the city that never sleeps. part one

I experienced and discovered many, many things while in New York and I would love to share everything about my trip (without being too extensive with details and, in turn, getting boring). Because I spent my time in the City That Never Sleeps, I did experience and do, well, a lot. Therefore I will be talking a lot more than the photos I have due to the more "experiencing" aspect of my trip rather than the picture taking.

Day one: arriving in the Big Apple, we ran around town with our suitcases (a mistake I never want to make again), got off the wrong side of our stop to the apartment we were staying in and had to trek up a giant hill and once in the apartment complex, struggling up six flights of stairs with said luggage. 

Day two: Kelcey and I had brunch with the friends we were staying with. Sadly no photos of how incredible this granola greek and frozen yogurt combo was or with our friends for that matter..Sorry Caleb and Carly :( ! We then explored the High Line, a park that was built on an old train rail viewing the gorgeous city. There are so many beautiful and interesting people to see and so many breathtaking views that it gets pretty overwhelming to soak in all at once. We walked along Battery Park and simply enjoyed the beautiful spring-like day. Later on, we had our Keigwin orientation for the intensive for the eventful week we had ahead of us. I met so many incredibly friendly people which got me even more excited to begin the week full of dancing! In the evening following our orientation, we watched the Tony Awards in Times Square. It was a wonderful experience, especially compared to typically watching the awards sitting on my couch in front of the television at home.

Day three through seven: Keigwin intensive! I learned so incredibly much over the course of this week. I made many new connections and new friends from all over the country and have the time of my life exploring and learning with the company. Everyday we had class with a different company member each morning, then my group learned Runaway from Keigwin + Company's repertoire next. After our lunch break we then made a new dance with the phenomenal Larry Keigwin himself. Seeing the way he creates and his unique creative process was so interesting to me and definitely gave me perspective and ideas to my own choreographic process. We then had a class entitled "tuning" which was getting us all improving and working into our personal style and not getting stuck in a rut of the same movements while improving. On Friday evening, we had a performance of all we did over the course of the week which included each group's rep and the new dance made. It truly was an amazing experience and what a brilliant way to spend my first time in New York. 

the beautiful new york city

I spent last week in New York for my first, and certainly not last time with one of my closest friends from school. I don't even know where to begin with how incredible of a place it is. The trip was an array of multiple serendipitous/destiny moments. It all started in the airplane. Prior to proceeding to land at the LGA airport, I looked intently out the window, anticipating seeing the big city but I didn't see much of a sign of more than some fields and clouds. We then started descending further through the clouds and it all became a white out for a moment until suddenly, the clouds parted and there it was, a semi-aerial view of New York City. It was such a splendid, movie-like moment, it was brilliant! There were many other amazing moments such as that, but I will leave more of the specifics for a soon-to-be post. (I really just wanted to get back to posting again since I've been out of town and without a computer for the last two weeks essentially.)

As astounding of a trip I had, I am a tad disappointed with the lack of photos I took (and lack of perspective and thought put into them). I was as giddy and overwhelmed as a child and simply used my camera for point and shoot whilst walking the streets of the city as rushed and speedy as the rest of the New Yorkers. I am still, even now that I am back at home, overwhelmed and in awe of everything I experienced this week and I am still taking it all in, so my apologies for my scatterbrained-ness.

These photos are some of the snaps I got from exploring around the city, which was one of our favorite pastimes when we weren't dancing all day. This trip in particular was spectacular because I didn't feel like a tourist doing all kinds of crazy touristy things (besides being that tourist carrying around the giant camera snapping photos of everything). Rather, my time spent in New York felt more of a sneak peak of a lifestyle there. Because we were staying with friends who are recent locals of New York and the dancing from 9-5 each and everyday, it made it seem like we lived in the city and were going to work and simply exist like everyone else (amongst the rest of the tourists). But like I said, I'll leave the details and epiphanies if you will for a later post.

many thoughts

Lately I've had many thoughts. Some randomly profound, others..well just random. I figured why not share them? 

Random thought #1. Living a healthy lifestyle.

I do plan to elaborate on this more when I explore more ideas of what exactly this is for me. To name a few things that I am improving on are: Drinking plenty of water every day (included in this is peeing, like all the time), getting an earlier start in the mornings, putting things away where they belong and having a designated spot for everything (this means getting rid of everything that doesn't have a spot or find one--my greatest task...), taking time for myself out of every day--whether it be taking a walk, a nap, doodle time, reading a book, just thought provoking time, anything!

