Off To The Races

Friday I got off a little early. It was soooo nice!

Most everyone hit up Celtic Gardens, but I'm not really into that, so I decided to go home because I had some errands I needed to take care of...that I ended up not doing becasue I decided that watching The Vampire Diaries season finale was far more important since I had only watched it once.

B called to see if I wanted to meet up with everyone at the horse races. I figured I might as well because it was almost 6 and I had already caught up on my DVR and it was my gym rest day, so my schedule was clear for the rest of the night. I started to hang up laundry before I went (wayyy over due!) and started to feel flakey, so I pep talked myself and headed to the races.

This was my first time so I was kinda excited. I showed up in time for the first race, found McCall and B, ordered some food, then placed our bets. I won $4.60 on the first race! yessss.

After we ate we went outside to join the rest of the group...just in time for the storm to hit. Rain delay! ugh. While the boys stocked up on beer, we chatted and McCall educated me on hourse races, betting, and her strategy.

We ended up cutting out after the 3rd races because the rain kinda killed the mode so the boys were ready to hit the bars. B and I were ready to head home for movie night, and McCall & Jake had a movie night planned as well. (We tried to convince MC to drop jake off at the bar, then head over to our place with The Vow, but she wanted to hang out with her fiance instead. Who does that?)

The ride home was pretty intense. We were basically driving into the eye of the storm to get to the #fortressinthevalley. Don't worry because we made it...obviously since I am typing this up. We popped in Breaking Dawn because I hadn't even opened it since I got it for Valentines Day. I feel alseep about an hour into it.

*side note: This is the third time I've seen it (maybe 4th?) and I dislike it more and more each time! I'm a huge fan of the books and the other movies (of course there are things that I don't like about each of them, but overall, I love them!), but I really don't like Breaking Dawn. Almost everything just feels wrong. Everything is over the top drama...even the score. And Edward? What's with your hair? I hate it. ick. And the wolf sceen when Jacob declares Alpha? How freaking lame. I literally loled when I watched that in the theater. They shouldn't have altered their voices, it makes me think of Power Rangers (which was totally cool when I was a kid, and I totes own the movie, but not cool in BD). BUT I must give props to the special effects people that made Bella look so ick. That? was perfection. Rant over...until I watch it again and get all fired up again.

Moral of the story: Don't give into your hermit tendencies and you might actually have fun and get to hang with "your true friend" McCall.

Pole 2.2

Jess had given me a pep talk the day before since I was having trouble with the new spins. I think it helped.

We started out our stretching to "Paradise" by Coldplay. I loved that because it had been stuck in my head all day!

We did some floor work: the scorpion, I45 (great name Cierra),and the clam (I may have made up the name, but I'm not sure).

Then onto pole circuits. Cierra debuted her shoes and they were totally cute! They have a pink glittery & rhinestone bow on the toes. And she rocked them!

Progress? I climbed the pole without injuries to my foot! Yay for keeping all of my skin!

We spent a lot of time on the rolly polly and the side winder. I'm getting better, but it's still pretty laughable (or worthy of a few curse words). Tanisha was asking me for help on the spin so she must have thought I was doing a good job...or maybe she just assumed. Luckily I understand what to do, where your hands go, etc, I'm just not good with the execution yet, so I gave her as much advice as I could.

New Spin: The Frogger...which I think might also be the same thing as a front hook. It's easy for my legs to know what they are supposed to do, but it's a little rough on my arms and joint sockets. It's supposed to be done one handed (two hands just feels awkward), but my arms were not giving me a sense of security.

We finally learned the first part of the dance. Within the first couple of bars we get our first taste of improvising. Can I just take a second and mention that I don't like improvising? I'm a routine girl. Can I get a few options, then pick and chose from that, or mix and match? I'm going to have to start taking mental videos of Erica when she's doing her thang (yes, I just said thang) so I will hopefully look...well, not like a disaster.

At the end of class I exchanged numbers with a few of the girls. And with that, I would like to retract my previous statement of how I probably won't make friends in the class, or whatever I had said in my first post of level 1.

I obviously need loads of help still, so I hit up an open pole sesh on Sunday. I love that Erica is always supervising it so I can ask for help when my mind and body are conflicting with what to do. It's crazy to see what the girls in the upper levels are working on. I can't even imagine how I'm going to do inverted things without becoming paralyzed or dying. But hopefully I will.

I am getting better at the rolly polly and side winder...but only on my left side. So I'm almost at a 50% success rate. Yeah, I realize how not impressive that sounds. But I didn't leave and have a cry fest due to my failure after words, so I'll mark that up as a win!

And? I can do the frogger one handed...but only on the right side. Yeah. Erica showed me a pretty cool leg part to add onto the spin that makes me feel super fancy.

Can't wait to see what next Tuesday brings!

And I can't wait to see if she adds in any of my song suggestions. (Boyfriend by J.Biebs anyone?)

WWWTFW

The boys and I were having a friendship fued. I think Croc and Kyle thought I was kidding, but Adam knows me better than that.

To summarize: We used to hang out twice a week, then we took turns being too busy/out of town/other activities, then they started doing things and not inviting me. Basically: my feelings got hurt.

