You've Come a Long Way, Baby

Forgive me for a little reminiscing this morning.... or afternoon. It's probably already after noon.



I was a rebel and skipped my weekly Pilates class this morning. I wasn't totally deliquent as I decided to attend a ballet class instead. It's not one of my usual classes, but I have taken this class one other time when there was no Pilates class on a sunny Thursday morning. I walked out of that class knowing that I had used all sorts of tiny little muscles in my back that I had forgotten existed.



Today, I was starting to wonder if I had made the right decision only about 5 minutes into class. Wow. I'll say that again. Wow. We started the class with a version of a floor barre that she (I'll name drop here for the ballet fans only... "she"is Susan Jaffe) learned in Europe at some point. One would think that doing barre exercises on the floor would actually be easier. You don't have to deal with gravity or balance in the same way. Right? Wrong. As I said, within the first exercise I knew I was moving into foreign ground. My muscles were feeling it before we even finished the first exercises, which were all done sitting up. I can't even begin to explain how difficult it is to sit upright during these deceptively simple exercises. And then it gets worse. You do them lying on your back. Finally, she tells you do lay on your belly and we do the same exercises. Just plies, pointe and flex and some passes. Nothing technically difficult, until she gets you to do every single one perfectly. Ouch. Her whole class was simple yet demanding. She gets you to use your muscles correctly constantly.



2 hours later, as I left the class, feeling sore (a good sore) and wondering how bad it will be later (I still have a jazz class to get through tonight, after parent-teacher conferences), it occurred to me that I could have not done any of this 2 years ago. 2 years ago, my exercise was going to physical therapy. Putting my arms into 5th position, above my head? That would have been impossible. It's all so foreign now. I feel so physically removed from that time.... and I love that! I really have come a very, very long way. I don't see that distance often. I don't give myself enough credit. But I will today. :) And, after Pilates ends in a few weeks, I'll be doing this floor barre routine on at least a weekly basis.



This week was also a return to Cancerville in so many ways. I had my 6 month breast surgeon visit. All was well. Had a full physical this week as well. Good news all around, though I am waiting on blood work. Good news for me. Good news for my sister who has just one more chemo session to go. Not so good news for a friend who learned that her disease has not responded to the treatment she has endured this fall. Plus there are several others I've spoken to or corresponded with this week who are still in the early stages of dealing with cancer. It's too much.



And now for my ads:



Only 10 days left to get the advance ticket sale pricing for the Nutcracker. :)

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and



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Party Girls, Candy Canes and The Nutcracker

I still don't understand why Marie/Clara is so excited to get a nutcracker when all the other girls get American Girl dolls in Victorian era clothing. But I do understand that Rachel is beyond excited to be appearing in her third Nutcracker.

She had the same two roles in her first two Nutcrackers in 2006 and 2007. She played a bon-bon in Act 2 (polichinelle in some productions) and was a party child in Act 1. More specifically, she was a party boy. She was thrilled to be in the party scene the first go round, was OK with it the second go round, but her eye was on the prize the whole time. She truly wanted to be a party girl. In our production, the party girls are a bit older than most of the boys.... at least than the girls who are playing boys. This year, we have a few more boys so there is less of a need for little girls to play boys as well.

So, enter the drama this year. What would our lives be without a little drama now and then? Rachel knew she was too big to be a party boy again. The problem is that she was the smallest of the girls under consideration to be a party girl and almost did not get the role as the smallest costume is still a little big. Fortunately, in the end, she was given the part and all was well with the world.

That brings me to my point in making this entry. If you are local or reasonably close to central NJ and want to see this spectacular in person (and it IS spectacular, with a 98% student cast performing choreography set by world renowned ballerina, Susan Jaffe), you can purchase tickets online at http://www.dancevisionnj.org/buy_nutcracker_tickets . Rachel will be appearing as a Candy Cane (Russian in some productions) on Friday night December 5 at 7 pm and on Sunday afternoon December 7 at 4 pm. She will be a party girl on December 6 Saturday at 7 pm and December 7 Sunday at noon.

Mom, on the other hand, will be back stage this year. So, if you do plan to attend, let us know which performance so we can find you afterwards.

Halloween, revisited

Look at that! 2 posts in one day. I even have a third one floating around my head that might make it from my brain to the keyboard.

We'll see.

In the meantime, here are the various incarnations of Rachel's Halloween costume this year.

The original version, from our annual costume photo shoot on the canal.

Then, we have the version she wore to the school 5th and 6th grade Halloween dance party. We came directly from ballet, so she's actually wearing her ballet uniform leotard. She decided it was too hot and too fussy to wear the wig. Kind of funny how she discovered that cheap wigs are hot and itchy. Of course, she did not listen to me when I told her that in the first place. That's OK. All part of being a teenager. Oh.. that's right.. she's still got 2 years until she is a teenager!!

And here is the version that she actually wore on Halloween. I believe she called herself a "punk fairy" this night. She went to a friend's house to trick or treat. You can't tell in this photo of our yard, but we really don't have many nearby neighbors. Just one. After trick or treating, they were joined by another friend to watch scary movies. They watched "Poltergeists." It was brand new for all of them. :o It must hold up well. Scared the dickens out of Rachel. She had trouble sleeping that night!

Race for the Cure.. a few photos

I know, I know. These are overdue.

I am just not into blogging at the moment, I suppose. But, I did get one single request for these photos, so here they are!

We have Rachel in the T-shirt she and I made. They say "2 Sisters 2 Young 4 This" on the front, in the form of a math equation because , after all, we are a family of math geeks. We made matching shirts for both Lucas and Hannah, but Lucas did not want to put his on and Hannah was not interested in showing hers off.

The only reason this photo was even taken was because a sorority girl asked Beth if she could take her picture for their scrapbook. I remember our sorority keeping a scrapbook back in the day. It's funny. I was wearing the same pink survivor shirt that everyone else was wearing. Yet, when I went up to various booths, I was not recognized as a survivor. You'd think it might have been the hair, but I think no chemo is more common than chemo these days. It could have been the age, but I think I'm looking pretty old these days. Whatever.

Stay tuned for post #2. I have pink Halloween pictures to follow. :)