NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 25 "Terrible Tuesdays"

*Posted May 21st, 2015

Oof today was rough. Not for me, for my man. We're both involved in somewhat stressful volunteer activities, and today was as frustrating as it gets for Adam.

It's hard going through tough times, but it sucks even worse to see your loved one suffering because there's only so much within one's power to help them.

But we just keep trucking on, knowing that there's an END in sight. (specifically, when I step down as GPP pres, and Adam steps down as the magazine editor, next year...)

Short post for today.
#justkeepswimming

A

credit: tumblrrrr

SQUATS: I did 40 again at work, and then posted late blog posts all night long. O.o
SPLITS: Sigh. No. Am I giving this up??? NOT YET.
BOOKS: I'm making progress in Dubliners again, reading at work during breaks. I'm on page 120/176
WATER: My water consumption has fallen off! :/ I only get thru my water bottle one time, it seems. Plus 2 cups of tea. Must. Drink. More........

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 23 "I Woke Up Like This"

*EDIT: It's March 2015 now, and it's amazing how much my morning routine has changed since this post was written. Perhaps I'll write a new one later this year, but for now, here's what things were last November...*

I read this article recently, and felt refreshed. Everyone - every woman, every man - has a different routine, different goals, different way of greeting the day.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/11/read-all-of-the-cuts-pretty-hurts-stories.html

So I did my own version. Thanks Adam for the help! :)

NOV 2014: I wake up at 7 or 7:30, depending on how late I went to bed.

NOV 2014: Some days I feel pretty, some days I don't.

I usually start my routine with moisturizer (Neutrogena)... unless I forget.

If I have a special occasion, or just want to feel pretty, I'll put on concealer and mascara. On super special occasions I'll do eyeliner and eye shadow. 

I dress in lots of browns and greens and blacks, and I like clothes that are comfortable but fitted.

My "Aunt" Patricia said that she always makes her bed in the mornings, to start her day right, and I try to always make my bed before leaving the house - it makes everything look nicer, automatically

Adam has to leave the house before me, so I kiss him goodbye first

Dressing warmly already - but I'm a wimp ^^

"You're beautiful as you feel." - Carole King

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 30 "Not really the end"

It's now officially the end of November, in most parts of the world, and thus technically the end of NaBloPoMo. I have SEVEN partially finished blog drafts in my account, however, and I plan on finishing them up as I have time, and posting them retroactively.

I hate that I didn't "complete" the challenges I set out, but I'm not being too hard on myself, because GOOD GRIEF I had a lot to do this month! :D

Thanks to those of you who've been following and reading and encouraging me as I write. I can't remember now how I ever imagined that I would have time for this project this month.... "What was I thinking??"

Squats: I am going to jump back on the squats wagon for December!
Splits: I'm letting go of this goal for now. ㅠㅠ
Books: I'm so close to done with Dubliners! I'm on the last (longest) story, "The Dead" with only 30 pages to go. It's been a mixed bag for me: some of them really touched nerves, and some of them felt empty. I really do think it would make a glorious difference to have it read/heard in an Irish accent.
Water: Drinking more water is a lifestyle change I want to hang on to, so I'm going to keep at it, til death do us part. :)

CARPE DIEM, FRIENDS.

p.s. stay posted! my post-NaBloPoMo posts will be posted poste-haste! ;)

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 21 "I'm back!"

Finally! F I N A L L Y...

I'm feeling better. I'm making bloggy-blogging happen. I'm back on the Squats n Splits n Books train, and building up steam slowly. 

I'm so relieved. Missing days was really quite sad for me - I'd been looking forward to this month and these challenges, and it made me SANGRY that was failing (see this post for my real thoughts on personal failure).

Just in time, I'm BACK.

Tomorrow is the Cabaret night, and I'm trying really hard to not be overwhelmed by all the things I'm doing & preparing.

I'm not the only one, either: there is a slew of people running around like headless, confused chickens as we make sure we're prepared to feed and entertain over 100 eager guests. Oh, and seat them. Turns out chairs are important, too. O.o

Imma get back to doing ALL THE THINGS: tonight this includes cutting cheeses, welcoming our buddy Frank to Gwangju, shaving my furry legs, hoping furiously that my costume arrives tomorrow, and attempting to sleep. ...Not in that exact order, either.

