Home, Sweet Home

So I've been in Madison a little over a week now. My apartment is still not entirely put together, but it's getting there. I still have a bunch of boxes to store or throw out, my bed is not exactly cooperating with me trying to fix it, and I could really use some more storage space but I really like my apartment. I hung up my first real bit of art. I bought it at Gallery ABBA in Beloit sophomore year but have never had room for it before. I'm super happy about it. Once things are in order it will be in the pictures I post, hopefully.

I'm enjoying being alone a lot more than I thought. Part of that might be that I'm still getting used to having the internet all the time, and part of that is that How I Met Your Mother is all available on Netflix, so I spend a lot of time doing that, but I've also been starting on doing other things I set out to at the beginning of the year. I've started my NaNo story over and have decided to do it in January instead of November. I'm not sure I'm writing fast enough to actually get it done, but I've been writing again which was the only goal. I've been working on my dad's scarf, I've cooked a little, and most importantly, I started a new hobby.

This weekend I researched places I could start pole dancing up here. I've been doing pole dancing in Rockford with my former roommate for a couple of months (not stripper pole dancing, the athletic, Cirque du Soleil kind, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZlD2Yt3t7A&feature=related ) and I liked it so I wanted to keep going. I found two places, both are very expensive, one of them has very strict six-week classes and seems a bit like the National Karate of pole dancing places. The other one, I found out, was started by someone who used to do it at the first place. I went there anyway, just to try it out. I went to a Level 2 class because my last place didn't have levels and I just guessed. As we were stretching the other girls in the class said they'd been going for two years and three years, respectively. I said two months, and I hadn't done it in a month. They used stationary poles, I'd only ever used spinning ones. I don't want to sound conceited, I really don't, but this is the truth. I was better at it than the other girls. I'd been doing it a fraction of the time and I wasn't used to the type of pole they used but I got the combinations faster, even though I'd never done any of the moves before and they'd already been working on the combinations. It was fun and certainly an ego boost but I don't know if I want to take lessons at a place where those are the people who have been doing it for years. Maybe the Level 3 class (which she said I could go to after a couple more weeks at Level 2) would be better, but it was still pretty expensive and I missed rotating poles.

So I decided to scrap pole dancing, at least for now, and go to another dance studio I found, only a few blocks away from my house and they do all sorts of different types of dance with sort of a "drop in and have fun" mentality. They did have pole dancing listed but it seemed like much more of a stripper kind of pole. Anyway, last night I went to my very first hip-hop class, and more than that it's the first time that I picked up a hobby without tagging along with a friend or family member or being given lessons by my parents. I found a place I wanted to try out and went by myself. It didn't even really occur to me that that was a big step until afterwards. Anyway, hip-hop was super fun and afterwards I decided to stay for the pole class. They had two stationary and one spinning pole, not as nice or as fast as the ones at my old place but still! For the most part it was more floor/stripper-type-dancing oriented but I talked to the teacher and told her about my experience and she basically let me and two other girls who were more experienced hang out together on the spinning pole and try to teach each other things. Occasionally she would come over or check on us, make sure we weren't killing ourselves or show us something cool, but basically we had free rein and it was awesome. Today I am incredibly sore because between the two classes I basically danced for two and a half hours straight, but I'm probably going back tonight for bellydance. It turns out that I just adore dancing and since I have a two-week pass and no job...well this is basically what I'll be doing for the next two weeks.

Oh! Birthday! I forgot to tell you about my birthday. It was lovely. A little low-key but filled with friends and delicious food (Maggie introduced me to a lovely place called the Weary Traveler on Willy Street and then we discovered that the delicious sushi place on State delivers...so that's going to be a problem for my wallet) and board games, plus it was warm enough that I walked around all day without a coat on and climbed a tree which has never ever happened on my birthday. It was pretty great. Plus, Mike gave me an adorable tiny fat narwhal, and my parents gave me some very beautiful flowers that are making my apartment much more homey right now.

Things on the job front are a little weird right now. I know I shouldn't just count on getting this Epic job, especially because it's another week and a half before I even have my interview, but I have my hopes really high and I really want it, plus I don't know what else to apply for and I hate doing applications. I keep looking at environmental jobs but I'm really not qualified for any of them or they're not in Madison, or usually both. I really hope this Epic job works out, but in the meantime I should probably actually do application work.

Overall, though, I'm really very happy and I can't complain. Life is good.