Tag Archives: blogs

The Creative Oasis

Posted on by
3

What a tagline, hey? As soon as I saw it on the DanceTeacherWeb Facebook page, I was hooked. I pulled strings, booked babysitters, and paid for flights.

It was worth it all.

I don’t even know where to start with my recap of my 3-day dance teachers’ convention. My heart is full, my head is spinning, and my body is just starting to feel normal again! 3 days, starting with breakfast at 7:30am, only breaking for an hour at lunch, and wrapping up at 6pm. Stuffed full of inspiration, here are the highlights for me:

  1. The location! Nestled at the base of the mountains on the far east end of Las Vegas, the Red Rock Resort was breathtaking. I posted my photos here, but even they don’t do it justice. It was beyond luxurious – and our conference rate was only $109US a night! Crazy! I also booked a massage the afternoon I arrived, and it was top-notch. Beautiful spa, with every amenity you could ask for. I will definitely be back, and highly recommend it to anyone looking for an off-strip escape to Las Vegas (or anywhere!).

  2. The freebies! I can’t even start to remember everything we were given with our conference fee. There was a full expo/trade show during the conference, and it went far beyond the usual trade show swag. We also received a backpack, t-shirt, free breakfast daily, treats at lunch every day, a $50 gift card from Discount Dance Supply, free shoes from Capezio, free massages on Wednesday…not to mention the INSANE amount of prizes that were given away! And to top it all off, when we pre-registered for the 2013 conference, we received a full year of DanceTeacherWeb membership! Wow.

  3. Louis Kavouras! Oh my… I have such a deep love of real modern dance, and Louis’ classes took my breath away. I moved in a way I haven’t been able to since I took classes with Maria Chia. The chair of the UNLV dance program, his style and his personality spoke to my heart and my body, and I just can’t escape the organic feeling. I cannot wait to inspire my own students in their modern classes this fall!

  4. Simone dePaolo! Spunk and awesome. Hilarity. And pushing me out of my comfort zone into an Afro-Jazz class where I felt so grounded and connected to the earth like never before. I was FREEin her class. I adore her, and cannot wait to work with her again next year.

    Thanks to Kristi for the photo…which doesn’t do justice to my insane, sweaty, lions-mane hair I was sporting after Afro-jazz!!

  5. Cathy Roe! One of the few faculty names I knew going in, her classes on composition absolutely changed the way I look at choreography. Wow. Just so much wow. And her personality is beautiful. Charming, hilarious, open. Loved her.
  6. JV Goecke! I’ve never met a teacher who reminded me so much of myself. She said the things I only think. Totally fantastic. I would also LOVE to have her come out to Edmonton to hold one of her Jumpstart bootcamps for dancers!!!
  7. Jessica Rizzo! I recognized her right off the bat – she’d adjudicated in Edmonton a few years ago, and I love her enthusiasm. Her pre-teen modern class was EVERYTHING I hoped for! It’s my first time teaching modern in years, and it’s easy to forgot how simple you need to be, and yet how complex you can make a simple, beginner exercise phrase. So perfect. Her improvisation class was also incredible – it’s something I’ve always struggled with, and it was the perfect pathway to introducing my kids to improv!
  8. The company! I spent the week with Miss Kristi, and it was so much fun! It’s always scary to suddenly spend every day with someone you usually only see for a couple hours at a time, but we had a blast. It reminded me of how much fun I had with Krist-a  during our ADAPT teacher training years ago.
  9. The Mirage! We decided to spend Thursday night on the Strip at the Mirage. I’d only stayed at the MGM before this week, and the Mirage was the perfect choice. Weekdays are slow, so they upgraded us to a premium room on the 21st floor with an incredible view for no extra charge!

  10. Crazy Horse Cabaret at the MGM! We decided we wanted to see a burlesque show in Vegas. No one has wanted to go the last two times I’ve gone to Vegas, so I was so excited to go with Kristi!! And WOW! It was classic cabaret – tease, comedy, sexy, sultry, and campy. It was awesome. We were right up front…a little unsettling at first, but it turned out great! It’s a topless show, which I wasn’t expecting, but the fact that the bodies were so natural was very inspiring – not a single implant on stage! Bums jiggled and shoulders shimmied. The level of art was sky-high, and the choreography and music were incredible! A must-see show, and only $57US for the best seats in the house! Bijou bijou bijou!
    My (overpriced!) souvenir photo from Crazy Horse
  11. Tabu! When you’ve already spent $70 on 4 drinks (between the two of us – only 2 each!!), a free-drink wristband is a godsend ;) Even better was the group of 65-70 year old ladies in line for the MGM nightclub – no goofy 21-year old party for us! We closed down Tabu, dancing until our feet couldn’t stand, and actually being asked to leave when the lights came on. I haven’t danced like that in years. It was the most fun I’ve ever had at a Vegas nightclub…or any club!!
  12. Shopping! I never spend money on myself at the outlets, but I always get my bugz a full closet. I did finally buy myself two of the famous Vegas wrap dresses that I’ve wanted for years, and a pair of Merrel Pace Gloves for only $86!

