Better late than never: Five After 5: Summer Dreams

Time for another installment of Five After 5. Since I'm impatiently plugging away at my Ballet Pedagogy paper because I do not want this to turn into a summer-long project, today's theme is all about summer dreaming. Or more specifically, what I would do this summer if I had all the time and money in the world...

Read lots and lots of books. At the pool. Wearing lots of SPF.

Unlike my usual summer to-read list, I'm not interested in anything light 'n fluffy. Rather, I'm craving some literary meat and potatoes. I'm talking Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, and Moby Dick. I want to don a huge floppy hat, some serious SPF (I'm pale and proud, y'all!) and a cute bikini while I delve into some serious lit. A copy of Don Quixote is sitting next to my bed right now, just waiting to be taken to the pool...

Juice.

Weird? I want to buy a juicer, stock up on produce and go to town with all kinds of good-for-me concoctions. Maybe I have some kind of vitamin deficiency as I can't get enough fruits or veggies lately, but I guess that's an improvement from my usual cravings (Five Guys burgers, for example). Oh, and! The other night I was perusing the mags at the grocery store while I waited for a prescription to be filled, and I read this: "Some 4,000 new food agents have entered our food supply since 1970" (Self magazine, June issue). Not food, y'all, food agents. Ew. I'm guilty of indulging in things like Doritos and Skittles, but that weirded me out and now I want a juicer.

Get certified.

I still have not taken my group fitness instructor certification exam and this greatly irritates me. Frankly the only thing holding me back is the $250 exam fee. I miss teaching cardio kickboxing. I also have ideas for creating new class formats, fusing dance with cardio and strength training... Because in my humble opinion, dancers have top-tier fitness and physiques. Want to be strong and bendy and fit? Get thee to a dance class.

Overhaul the wardrobe.

I have been drooling over some new fashions a la Nike and H&M. There is zero wiggle room in my budget right now, but if I did have some extra cash, I'd acquire more pairs of my go-to Eclipse kicks and pretty much the entire collection of H&M's gorgeous new blues.

Attend a summer dance intensive.

It kind of kills me that I neither have the time nor the money to attend an intensive this summer. If you were with me a few summers ago (check out the July 2009 archives), you know I ventured off to Chicago for a month to dance and learn with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater. That adventure was epic. Not only did it technically and physically kick my butt, but it it taught me so much about myself as a person... Most significantly that I am beautiful, that I do have a voice that deserves to be shared, and that I am much stronger and more capable than I ever give myself credit for. (And you know what? So are YOU.)

LE SIGH.