Here is a vid from today’s practice:
The music is ‘Never the Same’, used with permission from Rule of 3rds. A great band that split up before their time!The weather was a little bleak but it still was a great day to fly. Beast and I also took at 7.3 mile hike (after friday’s almost 8 mile hike). Sleep now!
Haven’t been posting much lately. I have been shackled to my cube at work. Things have been stressful to say the least. My free time lately has been torn between trapeze and training for the 3day. Trying to log as many miles as possible and flying anytime I can. The flying is coming along, I really love it. There is nothing like the feeling of letting go of the bar, looking at the sky and falling into the net. I just took my turn around out of lines (vid on that coming soon) and I have started to work on an uprise. Unfortunately, I haven’t been taking the cam with me much.
K and I also took an extended weekend trip to San Fran. It was great. We got in late thursday night and walked around the city after getting settled in our downtown hotel. During our walk we happened upon some fire dancers. I really think that is what I want to learn next. The following day we hit the SFMOMA, the City Lights Book Store and China Town. We even stopped into a neighborhood bar and had a drink (something we NEVER do!). It was a great relaxing day but we still managed to walk 4+ miles. The following day started with a trap class at SF Circus Arts, followed by an amazing lunch at the Citrus Club, a walk thru the Haight, hanging in Golden Gate park and a walk to the “other” Ocean Beach. All in all 8 miles and a damn fine day. It all finished with volunteering to be bumped from an overbooked flight which resulted in 8 hours in the airport which oddly enough is long enough to get a pedicure and massage and finish the book you are reading. Of course, volunteering for the bump had it’s own reward, 1st class on the way home and free roundtrip tickets. Pics from the trip: 
Last weekend marked the beginning of my 34th year on this planet. I spent the weekend celebrating my way! We kicked off the weekend with a friday night dinner at our favorite indian joint, Tandoor. Afterwards, we spent the night in playing Magic. We were playing the new Shadowmoor theme decks. We had one game that was so crazy and long we had to leave the cards on the table and pick it up Saturday morning. I got up nice and early Saturday, got in sweats and took the dogs down to dog beach. They ran like fools, chasing and splashing in the water. I really love cold mornings on the beach with the dogs. It is peace and chaos all at once and it is wonderful.
After tubby time for the dogs and a little breakfast it was off to Trapeze High for a some swinging! In fact I spent most of Saturday, Monday and Wednesday of this last week out at the rig. This has become an addiction.
We finished off Saturday with dinner at Kings with my parents and Grandma. On Sunday the weather cleared and K and I took a scenic tour of San Diego at Sunset….from 4000 feet. It was amazing!
So, with all of the craziness at our works lately, Boyfriend and I decided it was time to get out of dodge for the weekend. I have been whining about wanting to see the play Wicked for months and since we only had a weekend, it was off to LA for us! I let K make the arrangements as he always finds cool places to stay (The Avalon in Portland and the City Inn in Denver). He booked us at the Avalon in Beverly Hills, a boutique hotel.So, Friday night we dropped the dogs off with my parents and bombed up to the hills. The hotel was very cool, if not a little snooty. The rooms were very modern. K fell in love there… with the comforter. Really, what happens in the bed when I am not there is really none of my business, lol! We were up early on Saturday with room service for breakfast, a quick card game and then the masseuses arrived. K had arranged for 90 minute deep tissue massages in our room! The massage was amazing! After the massage, it was off to the Pantages theatre to see Wicked! I listened to the audio book while walking over the last several months and loved it. It was really a great story. But, the play was AMAZING! The cast was great and the set and special effects were outstanding. The only issue I had was that the lines were sooooo long for the bathrooms that I didn’t get to go during intermission and was ready for the play to end about 45 minutes before it did.
After the play we made our way over to Venice Beach for our favorite italian resturant, C&O Trattoria. The food is great and the atmosphere is pure chaos. There is no where else like it. Chianti on the honor system, huge portions, and singing waiters and waitresses- now that’s amore! They have these garlic balls that are pure evil, I could have had a whole meal of just thoses- oh wait, I did. And, yes I did have to stop for Rolaids on the way back to the hotel.
Then, we were up early again this morning to run out to Woodland Hills for a trapeze class for me at Richie Gaona’s Flying Trapeze School. The class was a much different vibe than Trapeze High, there were a lot of professional performers and that seemed to cultivate a hard working environment. It was great to try out a different rig and get critiqued by someone new. I was still working on my backend split and caught it twice! I even tried to return to the bar, but not successfully.
As always, I had a great time. And, Richie convinced me to try a layout for the first time as the last trick of the day. Wanna know how it went? Take a look at the video below:
The weekend finished up with a walk around Venice Beach and dinner at NatRaj in Mission Viejo. The traffic was light getting home and our puppies were thrilled to see us. I am beat!
Here are a couple more pics that K took:
I spent most of this weekend in the air. And 1 night this week for that matter. I had a baby shower last weekend so I was only able to trapeze on saturday. Feeling a little short changed, I decided to take off early on tuesday and do a bit of midweek flying. I got to the rig at 3 and flew till about 5:30. Dave and Lindsay were both there to instruct and Lindsay did a bit of flying too. Being the only student was kind of nice and I felt a lot of progress in those 2.5 hours. I started feeling better about my takeoffs and started to feel things clicking in my swing. I continued the progress on Saturday, focusing on swings mostly. 
It was a good day despite the weather. It was over 90 out there and there is not a lot of shade. It was also really dry which really tightens the net and I was bouncing all over the place. There was a catcher at class, Darren. So, I decided to throw a two position split at him, unfortunately I hadn’t practiced them for a while. My first attempt was good, but I wasn’t reaching for him and was moving my arms to my sides so that catch failed. My second attempt was interesting. Somehow I managed to get one arm caught, but not the other. Darren had me by one arm and was able to safely send me to the net. 
Sunday, was even hotter than Saturday was. And, honestly, my hands were a little worse for wear. I did a few swings, then decided I wanted to try a backend split. It’s very similar to the two position split I had been woking on, but requiring a better swing and getting into the position at the back of the swing. I tried 3 times before I was successful. I was so excited on the last one that I didn’t even notice that my hands were starting to resemble hamburger meat. Actually, Heathen wins the prettiest hands competition today. Her rips had rips and they were all bloody. As she said, “she put the gore in gorgeous” today! 
And, Sunday’s class was extra kung-fu special cause my awesome boyfriend came out to brave the heat and took a BUNCH of photos! Big Love and thanx Baby!
I had trapeze class #2 yesterday. Like the first class, it was amazing. Unfortunately, the adrenaline rush was not as prevalent, making things harder. There were 5 people in the class and I was the only non-virgin. So, I got to do a bit of demonstrating. A fact they did not tell me till I was on the platform lining up for a trick! I also learned a new trick, a 2 position split. I struggled with the trick a bit. Partly because it takes a lot of strength to hold, but also because I had 4 seperate teachers all telling me different things. While doing the tricks, I felt sloppy, uncoordinated and way off. However, when I reviewed the video at home that afternoon I realized it looked a lot better and I was a lot closer than I thought. And, I did catch the trick… I really love this sport!