Holy Crap, it'sanupdate!
It occurred to me today that I hadn't posted in almost 4 months - since before Sirius Rising at Brushwood, in fact. Might be a little overdue for an update, so here goes:
BRUSHWOOD
Brushwood was AMAZING! Seriously. There were massive rituals celebrating each element every day. I had never participated in anything with so many people, so the energy was just INCREDIBLE. One of the coolest moments was the Water ceremony. The energy was so thick, the air was literally humming. I mean, I could pick out several harmonic notes right out of the vibrations carrying through the air. My observation was completely proved when the crowd was asked to actually hum partway through the ritual, and we all started with the same chord originating from the SAME PITCH that I started hearing less than 5 minutes after the ceremony began. Creepy, affirming, and wonderful! There were also bonfires EVERY NIGHT - usually a torch was carried from the shrine corresponding to that night's element to the "Roundhouse", where a bonfire at the center of a ring of packed sand was lit, to burn all night. The drummers would gather at one end, and the drumming would last until dawn. And then the bullfrogs from the nearby pond (we camped in the "Faerie Woods" directly behind it) would join in, and it made for some amazingly soothing sleep. It was indeed as family friendly as advertised, with most of the nudity being so subtle and common place that I stopped noticing within the first 24 hours there. I even shed enough of my self-consciousness to swim/hot-tub naked with 2 other lovely ladies (and the boyfriend of one of the said ladies) who were, in my honest opinion, far more attractive than I. It just didn't seem to matter. We even got Dan naked! All in all, a pleasant bonding experience.
My favorite part, by far, was just soaking in the simple energy at the roundhouse each night, pounding the sand, losing myself in dance... I hadn't really danced since shortly after I became pregnant with Rowan! This trip definitely loosened up some stiff joints, physically and emotionally.
Dan and I even had a small handfasting ceremony performed by a shaman known affectionately as the Faerie King (how appropriate!) organized and witnessed by people we had not even met until we arrived. That was another "coolest thing" about this place - the people are sooooo welcoming! No one thought it strange to celebrate the marriage of 2 people they had never even met. We were showered with hugs and well wishes. It was so humbling. And a nifty thing happened - it took place in the middle of a thunderstorm! Thunder punctuated almost every high point in the ceremony, and less than 2 minutes after it was finished, a hole broke in the clouds and a searing beam of sunshine struck the ground not 20 feet away. Amazing...
So Dan and I came back feeling oddly refreshed and exhausted and incredibly grounded. It was an experience we both agree that we need to do again. I even was inspired to snag a Djembe drum online that I'm starting to get pretty decent with. Next thing - I need a didgeridoo...
SCHOOL
So... School started, and I'm diving into it as totally as possible. So far, every grade I've received has been an A. My first big exams happen this week, but I'm relatively unconcerned. I've been absorbing the material pretty well all along (better than a lot of my classmates that I've talked to), so a refresher session should be all I need. I've been conversing with my teachers every day. I decided that I can no longer just sit and participate when instructed. Passive learning is not enough with this intensive course. We are one of only TWO non-bachelor's programs in the entire state to receive an excellence award from an association that doesn't even like to ACCREDIT non-bachelor's programs in the first place - think Ivy League of RN certification programs. In fact, our percentage of students who pass the NCLEX (board exams) on the first go outshines (think 10-20% higher on average) almost every other college in the area, INCLUDING the 4-year programs. Only two are higher and that's by about .1%...
Either way, I'm being more active. I'm running for student representative. I'm joining the Student Nurses Association (branch of the national one) as soon as my Monday labs are over (they happen during meeting time for this semester only). And I'm gunning for the Honors Society, though we don't qualify to apply until we're in our 300 level nursing courses. Life is not too shabby...
And I'm making friends. I have regular people I sit next to in class and eat lunch with every day. I have "friended" several on facebook, and have regular phone contact with a few others. I even went out to karaoke with a girl from class last week!
