Ice Escapades

Connor drove a few of us for a very fun trip to Stonehenge. Here are some Stonehenge facts ... (http://mentalfloss.com/article/68341/15-monumental-facts-about-stonehenge)

Within Stonehenge, there are two main types of stones. The large verticals and arches are made of sarsen, a type of sandstone that is common in the region. The smaller stones are known as bluestones. While they’re not all that blue, they appear to have a slight bluish tint when they’re wet. The giant three-piece arches for which Stonehenge is known are called trilithons.

Some of the monument’s smaller bluestones—which can still weigh up to four tons—have been geologically linked to the Preseli Mountains in Wales. While not everyone agrees, most modern scholars think that these giant stones had to be moved 150 miles to become part of Stonehenge. The methods through which these stones made the trip is one of Stonehenge’s great mysteries, with theories including everything from rafts to teams of oxen.

Visitors used to be allowed to climb on the stones!! It wasn’t until 1977 that the mounting of Stonehenge’s rock structures became explicitly prohibited. The decree followed significant erosion of the stones from their human interactions. That may sound wild, but things were even crazier until the early 20th century—tourists were given chisels to facilitate souvenir-taking! 

Fun fact: Those pretty yellow flowers we played with all afternoon are called Ragwort ... and turned out to be poisonous, so there’s that. 

Manchester was definitely one of my favorite! Allye and I got to live in a fun apartment-style hotel with Dora and Sergey. The best part was having a kitchen and living room! We helped Sergey make Russian dumplings one night and I cooked a pescatarian dinner another night (with specially cooked chicken for Allye because she doesn’t do fish!). I made my infamous hummus ... over the course of three days ... HAH! We watched all of “The Ring” movies and really freaked ourselves out. Afterwards, we tried to watch “Inside Out” but it just didn’t cut it. I also prepped for Halloween ... I found a great thrift store and was maybe going to be a 90s girl, but I ended up going for my other idea - Raggedy Ann.

So I got my dress and visited a fabric store for the rest of it. Got the wig, contacts, makeup - SET! OH and I also found with GREAT used camera store and bought myself a new zoom lens - 70-300mm - and a flash for a more professional look to my photos. ANDDDDD to add to the electronic excitement, I finally got my new laptop. Mine was only a couple of years old, but I kept having issues with the USB ports so after taking it into Apple four times, they decided to just give me a new one. Of course that was a bit complicated because they had to order an American one to the UK and coordinate it to a store in the city I would be during its expected arrival.

While in Manchester, a big group of us went to Blackpool to see Adam’s family... and party. We took a walk from his house to the beach - so pretty! His family was a really cool garage-bar set up that was lots of fun to party in. And his adorable dog, Harvey, was ready to party with us!

LOVED THIS WEEK! <3

Finally time for tour to start again! Headed out bright and early at 3AM en route to the Four Corners monument to meet my weirdo friend, Sally. 

Thunder’s polaroid kept me company the whole way! I learned lessons from my audiobooks, sang my lungs out, took a pit-stop by a flower field, and was really tempted to put some Grey’s Anatomy on but resisted that temptation. 

I had just driven to and from the Grand Canyon a couple weeks before so a lot of drive was the same. And boy, were those roads STRAIGHT, but it made it a bit easier because I could just cruise and stretch my legs. There were a bunch of hitchhikers along the rodes, that was the first time I actually saw any in my life!

Four Corners Monument! It’s the site where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado (and Sally & I) meet! 

REUNITED!! We were maybe going to spend the night in that area, but we decided to drive a few more hours into New Mexico. The roads were so weird; we would be getting onto a major highway but it would look like we were about to go into someone’s private driveway! We finally got onto the right path and discovered how to use our iPhones like walkie-talkies.

We drove and drove and drove, then picked a nice truck stop to take a nap for a few hours. I thought it would be a good time to give Sally the scarf I made for her because we were freezing, and it turns out that she made a scarf for me too!! 

We’re super cool! Okay only 7.5 hours to go, we’ve got this!

The rain was intense through Texas - it definitely washed away the 16 hours worth of bugs on the car. There was an underpass that was so flooded that everyone had to pass on the very far left lane ... SO MUCH RAIN! AND the last hour was even more INSANE. These big rigs in Oklahoma don’t mess around. There was one in particular that kept passing cars when we would and at one point, it was going at least 80MPH trying to pass me. There was no way I was about to let this dude pass me, it was just a matter of principle. But eventually there was a truck weigh station so they all had to stop there so WE WON!! 

