Books, books and more books

Here's an update on some of the books I've been reading.

The Darkest Minds series by Alexandra Bracken
The Darkest Minds *****
In Time ****
Never Fade *****
Sparks Rise ****
In the After Light ****

Fall of Giants (the Century Trilogy) by Ken Follet ****

The Pines (the Wayward Pines Trilogy) by Blake Crouch ***.5

Life is a highway...

The past week or so has been filled with some up and down moments.  Of the worst have been becoming a victim of debit card fraud. (I just was a victim of credit card fraud in January.)  But after taking a day to rest (kind of) and spend some time on my own I was able to shake off the negative vibes going around in part due a couple of key events.  I'll share them below.

1. First Fridays- I was able to attend this city wide event and hang out with a few of my friends in the process.  There's nothing like being able to view a ton of different styles of art all in virtually one place.  As a bonus, this week one studio was helping a new business owner market his business by giving away free Mexican food to anyone who wanted it. My friend and I received an entire meal from this man. You could make a donation to show your appreciation but the crazy part was that he didn't have any business cards to hand out, otherwise I would have given him props on my blog. His food was delicious.  Well, if you are from Rochester you can catch him at the Public Market on the weekends.

2. Sunday I awoke ready to partake in the Bike MS ride.  My awesome friend Amanda graciously allowed me to borrow her road bike as I had upped my ride from 18.5 to 31.7.  The set up of the event was awesome. There was a free bike shop that donated their time to have a tent where they would check out your bike for a last minute tune up, great breakfast food, granola bars to pack for the trip, and a DJ.  My team had a tent with some goodies (chocolate) on it.  We took a team photo and then most people scattered as departure times were staggered.

I ended up riding most of the trip with some female students from the college I work at.  I was pretty proud of myself as I was able to keep up with students 15 years younger than me who looked to be very physically fit.  My little group got lost a few times (as the directions were 2 pages 2 columns each), but only ended up shaving off 1.7 miles in the process. :)  My group didn't stop at any rest stops and went at a fast pace. We ended up finishing in about 2 hrs 15 min. for 30 miles. Not to shabby!

There was a lot of steep hills and very little down hill action. By mile 25, I was over it and just wanted to finish.  It was a perfect day-sunny and 70. This was a great experience but my "sit bones" have been a little tender the last couple of days.  Perhaps the highlight were that there was a photographer who did a mini photo shoot with each person, the school of massage there giving free massages (I had an amazing 30min. massage) and a FREE full course meal from Carrabbas which was the bomb. I hoovered some chicken, salad and pasta like it was going out of style.

Overall seeing people biking who had MS or those that are living with MS that were there supporting us bikers was overwhelming and really made me appreciate that my recent struggles are nothing like what they experience on a daily basis. It helped put things into perspective for me and I think we all need that reality check at times.

3.  Other updates. Below are pics of some more ATC cards from all over the US and the world that I've received this week.  I've received some awesome cards that seem to say just the right thing that has also helped me to keep going this week through the dips in the roads.

4. I realized recently that I haven't been very good about keeping up with my Good Reads list for a while now.  Here's a look back at the books I've read over the past couple of months and how I rated them.  Hope it helps your search for your next Good Read!

The Giver by Lois Lowry ***
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini *****
The Rosey Project by Grame Simsin ***.5
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry ****
Messenger by Lois Lowry ****
Son by Lous Lowry ****

And I know I had read some others but blanking out on them right now. As I think of them I will update this meager list. :)

In the Life of...

In no particular order here's some of the fun adventures I participated in this week:

A friend of mine introduced me to disc golf. Apparently in Rochester we have about 6 disc golf parks. I always wondered what those chain like baskets on post were. We played a full 16 rounds. Here's what I learned; I stink at throwing frisbees but I did show some improvement and this sport appears to attractive mainly men who like to drink alcohol while they golf.  Because I like learning new things and it was a challenge I would totally play again so that I can keep trying to get better.

My friend Sarah is a member of the George Eastman House and invited me to go with her to check out a couple of new exhibits showing. So on a beautiful Thursday afternoon we took a walk over and viewed the Mickalene Thomas "Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman" exhibit and the Lewis Hine exhibit. You can find more information at; http://www.eastmanhouse.org.

My mom came for a visit this weekend and we went to the 46th Annual Cornhill Arts Festival (http://cornhillartsfestival.com).  My guess is this was a small preview of what I'll experience when I go to the Ann Arbor, MI Arts Festival this coming week.  It was a beautiful day to walk around but a bit toasty out. Luckily they were handing out advertisement fans at the beginning.  We enjoyed some deep roasted cinnamon almonds (yummy) and walked around. We entered a raffle to try and win tickets the Mormon musical at the Auditorium and while at that booth they had a spinner game to try and win an iTunes gift card. Guess what...I won a $15 gift card! Woohoo!

