Groove Back

What have I been up to lately? Oh, you know, finding my fabulousness again.

Sometime around February things began to shift. After many years of not feeling like myself deep down, I was ready to reconnect with ME.

I started painting (something I've wanted to do for-ever), allowing myself the pleasure of creating spontaneous worlds of color. For all the fun of abstract painting, I've also been drawn to the insane technical challenge of representational painting. Still lives and even a portrait. Really what I need to do is practice drawing - learn how to lay a good foundation for the color and volume that come next. I so struggle with lines and perspective. But that challenge is a big part of what keeps me coming back.

I made some ballsy custom jewelry that threw me way outside my comfort zone but also showed me I can be confident in my work. This necklace has 23 repurposed diamonds from my client's mother's wedding band, set in 18k gold in a field of blue enamel. Technically this was a major challenge, but I did it!

I decided it was high time to get the tattoo I'd been thinking about for the last few years, and now have my personal map on my back. It's a mash-up of the places that are/were home: Casa Cali, Maputo, Austin, Albuquerque, Rio, Peci (Italy). Six dots, lots of geography, lots of living.

I also cleaned up my eating and drinking habits and lost 10+ pounds in 3 months. What was the trick? An app called MyFitnessPal where you can log foods and exercise. Well, that and finally dealing with some emotional/personal stuff that I'd been desperately avoiding for the past ten years or so. Ten and ten. Lots of weighty stuff. Ha, ha.

I've been going to Hipline (the dance studio in Oakland I love so much) a lot, as usual. And doing pilates, and running. And I even started swimming at the Plunge (lovely pool by our house) on Tuesdays at 6:15am. I feel so good, I'm on my way to a six-pack, and my thigh-waist proportions are less drastic which means I can wear pants again without feeling like I'm being squeezed to death.

Speaking of, I recently held a snake for the first time (well, the tail end of my friend Emi's ball python) but even so - major phobia overcoming right there! I thought I'd be brave enough to hold the whole snake, even wrap it around my neck, but there was no way that was going to happen. I was pretty proud of getting this far given my history.

It's good to be back.

An Organizer at Heart

The grand paper calendar. I love this format.

It's no secret that I adore planning. It's like comfort food. Soothing, reassuring, makes me feel like all is right in the world.

I've used a paper calendar since high school and it works really well for me, especially this vertical format where every day of the week has the same layout. It drives me nuts when calendars will treat Saturday and Sunday as half-columns, or double them up. I also really like the to-do list at the side.

Being self-employed, the reality is that each of my days could potentially be a rest day or a work day. I do try to maintain a consistent schedule, and after several months of unpredictable hours and random (and urgent!) tasks, I've finally settled into something that feels right.

Here's how it goes:

• Mondays I start the day with some accounting and emails, then work in my studio for a couple of hours. I go to pilates at 2pm with Rico, then do another studio session until sunset.
• Tuesdays I focus on exercise in the morning (ideally a combo of strength training and cardio), then work in my studio until sunset.
• Wednesdays are studio and pilates, and every other week I get a super relaxing shiatsu massage and go to gallery openings at CCA.
• Thursdays I work in the showroom all day and can usually put a good dent in computer work and graphic design while I am there.
• Fridays I work out in the morning, then work in the showroom.
• Saturdays I have flex time in the morning that I can use for whatever needs attention, then I work in the showroom.
• Sundays I run with my running partner H., then sunbathe, go to studio, and have the rest of the day off (or, if needed, can play catch up).

Over the years I've figured out a balance of activities that makes me feel happy, gets the work done, and allows for the feeling of spontaneity even within such a controlled schedule. I plan my activities, obligations, studio sessions, and workouts way in advance - sometimes up to two months. I like to know what lies ahead, what I need to be prepared for, when I can let my hair down.

I track two main things each week to help keep me on track: # of times I exercise in a week, and the # of times I make it to my studio (computer work, photography, and graphic design don't count - it has to be metalsmithing). I have a little code to mark each day, and I tally everything in the corner of each page at the end of the week.

My minimum goal is 4x exercise and 3x studio, my ideal goal is 5-6x exercise and 4x studio. It really works. If I hit those numbers, somehow the rest falls into place pretty well.