OOOOKLAHOMA, hello! :) 

First of all, I’d never heard of a zebra crossing before getting to the UK ... so that’s a thing.

How does Newcastle get its name? “The ‘New Castle’ (which gave the town its name) was founded in 1080 by the eldest son of William the Conqueror, Robert Curthose and built using earth and timber.” 

... and it was so cool!

Then there was the cutest little tiny mini-cooper...

and a fun zen plant mural :)

What are days off?? We got through rehearsals and opening day and then took a side trip to Edinburgh. Of course it rained, but that gave me the chance to use my most favorite umbrella ever (I was really decked out in polka dots for this outing).

We took a train, climbed some stairs, and found a really nice cafe which was just perfect.

There were bagpipe people playing on the street, could it get more Scottish? The Edinburgh Castle located on Castle Rock was really something else ... the oldest parts of the castle date back to the 12th Century! It’s also the most-visited paid tourist attraction in Scotland. 

Killed my Z, went through some fun rentals, and returned my fun convertible mustang and went to the airport. I had no idea the airline would weigh my carry-on ... My little bag ended up weighing about 25 pounds (electronics yay!) which apparently wasn’t okay. I had already cancelled my American phone plan so I couldn’t even contact my dad to get him to come back. I was explaining my long-term trip situation and came pretty close to crying, and I guess that did the trick because the airline person was nice enough to check my bag for free for me. Funny enough, that bag ended up getting lost - showed up eventually with a broken strap but all my stuff was there! Rehearsals went smoothly and our show was opened! OMG I couldn’t get enough of all the cute kids who dress up!!

We were busy bees during our last week in Puerto Rico. We spent our day off at Luquillo Beach ...

A few days later had a barbecue at the venue and I played my first game of flip-cup...

and THEN the next day Cale, Madey, Allye, and I went on a trip to El Yunque Rainforest. Allye rented a car and some random guy tried to help us park on the side of the road ... the problem was that the shoulder dipped down too low so we almost got stuck trying to get out. 

... and with that we wrapped things up in Puerto Rico. It was an wonderful preview as to the great fun coming up ahead!

This is Vitaly, my super awesome lifting partner ... too bad he had to go back to his own show!! 

I would never have guessed that I’d come to love them so much! <3 

PS. My name will forever be on a bench outside of our Poncé hotel! LOL (I didn’t do it!)

Before we left our hotel in San Juan, a bunch of us got together for a relaxing beachside yoga class led by Margot.

We also had a fun night out at the local oceanside bar.

Oh yeah, and by the time we were done in San Juan my legs had been torn apart by the “no-see-ums” aka sand flies. The hotel had warning flyers out, but I guess I decided to learn the hard way. Seriously, like 30 bites ALL OVER my legs that woke me up from the itchiness. If you go to Puerto Rico ... GET BUG SPRAY!

^^UGH SO ITCHY!!

Poncé was felt like the middle of nowhere!

It wasn’t the most glamorous part of town, but the architecture was interesting. There were a lot of old, run-down buildings. But it was still beautiful. Maybe it was the time of day I went, but it was really weirdly empty ... there were hardly any people around. 

Since Alex and I had a poolside room, we hosted the girls’ party ... of course the boys crashed it by the end! 

After a week of shows and hard work, it was time to relax and have some fun in the Puerto Rican sun! My first big outing with the group was an awesome catamaran trip (exactly a year after my last catamaran trip with my cruise ship friends). Snorkeling was really cool and we went to an island where a scene of Pirates of the Caribbean IV was filmed. It was so beautiful! (Oh yeah, and we drank the boat out of alcohol HAH!)

Since last year was full of so many fun times, I’m going to parallel it with whatever goes on this year. 

San Juan, Puerto Rico - July 16, 2015 - my very first show with the company and the energy was absolutely electric ... I couldn’t believe I was in front of a crowd of 6,000 people! I’m pretty sure I teared up during finale **is this really happening??** A few of my friends from the cruise ship came to watch the show ... loved seeing them!

After our first week of shows was done, we had the chance to explore beautiful Old San Juan. San Juan was one of the stops we made when I did the cruise ship, so there was definitely some déjà vu going on. It was just as beautiful as I remembered, and even nicer not worrying about what time “all aboard” was!

