. Welcome back. So, while the Brass Monkey (that funky monkey) is January’s pole move, last night, we worked on a different move.

After working on said move, to be disclosed momentarily, conversation at home could go a little like this:

Non-pole dancer: What is that? On your…side boob. Is that a bruise?!?! How did that get there?!?!

Pole dancer: Oh, I was doing Teddy tonight.

Non-pole dancer: WTF?!?!

Yep, a pole dancer’s life. Full of bumps, scrapes, bruises, and questionable looks from significant others.

So, Teddy. That’s him over there on the left. I don’t think that I’m totally in the proper position when I’m doing it. I am (or at least my arms feel like) holding myself up with only the contact on my inner arm and side boob. Veena says, the other point of contact is on my back. Guess I need to work that one out a little bit more. If I had to guess at a third point of contact I was using last night, based on where my pain is today, I’d say I was definitely more on my side (like by my ribs) rather than my back. Sad face. Sore face.

Sunday, providing that I can still move around (I am sore as fudge!), it’ll be work on Brass Monkey day here at BSB HQ. I have goals, people! And one of those is to get to work. Well, not really, but I have to do it.

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to ROCO!!

See ya, 2012!

Peace out, 2012. You were pretty fun, but I am SO over you and ready to move on.

Of course it’s that time of year where folks set up some New Year’s resolutions for themselves. Let me look back a year to see if I made this futile effort last year…..damn, you’re still there? Well, the answer was no, I didn’t. The year before either. I’m smarter than I thought. This year, my uber-intelligence continues as I will not make resolutions for the year. I will, however, make weekly goals that would help me attain my “New Year’s resolutions” that I’m not making. I’m just being realistic here. Because I know me. Oh, in addition to the weekly goals, I am thinking also a monthly pole goal (that is composed of two points).

And so, so let it be written, so let it be done. I’m getting a head start.

The January Pole Goal: Brass Monkey (pole), Michelle’s crazy floor swipe (floorwork). There, I said it. Not so bad, and attainable as long as I just work on them. With all credit to Pole Dance Dictionary (love them), here’s a picture of the Brass Monkey:

And if you tell me how easy this move is, I will straight up go Cartman on you and kick you in the NUTS! It could be easy though, I just haven’t really tried it out yet. So maybe your nuts are safe. Likely that if you’re reading this you don’t even have any (except Bob, Conrad, and Joe).

I cannot show you Michelle’s floor swipe thingy, or at least I can’t link to it currently. She actually calls it a Hand Press Leap. If you know anything of pole dance and/or anything of Michelle, then you know it’s fantastic. Period.

And sooner in January would be better than later in January as I would really like to have both of these moves in my routine for the February showcase. Goals? I haz them.

So, right now, my pole move list has 16 moves on it. Plenty to get me through the year at one a month and obviously a few extra for those months that I’m working extra hard.

That is actually the part of “goal setting” and achieving that will likely be easy. The remainder, not so much, mainly due to time constraints. I’m still going to try to make it happen.

2013 is the year of the book. I’ve been sitting on this chick lit story forever and since Ms. Mattas said it’s book writing year, then let’s get on it.

2013 is the year of front splits. I really am close enough that if I put in serious work on it, I’d be on the floor by my 40th birthday. Let’s get on it.

2013 will hold a couple other things, I’m sure, but surprises are fun. And without further ado, for me more than for you, I present the Monday Musings, or Sh!t I Wanna Do This Week:

2 cardio sessions (1 down, 1 to go)
2 weight sessions
3 stretching sessions
1 foam rolling session
2 pole sessions
2 1 hour writing sessions
3 blog sessions

Not bad. I think I can do this. Who needs sleep, right?

I’ve put these things out into the universe. May they not come back and sucker punch me.

Have a wonderful (AND SAFE!!!) New Year’s Eve folks! See you next year and be ready to rock and roll!

Aerial Awareness. Or, I Am A Cat

Many moons ago, after my first step off the board, I became addicted to flying trapeze. As my addiction grew, of course, I wanted to learn more and more. And involved in that more and more was flying without safety lines.

In order to reach my goal, there were tests that I needed to pass. Honestly, at the time, it felt like the powers that be were just stalling me for time, but looking back at it now, I know that it was all for good reason. I spent a LOT of time on the trampoline working on those seat drops (easy), swivel hips (easy), back drop (awkward but easy), stomach drop (scorpioned one or two, but got it), a few other moves that include the word drop, and the dreaded back drop to back drop. (Check this site if you want to learn more trampoline stuff.)

What all of this trampolining was teaching me was aerial awareness. Or, in layman’s terms, the ability to know where my body is in the air in relation to the super hard ground. After I finally reached my goal and was given the green light to take my first swing without safety lines, I knew one of the most amazing feelings on earth. There is almost nothing as freeing as sailing through the air, feeling and hearing the wind rush past your face and ears. LOVE! Now add a little flip, twist, or boost into the air and life has gotten even better.

