And

For the grammar geeks out there (Steven), a little story:

There was a farmer who had a business, and thought that a billboard would increase sales of his livestock. So he had a sign made that said "We have pigs and cows for sale." But when he looked at the draft for the sign, he said, "It looks nice, but I'd like to see more space between pigs and and and and and cows."

That's right, and 5 times in a row and it still makes sense. Wow.

The Dancing Wu Li Masters

"Reality" is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we percieve depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we percieve. What we percieve determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we talke to be true is our reality.

We read this in my dance therapy class the other day. It raises some thoughts: can just changing our attitude change the way we deal with life? Are we stuck in our ways because changing any of the above things is super hard? Is this in support of the moral realitivity and absence of absolute truth found in today's postmodern society? Is the teacher of this dance therapy class my mother on alternative psycho-therapy crack? Just some food for thought.

Some stuff

Just some random update-type story things:

~My sister will not be having a baby by inducement this week. They have decide that they will wait until baby Haack #2 decides to arrive on her own.
~Jennica and I are now officially running and lifting. We did both arms and legs last week, along with a couple miles of running, and today ran even farther than usual. If only I could stay away from the grape soda I might see a change.
~I'm in this class where our whole semester is devoted to producing, choreographing, and dancing this one long piece. Today we had our first day of improv to get some movement ideas. This kid in my class is really into non-traditional partnering, and I'm one of his favorite test subjects. So I'm just stading there listening to the music and he runs up and the next thing I know I'm upside down spinning around over his shoulder. Though it was one of the coolest moves I've seen or done in a while, we had a lot of trouble replicating it. Thankfully, we then found a video camera so we could catch cool moments in the future. Later in the improv session, we were working together and he turns himself over and suddenly I've got him completely upside down in the air supported by only little old me. Where I suddenly achieved the strength to lift this 6ft muscular man I have no idea, but it was really cool. We also managed, as a class, to get a girl standing on 2 people's shoulders (this guy and I), and then have her leap off into the other's arms. Sweet stuff.
~I've been crocheting like a mad person lately (I gotta do something with my free time), and I've already finished a baby blanket for one of my siblings kids that are arriving this spring (two new ones, on top of Julie's, sweet!). It's in pretty gender neutral colors, and is cute, and I pretty much invented the design from a picture I saw. It's nice, and cute, and was fun to make. Hopefully the other one will turn out as nice. I just have to start it...
~I learned how to take blood pressures in lab last week, so now I feel like a real student of a health profession. It's really neat.

Randomness = fun :-)

Sorry

The joke was funny for like one minute, but not cool over all. Sorry to those who saw it, especially those who recieve my posts by email. It was kind-of a dare, and it was funny at the time, but not wholly appropriate. So removal has occurred. Here's a math joke to try and make up for it:
Q: What do you get if you divide the cirucmference of a jack-o-lantern by its diameter?
A: Pumpkin Pi!

Fitting for the beginning of fall.

Started

Paula's Grand New York Scheme has been put into play!!! Nothing much has come of it yet, but the first steps have been taken:
I applied to Starbucks. Who knows if I'll actually get it, but at least I wrote all that stuff on the paper they handed me. There are a couple of other locations in town that I could try if this one doesn't work out, but hopefully this will go over well. Even just a couple of hours a week would be great. I'm having this odd desire to open, selling coffee at 6am sounds really nice to me for some reason. The goal of this is to get Starbucks on my resume, so they can help me get a job in the city next year, and some health insurance (they have amazing benefits even for not-full-time workers).
I contacted my exercise physiology professor to help me achieve a more competitive "dancer's body." I'm not fat, by any means, but I can't stand next to a girl who never eats in an audition and look like I should get the part over her. So this guy (who is a swim coach and has years of experience in exercise phys) is going to help me stay healthy and achieve peak performance level. I've got a year to work it out, so it should be pretty good and not like me trying myself and ending up eating nothing but carrots like Angie did in high school.

