Toe loops, smooch-proof, and photographic remixing
I need to be kinder to myself about my new schedule sapping my energy, but it was frustrating to watch Friday turn from a 4-thing day into a 2-thing day. I don't understand why a liquor store would open at 8am and close at 7, but I didn't get out the door in time for the former and the latter... well. Hit the gym for a very satisfying leg weights session: testosterone is so yummy. I'm doing 1L leg press negatives with 150lbs and over Thanksgiving, I impressed my college cousin with a pistol, well, until I fell over trying to do the other leg. ah well. Pongo came home not long after, looking dashing and bearing good news, and we fell asleep in each other's arms.
Under the circumstances, it's a miracle I made it to skating in the morning, but I'm so glad I did. Rusty was teaching again, but this time class was terrible. I couldn't seem to do anything right and Rusty never separated the less capable students, even though that's what ended up happening. I was pretty discouraged, but Sloan said something in the course of things about how sometimes you can get your axel and your double salchow, but not your double loop. Which meant she's a real figure skater. See, what I didn't realize before I signed up for these group lessons is that they only cover "movements in the field": if you want to jump or spin, you have to take private lessons. Which is irritating, but whatever. I was able to finagle Sloan for a private immediately after the lesson and we went back out on the ice. I asked her to work with me on the waltz jump, which I practiced a lot (and got) when I was in middle school, but I couldn't remember the approach. Under Sloan's watch, I was willing to jump bigger, although I still don't understand why you don't bang the right foot on the ground. Apparently my arms start flailing and I'd never heard the idea of "checking" before. I asked her what the next jump is, so she started teaching me the toe loop. Finally I said, "can you just show me one?" and she smiled and did. I dubiously said, "Do you think I'm ready for that?" "Sure!" and I was. She walked me through the moves holding on to the sides and then I went to do it and yeah, it's not that big a deal. Right inside 3 turn, plant the free toe pick directly behind, pull the arms, and then check. Easy-peasy. So easy, I kinda wonder if I learned it as a kid and forgot.
Then it was time to spin. I confess, I was much worse at spinning as a kid than jumping. I showed her my two foot spin and then showed her my wind up for a one foot spin. She was very excited: apparently I'm very good at the approach. She showed me to finish my spins with a flourish, instead of petering out. She also suggested I practiced a one foot spin instead of what I'd been doing, which is a scratch spin. Which, I wasn't really doing, bc I'd chicken out when the spin started getting fast. She showed me how you can get your balance by leaving the spin in an open position, before revving up the speed by pulling your arms in. WHICH WAS AWESOME for control-freak-me. And y'know what? I had two beautiful one foot spins where she showed me my tight tracing - and my 3 revolutions. WOOHOO! (3 revolutions is the standard for testing.) I love how encouraging Sloan is and I now have a lot to work on. I also like that I didn't feel pressured to sign up for lots of lessons, bc I'm not sure how I can fit them in, never mind the cost.
When I got home, Pongo was still abed and when I crawled in with him, kept taking my freezing appendages and sticking them on his warm body. How incredibly selfless, especially since he had to hear me continue to complain about the cold. I don't think I really warmed up until I put on my sweats a few hours later. I got so engrossed in downloading and sorting pics from my Galapagos trip, I barely remembered to eat and then it was time for Saturday night's party. The liquor store closed at 5!!! so I ended up bringing a bottle from my cellar and accidentally turned up too early for the party. It's interesting that our hosts have been throwing these parties so long, the crowd has separated into cliques.