WORKING OUT
Thanks to us being adjunct students of Chatham, I have access to a beautiful gym and pool, complete with a hot tub and sauna. I finish up at Chatham 4 days a week (all but Wednesday), so I developed a decent routine. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I finish up during pool hours, so I wolf down lunch and go swim laps. I'm already up to 2k (80 lengths), and I do a routine of 3 repeats of 200 kick, 200 pull, 200 swim, with a 100 warm-up and cool-down. I plan on sticking to this for a week or two before trying to up it any more. Mondays and Fridays, I hit the gym. I row between 2 and 3 km on the rowing machine, run/power walk a little over a mile on an incline on the sweet treadmills, do some weight training with my arms, and bike 2 miles. On days that I miss (like this last week for g20), I go jogging in the cemetery (nice hills) for a little over a mile and work my arms afterward with hand weights.
I have officially shaved another 2 inches off of my waistline and an inch off of each of my upper arms and thighs. My portion size is down (exercise will do that as a by-product), I need less sleep to function (6-7 hours is prime, opposed to the 8-10 I needed before), my attention span has improved, and I can walk longer distances carrying more weight than I have in years. In the first 2 weeks alone, I lost about 6 pounds, but gained half that back from my muscles improving drastically in tone. I definitely look... tighter, I guess - which was the point. I'm wearing girly (tighter instead of baggy) jeans and more form fitting tops with more confidence. I have officially dropped a full pants size already (still an XL, for all intents and purposes, but no longer in plus size)! I'm so proud I could squeak!
ROWAN
Rowan is definitely talking more and more (she started sentences finally!) and has hit the terrible twos! She is incredibly stubborn (was there any doubt?) and is far more intuitive than even before. Heather and Troy had a beautiful baby boy (Dante), and Rowan loves holding his little hands and giving him kisses on the head. I still get to spend good time with her, too, on the evenings and weekends. At least I'm not missing too much.
GARDEN
After the massive blight, I had to cut away 2/3rds of my tomato plants. Seriously, I cried! But the back two, at least, out of the three completely recovered. The round of massive ripening (due to the branches dying off from blight) is completely over, but there are well over a dozen green tomatoes on the back 2 plants that will be ripening soon. Meaning that I'll get another round before the first frost if all goes well. I used the massive tomato influx to make homemade marinara sauce that tastes out of this world and homemade salsa with barely any salt - you taste the peppers instead of just tomatoes and salt, like in the jarred crap. I'm still getting the occasional bell pepper and jalapeno. And I harvested enough carrots for Dan and I to gorge on them (cooked with a bit of butter and brown sugar) twice. Rawk on!
DAN
Dan, despite all my misgivings (in large part to his inability to prove to me BEFORE school actually started), really stepped up. The house is staying reasonably clean, laundry barely fills our little hamper before it is done, and we are still eating homecooked meals often enough (thanks to him doing the dishes every night). He's been incredibly supportive! Gawd, I love him!!!
HALLOWEEN PLANS
I decided on a simple costume this year, and I'm finally going to dress up as Jessica Rabbit. I found a lovely red dress online for about 6 bucks (yay, Ebay!) and long gloves as well. My hair is well past my breasts in length and is deep red again. All I need are some cheap pumps and blue eyeshadow, and I'm good to go! Big Tom has a lead in the Etna Scarehouse this year, so I absolutely NEED to go see him, and my parents are ok with watching Rowan so Dan and I can get to Robert's costume party this year! Excellent - especially because the Buzz Poets are back together and doing a concert at the Altar Bar earlier that night! WOOT!
OTHER UPDATES
For those of you that don't know, I had been cordially invited back to the Tuesday game (so far, I'm only doing one campaign that runs every other week) due to my schedule facilitating this. So I get to play Nim again! SQUEE! And I finally found a decent retainer for my nose ring, which according to older nursing students and graduates, should be more than fine as long as I don't call attention to it. Apparently, many people have gotten away with far more obvious piercings, and the staff is getting more and more relaxed about it anyway. Now, all I need to do is wait for that blasted student loan money - I still haven't received the first round of it! *mutters* Blasted bureaucracy...