...is actually really relieving news in regards to the Achilles pain I’ve been feeling! It started pretty suddenly at the end of June while doing shows in South Africa, my skate just started rubbing weirdly against the tendon area. I tried putting sponges in, punching my skate, putting bungas on ... nothing relieved it and I wasn’t about to sit out the shows so I just kept truckin’. I’ve been resting it since getting back almost two weeks ago and yesterday I went in to see an foot-ankle specialist who was absolutely wonderful! He said I have the most textbook case of paratendonitis that he’s seen in all his 25 years of practicing! (Paratendonistis is inflammation of the sheath surrounding the tendon, but not the actual tendon so yay!). There was also a weird “creaky hinge” feeling I had when pointing and flexing my toe, the doctor said that’s called “crepitus.” And the electric shock feeling is coming from the sural nerve that runs right near the Achilles.  So I’m happy that it’s nothing too too serious. I got my skates adjusted right when I got home so after some physical therapy, icing, anti-inflammatories, and a little more break time I should be good as new. 

But about breaktime ... It’s really hard for me not to practice. I still go to the rink to teach, but I just want to skate!! It’s not that I’m bored, I have so much to do ... I JUST WANT TO SKATE. Well, I guess it’s better to be fully healed and ready to be 100% for this upcoming tour so I’ll take it day by day. In the meantime, I’ve decided that I’m going to be a more active blogger. I guess I do some pretty cool things on tour and I’d love to be able to share my experiences more thoroughly than just a post or two on instagram or facebook so I’ll try my best! It’ll also encourage me to work on my videos more because those are surely piling up.

I can practically taste it! So it's time for me to start thinking about things I want to do:

Triples, yay!

Kick butt at National Showccase

Vegas!

Fun with friends

Beach beach beach beach

Go see musicals

Watch "Gone With The Wind" and ALOT more movies

Watch FRIENDS, from the beginning

Continue "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air"

Order my Avengers water bottle

Edit videos ... continue the high school chronicles and hopefully get all caught up with all the friend and family footage I've taken

Re-do the kitchen (only if my dad pays)

Teach Thunder to play frisbee

Spend more time with Thunder

Summer school ew.

  When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance to catch you.

So starting today…

Give up trying to be perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done.

Give up comparing yourself to others. – The only person you are competing against is yourself.

Give up dwelling on the past or worrying too much about the future. – Right now is the only moment guaranteed to you.  Right now is life.  Don’t miss it.

Give up complaining. – Do something about it.

Give up holding grudges. – Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness.

Give up waiting. – What we don’t start today won’t be finished by tomorrow.  Knowledge and intelligence are both useless without action.

Give up lying. – In the long-run the truth always reveals itself.  Either you own up to your actions or your actions will ultimately own you.

Give up trying to avoid mistakes. – The only mistake that can truly hurt you is choosing to do nothing simply because you’re too scared to make a mistake.

Give up saying, “I can’t.” – As Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.”

Give up trying to be everything to everyone. – Making one person smile can change the world.  Maybe not the whole world, but their world.  Start small.  Start now.

Give up thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises.  Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.

Give up setting small goals for yourself. – Many people set small goals because they’re afraid to fail.  Ironically, setting these small goals is what makes them fail.

Give up trying to do everything by yourself. – You are the sum of the people you spend the most time with.  If you work together, you will be far more capable and powerful than you ever could have been alone.

Give up buying things you don’t need. – Manage your money wisely so your money does not manage you.  Do not spend to impress others.  Do not live life trying to fool yourself into thinking wealth is measured in material objects.

Give up blaming others for your troubles. – The extent to which you can live your dream life depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life.  When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give others power over that part of your life.

Give up making mountains out of molehills. – One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time?  Three years?  Five years?  If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.

Give up trying to live up to the expectations of others. – Work on it for real and exceed your own expectations.  Everything else will fall into place.

Give up the ‘easy street’ mentality. – There is too much emphasis on finding a ‘quick fix’ in today’s society.  For example taking diet pills to lose weight instead of exercising and eating well.  No amount of magic fairy dust replaces diligent, focused, hard work.

Give up making promises you can’t keep. – Don’t over-promise.  Over-deliver on everything you do.

Give up letting your thoughts and feelings bottle up inside. – People are not mind readers.  They will never know how you feel unless you tell them.

Give up beating around the bush. – Say what you mean and mean what you say.  Communicate effectively.

Give up avoiding change. – However good or bad a situation is now, it will change.  That’s the one thing you can count on.  So embrace change and realize that change happens for a reason.  It won’t always be easy or obvious at first, but in the end it will be worth it.

Give up your sense of entitlement. – Nobody is entitled to anything in this world.  We are all equal.  We breathe the same air.  We get what we give.  We get what we earn.