It's funny because one of my degree required classes, one of which the student gets to pick from a number (a large number) of various classes. What I chose for one of my classes was Lifestyle Enhancement. So we shall see what I get from that class too!

Random thought #2. Putting yourself out there.

This kind of piggybacks off of lifestyle enhancement, if you will. I'm learning to simply smile at everyone, because why not? It could possibly make someone's day, strike up conversation, who knows even a new friendship. I'm getting past the awkwardness of people staring blankly or rudely at me when I smile at them just to smile. But the smiles I receive in return far outweigh the awkward frowny people. Plus, people are so much prettier when wearing a smile.

Random thought #3. I leave for my first trip to New York City tomorrow afternoon.

 I'm fairly calm for it being tomorrow, that only means one thing: the feeling hasn't hit me just yet. 

Random thought #4. I was procrastinating on my packing for next week and was scrolling through Facebook and came across an awesome status update: 

"Just show up, start and stay in the room. Let go of the need for a specific result. Just be and enjoy the process. The results will be better than you could have planned." -Kyle Cease, motivational speaker.

These words were perfect to hear just before my trip to New York for a dance intensive. I find myself comparing to others and what I can't do, when I simply need to bask in the process, the progress, the improvement from day to day. These are the times that I feel that I truly can be selfish, when it comes to my own progress.

Oh and p.s. Hannah and I spent a lovely day at the park yesterday. By now, we probably look like a couple with how often we hang. We just really like learning about my camera and talking to each other and being friends, that kind of stuff.

DIY earring holder

 

While cleaning my room today, I got a tad bored (or distracted, rather) and decided to take a break. As I organized things, I found a square of cork board and figured during my little break I would make an earring holder out of it. It also doubles as a nice wall hanging which works especially well for my temporary summer room back at my parents house so I can easily take it with me for my room in the house at school.

This may possibly be the most simple DIY to do in the world. 

The materials you need:

Cork board, any size you wish

Thumb tacks and/or straight pins

Some kind of ribbon, twine, rope, anything 

(I used a leather, feather tie thing that I took off of a dress but kept because it was too fun to just pitch, and hey! now it's being put to good use)

I also used a command strip to hold up my baby masterpiece rather than tacking it into the wall and leaving a hole.

 1, 2, 3, simple as that!

the mud house

This afternoon has been very much so an average summer day filled with spring weather. I "slept in" until 9 and piddled around until I left for work. The lovely thing about working for your parents over the summer is that you get free lunches and extremely relaxed, flexible hours. I cannot complain an ounce about this job. Ever. For today's lunch break adventure, we went to one of my all time favorite places to eat. I had the most delightful club sandwich and an iced coffee (my first one in over a week and a half!) They have this incredible outdoor dining area which is always perfect for the kind of weather we had today. I only wish I could relax, sip coffee, and observe all of the beautiful people who stop in this place for lunch.

I'm still exploring many aspects of my DSLR camera, as well as learning to venture out and be comfortable with taking photos of anything, and to not be afraid to take a risk in order to capture the shot I want. I've gotten stuck in a rut of taking photos from the same angle and same perspective; I am trying to ease myself away from being so comfortable.

snip snip

The other day after work, I decided I needed some retail therapy and headed over to the mall. I quickly came to the realization that typical mall stores are not meant for me. As I browsed through a few of the stores, I found that many of the clothes were out of my price range. I also discovered that these days when I go to stores that other people my age go to pants and shorts especially are far too tight for my muscular and not toothpick thin thighs to fit into, too low cut, and overall too skimpy. But when I move up a few sizes to get a more comfortable, less slinky feel, my waist is nowhere near a perfect fit. It's just a huge dilemma and I have found myself wearing the bottoms I love until they are no longer wearable, which brings me back to this situation of the massive search for new bottoms that fit as perfect as the previous pair. I've come to the conclusion that stores like that are no longer for me, the more I wear an entire outfit from a specific store, the more I begin to feel myself fading into "just another person". And that's the last thing I want.

Needless to say, I left the mall empty handed and headed straight to a Salvation Army Thrift Store. I found four items and paid less than twelve dollars. (!) I knew that these articles of clothing would each need a bit of renovation if you will, but that extra work to my clothing always makes each piece more special to me. And by adding your own flare to (cheap) clothes, keeps your personal style beyond fresh; which is something that I admire about those who wear what they want and don't oblige to the "rules of fashion"--whatever in the world those even are. So go to a thrift shop, a Goodwill, a yard sale, anything, enjoy, have fun, shop local!