TOMORROW'S CABARET!

CARPE DIEM!

SQUATS: I got thru 40 at work!
SPLITS: Did not do!
BOOKS: I read several pages in Dubliners!
WATER: I drank a lot of water! (and tea!)

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 14 "SorryNotSorry"

Oh no.

It's happening.

That icky feeling in the back of my throat.

The paling appetite.

The fatigue....

I'M ON THE BRINK OF GETTING SICK AGAIN.

It can't happen. I won't let it happen. Before starting this year's challenge, I re-read all my blog posts from NaBloPoMo 2013, and I was starting to feel cocky because I was sick TWICE last November, but have been as healthy as a horse so far this month. It's true! Pride doeth go before a falleth.

Something must be done.

Health must be overtaken, with blogging violence, if need be.

Soooo I'm going to pursue my typical emergency sickness evasion maneuvers: drink buckets of liquids (check), eat whatever you want (kinda check - this IS Korea), and sleep as much as is humanly possible. Thus, I leave you, sweet readers... Sad. Bereft. But hopeful that together we will CONQUER this virus and SLAY the bacterial infections and WIN the battle for Anna's healthy body.

Let me also just take a second here to apologize to my husband for canceling date night. It's for your own good, boo. <3 p="">
 Off to bed, I go!

Carpe noctem!

SQUATS: 135, DONE. :'(
SPLITS: Did my 3:10 secs, despite the rush to bed. HA!
BOOKS: Knocked out a lot of reading today, thanks to multiple rides on public transporation, and an enforced 30 minute break of doing nothing (but reading) while I waited for the printing shop to open during my lunch break. 105/176
WATER: I did so good today. So. Good. 4 cups of tea, 2 mugs of warm water, one water bottle and a sprite.

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 13 "Grass-fed"

For almost a whole month now, Adam and I have been making and eating salads for our weekly dinners. But here's the cool thing: we only make them ONCE. You know the annoying part about eating salads - the washing, the peeling, the chopping? I hate doing all that. It's a lot of work, it's messy, and it takes time. So we just do a week's worth of washing, peeling, and chopping all on one night, and the rest of the week take it easy.

Does it sound TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?? It's not. Scout's honor.

I was inspired by my friend Amber's post on instagram, showing a refrigerator stuffed full of mason jar salads:

The revolutionary Instagram itself

                                  

And it turns out, when properly packed, these salads last for a week! So at the beginning of the week, Adam and I shop, and then prepare enough salad containers to last for our whole week. We vary the ingredients, using salmon, tuna, chicken, or other protein to bulk them up and keep them from getting too boring. But the staples are usually the same: homemade balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing on bottom, carrots, cucumbers, and chick peas next, then tomatoes, egg, olives, nuts, and finally the lettuce on top.

Doesn't have to be a mason jar - any airtight container will do!

The first night of prep took almost 3 hours.... O.o

Assembly line

Stuffed salad jars!

Delicious finished product

Amazingly, we aren't sick of salads yet. (knock on wood) Though variations are really important. Especially when I sometimes eat 2 salads in one day. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm actually in heaven - I love me some nommy salads and a decent salad is super difficult to find in Korea. We'll stick to it for as long as we still enjoy it. Here's hoping it's a nice looooooooong time!

Carpe cucumber, chick pea, and carrot.

SQUATS: 130, DONE. Ack, when did the number get so high??

SPLITS: 3 mins on each leg! Boy, do joints get creaky from staying in one stretch so long...

BOOKS: I'm reading while I do my splits, now, too. Page 52/179. Progress!

WATER: The warm water helped. Will continue. Almost 2 fulls bottles today!

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 12 "NEWS FLASH"

Attention world: my husband's famous!

I was pulled from my beauty sleep this morning by a very agitated husband. "I'm drawing a wintersuit in Panama," he said, before dashing out of the house early.

Turns out I was half asleep and what he actually said was "I'm doing an interview for Canada." Which at 7am makes about the same amount of sense.