Sunday Fleet Feet of Rochester (http://www.fleetfeetrochester.com) hosted a Scavenger Pub Run.  A couple of my friends and I have always wanted to try a scavenger run and so we gave it a whirl.  Of course it was a beautiful weekend until today! Then it rained and was windy and humid. Oh well, once I got wet I embraced it and it seemed that most others did also. There was about 25 of us that participated and 5 teams I believe. We had 8 clues (destinations) and you had to run find each place and take a team photo at that place. It was cool to run through downtown Rochester and to see places/sculptures I've never seen before. At the end when you made it back to the starting place which was our host Victoire Brewery you received a ticket for a drink and then got to eat a ton of great appetizers.  My team came in first for getting all of the clues correct and fastest time but we somehow missed the bonuses and so another team missed a clue but got big points on a bonus and when the point system.  This was really fun and I would totally do it again. It was worth the $10!

One of our stops.

Our last clue.

Back to home base.

Update on the Global Peace Project; if you recall from earlier posts I participated in a Global Peace Art Project swap back in April. My swap partner was from Indonesia and while I sent my piece to them I never received anything in return. I contacted the organization and they have these volunteer Angel Corp members (aka wonderful people) who create and send artwork to people like me who didn't receive anything from their partner.  I've been in touch with my Angel Corp person who is Janine from Australia.  She made a piece of art immediately, shipped it out to me and I received it this week in the mail. It was an exciting day. Below is a picture of her representation and message of global peace.

Here's the front of the card that was sent with the artwork.

I've been wanting to create a Gratitude Book for a while now but haven't been able to find a tiny thin notebook/journal that would fit neatly in my purse or bag to make it easy to carry around with me.  I was mentioning to my friend Sarah and she immediately commented that she had many small notebooks and I could have one.  The next time I saw her she gave me one and it is PERFECT! I started using it that day.

I've also been reading quite a bit over the past couple of months. Here are some the books:
Looking for Alaska by John Greene
The Golem and the Ginni by Helene Wecker
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
After Her by Joyce Manard
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Upcoming ideas and adventures:
1. I'm heading to Ann Arbor, MI to visit friends I met while in Costa Rica and will be going to the Ann Arbor Arts Festival. I'm really excited for this trip.
2. I'm joining the Civic Engagement Centers bike MS day event (through work) which is held in Sept. and you have to raise a minimum of $250 dollars so I've come up with an art project I'm going to create and raffle and sell to help raise the money.
3. I'm going to be going to a free outdoor yoga session at Highland Park Reservoir this week through the Rochester Young Professionals group.
4. Monday night is Paint Nite with my friends. There's a group of us that signed up for Paint Nite where we go to restaurant and create a painting by following instructions while you eat, drink and be merry.

Updates Galore

Here's what's been going on over the past week.

1.  I received my Global Art Project for Peace partner.  I'll be swapping artwork with Jalan Yani Km from Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, Indonesia.  I mailed out my Global Peace Project to them last week. I can't wait to see the artwork I'll receive.  Check out my earlier post to learn more about this global art exchange project: http://creativecaseysblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/global-art-project-for-peace.html

2.  I've continued to receive more zendoodles in the mail.  I have 6 out of 12 so far. It makes it exciting to check the mail everyday, instead of just seeing bills once and a while I get these awesome zendoodles from around the world.  Each one is unique.  You can check out my earlier post regarding the zendoodle community art swap here: http://creativecaseysblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/art-therapy-happiness-project-2014.html

3.  Disappointing news...I did not win the Creativity and Madness scholarship yet again. I'm totally done entering this scholarship.  This was my third and final try.  I'm pretty sure they have something against art therapist.

4.  My family was in town visiting and this was the first time in 4 years we were all together for my nephew's birthday.  He turned 7 years old on Saturday and is getting to be sooo big.  It's great to see that he's still a happy go lucky kid and I love him to pieces.  So much so that I offered to make the cake for our family celebration. Now if you know me, you'll know this is a big deal as I pretty much rarely cook or bake.  My nephew requested a cookie cake so that is what I made.