That's about it, save for the little highlights which are too many and not important enough to get into during this little update. Life is good. I am incredibly busy. Things are looking up!
BRUSHWOOD
Brushwood was AMAZING! Seriously. There were massive rituals celebrating each element every day. I had never participated in anything with so many people, so the energy was just INCREDIBLE. One of the coolest moments was the Water ceremony. The energy was so thick, the air was literally humming. I mean, I could pick out several harmonic notes right out of the vibrations carrying through the air. My observation was completely proved when the crowd was asked to actually hum partway through the ritual, and we all started with the same chord originating from the SAME PITCH that I started hearing less than 5 minutes after the ceremony began. Creepy, affirming, and wonderful! There were also bonfires EVERY NIGHT - usually a torch was carried from the shrine corresponding to that night's element to the "Roundhouse", where a bonfire at the center of a ring of packed sand was lit, to burn all night. The drummers would gather at one end, and the drumming would last until dawn. And then the bullfrogs from the nearby pond (we camped in the "Faerie Woods" directly behind it) would join in, and it made for some amazingly soothing sleep. It was indeed as family friendly as advertised, with most of the nudity being so subtle and common place that I stopped noticing within the first 24 hours there. I even shed enough of my self-consciousness to swim/hot-tub naked with 2 other lovely ladies (and the boyfriend of one of the said ladies) who were, in my honest opinion, far more attractive than I. It just didn't seem to matter. We even got Dan naked! All in all, a pleasant bonding experience.
My favorite part, by far, was just soaking in the simple energy at the roundhouse each night, pounding the sand, losing myself in dance... I hadn't really danced since shortly after I became pregnant with Rowan! This trip definitely loosened up some stiff joints, physically and emotionally.
Dan and I even had a small handfasting ceremony performed by a shaman known affectionately as the Faerie King (how appropriate!) organized and witnessed by people we had not even met until we arrived. That was another "coolest thing" about this place - the people are sooooo welcoming! No one thought it strange to celebrate the marriage of 2 people they had never even met. We were showered with hugs and well wishes. It was so humbling. And a nifty thing happened - it took place in the middle of a thunderstorm! Thunder punctuated almost every high point in the ceremony, and less than 2 minutes after it was finished, a hole broke in the clouds and a searing beam of sunshine struck the ground not 20 feet away. Amazing...
So Dan and I came back feeling oddly refreshed and exhausted and incredibly grounded. It was an experience we both agree that we need to do again. I even was inspired to snag a Djembe drum online that I'm starting to get pretty decent with. Next thing - I need a didgeridoo...
SCHOOL
So... School started, and I'm diving into it as totally as possible. So far, every grade I've received has been an A. My first big exams happen this week, but I'm relatively unconcerned. I've been absorbing the material pretty well all along (better than a lot of my classmates that I've talked to), so a refresher session should be all I need. I've been conversing with my teachers every day. I decided that I can no longer just sit and participate when instructed. Passive learning is not enough with this intensive course. We are one of only TWO non-bachelor's programs in the entire state to receive an excellence award from an association that doesn't even like to ACCREDIT non-bachelor's programs in the first place - think Ivy League of RN certification programs. In fact, our percentage of students who pass the NCLEX (board exams) on the first go outshines (think 10-20% higher on average) almost every other college in the area, INCLUDING the 4-year programs. Only two are higher and that's by about .1%...
Either way, I'm being more active. I'm running for student representative. I'm joining the Student Nurses Association (branch of the national one) as soon as my Monday labs are over (they happen during meeting time for this semester only). And I'm gunning for the Honors Society, though we don't qualify to apply until we're in our 300 level nursing courses. Life is not too shabby...
And I'm making friends. I have regular people I sit next to in class and eat lunch with every day. I have "friended" several on facebook, and have regular phone contact with a few others. I even went out to karaoke with a girl from class last week!
