Zombie Mommy Improves Her Shimmy In Less Than 60 Seconds

I apologize for not posting in a while.  My daughter sometimes has night terrors, which turns me into a one brain celled Zombie Mommy and her into a Cranky Face.  It's hard to string words into coherent sentences when you're suffering from sleep deprivation.  It also makes for a lackluster belly dance practice, but I'm still going strong at 46 days and 1,793 hours.  Which leads me to my promised post about how to improve your shimmy in less than 60 seconds.

Two weeks ago I was making my way through rush hour traffic to a make-up Tribal belly dance class and listening to a traffic report when I became aware of something unusual going on with the traffic ahead of me.  Unusual in the sense that there was a rusty orange little sporty type car HEADED STRAIGHT FOR ME!!  Lucky for me that the left turn lane that I frantically swerved into was empty of other cars and the #$%^!!& sporty car driver flew on by, and fortunately all the other cars behind me were able to get out of his, or her, way as well.  

Fuming, furious, and shaking like a leaf I made it safely to class a few minutes later and shimmied my way into the class room.  I shimmied through the warm-up, the drills, the learning of a few new moves and cues, the improve leading portion of the class, and through the cool down.  

So now I know that the secret to a good shimmy is having the pants scared off of me.  But my advise to you would be to keep up with the practicing.  It's safer and you'll have fewer gray hairs for it.  

P.S.  Later that night I checked the local news reports and didn't see anything about an accident caused by a deranged driver in a rusty orange car, so I'm hoping the idiot either removed himself from the road or the police did. 

How Am I Doing?

I'm doing just great!  I've been dancing for 35 days and 1192 hours.  I like seeing those hours add up, and hopefully, so do you.  I mean, you all know I've committed myself to 365 days of dancing so I thought I'd show the hours I've danced, too.  

So far I've been dividing my time between class & troupe "homework," videos, on-line video drills, and occasionally breaking my practice into 3 10 minute sessions.

When I'm facing a publishing deadline, or am having a day like today when I have the attention span of a goldfish, those little bites of belly dance come in super handy.

Getting back to those dancing hours;  plan on seeing them increase dramatically over the next few months.  The fearless leader of my troupe, The Black Opals, has called for extra rehearsals on Sundays and Wednesdays to teach us some Persian dances that we'll be performing in March and April.  I'll keep you posted as to some of those dates. 

I'm excited, and a bit scared, when it comes to learning these new dances.  As a classically trained dancer with decades of experience under my belt, I'm not worried about the technical end of learning something new.  I know I can learn and execute the moves without any problems.  It's the cultural aspects that have me a bit scared since some of the dates we have scheduled are for primarily Iranian audiences.  I'm really, really scared that I'll make some sort of cultural faux pas on the stage.  

And, from what I understand, the authentic Persian costumes we are going to be borrowing are very, very expensive.  *gulp*  

Oh!  And check back in with me in a day or two and I'll tell you how to dramatically improve your shimmy in less than 60 seconds.

 

By golly, I did it!

Today has most definitely been on of "those" days.  I was too wired last night after belly dance class and troupe to settle down to sleep until a little after 1:00 AM.  Round about 3:00, my darling daughter woke up crying, wanting Mommy, and wanting her NOW!!

Most of the time I can sleep just fine with her in bed with me, but this was not one of those times.  She was restless, rolling all over the bed, and taking the blankets with her, so "Goodbye!" to sleep for me.  I won't go into the sad details of how the rest of the early morning hours went, but believe me when I say it wasn't good.  

The end result is that it is now 4:30 in the afternoon Arizona time and I've had roughly 2 to 3 hours of sleep.  

30 minutes of belly dance?  That's just freakin' stupid crazy.  I don't want to do anything!  What's wrong with me?  Why did I sign myself up for this? Someone please hit me with The Stupid Stick!!

But I did it anyway.  I reviewed the hip slide and twist drills from last night's class.  My tantrum is over and I'm a good girl and I deserve a lollipop.  

Take that, sleep deprivation!  Consider yourself bopped on the nose with a zil. 

So that officially makes me 29 days and 932 hours into my challenge.  

What Moves You To Move?

So just what exactly is your motivation behind your commitment to the "365 Days of Belly Dance?"  

Today Lisa Zahiya wrote a blog post about her snow driving adventure and asked "What motivates you?  Does accountability help?"

I say, "Hell, yes!"  Accountability does help.

I've been blogging and posting on FB about my commitment, so just knowing that you all know keeps me motivated.  My troupe mates are also routing for me and I don't want to let them down. 

I don't want to let me down either.

Some other things that are urging me on are the desire to be a better dancer, lose the last of the baby weight I gained about 3 years ago, tone and tighten some of the jiggly bits, and well....to put it bluntly, bragging rights.

But the biggest motivating force in my life is my daughter.  My own mother didn't provide much for me in the way of a role model which makes it over-the-top important for me to be a good role model for her.

So now I'm asking what motivates you?  Does accountability help?



 

   

Just Keep Dancing, Dancing, Dancing!

I am officially 22 days and 656 hours into my 365 Days of Dancing!  WooHOOO!!

And tonight, if luck be with me and my hubby makes it home in time, I'll be making another foray into the world of Tribal style belly dancing.  I've tried Tribal style twice in the past few years and both times came away intensely disappointed.  One studio switched from a superior to an inferior teacher about mid way through the session and the second class was canceled after a few weeks due to lack of participation.  I've heard that the third time is a charm.  We'll see about that.

If you're not interested in a belly dance or a dance related challenge, how about some other these other challenge/commitments?

Jennifer VanBenschoten, beadwork guide for about.com  has committed herself to making one pair of earrings a day for the month of January. 

If earrings aren't your thing what about making one drawing a day like Ken over at Mildly Creative is doing.  Click here to see his set of rules that aren't really rules. 

Into photography?  How about joining the "365 Project" and take one picture a day for a year. 

And finally, if you are of literary bent you can join Script Frenzy and write an entire screen play in April, or set aside the entire month of November for National Novel Writing Month.


Best of wishes in what ever you do!