Concert week

The Senior Dance Concert is this week!

We had a short rehearsal tonight, our tech rehearsal is Wednesday, full dress rehearsal with the entire cast and tech people Thursday night, and then it's show time Friday and Saturday. I'm a little nervous, but looking forward to performing. The piece I'm in is very abstract - I portray a sound wave, an optic nerve, and the sense of touch at different times during the piece. Ahh, abstract modern dance.

On top of all of this, I still have all the end-of-semester biz that I've mentioned before, so it will be a busy week, but I'm okay with that - it will fly by! I'm counting down the days until I'm done... 15 days!

Oh, and P.S...

It snowed all over Colorado today except Fort Collins!!! Down where my grandma lives, just south of Denver, they got, oh, 8-10 inches. Parts of Colorado Springs got a foot. The interstate from here north to Wyoming was closed because of ice - um, hello, that's just east of town!! It went around us, completely - hmph! (*pouting*) This is mutiny!

Buzz, buzz, buzz

That's me, a busy little bee today.

I started my day attending church with some friends. Haven't done that for awhile. My soul and heart need some TLC right now, so it was good.

I drove over to the UCA to practice my pedagogy lesson that I'm supposed to teach tomorrow, but the studios were locked. I was getting hungry anyway, so I drove home and ate lunch instead. My stomach never lets me down.

Then I took care of some domestic duties while lunch digested - groceries, laundry and dishes.

While waiting on laundry to dry, I sat down and knocked out a draft of my modern final paper. I'll revise and finish that tomorrow night.

Practiced my pedagogy lesson in my room.

Ate a snack and caught the Broncos' halftime report - they were up against the NY Jets 27-14 (they ended up winning 34-17).

More Pedagogy practice and then I typed up the lesson to turn in to my teacher. That freakin' took forever, ugh.

Got hungry again, so I practiced more Pedagogy in the kitchen while I cooked and ate. Ahh, multitasking!

Then the fun began - I got in touch with my inner arts-and-crafts-kid and starting making my mask. I love art projects! I didn't finish, but I will tomorrow night. It looks pretty sweet, methinks. Half is now covered in ivy leaves and tomorrow I'll cover the other half in twigs and other dead foliage I find outside (the theme is the duality of nature, or the opposite seasons of summer and winter - yay for abstract art!). Watched/listened to Lord of the Rings: Return of the King while I played with hot glue and plastic ivy leaves.

After Frodo saved Middle Earth and returned to the Shire, I talked with my best friend on the phone for over an hour. And now here I am, posting this rambling blog and winding down for the evening. I think I'll do some bedtime yoga and journaling before I go to sleep.

My week of laziness has come to an end, *sigh*. Time to return to my crammed schedule of work, senior concert week, end-of-the-semester projects, and finals. Giddy up...

Getting things done

I've been busy all day taking care of things on the to-do list. I sent out a couple emails. Bought a mask and supplies for my mask/duet project. Spent three hours at the Wild Boar (my current fave coffee shop) working on my Choreography journal. I just took a yoga/meditation break, and now back to work. Items remaining on today's list: write a blog post (check!), revise my mask sketch, find a song for the duet, and maybe write a little more on my Modern paper. We'll see what I get through by bedtime...

India

Terrible things are happening right now in India. My heart goes out to the people who have lost loved ones in the attacks, people who are injured, the people still being held hostage... this is no good, people, no good.

I just saw coverage on CNN that a young rabbi and his wife were recently killed, orphaning their toddler son (who escaped to safety with the help of a nanny, thank goodness). From what I understand, the attacks are being specifically directed at the Jewish community. No matter what the terrorists' agenda is, no matter how much they "justify" their actions, it's all wrong. These attacks are against humanity and all that is good. I am truly saddened by how human beings treat other human beings.

Merci, gracias, danke, grazie...

I had Thanksgiving dinner at my dad's house today with him and my two brothers. It was just the four of us, which was just right. I wasn't really in the mood for a big dinner with lots of people. The food was great and it was nice to spend quality time with my family. We had some really good heart-to-heart discussions, which we haven't had in a long time.

Today was bittersweet, though. Life has thrown me another curve ball that I'm trying to figure out how to swing at. And to be quite honest, my heart just isn't into the holidays. I broke down at dinner, much to my dismay because I didn't want to be the rain on the parade. But my dad and brothers were so great - they surrounded me in one big embrace and just let me cry. It felt so good to be supported because some days I am so tired and I don't feel like I can support myself anymore.

I considered making a list of things I'm grateful for for today's post. The list would contain the typical things - my family, friends, dance, my job, a roof over my head, my health - all of which I truly am grateful, but that general list felt trite. That list would have made me feel like I was just going through the motions but not really feeling it in my heart. I wanted something real, something specific. My family's honest love and support is what did it.

Dream On

This is one of my all-time favorite songs. iTunes doesn't have the original 1973 recording, so I will have to find an alternative (good ol' fashioned CD, perhaps?).

It's one of my life anthems, if you will, and someday I'd like to choreograph something to it. Enjoy...

What day is it??

Thanks to being on Fall Break, I'm in a total time warp. This morning I was convinced that today is Wednesday, and yesterday I thought it was Saturday.

I have a ton of school work to do this week - two projects, a paper, and a journal - all due when I return next week. Have I started any of these yet? Nope. I panicked about that this morning, thanks to thinking it was Wednesday - "Omigod, it's Wednesday and I haven't started working on anything!!" So, when I get home from work this afternoon, it's go time.

Having papers and projects to do over over break is not ideal and negates the idea of a break, but I'm totally fine with it this year because it means I will have less to worry about come Finals Week. A couple of the things mentioned above were moved from finals week to next week by my teachers, and I was very happy about it. This means I should be done with finals before noon on Tuesday of that week - totally worth it!!

Oopsy daisy

I forgot to post something yesterday! I was going to last night when I got home from hip hop, but got distracted and forgot. Oh well.

Hip hop was a little different than usual last night. My teacher, D, was out of town promoting a friend's hip hop documentary. The original sub teacher he had lined up was unavailable (L from the Bronx), so instead, we had a capoeirista come from Canto do Galo, one of the Capoeira schools in Denver.

I HEART capoeira. I wish to the dance gods that a school existed in Fort Collins, but no such luck. I would most definitely train if one did.

Lately I've been thinking ahead to next semester's Studio Night concert, the student-produced dance concert we put on each semester. I've been thinking about choreographing a piece that involves capoeira and African movement. This would be rather challenging, and when I think about it, I get overwhelmed because I'm thinking so big (in typical Jessi fashion). While I know some capoeira, my "training" is only the itty bitty tip of the iceberg. And I would never want to disrespect the art by pretending I know more about it than I really do. I will have to keep thinking on this, and talk to D about it, see what he thinks.

In the meantime, maybe I could make it down to Denver some Saturday for Canto do Galo's free intro class. Another opportunity to learn just a little bit more never hurts.

Short & sweet

It's just an ordinary day, nothing much to report. I slept in, I'm cleaning up the apartment, hopefully I will get some work hours in, and then dinner at my mom's tonight. Just taking care of me.