Give up waiting until the last minute. – Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

Give up being dramatic. – Stay out of other people’s drama and don’t needlessly create your own.

Give up being anti-athletic. – Get your body moving!  Simply take a long, relaxing walk or commit 30 minutes to an at-home exercise program.

Give up junk food. – You are what you eat.

Give up eating as a means of entertainment. – Don’t eat when you’re bored.  Eat when you’re hungry.

Give up foolish habits that you know are foolish. – Don’t text and drive.  Don’t drink and drive.  Don’t smoke.  Etc.

Give up relationships with people who bring you down. – Saying “no” to right people gives you the time and resources required to say “yes” to right opportunities.  Spend time with nice people who are smart, driven and likeminded.

Give up being shy. – Network with people.  Meet new people.  Ask questions.  Introduce yourself.

Give up worrying about what others think of you. – Unless you’re trying to make a great first impression (job interview, first date, etc.), don’t let the opinions of others stand in your way.  What they think and say about you isn’t important.  What is important is how you feel about yourself.

Give up trying to control everything. – Life is an unpredictable phenomenon.  No matter how good or bad things seem right now, we can never be 100% certain what will happen next.  So do you best with what’s in front of you and leave the rest to the powers above you.

Give up doing the same thing over and over again. – In order to grow, you must expand your horizons and break free of your comfort zone.  If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.

Give up following the path of least resistance. – Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile.  Don’t find the easy way out.  Do something extraordinary.

Give up persistent multi-tasking. – Do one thing at a time and do it right.

Give up thinking others are luckier than you. – The harder you work, the luckier you will become.

Give up filling every waking moment with commitments and activities. – It’s okay to be alone.  It’s okay to do nothing sometimes.  Think.  Relax. Breathe.  Be.

Give up making emotional decisions. – Don’t let your emotions trump your intelligence.  Slow down and think things through before you make any life-changing decisions.

Give up doing the wrong things just because you can get away with it. – Just because you can get away with something doesn’t mean you should do it.  Think bigger.  Keep the end in mind.  Do what you know in your heart is right.

Give up focusing on what you don’t want to happen. – Focus on what you do want to happen.  Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story.  If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right.

Give up taking yourself so seriously. – Few others do anyway.  So enjoy yourself and have a little fun while you can.

Give up spending your life working in a career field you’re notpassionate about. – Life is too short for such nonsense.  The right career choice is based on one key point: Finding hard work you love doing.  So if you catch yourself working hard and loving every minute of it, don’t stop.  You’re on to something big.  Because hard work ain’t hard when you concentrate on your passions.

Give up thinking about the things you don’t have. – Appreciate everything you do have.  Many people aren’t so lucky.

Give up doubting others. – People who are determined do remarkable things.  Remember, the one who says it can’t be done should never interrupt the one doing it.

Give up fussing with every beauty product on the market. – Good looks attracts the eyes.  Personality attracts the heart.  Be proud to be you.  That’s when you’re beautiful.

Give up trying to fit in. – Don’t mold yourself into someone you’re not.  Be yourself.  Oftentimes, the only reason they want you to fit in is that once you do they can ignore you and go about their business.

Give up trying to be different for the sake of being different. – Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity is conformity.  When people try too hard to be different, they usually end up being just like everyone else who is trying to be different.  Once again, be yourself.

Give up trying to avoid risk. – There’s no such thing as ‘risk free.’  Everything you do or don’t do has an inherent risk.

Give up putting your own needs on the back burner. – Yes, help others, but help yourself too.  If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.

And remember, mistakes make us human, failures help us grow, hope keeps us going and love is the reason we’re alive.  So keep learning, loving and living.  Never give up on yourself.

I'm sitting here, finishing up digitizing the last of about 35 tapes worth of old videos going back to 2006 since we started using the 8mm Sony camcorder and all I can say is wow! First, thank you Lisa for letting me borrow your camcorder since our old one pooped out! Secondly, thank you dad for your endless patience in recording hours of skating practice and tests and shows that I never thought I would really look back on and appreciate - but I SO do! Not only that but recording old class presentations, holidays, trips (yosemite silliness, Denice?), graduations (I was about to cry all over again at Vianey's speech), beach day birthdays ... so many fun memories that I can't help but laugh at! How we all have changed, but still stayed the same in many ways. 

