A second coming

Ok, maybe my title should be less sacrilegious. I want to get back into blogging though so here's a few thoughts to catch up.

I'm still working at the UMFA. I am now 3/4 time so I have benefits and all that jazz. It's kind of nice to feel like a grown up and a little scary at the same time. I am a little less fond of the increased responsibility meaning I get to travel less but the increased income actually makes my ability to travel that much better.

I am also still working at the ZAP program and teaching ballet at for a local community education program. It is fulfilling and getting better each time I do it. I'm learning by fire and sometimes slowly but the girls always seem to enjoy it and that's what it's all about.

For fun, I am dancing with an aerial dance group called Aerial Amore and having a great time with the girls on the team and learning new things and improving my cirque like skills. I am also learning how to figure skate. When I was a little girl I always wanted to skate in the Olympics. I think it's a little late for me to do that but I wouldn't be opposed to competing in some local shows in a few months once I start getting better. It's been really fun and by sweet boyfriend bought me my own skates for my birthday in November.

Over the last couple of years, I've traveled to a lot of new places for me. Most are cities in the US but I've got out and seen more of the country when I used to only claim that I'd visited some of the surrounding states and California.

These are the most recent trips that I've taken:

Last January, I took a trip to LA with my boyfriend. His sister and brother-in-law live there and they let us stay with them. We went to Six Flags, visited Hollywood Blvd and Venice Beach, went to the Getty Museum, and just generally had a good time. It was the first time I had really been to LA and it was a really wonderful trip.

With my girlfriends from High School, I went to New York City. (There were four of us. We were so Sex and the City haha! jk, but we wish). I'm lucky to have a friend who lived in the Lower East Side and he was kind enough to let us inhabit his apartment for a week. It was a great trip. We did all the touristy stuff and had time to just wander the Village and stop into stores and bookshops and cafes and restaurants.
By happy chance, my uncle was in town the same time and he took me and my sis out for a nice Japanese ramen dinner and drove us around the city at night. It was magical to see the city from the bridges and Brooklyn.
Tashi and I also went to Brooklyn to see Judy Chicago's Dinner Party which was a good experience. We also saw the Book of Mormon Musical which was a great experience. I recommend it to anyone who can handle a little (or a lot) of swearing. It was my second time in NYC and it was cool to be able to get to know the city better and explore more art museums and feel a little less lost than the first time around.

I also went to Phoenix and Tuscan Arizona with my boyfriend. We drove out in his car with no air conditioning in the middle of the summer. That was probably the most sweaty I have ever been in my life. While the drive was less than fun in that way (it was the worst in the city over the blacktop), it was really cool to see the high desert and cool little towns along the way. There is something really strange but enchanting about the West and the people who live here/there.
It was a shorter trip but we managed to get a full schedule of events with Bryan's family and friends and some time to explore the cute shops on 4th Avenue.

Later in the summer time, I went to Hawaii, Kauai to be exact. I had some friends celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary by renting out a camp there. I stayed with them for a few days on the beach. We had wonderful vegan food and fresh fruit. I had a quick surfing lesson and even got a few waves (baby ones of course and just heading to the shore-- but not bad for my first time eh?). I also went snorkeling for the first time. It was really really really cool. We saw sea turtles and crazy fish. I freaked out a little bit when I wasn't near anyone else but was more in awe of everything which was lucky so that my brain didn't have space to freak out more. We went hiking to this incredible waterfall and beach. I just can't describe how cool the whole thing was.
I spent a few days there myself after my friends left. My awesome uncle set me up with a room at his timeshare. I had this great space to myself in Kapa'a and I drove to secret's beach and sunbathed in the nude completely alone on this incredible beach. I need to get back there. It was so relaxing. I have never felt so sad about going home. I almost didn't get on my plane. I should have found a paper and looked for a job. It was almost as (and maybe more though it pains me to say it Francophone that I am) enchanting as Paris. Of course, in a completely different way, but nonetheless amazing. Traveling alone was probably one of the best experiences of my life. It was a little freaky at times, yes. I didn't dare go in the ocean by myself and I was sure to stay in safe areas at night. But sitting by the ocean with not a care in the world, no one I knew within more than a thousand miles of ocean, being in complete solitude. Amazing. I have never experienced that before and I don't know if I will again.

In October I had two trips. I went to San Francisco with Tashi and B and my boyfriend surprised me by being able to come out at the tail end of our trip. We stayed in Alameda and took the ferry in to the city a few days and drove in on others depending on our plans.
Tashi has a whole bunch of posts about our trip which was awesome. I think it was the perfect amount of time and the weather was incredible. The first day was rainy and overcast. We took a segway tour of the park on that day of course. But the other days were sunny and warm. We ate well and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. My b and I had a great night out eating at three different restaurants and participating in this community art night thing that happened to be going on during the last night of our visit.

My second trip in October was for business. I went to St. Louis for the National Docent Symposium. I was there with two docents from the UMFA. We were in conferences most of the time but we also got to go on excursions to arts and cultural attractions around the city. I would have liked to have seen more of the city. It was pretty empty and dead where my hotel was. It was almost more spooky because there was no one out at night than if there had been at least a few people walking around. I was staying in a hotel that was a couple of blocks away from the conference hotel and the first night when I walked home it felt like I was in a zombie apocalypse movie.

For Thanksgiving, I went to Seattle again with my boy. His parents recently moved to Burien and were having a large gathering in their home for the holidays. We spent most of the time with his family but we did get to explore Seattle for a few days. We of course went to Pike's Place Market and by my request we visited the Seattle Art Museum.
We spent some time on the beach near his parents house as well. His parents have a beautiful backyard. It's as green as anything I've ever seen and you can see the sound through the tall trees. Seattle was really cool. I wouldn't mind spending more time there. There is a road trip that Budget Travel had an article about-- three or four days along the Northwestern coast that I think is in order in my near future. I'm going to have to dig up that article.

In the first week of January, I had just a small trip up to my Grandparent's cabin near Bear Lake. It doesn't really count as on of my 'travels' but I thought I should include it as it was my token winter trip. My family gathers for our Christmas celebration usually on New Years. We bundled up and played games and hung out with each other. There wasn't as much snow as we expected but it was cold. And good to spend time with my family.

Coming up I in May, I will be going to Philadelphia for another work trip with the docents. But this one will be more pleasure than business (that is if all the docents stay in line! They can be a lively bunch). I hope to be back into blogging mode so I can have a photographic and journal like record of it. Such as all the places listed above have kind of if I wrote it in my journal or took pictures that will probably remain stored on a computer for the rest of my life.

And that post was probably way too long so I'll leave it at that with a promise to begin posting at least monthly once again.