I thought about bringing my laptop so I could sort more photos in the morning, but there was barely enough time to eat Jane & Julian's scrumptious brunch before the women headed off to our makeovers at Short Hills Saks. I thought it was pretty funny that the five of us were fairly makeup averse and yet here we were trying Chanel.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that older women who wear a lot of heavy makeup would do lots of makeup on us, but I was disappointed with how they did things. I felt like the looks they gave us weren't replicable by us at home, bc instead of using color, they used technique to blend the same blush and eye shadow on everyone. eek! I'm happy when I don't poke myself in the eye, let alone subtleties of where to place colors. I also found it fascinating that the two makeup artists contradicted each other. e.g. the one suggested trying eyeliner from the outside in, which I think might be the way to get the right angle for me. Everyone agreed that the tip to do concealer after you've fucked up your eye shadow and had to remove it was genius. And overall, apparently I'm too light with party makeup. I had gobs of mascara on -- but I looked like Keira Knightley at an awards ceremony. So cool. I felt like the lip stuff was too pink and I wish I could've tried the kiss-proof lipstick that is their signature product. I ended up buying one to try at home - honestly, it may or may not have stayed on while I smooched Julian later, but it was gone by the time I got back to my apt. Jane got a crazy creamy, sparkly eye shadow they could totally have sold me, based on the texture. The best though was spending a little more time than usual with L and H, the former who I ought to know better than I do and the latter who comes so highly recommended. And I got to introduce the latter to Korres Lip Butter, which I love so much, I want to write an LJ post about it, but I never do.
I got home and immediately got to work organizing photos for a calendar I'm making for my mum for Christmas Chanukah. While we were in the Galapagos, she commented that she liked my pictures than the postcards we could buy, bc she likes really large animal heads. I didn't have time to crop the photos as much as I'd've liked, but I'm very pleased with the result. A few things: Julian's remark about "you just need 12 photos" was a perfect example of how he cuts through whatever I'm making myself crazy about with a short statement that non-judgementally helps me getitdone. He's awesome.
Y'know what else is awesome? Lightroom. Thank y'all so much for suggesting it. I wish Lochai had suggested it all those years ago, when he was showing me tone curves, instead of saying, "This is for photo management. You don't need this, just buy Elements." ARGH NO. Reading the Scott Kelby book, I learned how Lightroom is just like iTunes when it comes to organization, so it took me <10 hours to sort almost a thousand pictures down to the 184 most interesting/best. On the one hand, I'm disappointed by how many photos came out so soft - my Lumix takes very fuzzy pictures and let's not even discuss the underwater shots - but Lightroom let me sort out the pictures that were interesting bc of the subject or were technically well done, directly send them to Shutterfly, and proceed from there. This project alone made it worth the $$ and maybe someday I'll learn how to develop photos well enough to make the time worthwhile. I stayed up past midnight but still caught the coupon; better, the calendar should arrive early Christmas week. I'm so amused by the little visual jokes I embedded - May is all baby birds; July is Sally Lightfoot crabs (for Cancer); my Harvard brother's birth month is covered in great and magnificent frigate birds (in scarlet) - that I printed one for myself. I was awfully yawny at work today, but it was worth it.
Under the circumstances, it's a miracle I made it to skating in the morning, but I'm so glad I did. Rusty was teaching again, but this time class was terrible. I couldn't seem to do anything right and Rusty never separated the less capable students, even though that's what ended up happening. I was pretty discouraged, but Sloan said something in the course of things about how sometimes you can get your axel and your double salchow, but not your double loop. Which meant she's a real figure skater. See, what I didn't realize before I signed up for these group lessons is that they only cover "movements in the field": if you want to jump or spin, you have to take private lessons. Which is irritating, but whatever. I was able to finagle Sloan for a private immediately after the lesson and we went back out on the ice. I asked her to work with me on the waltz jump, which I practiced a lot (and got) when I was in middle school, but I couldn't remember the approach. Under Sloan's watch, I was willing to jump bigger, although I still don't understand why you don't bang the right foot on the ground. Apparently my arms start flailing and I'd never heard the idea of "checking" before. I asked her what the next jump is, so she started teaching me the toe loop. Finally I said, "can you just show me one?" and she smiled and did. I dubiously said, "Do you think I'm ready for that?" "Sure!" and I was. She walked me through the moves holding on to the sides and then I went to do it and yeah, it's not that big a deal. Right inside 3 turn, plant the free toe pick directly behind, pull the arms, and then check. Easy-peasy. So easy, I kinda wonder if I learned it as a kid and forgot.
