Anastasia's Birthday

Had a fabulous night celebrating Anastasia's birthday last night. Had Korean BBQ at a place called Chung Ki Wa in Korea town and then went to Akbar for dancing.

Black Metal

Last Sunday, Kelly and I went to see the ambient/black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood. I was reminded of being twelve and listening to tapes of death metal I recorded off of pirate radio. Kelly got us ear plugs which made the evening more enjoyable for me. The one thing I was not looking forward to was my ears ringing the next day. The ear plugs worked - no damage done. My favorite part of the event was all the super dramatic hand gestures the audience made throughout as if casting dark spells.

Holiday Weekend

July 4th weekend turned out to be excellent. Friday night Beth and I went to the LA County Museum of Art. We spent almost four hours there and covered the contemporary art, Japanese pavilion, and the Ahmanson building. Afterwards we ate at the M Cafe-one of our favorite places. Loved the fudge cake I got but it kind of gave me a stomach ache after eating The Big Macro veggie burger and macrobiotic fries. Fabulous!
Saturday, after I went to work at Bodyscape, my friend Roberta and her husband, Victor met me at the Laemmle Playhouse in Pasadena. We saw Moon with Sam Rockwell. It was methodical and suspenseful at times. Sam Rockwell was funny and endearing. Not my favorite movie of the year (Up is still the winner so far) but enjoyable and worth seeing. Then we went to California Pizza Kitchen for a snack and split a goat cheese pizza. Soon after eating, we rushed back over to the theatre and saw Away We Go. It was sweet but took second to Moon for the day.
Sunday Kelly and I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain and rode extreme roller coasters for five hours. It was awesome. We got there around 5 pm and stayed until it closed at 10 pm. The lines got progressively shorter the later into the evening it got giving us time to ride one coaster after another. The Tatsu, which dangles you face down away from the rails the entire time (accepting the loops and spirals in which you face up, down and all around) was my top pick. Second was the Goliath - a smooth enjoyable ride with insanely steep slopes. My least favorite was the X2 in which your head gets knocked around and finally slammed against the headrest at an intensity that makes you think you might just have a concussion. For dinner, I had a roasted cob of corn and Kelly had a turkey leg and we split some fries.
What a great weekend!

Embodiment in Education Intensive

I recently returned from a week long intensive entitled Embodiment in Education: Professional Development for Dance/Movement Educators with Susan Bauer (movingoncenter.org/SomEd.htm). We explored using somatics as a resource for deepening understanding of human anatomy and developing physical awareness through movement and touch. It was an extra special treat because I got to share this time with Pat. It has been at least four years now since we got to spend a good amount of time together and it was great to catch up. Also, I was happily surprised by how well the group of participants fit together. Everyone came from varied backgrounds with an impressive list of experiences and education. The facilitator, Susan, did a great job of sharing her knowledge while still leaving room for everyone to learn from each other. I am very thankful that I went.
Pat and I on the first day:
processing time:
Carol and Qilo:
Kim and Pat being silly with Mr. Bones:
Susan in teacher mode:
Pat and Effie - Supermodels!:
Kim and I randomly wearing matching outfits (it happened the next day, too):
Lunchtime naptime:
Pat, Carol, and Petra lounging:
All of us together on the last day:

Random Cuteness

Haven't spent much time on the computer lately since I've been feeling tired all the time. Not sure if it has to do with allergies, pollution, or just not getting enough sleep. Been working a lot and can't seem to get out of the habit of staying up until 2 or 3 am. Hoping it will pass soon.
Many fun things have happened since our trip to Hawaii that I have not written about. The short list: super fancy dinner at Tavern with Kelly (if you live in LA you must go there at least once), dinner with Beth and Steve at Elf, seeing Miss Coco Peru with Anastasia one weekend and Kimmy the next, lots of vegetarian food outings with Kimmy, a walk in Griffith Park with Kelly and Snoops, saw Beth in Badabing! at Acme with Roberto and Monte, went back to Irish dance class...
Also, we watched our friend Nate's dog Alister for four days - he's a corgi/border collie mix. Too cute!

Snoops
Alister

Kauai Vacation: Day Eight

Our last day in Kauai was my actual birthday. I turned 32 years old. It was an uneventful day that included packing and checking out; breakfast buffet; viewing of a statue commemorating the people who worked the sugar plantations; eating at Bubba's Burgers; shave ice; and driving around Kapaa. Overall it was a fantastic trip. I'm glad we chose to go there again and hope that someday we will go back.

statue of plantation workers from different cultures


shave ice and gross chocolate covered frozen banana

Kauai Vacation: Day Seven

On this day, we went on a boat ride up the Napali Coast. It was an awesome birthday present to me from Kelly. We got a view of the coast of the forbidden island of Malakai and a number of historical landmarks along the west side of Kauai where it is believed to be the first place the Hawaiian people settled. I loved hearing some of the history of the island and seeing where people once lived. It is quite impressive the terrain they had to navigate to make life possible in certain areas. We also got to see missile launching pads on one of the government controlled beaches that is closed to the public. Apparently they do weapons testing there sometimes. It was fun to see some areas we have hiked on before from the ocean. You get a different appreciation for the landscape seeing it from afar rather than hiking right in the middle of it.

We took the morning tour which is 6 1/2 hours and includes continental breakfast, snorkeling, lunch, and drinks. It seemed like a good idea to go the first half of the day so that we would have the rest of the day to do other things. My suggestion to anyone who goes on one of these tours - make sure you are a morning person who loves snorkeling if you choose the morning option. Otherwise, the sunset tour sans snorkeling would be a better choice. We ended up not snorkeling, even though other people did, because the water was quite choppy and the current was strong due to all the recent rain. We did have an excellent time taking in the sights and it was a unique experience; however, the initial check-in time was 7:15 am which meant we woke up at 6 am to be there on time. By the time we got off the boat and back to our hotel we were exhausted and ended up taking a nap for most of the rest of the day light hours (as is evidenced by the lack of any photos for that day after the boat trip). So, our logic for doing the morning tour was a bit faulty.

view from the boat





Kelly watching people snorkel - it didn't look very fun