I talked it out with Adam and we are back to BNFL status (best neighbors fo lyfe). So I figured I'd try to schedule some WW time with CK to get us back on track as well. I committed to the plans before they told me that they were going to see The Avengers at 7:15. That's def when I should have pulled my parachute cord...but since I had been giving them a hard time about not hanging out I didn't want to ditch. (Note to future Jes: efff that!). I know I'm probably super lame, but I only want to stay out until 11:30p because I'm always so tired after WWW. Anyway, I invited April and I'm so glad I roped her in but I'm also sorry that she had to suffer the late night.

April and I arrive a little after 10. And guess what? CK are running late. How late? So late that I probably had time to find a Time Turner to go back to that morning and tell myself not to go. They finally show up at 10:40.

Yes. I was less than pleased and it was written all over my face. We danced a few times and at 11:30 April and I said our good byes...when I really wanted to give them the peace flip.

Hopefully we can pull out of this friendship rut and return to what is now referred to as "the glory days when we all got along." haha. But seriously, I just miss hanging out so hopefully we can work a little bit of that back into our lives.

Pole Level 2 - The Journey Continues

After graduating from level 1 it was time to get stoked about level 2. If only I had realized the frustration that came with these new tricks.

Erica sent us an email welcoming us to the next level and telling us we can add her on fb. Heck yeah, this just got serious! Through creeping Erica's recent friend additions I was able to find two girls from class, so you know I added them.

You know how your first day of class you expect to be eased into the new stuff? Yeah, not the case with level 2. Erica showed us the dance, which is good. But then again everything Erica does looks good. I bet she could even work the macarena into her routine and make it look good. She then told us that we are going to learn the two hardest spins that day (OMG) so that we'll have 7 weeks to perfect them. Ok, that's actually a brilliant plan, but very intimidating.

We started with pole circuits which felt weird. I felt like I hadn't done this in forever, even though it had only been a week.

Then started with the new stuff:

• Pole climb. The first time I tried this was last summer when Jess and I took Cardio Pole. I was less than successful. I was wearing tights, and dripping in sweat, so I couldn't get a grip on the pole. It gave me flash backs to the days in PE when we had to climb the rope. I never even made it a foot off the ground. Anyway, I got up the pole with no problem. Cue false sense of security. I'm not saying I make it look good yet, but I made it to the top a few times and the only thing I lost along the way was some skin off of my foot.
• Roley Poley spin. This is where stuff takes a turn for the so hard I may have said some curse words and given my self a pep talk (don't be such a baby. you'll be fine!). You are basically spinning around the pole in fetal position, vertical to the ground. It's just really scary. What if my arms decide they don't want to hold me up? What if I lose grip and die? I can almost do it, but I get scared and spin out of it. I'm trying to convince my lower body to fall in line and stay wrapped around, but it's not having it yet.
• Side Winder spin. Similar to the Roley Poley in that you are wrapped around the pole and vertical, except your arms are more spread out, almost making a V, and once you master it, you will be able to do stuff with your legs. I, however, can't do this one at all! The position of my lower hand being turned pointing down makes it hard for me to hold. For some reason it doesn't want to grip the bar, and my arm gave out on one of my attempts.

I wish I could fast forward to graduation to see if I figure out how to do this or not!

I left class very frustrated. I don't expect to do everything perfect the first time, but I expect to be able to do something that's at elast close. That was not the case today.

Since I obviously need tons of practice, I hit up open pole on Sunday. I think I made partial progress on the roley poley, but I only stayed for 30 min because I was having trouble controlling my frustration levels.

I will def be adding in more upper body and ab workouts (in addition to what I already do) to see if that'll help me be less of a baby.

#emailstoB

From: Jessica

To: Brittany

Subject: OMGG

James Lafferty just instagramed a picture in Austin.

We might be going there after work instead of the movie!

#nathanscottfolyfe

#omoth

#idie

#butnotforreallikedanandkeith

#butfromjessiespanoexcitement

#got2

______________________________________________

From: Brittany

To: Jessica

Subject: RE: OMGG

#ilovehavingyouasmyroomieandbff

#got2

#othfolyfe

#sohungaryforRA

_____________________________________________

From: Jessica

To: Brittany

Subject: RE: OMGG

#needsushiinmymouth

#speeddemon

#buckleupmatil

#rideordie

#highspeedchase

_____________________________________________

From: Brittany

To: Jessica

Subject: RE: OMGG

#iamcomplusivelylaughinginmychairtryingtoholditin

#bribrithinksi'mcraycray

#seatbelts

#dubstep

#lifeinthefastlane

_____________________________________________

From: Brittany

To: Jessica

Subject: RE: OMGG

#changedmyfont

#calibri

#got2

#varietyisthespiceoflyfe

_____________________________________________

From: Jessica
To: Brittany
Subject: RE: OMGG

#fonttwins
#needspeedplaylist
#ormaybejustspeed
#chugredbulldrivefast
#stomachtalking
#letssneakout
#finish5hrenergy
#sugarcrash
#whiledriving
#dead



Yeah...this is what I was talking about.