It was a great week. I was actually a little sad to come home, even though I missed my family. My only regret is that I didn’t take more pictures!

I have to spend a few days decompressing and wrapping my head around all the dance-intenstive awesomeness. I wish classes started next week, not 3 weeks from now. Mind you, how is it only 3 weeks from now???? But most times, I’m ready to come home by Day 4. I was gone for 5 days, and I could have stayed a few more. It was incredible.

The creative oasis was just what this girl needed to recharge.

***

Hopefully this makes up for the week of slacker posts ;)  This post is a part of the Summer Blog Challenge! Join the rest of us:

Natural Urban Mama
This Mom’s Got Something To Say
The Dulock Diaries
2 Plus 2×2

This n that

Posted on by
2

I’ve been very delinquent in my blogging lately… I supposed that’s a good thing, because it means I’ve been busy living life away from this box ;)

But in the spirit of catching up:

  • We drove to Regina for Easter. It was our first trip since the bugz were 4 months old. They were great the whole way there (thanks to their DVD players), really well-behaved while we were visiting, and almost angelic for the 10 hour drive home! They didn’t even crack their DVD players open, and not a teaspoon of Gravol was administered!!
  • My grampa taught me to soft-boil eggs. I’m now addicted. I could eat a dozen at a time…!
  • I threw out my gluten-free diet this weekend, and paid dearly. I was uncomfortable, but damn! It was tasty :)
  • My seedlings are all up, in a bad way. Ummm…what do I do with them now?? It’s only mid-April!
  • I filed my taxes! Woohoo!! Thank you, refund gods.
  • My bugz are on a serious independence streak…they’ve been playing downstairs for over an hour, leaving me with nothing to do. They don’t want me to play. Fine, then.
  • I’ve got Shutterfly orders arriving in the mail, and another order to put in, thanks to the 101 free prints in my email inbox this morning!! I’m actually doing something I said I would – amazing!!
  • This week marks getting back on the treadmill – literally. My knee is feeling better, and I need to get back to my long runs. I should be up to 15k this weekend, but I’m aiming for only 12-13k. Daily walks and runs are key to staying on track, and I fell off that track big time!
  • I have at least 2, if not 3 recipes to post over at MagzD Gluten-free. This isn’t the only place I’ve been slacking! I also have a post to write for The Princess and the Pee, but I keep neglecting that too.

And because I hate all-text posts (and write them far too often…!), here’s a smattering of photos :)

I let the bugz free-play. They took it to mean "DUMP ALL THE GLITTER!!!"

This made the glitter mess a bit better...

I moved my computer out of the office and into the useless nook...which is now less useless!!

Gracie peed on my floor mat before we'd even left Edmonton. I gave her to Kit-kat...

C-boo...being, well, C-boo

Gracie actually perks her ears up when you sing the Batman song to her :)

Kit-kat and Bumpa indulged in a pre-Easter dinner nap

We tried to get a good Easter picture...and failed

The bugz spent the better part of the weekend riding up and down Bumpa's "magic staircase"

95lb Dobie, wearing beads...poor Cairo

Bloggin’ It

Posted on by
Reply

This internet fast has been hard.

Not life-or-death hard, or poor-pitiful-me hard. Just a hard in the sense that there are days when I have so much to say and not a soul to say it to. Then, by the time the kiddos are in bed and I have some me-time, I’m overwhelmed and overflowing with words and just can’t organize them into a coherent post. I’m like a sugared up kid with duct tape over my mouth. It’s insane!

I’ve fallen off a few times, usually in that 2-3pm hour when I’m trying to give the bugz some quiet time and I have nothing else to do. My house is clean. My food is cooked. My laundry is absolutely all folded and put away. So I cave a little. I tweet-stalk and Facebook-stalk my friends, but don’t comment…just to take the edge off.