Dad, I am glad that you have instilled in me the same enthusiasm you always have in recording these specials events. People might think I'm crazy for scootin' my little camcorder around with me everywhere, but these memories and moments are precious and hopefully my friends will thank me years from now, no matter how embarrassing the videos are :)

On a more somber note, school started today. I only had one class today but WOW, this is the first quarter of not having ANY ANY ANY 8AM classes! It would be so much more exciting if I lived near campus ... then I wouldn't have to deal with the hour and a half commute - I swear, when I get my own place I am going to live within biking distance of at least 75% of the places I need to be **sigh** 

This quarter I'm taking Physci 111a, EngComp 131b, and Woman Studies10 ... I'm really REALLY REALLY hoping that those last 2 give me a bit of a GPA boost, PLEASE?? I was going to take chem 14cl but my physci midterms conflicted with the lab time I was enrolled in and it's super full so I can't switch so I'm pretty sure that I'm going to drop it .. but I'll know for sure tomorrow after I go to the engcomp class. 

Thanks! I actually eat kind of a lot, but I guess it's pretty nutritiously dense food. Okay, here's a day in the food life of me:

Breakfast: On most school days I wake up around 5 and make myself breakfast - Toast with jam, and my own version of an omelette that has meat, beans, potatoes, a little cheese or any other fun stuff mixed in from dinner the night before, and a glass of milk (but I've been doing green tea lately since I was a little sick). That usually fills me up pretty well. Sometimes if I'm feeling simple, I'll whip together some oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and walnuts.

I get to school around 7 to "beat the traffic", which is getting harder to do these days, and do a light workout in the gym .. usually like 20-30 minutes on the elliptical and then stretching - I LOVE to stretch! 

Then I have class, and by 10 or 11ish I usually get a little hungry again so I eat so home made trail mix that has those yummy peanut butter pretzels from costco, and some tasty smoked almonds, walnuts, raisins, sometimes dried bananas - yum!

Then some more class (how exciting)!

Then after class is over, I book it to my car/cafeteria where I eat my "salad" while driving [I know, not safe but I've got to be efficient!] to my favorite place: the skating rink! Now, about my salads ... they aren't really real salads because it's not just lettuce and tomatoes with dressing. My mom makes me these really great salads that have something like brown rice or quinoa mixed with vegetables, meat, avocado (I love avocado!), and [kind of like breakfast] any other fun things left over from dinner the night before. And then she also packs me a fruit salad - sugar is good!

And then for my favorite part of the day I get to practice usually for 1-2 hours but it depends on what kind of craziness is going on. Then I teach and get home around 6-7.

Dinner is always yummy: usually a base of brown rice, steamed vegetables, some sort of meat and my mom makes this really good salsa :) 

BUT I don't always eat like this, sometimes I eat junk - ask Amanda, she knows I love my desserts BIGTIME! :)

Other extra things I do, sometimes running [especially on days I couldn't get to the rink], trampolining is super fun, playing with my dogs is great too!

This is a story from yesterday: I was driving from school to this place to pick up my business cards (they look really cool) that was in Van Nuys. Then from there I drove to Burbank, to Fry's Electronics and my GPS told me to take the streets, so I did. The valley is definitely a much more interesting place on the streets than the freeway! There are so many little stores on every street - it really amazes me how all of these places stay in business. Anyways, I was driving and this car speeds by with a hub cap that looks EXTREMELY loose. Of course after it passes about 50 feet in front of me, it goes flying off BUT it didn't hit my car, luckily! I made it to Fry's alive! 

Then I bought my tripod, it's first job - hold my camera up to film "The Cosby Sweaters" at their first gig! Yup, I'm the lucky camera lady :) Who are The Cosby Sweaters, you ask? They are only the "most fantastic saxophone players ever to wear tacky Christmas sweaters" and they are really good!!  So that was a lot of fun! (videos to come soon, I PROMISE!)  

And skating has been awesome except I fell really hard on a double axel and my hip definitely didn't like that! It'll be okay though! I'm super excited for Lucy ... just got to get that double axel to work in the program, no big deal. lol

Today as I was driving (and studying) and moving at a whopping 10 miles per hour, I saw something really cool. It was a car that had it's license plate as CPN JACK (or something close to that) and I thought hmm it must be from Pirates OTC and then I saw the license plate frame and it said something like "Yo Ho! Yo Ho! a pirate's life for me!" and I thought okay that's cool! THEN I realized the decal covering the back window was Jack Sparrow's sparrow tattoo and I thought, wow, that's love - or a little bit obsessive. I began to wonder if maybe that was Johnny Depp driving but I doubt it haha. I was trying to get a picture but I didn't get a good one boo. 

UGHH I WANT SCHOOL TO GO AWAY.