Doesn't sound like much so far, but the first steps are the hardest. Now I have to find $800 to get laser hair removal...

Changed

I've been in school 1 week so far. I've been in rehearsal a little longer than that. I've been in places where there is lots of available social situations, food, and crochet time. And, I've changed.
In modern yesterday, we did a combination at the end of class. It was very Ray, had counts and the movements kinda fit them. He had cool music that you totally wanted to dance to, and I was pretty much the only one there who got the combo. So we learn it a while, then he just has us do it in groups. And I noticed that I dance completely differently than I did at the end of last year. Though there were counts, I didn't feel like they were a confining box I had to dance inside. Though he gave us specific movements, I felt no real obligation to do them exactly as he had shown them. Though there were other people there who I knew were following me, I didn't put out for them, I just danced because it was a great piece of choreography. It was amazing. Where did I learn to dance like that? Can other people tell that I'm no longer tied down by the things I thought were important in a movement phrase? Does this make me "better" or "worse" or just different?
Today, I wore a leotard. I tend to avoid leotards until I have absolutely nothing else to dance in. It was not a pretty sight. I know that I week ago I looked darn good. You could see my 6-pack emerging, I was running 3 miles a day, I was only eating as much as I really needed. Now, I'm hungry all the time and there always seems to be something to snack on. I have no time to run except in the middle of the blazing sunlight and 85 degrees (I go about a mile and want to die of sun and sweat). My nearly-6-pack is completely gone, buried, lost. How can the clothes that fit a week ago not fit now? Am I really eating that much? Is 4 hours of hard rehearsal not good enough to keep me fit? Ugh.
I am a senior, finished with my chemistry major, and looking at not going right to graduate school. I don't have any heavy science classes, my only gen ed class is a pretty light load and consists mostly of conversations in class. I am dancing a lot, but not doing anything too brain-heavy. I actually have time to read something other than my text books. I have time to take a nap if I want. I dont' have class all in a row from 8:30 to 6 pm. I hardly know what to do with myself. I'll fill it somehow (Starbucks?)...
This year is so different. Yet, I'm the same...Should all this stuff that's not the way I expected it get me down, excited, scared? I need to think about all of this more.

Labor Day Weekend

The first weekend of the school year has come and nearly gone already. Here at Hope, we don't get Labor Day off (something about freshmen going home and never returning), so it was a short weekend. But it was fun, none the less.
The first week of school went by smoothly, as well. I had no energy to be nervous about class, because I was in rehearsal 4 hours a night for Aerial. We set a 16 minute piece in 4 days, which is really intense. Today we got a day off, after 7 straight days of rehearsing, which was really nice. It's back on tomorrow, but this is a great break. My classes seem like they should be pretty easy, at least in relation to the things I've been taking around here. Today I was reading in my textbook about something that I've covered in at least 3 other classes, which really helps keep the studying load down. I like not having to deal with brand-new and incomprehensible topics. Plus, compared to the football players in my classes (PE majors, gotta love kinesiology), I look real smart. So class is good. And I've got these huge breaks in the middle of the day, like 4 hours of no class. I don't know what to do with myself. I could like run or read or not do homework in the middle of the night. It's exciting. Or maybe I'll get a job, that would be good.
This weekend I had my first real 21-year-old time. Last night a bunch of us from the house went out for drinks. It was really fun. When we got home we watched "Be Somebody, or Be Somebody's Fool," an inspirational video with Mr. T. It's super funny, and at 2am after a couple drinks it was even better. Everybody's gotta wear clothes....
So I'm enjoying the year so far. I'm bummed that I have class tomorrow, but it's alright I guess. 2 of the 5 house out-of-town boyfriends are around this weekend, which made me lonely, but I'm getting used to it. Family dinner tonight will be lots of fun with all the extra people around. Hopefully I won't ruin the pasta.

Sorry this was random, outside of grueling rehearsal not tons happened. To make up for it, here's a random picture (isn't he so cute?):