I’ve been 30 for nearly a month now and I’m proud to say that I have actually made some progress on this 30 List thing!! For me, the consummate procrastinator, that says an awful lot. So what, you ask, have you done so far Stacy? Ok, so maybe you don’t ask that, because not many people really care about what I do on a daily basis. But let’s pretend for a moment that you DID ask, lol.
Item 3- Take a belly dancing class.
As I mentioned in my last entry, my friend Andrea and I decided to give this one a shot. I have to tell you, it is the MOST fun I’ve had in AGES!!!! We laugh and dance our way through an hour each Tuesday and I leave in the best mood. You can’t wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the evening. It reminds me of why I loved dance so much. There is such an emotional component for me when it comes to dancing and during the moments where I know what I’m doing enough to lose myself, it’s a really great experience- a combination of the femininity and sensuality of the movements and the pure happiness that I feel from dance itself. Needless to say, we’ve had a great time. We loved it so much we signed up for the second course and are now through our second week of Advanced Belly Dance. We even plan on taking the course that follows this one. Now that I’ve remembered why it was that I loved dance so much, I certainly do not plan on stopping. I may even take a ballet class or two once belly dancing is over, so that I can relearn my first love. We’ll have to see how much my husband allows, since it means he has to take care of the kids the evenings I have class.
Some pics for your general amusement-
Andrea and I on our last day of the beginning course, when we got to use veils.
Love the classes enough that now I have some fantastically jingly scarves to
wear- the white one a birthday gift from Andrea and the black one I bought for
myself out of my left over birthday cash. Both make the BEST noise when you
shimmy.
I was testing out the self timer setting on my new fancy pants camera and taking
random "dramatic" shots, lol. And yeah, Scott likes to laugh at pictures where I
try to look serious or sexy. Apparently I only look natural when being goofy. So
you can laugh too. It’s ok. Life is too short to take ourselves so seriously.
No, I haven’t gone yet. But I haven’t changed my mind about it either. And I’ve been saving a little bit of my paycheck each month towards the $200 fee. I now have $125!! I hope to do this one this summer. My husband thinks I am absolutely insane, but I can’t wait!!!
Item 6- Reopen Floresco
This one is difficult. I have revamped all my web graphics and have a lot done towards reopening, but the fact that my job situation is so up in the air right now has me waiting. Stay tuned.
Item 8- Start sketching again.
This one was my first attempt at drawing in over a decade. My apologies to
anyone uncomfortable with the partial nudity, LOL
Back when I was a sophomore at the U of I, I was riding the bus to class one
rainy morning and we stopped to pick up passengers. Beside the sidewalk there
were two birds, one obviously dead and the one beside it, beating its wings
furiously. Though I don't know how much emotion animals are capable of feeling,
to me this moment was filled with such anguish and despair. That image has
stayed with me for all of these years. I always said that if I were to
draw again, this would be one of the pieces I would create.
Item 9- Study religion. My good buddy Matt showed up in Champaign recently with a present for me. It seems people DO read my blog, LOL, because the box was full of beautiful leather bound copies of different religious texts-The Koran, The Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada, the Tao Te Ching and a couple of texts on the Christian faith. I was pretty excited!!! I plan on starting my reading once I’m done throwing both kids’ birthday parties in another month or two and I’m looking forward to my spiritual exploration. My agnostic belief system is strongly based on the fact that I feel there is no one religion and that, if God does exist, he accepts all forms of spirituality. Thus, I feel in order to be truly well rounded, we should be able to see things from all different spiritual points of view. I will be happy when I can acknowledge that I don’t just believe that, but that I also live it.
Note: Yes, I openly admit, I am one of those people who takes pictures just for
their blog. Yes, you can laugh, even make fun if you like. I would if I were
you. ;)
The two go together in a way. I am working on both. They are both very personal journeys for me and neither have been easy. As part of this, I’ve been reading The Four Agreements and its companion books- all of which I highly recommend. They are really fantastic for helping you look at the world in a different way. I may or may not write more about this later. As I said, these have been a bit more personal.
Item 12- Maintain the outside...
My goal to maintain my exterior as well as my interior, though somewhat narcissistic in nature, was one of my goals nonetheless. I could say that as a strong woman and a strong supporter of the idea that women should not give into the societal/ media inspired ideals and pressures of perfection, I shun the entire notion of outward improvement. I DO embrace the beauty in all women no matter what shape, size or age she may be. I absolutely do. But, I will also admit, I fall prey to vanity. And thus, I made looking good one of my goals. I won’t deny it and I won’t apologize for it. If I want to look good, then that’s my right as a woman. On that note, I will say the process itself is going quite well. My goal was to get in shape and make 30 look good. Since I posted my 30 list, I’ve lost nearly 20lbs and my dance class has helped tone me up a bit as well. I don’t get out of breath as easily and I’m fitting into sizes I haven’t worn since high school. Call it vanity, call it pride, call it what you want- but I’m happier with my body now than I have been in all of my life and I sure as heck can’t complain about that!
On a final note, I’m adding one additional item to my 30 List.
So that’s it, my update for now. I plan to keep on progressing on the items I’ve started on thus far and also to start thinking about those I haven’t. Maybe in another month or so I’ll have another update for you. J
