Apparently What the Festival kicked my butt harder than I thought; I was asleep by around 11pm on Friday night.  Of course, I awoke around 12:30 and was awake until 3am, which are not productive hours by any means, but at least I got my ab challenge in for the day.  Saturday was spent with more napping, interspersed with walks in the sunshine and getting a pedicure with my dad.  

Sunday was SILENT YOGA and potluck and dance party at Penninsula Park!  (Thanks for the challenging vinyasa flow, Lydia!) If you weren't there, you missed it!  (If you were there, you didn't miss it!  Did you know today is Obvious Day?!)  Adventures in healthy living, right?  Followed by a delicious delicious meal at Ox in NE Portland.  I highly recommend spending your Sunday this way.  It was delightful.

Please, be sure you're sitting down right now.  If you're reading from a mobile device, make sure you're holding it tightly or at least have an Otter Box.

...I am having trouble getting motivated.

I know this probably sounds crazy.  I work full time, I work out every day(ish), I make costumes and jewelry and teach classes and take classes and dance and rehearse and practice fan spinning and...

Well lately I feel like I haven't been doing all of that.  Especially the creative part: the making.  The fine motor skills.  The sitting and hand-stitching or beading or gluing things.  I miss it!

What motivates you to get back into the things you love to do?  What about when you're so busy doing so many other things you love to do?

I recently took a Time Management workshop through the Nonprofit Association of Oregon.  Cliff Jones was the facilitator, and if you haven't ever taken a workshop from him, I highly recommend it.  I learned a lot of things, not the least of which was that the most important tool for time management isn't a fancy color-coding system for your emails (even though I have that), but instead: prioritizing.  Knowing your most important values (and thus goals) and ...tool number two... learning to say "no".   Next: delegate.

Well, I can't say "no" to working out, dancing, taking classes, things that are taking up more of my time this year than they ever have in the past.  I can't say "no" to work or spending time with my love.  I certainly won't be delegating these things.

So, what about you?  What are your strategies for managing your time when you can't say "no",  or delegate, and you genuinely want to be doing more things?

You probably don't know this, because I haven't been as vocal about it as my other challenges... but for the month of June, I've agreed with, um, myself, to take on the 30-Day Ab Challenge.  It goes a little something like this:

however, in reality, it goes more like...
Day 1: This is so easy!  I'm going to do two sets of these in addition to my other workout.
Day 5: Wow I feel like I'm cheating!  Nothin' to it!
Day 10: OK, I think I won't do two sets any more, but I'm still going to keep up my regular workout.
Day 15: Oh crap, I didn't have time to do the workout yesterday or the day before, thank god there are "rest days" in which to make them up...
Day 21: Holy hell, I didn't do another two days in a row.  Looks like I'm doubling up today.  Oh hell no I won't be doing my regular workout.
Day 25: Geebuz, I've accomplished nothing today but this ab challenge - no cardio, no other workout, and there's no way I would even consider doing this twice.
Day 26: LOOK AT MY ABS I AM SO RIPPED.  ....what am I going to do at the end of the month?  Am I going to have to keep up this workout forever?

I'll admit I cheat a bit on the sit-ups - I do them on a stability ball because my tailbone can't handle real ones (no seriously I've done major damage that way).  

With having to catch up from the weekend, I am proud to tell you that in the last three days I have done:
475 sit-ups
700 crunches
175 leg raises
7 minutes (and some change) worth of plank

....and that's why I hope you'll mark July 8th on your calendars for Bridgetown Revue's annual summertime takeover of Burlynomicon!  Your place for sexy, cheeky, dark, twisted, talented, and nipply performance.  This time with extra neighs!

Neighs!

I am so incredibly tired.

We rolled into the festival at midnight Thursday night, set up camp, wandered, then slept.  A little.  Then one day of exploring and fun-ing before teaching on both Saturday and Sunday nights, after little sleep.  Both workshops went SO WELL - very well-attended, and everyone caught on really quickly.

....so quickly that I had to come up with completely new curriculum and combos for my Sunday morning class.  At 9:30am.  On four hours' sleep.  Heck yeah I can do it!

So now I'm back at work and still catching up on emails, which means that today's blog is short, but comes with a bonus video!

Look at what people on my team at work do!  Look what AmeriCorps VISTA program is about!

