ballet

Taking it easy

Today was a bizarre day of accidental/unexpected rest time. I had plans yet they all shifted to make for a very comfortable and satisfying day for me today, and it was just so lovely… I am very grateful. I wasn’t included in the testing happening st school today, so I wasn’t going to be paid for doing any work today…, so I didn’t work. I stayed home and planned a day to do whatever, and nothing specific but register my car’s title transfer. (Actually, the state cheated me out of tax on another $2000 that they said my car was worth… even though that’s actually illegal, since it was the dealer who had owned and sold the car to me at the end of my lease… but there is basically nothing for me to do about it that actually would change anything. Our legal system is too messed up, as is the government’s system, for me to be able to afford to do anything that would make a difference. Suing is basically the only way to hold big companies and organizations accountable, it seems. Perhaps, if people just did the right and fair thing in the first place, places wouldn’t have to worry about being sued. Anyway…) That was a pretty lame time, and I had to wait 40 minutes there, even though I had a scheduled appointment time and all. Despite that junk, I had a good day. I’m glad to have gotten the title stuff handled, at last. And I’m relieved to know for certain that I don’t have to get new plates. That was great news for me, even despite being cheated at the same time. Anyway, I went home happy while still annoyed at the injustice.

A bit later, I got to take my friend’s three-year-old daughter to her ballet class, which was awesome. The whole little car ride was a blast, her sitting in her cars eat in the back, telling me all about how she was going to dancing class and that she was going in my man’s car. It was awesome. And then dance class was also great to watch, as usual.

Then I got to go for a walk with my man and the dog in this amazing weather. I got to drink some eggnog. I learned a bit about the new car’s oil leak and the process to fix it. I ordered a gift for the birthday party we are attending next weekend, almost entirely using a gift card I earned for doing some volunteer-type stuff. And I got to hang with my man as we watched a movie, and then goof off and actually wrestle one another on the old Tempur-pedic mattress that is presently sitting in the living room. Now, I’m going to bed a touch later than desired, but satisfied and comfortable from the day.

Thank you for today, God, and thank you for my man and his dog and my friends and my mom. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

I went to a ballet class this morning. My friend has signed up her daughter, who recently turned three, for ballet classes at a studio in a nearby neighborhood. I had joined them to watch that class this week after school one day. While it was absolutely adorable and a total morale boost, it also made me want to do ballet classes myself.

I had only officially done a beginner series of six classes eight years ago, plus a private lesson and a single drop-in in an intermediate class after the series. I also had had a few beginner drop-in classes here and there years before that. Very little had stuck from those, though.

So, eight years after the beginner series, here I am, stepping into a class that is for middle- and high-school-students, but that is technically an open drop-in class for adults, too.

I was terrified, and I showed up anyway. This morning was certainly a morning filled with courage. I didn’t do amazingly – not at all. But I did do most of the stuff in the class. By the end of the floor work, we were doing some things I had not ever learned to do, so I was guessing and making it up as I went, and also stepping back to observe more before trying it out again. All in all, it was a good time had by me. I imagine the kids in the class were thrown by my presence, but I rolled with it happily. And the teacher made it clear that I was, in fact, invited back both for that class and for certain other ones, too. (I even asked if I could take the lower level classes, and she told me that I didn’t need to take them. So, though I was happy yet serious with my inquiry, she was, too. I apparently am functioning enough to stay in the class.) So, that was cool. Woohoo!

I look forward to improving and to doing better each class.

I certainly have things to work on before I go back, and I hope I can make that happen consistently, starting this week. Because I really want to go back and to do better by a lot each time. I truly enjoy the feeling of doing ballet right. It is such a good feeling. Not because it’s right, but because ballet itself truly just feels amazing to do.

God, thank you for this blessing and opportunity of today. Thank you for the dancing. Thank you for my own sense of humour and easy acceptance of my current levels with everything. Help me to honor you through practice and dancing. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

P.S. God, would you heal my grandma and my brothers’ dad, please? In your name, I pray. Amen.

Dance, if you wanna

One of the most upsetting things in our society right now for me – one of the day-to-day things that really bugs me and kind of breaks my heart – is how much gender is used as a restrictor by so much of society.

I mentioned how I thought my nephew really would love learning and doing ballet and other dances, and I was met with a passive laugh and a certain, somewhat snarky comment to say that it never would happen, but what a cute idea. I was gobsmacked. The person didn’t even think I was saying it because I meant it. She actually thought I was just saying it passively, as opposed to my sharing something I genuinely believed and had hopes could happen.

Granted, my sister has very much played the gender toys game for her kids – pink and purses and baby-dolls are for girls, and blues and trucks and superheroes are for boys. However, dance is something amazing for any and all people to do, especially athletes. My sister is an athlete, and she can understand that benefit of dance especially. I think she might be willing to consider the idea of dance for my nephew, if it were presented appropriately and he showed interest in it openly.

Even that, though, has its own degree of upset and disappointment for me: that it has to be presented appropriately. I don’t just mean showing that dance is awesome, but showing that dance is so awesome that it is okay for both genders. Because I know, that likely would be part of it for her.

If I ever have children, no matter the gender of each and every, they all will do karate and dance and volleyball and all the fun, beautiful, beneficial stuff out there that we can find and/or create for them to do. Gender will have no value in the matter. It merely will determine which bathroom they use while at the activity.

Post-a-day 2021

^ Wrote that wrong at first again, but caught myself before submitting! Happy 2021, folks!

Bilingual Ballet

I found myself thinking of (and, of course, missing) my ballet class in Japan.

I was the tallest by a lot, and it was mostly older ladies (not old, but definitely older), and everyone was super sweet and happy and even a bit giddy every class.

And the teacher and I had an unwanted but accustomed distance-by-language-barrier, because my technical Japanese was utterly iffy, and her English possibly below that… that is, we had this distance until the night that we delightfully discovered that we both spoke French rather fluently… then we got on quite comfortably, and even more familiarly than I did with any of the others, because we could say so much to each other now.

I had always asked on occasion for the teacher to repeat something she’d said or done (in Japanese, of course), and I continued that…, but now I could and would ask for clarity at times when I still wasn’t certain what the goal or instruction was (if you’ve ever done ballet, you can understand how important it is to understand what muscles are doing what in a movement), and that part would be in French.

All in all, Monday nights at ballet class were always great, and I miss them now, especially with it getting cold outside (that was when I’d first started going to the classes).

Post-a-day 2018