I purchased some black frosting and made spiders and other gross bugs to put on the top using the frosting and mini m&m's.  The real feat was getting to my parents house (2 hours away) without anything happening to it. Especially as I was heading there right from the mud race I participated in.  All in all I think my nephew enjoyed the cake. All you heard was silence as he chowed a piece down and then requested another piece. :)

5. Here's my April book club books I've read and my ratings:
I am Malala by Mala Yousafzai ***.75
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood ****
Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple ***.5

Puppy Love, Pole Dancing, and WNYATA

This week found me mostly stepping off of the struggle bus. Health wise I am starting to feel much better.  My one downfall was a fall on my way into work this past Monday morning. I was still on a high from my 11 mile run and was walking down the parking lot hill and WHAM! I hit some black ice and fell on my right knee pretty darn hard.  I was more concerned that I had my ipad and laptop with me and hanging on the side I fell on.  I said a few not so nice works and limped the rest of my way into work. I had a large lump and bruising but nothing broken so overall I fared out well. The worst part ended up being that I had a 4 pack of yogurt in my purse and landed on it when I fell. You guessed it...2 of the yogurts burst inside of my purse all over everything. What a way start my week!

On the positive end here are some highlights to my week:

1.  I made it to candlelight yoga this week and got in a 4.5 mile run right before it.

2. I read the following books this week:
Allegiant by Veronica Roth ****
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin  **
Night Road by Kristin Hannah ****.5

3.  I ran in the Puppy Love Virtual 10K through the Humane Society.  I ran a multi-level course on the treadmill trying to mimic a slightly hilly run outside minus the freezing cold and bitter wind.  I tend to run faster in real races but did okay.  My time was 53.46 for 6.2 miles.  I continued on to run a total of 8 miles in 67.30.  I had been looking for the perfect t-shirt to wear for the race (just for the fun of it). I ended up finding it on amazon;  It was a pink Punky Brewster puppy love t-shirt. You'd have to know my history with Punky Brewster to appreciate it.

When I was wee little girl I was obsessed with Punky Brewster. I loved her since of style and the character.  When I started Kindergarten my mother told me I would attempt to dress like Punky Brewster wearing layers upon layers such as sweatpants, a skirt, leg warmers, a long sleeve shirt and sweater.  She soon tired of trying to make me change and let me wear my desired outfit to school (thinking that I would get picked on enough and give up the style). I can't remember if I ever got picked on. I think I just eventually grew out of the phase.

Anyway, I really wanted the t-shirt but didn't want to spend 20+ dollars on a shirt that no one but me was going to see. You could post pics of you on Facebook for this race but I don't do Facebook so no one was going to see the awesome T.  Instead I pulled out an old white faded t-shirt that was in the throw away pile and using some fabric markers I made my own puppy love t-shirt. I had fun knowing I was wearing it race day! :)

I don't take selfies so this is what you get from this race.

4.  I had coffee with a very good friend of mine. Or rather she had coffee and I had a large hot chocolate with a giant peanut butter cookie (this was my breakfast and lunch). Yummy!  We hadn't touched base in a while and it was great to spend time with an awesome friend.

Starry Nights Cafe one of my favorite coffee venues in the city.

5. I felt a bit like a college student but I went with some friends to a house party where there was a band performing. It's my friend's friend's band.  It was great time catching up with my friends, meeting some new people and listening to a pretty good band. As a perk we were all given one of their CD's.  Their called The Red Lion and perform around Rochester at different venues.

6.  The WNYATA hosted it's first large community event of the year today. The Welcome was shown at The Little today with a music performance by Jason Moon prior to the film screening.  It was a fairly successful turnout and the musical performance, film and panel discussion was very moving and powerful.

7.  My friend and I were adventurous and checked out the Pole Fitness class at Ariel Arts Saturday. Oh my...what an adventure. Let's just say neither of us will be taking the class again.  I was annoyed from the get go because the teacher was late in getting there and very late starting (18min. and I had been there 15min. prior to make sure I got a spot). I thought the whole point of getting there early to ensure a spot was because the class fills up quickly and max's out at 10 but they allowed 20 people in and you had to double up on the poles which meant less practice time.  They also never shared on the website under Pole Class Level 1 that there was specific attire you should wear. Apparently this is spanks and a tank top which frankly even if I knew I wouldn't be caught in spanks in public. However, my friend and I would have at least worn shorts.  Apparently you need a lot of skin showing so that it sticks to the pole. We had on our running/workout clothes.

The moves were pretty difficult and the instructor although very nice and friendly was all over the place. The other women in the class were very nice and those that had been going for a bit took the time to help my friend and I out so we didn't hurt ourselves doing a move wrong.  My friend and I realized we have virtually no arm or stomach muscles. We also found it painful because you whacked into the pole all of the time. We both reported via text that we had bruises and were sore the next day.

So was it a workout? Yes without a doubt! Will I be doing it again? That's a firm no! I'll stick to the Trampoline fitness class.

Can I tell you how hard it is to make it look this easy. I really was holding back a grunt a painful face look.

8. Below are some pics from the Sketchbook Project that I completed this week.