Overall though, I’m doing okay. We’ve done a lot together, my bugz and me. My house really is clean, and we play outside and go for a walk almost every day. I count my gratitude gifts and work on my gluten-free cooking repertoire. But there are times when I need the internet: days when I forget to write out a recipe for dinner and am torn between breaking my rule or eating rice pasta as punishment. Days when I want to research something online while the bugz play nicely. Days when I just want to veg a little because I’ve been so good!!

Ugh.

And then the weekend comes and I am free to be online as much as I want, and do you know what?? I don’t want to blog! I want to go out and do things and stay away from my house and be adventurous and watch movies and cook and clean and anything but blog. It’s like shopping: you always find something when you don’t have the money, and the second your bank account is full, there’s nothing in sight.

Sigh.

But it’s good. I’ve broken the habit. I still physically flip my phone on, but it’s less automatic than it was. I’m not concerned with what’s going on in the world – it can wait, and if it can’t wait until 7pm then it really doesn’t matter that much. I can still organize play dates and stay on top of who’s had their babies ;) With 4 days left in March, I’m happy with what I’ve done.

One thing is certain: I need my computer during the day. There are things that need to be done that can’t be accomplished in the 2 hours between bugz’ bedtime and my bedtime. As a compromise, I am buying a small desk for our living room so that I can be out in the open and still get my work done while they’re playing, instead of harping at them to leave my office. I can get photo prints ordered online, do my banking, etc and maybe even blog!

So even though this post is breaking the fast, I’m proud of myself. I was a full-on internet junkie, and now I’ve learned to live without it. I’ll probably still keep my cell data turned off at home – after all, I have an iPad and iMac, and the whole reason I don’t have a laptop is so that I can be present and able to stand up with a moment’s notice :)

Four days from finish, this mission was successful. Now I’m logging off until I finish teaching tonight, and you won’t see me breaking the fast until the week is done!

Ciao!

Finding my voice

Posted on by
8

I spent the past weekend at the first blog voice of the West:

I’ve had friends and family ask me for the past 4 years why I blog. This is a change from the beginning of this humble journal, when I first had to explain what a blog was! This weekend’s events were a refreshing change in the cadence of the question. It shifted from the normal,

“WHY do you blog??”

to

“Why DO you blog??”

When I first started typing on that May day back in 2008, I was a new mom to 2-month old preemie twins. I was barely a year out of college, and hadn’t even celebrated my first wedding anniversary! To say that I was trapped in a land of transition was the understatement of my life.

Preemie twins

I needed a place to recapture the therapeutic calm that writing provided me in my adolescent. I needed somewhere to be accountable to my goals; after all, every sane person decides that they need to fulfill a lifetime of experiences in just over 3 years while they’re nursing their babies one night, right??

I needed to find out who I was! I was not-quite-27 years old, and had just had every area of my life change in less that 12 months!

So here I was, armed with a keyboard and a lot of free time. I wrote. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote. I wrote about nothing, and I wrote about something. I wrote about the good, the bad, and the ugly. I wrote about heartbreaking decisions, and about the sheer ridiculous awesome that is twin parenting.

Somewhere along the way, I became MagzD…I became Me.

who is magzd?

I became a woman who loves her family fiercely, who learned to cook, who tried to garden. I became a socially-conscious person, and a passionate fitness professional.

I journeyed through uncharted territories, falling back onto my writing as a means of decompressing my mind and using my words to help shape my decisions. The characters that spilled out of my fingertips became my sounding board: I could look back on them and see if I really was on the right path in my life, or if I needed to change course.

I became the editor of my own life.

MagzD started as a nickname. Then it became a domain and a twitter handle. Then, one day I woke up and realized it was me.

Through this crazy social media platform, I had found my voice. For the first time since high school, I felt like I had an identity. Someone could read my writing and feel as though they knew me. With every tweet-up and new friend, this becomes more and more apparent to me. I’ve lost the fear of introducing myself. Blogging has helped break the first awkward moments of introduction, and instead provided me with an instant connection:

I am MagzD. This is my life.

This is who I am. The voice in my head as I typed out words for 4 years became the voice that I spoke with in the real world. The laughter, the cadence, the inflection. @kimpagegluckie asked us in one session if our blogs reflected our voices. My blog does, but only because it helped me to find that voice in the first place.

So why DO I blog?

Because this blog is who I am, and I will never cease to be me.