I was able to continue my journey without safety lines for quite some time before that trampoline training actually came into play. You see, I’m a creature of habit and I get distracted when things are outside of the norm. So, on that fateful day, when there were about 5 people on the board rather than our usual 2 or 3, yes, I was distracted.

Let me preface the next part of this story with this: I have issues with pointing my toes. I know 1000% full well how awful flexed feet look in a performance (when it isn’t intentional). I work on it, I really do, but sometimes, my feet just want to be flexed.

I took off the board, throwing my uprise shoot (click to see video…not of me). Distracted. Not thinking of every detail of the trick. Down to my feet. My damnned flexed feet. My damnned flexed feet that caught on the bar and took me from uprise shoot to downward dive in a millisecond. A full trapeze trick from board to catcher and back to the board lasts about about 15 seconds. Practicing that trick to the net about half that time. In that about 8 seconds of trick time, about 1.5 of those are spent going to the net. 1.5 seconds is not a long time. Except if you’re falling head first towards the net. Time slows down when you just might break your neck.

Aerial Awareness training, ACTIVATE! Form of, a trampoline! Shape of, the person practicing on that nice, safe trampoline!

So here’s what’s going through my head in those 1.5 seconds: Tuck? Take it to my back? Tuck? Take it to my back? OSHITHERECOMESTHENETJUSTUCKANDSAVEYOURLIFE!!!! And so I tucked it in and landed nice and safely. I think I scared a person or two. But I made it. All that trampoline work was not for naught. Thank you.

Fast forward twelve years. Geez….twelve years. I’m in the studio and I’m trying a new move. Not odd to be trying a new move. Not smart to be trying a new move when I don’t have an out. When I’m head to the floor. When I don’t have a crash mat. And for whatever reason, however it happened, because I honestly couldn’t tell you, in that split second, I was not on the pole. Not with my hands, not with my legs, or feet, or with anything. And you know what? Aerial awareness training kicked in. I don’t think that I “thought”. I simply reacted. I don’t know how it happened, but with my head barely four feet off the floor, I somehow managed to get my feet to the floor first. I am a cat.

I like keeping all of my parts in their full and working capacities, so I likely won’t be making that mistake again. I hope that if you are on the pole trying something new that you won’t do what I do. That you’ll always know your out. That you’ll always have a spot. That you’ll always have a crash mat. Please. I want you around to hear my next rambling post. 🙂

Sweat Psychology

Some years back, on my first trip to Mexico, I wondered if I could make it there. You see, my arrival in Mexico was directly on the heels of being in Florida for the previous seven months. Oddly enough, for Florida, it wasn’t constant heat and humidity as I was closer to central Florida than south. So, when I stepped off of the bus from the airport and walked through the village to my new home, I was drenched in sweat before I even made it to my room. I immediately became concerned that I simply wouldn’t be able to make it there for six months if I couldn’t stop sweating for two minutes. I would literally get out of the shower and start sweating. It was nuts!

Eventually, I learned to start ignoring the sweat – it didn’t stop – it’s Mexico for Pete’s sake! So unless it was an ungodly hot day, I just soaked it up.

Fast forward a decade and change (OMG, really?!?!), and I’m living in Colorado. I’m working on my fitness and flexibility goals. To this end, I started taking a Bikram yoga class once a week. Now, in order to get the most benefits out of this, my understanding is that I would really need to be going several times a week, but the reality is that I just don’t have that much free time on my hands, so once a week it is. In case you aren’t familiar with Bikram, it’s a series of 26 poses with breathing exercises between them. Oh, yeah, and the room is heated to about 104 degrees and pumped full of humidity. With all due respect to Justin Timberlake, Sweat Me A River.

Typically, in my workout world, things are too easy or too boring. I’m a bit of an extremist I suppose. Trapeze? Constantly changing, learning new tricks, improving, WIN. Pole? Put my hand there and then put my leg WHERE?!?! It doesn’t get any tougher. P90X? Daily changes kicking my arse. I’ve tried a couple different forms of yoga, and while they did a great job of calming my mind for about 3 minutes, I couldn’t get out of my head because I wasn’t being challenged enough. Enter the Bikram.

For my first class, I went in what I thought would be typical yoga attire: capri pants and a full-length tank top. OMG hot. OMG sweaty. For the second class, I thought I’d try a different route and I wore shorts and a midriff-baring tank top. OMG hot. OMG even more sweaty?!?! First class – I made it through. It was tough but I felt pretty good. Second class – I made it through but it was a struggle. I’m chalking up the differences to all being in my head. Why? Well, in the first class, I knew that I must be sweating. The guy in front of me literally had rivers of sweat running off of him (it was really gross), and while my super powers are strong, I just don’t think I’m that badass. The clothing – the clothing kept the sweat away from my body, away from my mat, away from my overenthusiastic brain, thus giving it time to concentrate on balancing on my left middle toe while holding my right middle toe behind my head and scratching my nose with my elbow.