WORKING OUT
Thanks to us being adjunct students of Chatham, I have access to a beautiful gym and pool, complete with a hot tub and sauna. I finish up at Chatham 4 days a week (all but Wednesday), so I developed a decent routine. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I finish up during pool hours, so I wolf down lunch and go swim laps. I'm already up to 2k (80 lengths), and I do a routine of 3 repeats of 200 kick, 200 pull, 200 swim, with a 100 warm-up and cool-down. I plan on sticking to this for a week or two before trying to up it any more. Mondays and Fridays, I hit the gym. I row between 2 and 3 km on the rowing machine, run/power walk a little over a mile on an incline on the sweet treadmills, do some weight training with my arms, and bike 2 miles. On days that I miss (like this last week for g20), I go jogging in the cemetery (nice hills) for a little over a mile and work my arms afterward with hand weights.
I have officially shaved another 2 inches off of my waistline and an inch off of each of my upper arms and thighs. My portion size is down (exercise will do that as a by-product), I need less sleep to function (6-7 hours is prime, opposed to the 8-10 I needed before), my attention span has improved, and I can walk longer distances carrying more weight than I have in years. In the first 2 weeks alone, I lost about 6 pounds, but gained half that back from my muscles improving drastically in tone. I definitely look... tighter, I guess - which was the point. I'm wearing girly (tighter instead of baggy) jeans and more form fitting tops with more confidence. I have officially dropped a full pants size already (still an XL, for all intents and purposes, but no longer in plus size)! I'm so proud I could squeak!
ROWAN
Rowan is definitely talking more and more (she started sentences finally!) and has hit the terrible twos! She is incredibly stubborn (was there any doubt?) and is far more intuitive than even before. Heather and Troy had a beautiful baby boy (Dante), and Rowan loves holding his little hands and giving him kisses on the head. I still get to spend good time with her, too, on the evenings and weekends. At least I'm not missing too much.
GARDEN
After the massive blight, I had to cut away 2/3rds of my tomato plants. Seriously, I cried! But the back two, at least, out of the three completely recovered. The round of massive ripening (due to the branches dying off from blight) is completely over, but there are well over a dozen green tomatoes on the back 2 plants that will be ripening soon. Meaning that I'll get another round before the first frost if all goes well. I used the massive tomato influx to make homemade marinara sauce that tastes out of this world and homemade salsa with barely any salt - you taste the peppers instead of just tomatoes and salt, like in the jarred crap. I'm still getting the occasional bell pepper and jalapeno. And I harvested enough carrots for Dan and I to gorge on them (cooked with a bit of butter and brown sugar) twice. Rawk on!
DAN
Dan, despite all my misgivings (in large part to his inability to prove to me BEFORE school actually started), really stepped up. The house is staying reasonably clean, laundry barely fills our little hamper before it is done, and we are still eating homecooked meals often enough (thanks to him doing the dishes every night). He's been incredibly supportive! Gawd, I love him!!!
HALLOWEEN PLANS
I decided on a simple costume this year, and I'm finally going to dress up as Jessica Rabbit. I found a lovely red dress online for about 6 bucks (yay, Ebay!) and long gloves as well. My hair is well past my breasts in length and is deep red again. All I need are some cheap pumps and blue eyeshadow, and I'm good to go! Big Tom has a lead in the Etna Scarehouse this year, so I absolutely NEED to go see him, and my parents are ok with watching Rowan so Dan and I can get to Robert's costume party this year! Excellent - especially because the Buzz Poets are back together and doing a concert at the Altar Bar earlier that night! WOOT!
OTHER UPDATES
For those of you that don't know, I had been cordially invited back to the Tuesday game (so far, I'm only doing one campaign that runs every other week) due to my schedule facilitating this. So I get to play Nim again! SQUEE! And I finally found a decent retainer for my nose ring, which according to older nursing students and graduates, should be more than fine as long as I don't call attention to it. Apparently, many people have gotten away with far more obvious piercings, and the staff is getting more and more relaxed about it anyway. Now, all I need to do is wait for that blasted student loan money - I still haven't received the first round of it! *mutters* Blasted bureaucracy...
That's about it, save for the little highlights which are too many and not important enough to get into during this little update. Life is good. I am incredibly busy. Things are looking up!