Ballet, Valentines, the Dress, and art therapy news

Well...this week found me still on the struggle bus but just a little bit smoother of a ride.  The upswing started to happen Friday. I had new art therapy groups starting and so Friday found me having 3 art therapy based groups and everyone showed which was amazing!  Following a day of groups I went with the art therapy club president and vice president to support them through the final phase of becoming a club.  They had to go before the Senate (which was a very intimidating 25 students) and answer questions about the proposed club and it's purpose.  After a waiting period of 5 minutes the verdict came and we got it! We received approval and now there is officially an art therapy club at the college where I work and I'm the advisor. Woo...who...  Below are my other upswing adventures of the week/weekend.

1. I went back to Trampoline fitness with a friend who hadn't been before. We had a fun time laughing at ourselves and each other. I was actually surprised that I caught on even quicker this time and made a lot less mistakes.  My goal is to keep going back and we want to try the Pole class sometime.

2.  I saw in the Arts and Culture section of the D&C last weekend that the Rochester City Ballet was performing this weekend and since I work where the performance was going to be I got 1/2 off tickets. I put a call out to friends to see if anyone else wanted to embark on this new adventure with me and three of my friends came along.  I thought the performance was going to be a mix of ballet with contemporary dance which in my eyes I envisioned contemporary dance as "So You Think You Can Dance" dancing. Ahhhhh...not quite. It was pretty good until the collaboration with musician James Vandemark. I was okay with his cello performance but once he started making "sounds" and then hollering random words I got lost. In actuality I got freaked out.  I swear I thought I'd have nightmares from his sounds and voice.  They had a panel discussion after and my friends and I looked at each other, gave the nod, and unceremoniously jetted out of the theater. I guess we just are not that cultured of people.

Ballet: RCB Style

3.  Rochester Artists & Craft Persons is a new Meetup in my area that I came across a few weeks ago.  I opted out of the couple of meetups I was a part of as I never really went to anything and changed to do different meetup groups with this being one of the them.  This one was founded by the creator of the Rochester Makerspace and is a collaborative effort.  I signed up to go to a members house to make Valentine Cards. While I typically don't celebrate Valentine's Day as I consider it a Hallmark greeting card day I thought it would give me a chance to meet some people that enjoy crafting.  As a bonus I got to try out all of these nifty crafting tools that the women at the event had.  Wow they were serious card makers and had all of the gadgets to go with it.  This was a pretty wonderful way to spend a few hours on a cloudy cold Saturday.  The women I met were lovely and very willing to share their knowledge and supplies with everyone.  I've already planned to head back to Deborah's house for another meetup March 1st where we will be creating glass fusion pendants. Yes, she has a kiln at her house!!!

Here's my cards I created!

4.  This morning I woke up and started off my day by working on hemming and altering my dress for the Mess a Dress race.  I got it all hemmed up and taken in successfully. Well it's successful in that it stays up. Just don't look to closely at the sewing job.   I made a trip to Michaels and purchased some 1.5 inch multi-colored pink ribbon for 2 bucks (with a coupon) and used the ribbon to create straps for the dress. It's all done and looks pretty darn cute and wearable!

Okay- here's the dress without the ribbon straps. I took the photo before putting on the straps. Don't worry I'll post a before and after on race day.  I ended up having enough tule to do 3 layers underneath. How fun is that!

5.  My final news is that I had a break through run this afternoon.  I've been struggling lately with some health issues and one of the side effects has been a lack of wanting to be on the dreadmill.  I've only been running about 4x's a week though I have enjoyed the trampoline fitness and yoga 1x a week each.  Anyway, I told myself I would run 9 miles today if I want to keep the idea of possibly running the Rochester City Half Marathon in my mind for April.  However, I was really struggling between 3-6 miles and told myself I really am not enjoying running this much and felt that I didn't want to focus on training for the marathon any longer.  Then a miracle occurred. I got to my 6 and said I think I can do 7. Then once I hit 7 I thought "hey I do 9". Then when I was coming upon 9 I said to myself "I'm going to break the 9 mile slump and do 10". Once I hit 10 I said "You know what try to see if you can do 11." And you know what...I did!! So I started off a new running week by hitting a milestone of 11 miles straight in 94.34.  Perhaps I'll keep trying for the marathon. :)  If you need an inspiring blog about running check out this one; http://www.funfitgirl.com/. I really enjoy reading her creative post and you'll notice I've picked up some of her fun lingo.

6.  Oh, here are some updated pics of my Sketchbook project that I completed over this past week.