Something in my head said, wear less clothing the next time you go, so I did. For some folks, this might not be an issue, but if you’re me or one of the entities living in my head, this is not the case. Now, I’m fully in my head. Every move takes forever. I can not only see the sweat running off of me and pooling in a disgusting circle at my feet, I can feel it. Everywhere. It’s horrid. I’m trying to towel off constantly. As such, my focus is in the complete wrong place. I’m not enjoying my practice; I’m not in the proper positions; I’m not receiving all there is to receive.

So what is this psychology of sweat? There have been studies done about seeing the temperature and reacting accordingly. Here’s a story about another time I was crazy sweaty. I don’t like to sweat or be sweaty. I’m no dummy; I know that it’s a part of life and a part of living, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. I’m coming to the conclusion that out of sight, out of mind means more to me than I originally thought. If I can’t see those cookies (which is why we have a cabinet full of junk that I forget about), then I won’t eat them. If I can’t see that unopened bottle of wine (or 4) on the counter, I won’t open them and imbibe. If I can’t see that I’m a sweaty mess, I’ll keep pushing hard until the class is over. Having a preoccupation with something, anything else seems to make almost anything an attainable goal. Perhaps this is also why I like to keep a million things on my plate at once. Do they all get done? Hell no. But I also don’t spend a ridiculous amount of time worrying about what’s on the plate. I just pick something to handle and handle it.

What about you? Do you join me in overthinking? Or are you one of the lucky without this affliction?

Sleep, I Knew Thee Well

For oh so long, I’ve been fortunate enough to put my head on the pillow, close my eyes, and really call it a night – see you tomorrow. It appears that my days of good fortune have come to an end, temporarily I hope. I believe this is now day four without a good night’s sleep. I realize that many folks deal with this on a daily basis, and, right now, I am feeling for all of you.

Not sure what little switch got clicked in my brain, but whomever turned it on needs to take his/her happy ass right back in there to switch it back. This is something I might understand if I were overly concerned about something, anything, at the moment, but I’m not. Mentally exhausted after work some days? Sure. That shouldn’t keep me from knocking out at night.

It’s a vicious circle that has a couple more points to keep it round. Goes kinda like this:

10 pm – Lay it down and try to start relaxing
11 pm – Toss, turn, turn, toss
1 am – Up to pee
3 am – Up to pee. Wonder what time it is. Look at clock. Sigh deeply
3:35 am – It must be time to get up now. Look at clock. Sigh deeply
4:15 am – I must have been asleep for 2 hours. Look at clock. Sigh deeply
5 am – Damn, you’re here already/how could it have taken you so long to get here
5:15 am – Let’s work out
7:30 am – Start work
8 am – Coffee #1
9 am – Probably coffee #2
10 am – Hit the wall (considering adding a ripper here to get through the day)
11 am – Brain function at an all-time low leaving me frustrated about my work and ridiculously tired
1 pm – LUNCH!
3 pm – Dragging ass
4:30 pm – Brave traffic to get home
5:30 pm – I want to do things here (trapeze, pole, something, anything) but I’m too damn tired

Hubby’s theory is that I’m not eating enough to do all I try to do. He could be correct, but oddly enough, I hope not because I don’t know if I could honestly shove any more food down my gullet in a day. I take a daily multi-vitamin (semi-daily…I forget sometimes) so it shouldn’t be the usual iron deficiency that I tend to have. It’s gotta be the sleep. Ack! What do you do when your old friend sleep has turned his back on you and thrown you under the bus?!?! Tonight, I’ll be trying some melatonin. Hopefully I won’t have to progress past that.

In other (pole) news, the spring showcase at Boulder Spirals is creeping up on me. For my preparation timeline for a performance, I’m right on schedule having chosen my song with a mere 17 days till showtime. I’m shooting for sexy this time. We’ll see how that goes. I’m also mentally sitting on two other pole pieces that I want to put together: one with a friend from high school and one to rep one of my greatest loves ever. That’s all I am going to say about them at the moment, though, because I think that a million people read this blog (HAHAHAHA) and I want to make sure that I don’t give away my ideas so people can get to them before me. So, Cheryl, I didn’t forget about you! 🙂

Have a great day, folks. The time has come for me to pack up a lunch full of food that will hopefully keep me awake today. 🙂

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ROCO Friday – Teddy’s Jam

See ya, 2012!

Aerial Awareness. Or, I Am A Cat

Sweat Psychology

Sleep, I Knew Thee Well

You Missed

Nothing To See Here

Too Damn Slow

Ghosts (of Days Gone By)

Raunchy Activated