I've had a productive week!  Not only have I done two loads of laundry, but I've finalized the curriculum and playlist for my two workshops at WTFest this weekend, and completed choreographing the next Bridgetown Revue number at Burlynomicon in July,  and last night I made myself a mermaid bra for BTR's number at the Jamballah NW showcase in August.

Tonight I'll be molding a mermaid bra and packing for What the Festival!  Curriculum is set, music chosen and currently being mixed, and I am stoked (yes, I said "stoked"...and not ironically!) to share some skeelz with some very stylee folks.

Around the beginning of the year I started this hard-core journey of daily practice, discipline, curriculum design, conditioning, fire, dual props, and the aspirations of another summer of festivals... but done completely differently.  Now, here we are, with only a handful of festivals on the schedule (each including teaching or performing!), fire props in the wings, and another window covered in dry-erase curriculum notes.  

Here's a taste of what you might be hearing this weekend at What the Festival!

I am SO FLIPPIN' PROUD of my friends and family for all of their accomplishments!  Graduates and life-long learners!  Dads and conscientious non-breeders!  Trying new things and choosing specific foci!   You people inspire and motivate the s*** out of me.

With greatest thanks I am entering the last few days before heading out to What the Festival to teach two bellydance workshops: shake/shimmy/stretch for all shapes/styles/sizes.  It's been easy for me to talk it up because I'm so genuinely excited and honored to have this opportunity!  For all of my various interests and hobbies, I've found it hard to define myself and my niche in this very densely-packed and talented PacNW dance community... except that this convergence of elements perfectly encapsulates the things that I love and the effort and discipline that I've cultivated over the last few years.  I'll be at a large, well-produced, "framily"-run festival with a diverse range of exceptionally awesome music, dynamic art, amongst other fabulously talented performer teachers, showing anyone who is willing to join me, that dance is both mysterious and within reach -- no matter how long or short your arms are.  

Any music out there really floating your boat?  Something that would make you shimmy with glee if you heard it during my workshop at WTFestival!? Send me your requests now!

...may it be filled with enjoyment of springtime, alternating sunshine and refreshing rain, and much practicing of choo-choos, be they bellydance or dual flow prop!

If you're taking one of my bellydance classes, you've been asking where to get these.  Here you go!

It's not every day that I leave the house in the morning and don't make it back for another 15 hours.... and especially not on a week-day.  Yesterday was a doozie.

I crunched a day's worth of work into half a day so that I could head out early for some off-site Professional Development - a "Time Management" workshop with Cliff Jones at the Nonprofit Association of Oregon (formerly TACS, the training and tech assistance consulting firm that my employers have been working with for years).  Ironically (or not) I was concerned that I'd spend my entire time there feeling like I was getting behind at work, and that I might have to skip out early due to the rest of my evening's commitments, but not so!  And I only had one near-sleep moment!  This workshop went beyond organizational techniques and ways-to-manage-your-inbox (though at the end the participants started rambling off about their various email management systemszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).  In fact, it even managed to balance successfully between that extreme and the other: completely vague, non-actionable, philosophical approaches to time management: what is my life's purpose?  Will this task help me reach my full human potential?  Why do I have trouble saying "no"?

Sure, this took me another step toward further defining my own priorities.  It also allowed me the opportunity to sit back and thank the Multiverse that I am in such a great place: I do say no.  I am meeting deadlines.  I'm not super-stressed all the time.  I get to sleep.  The time I have trouble managing is my social-professional life and only recently has my work pace begun to pick up to the point of needing some extra attention.  And the number one time-drain I am grateful not to juggle: children.

So as much as I appreciate family, and juggling, my personal conclusion is that the most effective time management tool is Birth Control.

It's quite possible that, after a full day of work and professional development, I spent the next six hours at the Analog Cafe where I did a burlesque number at the Mad Marquis' Hump Day Happy Hour Sip n' Strip.  I might have stripped out of a burlap sack.  It's probable that the entire thing was incredibly awesome.

After an hour of downtime it was time for the next show, Artemis Chase's PEEP SHOW!  I love these queens.  If you haven't gone to a drag show, I highly recommend it, regardless of the reason.  You love glitter? Go.  You like karaoke?  Go.  You like seeing people play dress-up?  Go.  Interested in anthropology?  Sociology? Psychology? Socializing? Inspiration? Bright colors? Go go go go go.  ....and that's just the folks paying to be there!  Imagine how lucky I am to be back stage!

Thanks to everyone's support at the show!  I may have been the only person there with a vagina, but I still felt appreciated and welcome. =)