Then it was time to spin. I confess, I was much worse at spinning as a kid than jumping. I showed her my two foot spin and then showed her my wind up for a one foot spin. She was very excited: apparently I'm very good at the approach. She showed me to finish my spins with a flourish, instead of petering out. She also suggested I practiced a one foot spin instead of what I'd been doing, which is a scratch spin. Which, I wasn't really doing, bc I'd chicken out when the spin started getting fast. She showed me how you can get your balance by leaving the spin in an open position, before revving up the speed by pulling your arms in. WHICH WAS AWESOME for control-freak-me. And y'know what? I had two beautiful one foot spins where she showed me my tight tracing - and my 3 revolutions. WOOHOO! (3 revolutions is the standard for testing.) I love how encouraging Sloan is and I now have a lot to work on. I also like that I didn't feel pressured to sign up for lots of lessons, bc I'm not sure how I can fit them in, never mind the cost.
When I got home, Pongo was still abed and when I crawled in with him, kept taking my freezing appendages and sticking them on his warm body. How incredibly selfless, especially since he had to hear me continue to complain about the cold. I don't think I really warmed up until I put on my sweats a few hours later. I got so engrossed in downloading and sorting pics from my Galapagos trip, I barely remembered to eat and then it was time for Saturday night's party. The liquor store closed at 5!!! so I ended up bringing a bottle from my cellar and accidentally turned up too early for the party. It's interesting that our hosts have been throwing these parties so long, the crowd has separated into cliques.
I thought about bringing my laptop so I could sort more photos in the morning, but there was barely enough time to eat Jane & Julian's scrumptious brunch before the women headed off to our makeovers at Short Hills Saks. I thought it was pretty funny that the five of us were fairly makeup averse and yet here we were trying Chanel.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that older women who wear a lot of heavy makeup would do lots of makeup on us, but I was disappointed with how they did things. I felt like the looks they gave us weren't replicable by us at home, bc instead of using color, they used technique to blend the same blush and eye shadow on everyone. eek! I'm happy when I don't poke myself in the eye, let alone subtleties of where to place colors. I also found it fascinating that the two makeup artists contradicted each other. e.g. the one suggested trying eyeliner from the outside in, which I think might be the way to get the right angle for me. Everyone agreed that the tip to do concealer after you've fucked up your eye shadow and had to remove it was genius. And overall, apparently I'm too light with party makeup. I had gobs of mascara on -- but I looked like Keira Knightley at an awards ceremony. So cool. I felt like the lip stuff was too pink and I wish I could've tried the kiss-proof lipstick that is their signature product. I ended up buying one to try at home - honestly, it may or may not have stayed on while I smooched Julian later, but it was gone by the time I got back to my apt. Jane got a crazy creamy, sparkly eye shadow they could totally have sold me, based on the texture. The best though was spending a little more time than usual with L and H, the former who I ought to know better than I do and the latter who comes so highly recommended. And I got to introduce the latter to Korres Lip Butter, which I love so much, I want to write an LJ post about it, but I never do.
I got home and immediately got to work organizing photos for a calendar I'm making for my mum for Christmas Chanukah. While we were in the Galapagos, she commented that she liked my pictures than the postcards we could buy, bc she likes really large animal heads. I didn't have time to crop the photos as much as I'd've liked, but I'm very pleased with the result. A few things: Julian's remark about "you just need 12 photos" was a perfect example of how he cuts through whatever I'm making myself crazy about with a short statement that non-judgementally helps me getitdone. He's awesome.
Y'know what else is awesome? Lightroom. Thank y'all so much for suggesting it. I wish Lochai had suggested it all those years ago, when he was showing me tone curves, instead of saying, "This is for photo management. You don't need this, just buy Elements." ARGH NO. Reading the Scott Kelby book, I learned how Lightroom is just like iTunes when it comes to organization, so it took me <10 hours to sort almost a thousand pictures down to the 184 most interesting/best. On the one hand, I'm disappointed by how many photos came out so soft - my Lumix takes very fuzzy pictures and let's not even discuss the underwater shots - but Lightroom let me sort out the pictures that were interesting bc of the subject or were technically well done, directly send them to Shutterfly, and proceed from there. This project alone made it worth the $$ and maybe someday I'll learn how to develop photos well enough to make the time worthwhile. I stayed up past midnight but still caught the coupon; better, the calendar should arrive early Christmas week. I'm so amused by the little visual jokes I embedded - May is all baby birds; July is Sally Lightfoot crabs (for Cancer); my Harvard brother's birth month is covered in great and magnificent frigate birds (in scarlet) - that I printed one for myself. I was awfully yawny at work today, but it was worth it.