So far in 2014 I've exercised 63 times (average of 5.2x per week, so totally on track there) and worked in my studio 35 days (average of 2.9 days per week, so just below my minimum goal).

I love tracking everything, and especially love looking back. I often struggle to recognize the things I've accomplished (the pending items on the to-do list usually stand out more than the ones I've crossed off) and this is a nice, empirical, undeniable way to appreciate my efforts.

Are you a planner? Do you keep a paper calendar? What (if anything) do you keep track of over time?

We All Have the Running Bug

On Saturday my mom, Rico and I did our first race. It was 4 miles on a hilly trail, and we all did exceedingly well for our age divisions. We were accompanied by my friend H, who is my running buddy and in the same program at school with me, my cousin A, and his friend J. They all have done races before (including my cousin who has done the NY Marathon for Team Fox!) so not surprisingly they did really well, too.

We are training up to a 10k on October 1st and are all giddy about our running plans.

Here's a few photos from the 4 mile race. Note the gigantic smiles on everyone's faces!

Feira Recovery

Santo Cristo. I'm worn out from the crafts fair, though I only did 4 1/2 of the 6 days myself since my friend A. was able to stand in for me during the time I had to be at the office. Still, I'm exhausted. My feet and legs hurt. I have a lot of materials to organize and tallying up to do. I am, however, basking in a pleasant glow of satisfaction that the fair went exceptionally well. I enjoyed good sales, and made several really interesting contacts. I am already looking forward to participating in the December fair (should I be selected again by the jury).

So, other than mad jewelry-making and super-intense selling, what have I been up to lately?

- 7:15am private pilates classes in our living room with a trainer who is an ex-olympic athlete from Ecuador. She is brutal, but in the best possible way. I've learned that I am nearly incapable of sitting up straight. The position I swore had my spine like a plank is apparently still curved and lacking. I'm humbled each time we have our classes by how inflexible my body has become.

- Enjoying an unexpected but very welcome mid-term houseguest. She is a volunteer here in Maputo for the next 6 months, and her homestay experience didn't quite go as planned. There were some safety issues that came up, and Rico and I gladly took her in when it became apparent that the organization that runs her volunteership was not interested in really helping, aside from the fact that they failed to recognize the very serious and real nature of the situation at hand. It's nice to have company, especially since Rico and I are going out of town for a few weeks and are glad to have a housesitter.

- We leave on Friday for a trip to Europe to visit my grandmother in Italy and Rico's sister and her family in Austria. I'm super excited. Airfare from Maputo to Joburg is ridiculously expensive right now (think US$450 per person for a 45-minute flight), so we're driving to South Africa to catch our flight. It should be about 6 or 7 hours, including the border. We'll leave our car at long-term parking in Joburg, which is a fraction of the cost of flying, even including gasoline.

- I'm looking forward to leaving my current consulting assignment at Big International Company. It's time to do something I find challenging as opposed to pushing paper and harrassing other people to properly do their jobs so I can, in turn, do mine. Viva October 1st when I start my new position. More on that later, once I've actually signed the contract, so that I don't inadvertently jinx myself.

- I am tired. Haven't been sleeping so well lately, mostly because our mattress has slowly morphed into the same unfortunate crater-shape we had to contend with in Chimoio. Other contributing factors are cats and mosquitoes. I'm looking forward to good sleep in the European fall weather for a few weeks.

- And on that note, time for bed. I've just finished my celebratory snifter of Amarula to mark the end of a successful fair, and Rico is yawning across the room. Boa noite!

We Did It

We joined the gym. It isn't nearly as nice as our old gym, but it will do.

I had the mandatory fitness exam and wanted to cry afterwards. Not only was their scale off, so was their tape measure, making me squatter and fatter than I'd previously imagined. From the ancient look of their measuring equipment, I took it with a grain of salt, but still had to verify my previous assumptions once at home using our scale and Rico's tape measure from his toolbox. I feel slightly better now that I know for a fact the numbers from the gym were off, but still mildly sick with the realization that I've nonetheless got a ways to go to get to my goal.

We ended up not working out this evening because the gym was ridiculously full and they have no functional system for kicking people off the treadmills/ellipticals/bikes after 30 minutes. We were looking at a potentially veeeery long wait for some cardio, so we came home with plans to go for workout #1 at 7am tomorrow.

Sigh...