He was interviewed at 9:30 this morning by CTV Television Network, and his interview can be found HERE! Click on the 2nd video on the right, titled "CTV News Channel: Some wanted tougher sentences" with Adam's mug right on it.

The subject matter is somber - the tragic Sewol sinking trials - but the interviewee is extremely handsome and intelligent. AND married to moi.

Tomorrow is the Korean national high school SAT test, so I get to go in to work late (10am, wheee) and Adam has the whole day off. To celebrate, I'm gracing the world with that link to my husband's interview plus the following impressive screenshots, and calling it a night. Cheers!

Lookin' fine

Lookin' legit

Lookin' smart

Carpe diem!

SQUATS: rest day, halle-fricken-lujah. Though I did 30 squats this morning before I remembered... SMH. And then I had Zumba tonight, so it felt not-so-much like a rest day. :'(
SPLITS: 2:50 on each leg
BOOKS: I'm on page 37/176! Finished "After the Race" on the subway today.
WATER: I'm still doing horribly at this. I think I need to start with warm water in the mornings, because it's been too chilly to force myself to drink cold water. Tomorrow: Warm water!

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 11 "Up where the air is clear..."

One of the other numerous changes that this year has brought about is that in February, we moved to a new apartment. Actually, we technically moved into our first Korean apartment. Despite living in two other abodes since 2012, we have never actually lived in a proper Korean apartment. We lived in "two-rooms", which are tiny 4-story boxes with terrible insulation and perfect mold culture conditions and barely enough space for 1 person. But we actually never imagined living in the legit, high-rise apartment complexes that are so ubiquitous across the landscapes of Korea.

This is because you have to have 10s of thousands of dollars to pay something called "Key money," which is a massive deposit that most foreigners couldn't even dream of affording.

However. We got lucky. While looking for an apartment that was closer to my then-new job, we stumbled onto a gem: a 17th-floor, 2 bedroom, spacious apartment with a key money price that we could afford, and rent that's well below our housing allowance. How could we resist?

Ours is circled up there: middle right, second from top

I love this place. Adam loves it, too.

The extra space means that we can host friends and family (and do, almost every week!), we have an actual KITCHEN with a FULL-SIZED OVEN and a HUMONGOUS FRIDGE* and room left over to work out to our Bob Harper DVDs, when we're so inclined.

*caps-lock used to emphasize items that make us the envy of all our friends. mwahhahah

The almost-best part of this lovely little home is that is also comes with a bathtub. A BATHTUB. For ESL teachers in Korea, this is almost unheard-of. About 5 minutes ago, I exited an hour-long bathing excursion, fueled by sore muscles (ugh, squats....) and Lush bubble bath and Gilmore Girls. 'Twas glorious.

But even if the bathtub hadn't been the most exciting complete selling point, I think we would have still taken it. Because the absolute best thing about this apartment is the view. From the 17th floor, we have the perspective of the clouds. We have bedroom windows that are warmed by the morning sun, and a wall of windows that look out upon Mount Mudeung, the biggest mountain in Gwangju. She's a beautiful mountain range.

                                            

                                             

                                             

                                             

I'm crazy about heights. I love being on the highest possible point of wherever I am: mountains, buildings, towers, airplanes, trees... There's a very distinct and intoxicating kind of elation that I experience when I'm high above the ground. With a different perspective, breathing a different layer of air, tracing terrestrial pathways and roadways with my eyes, laying my mental map over the spread of earth below me to get my bearings.

One of the greatest constant joys of this year has been this apartment. I will be sorry to have to leave it in the end.

Carpe diem, enjoy every sunrise while you got 'em.

SQUATS: So sore... but DONE. 110.
SPLITS: 2 mins 40 secs on each leg. DONE.
BOOKS: Chugging along in Dubliners. OH!: Thanks Mom for the new awesome book gift, by the way! I'll be reading it immediately after Gone Girl. <3 p="">WATER: Gah, my weak point. I usually drink 2 cups of tea in the morning at work, and cold water sounds so unappealing when I'm fighting off the chill of the day. So, imma work on this.

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 10 "Aim High"

THE THEATRE, THE THEATRE! VIVA LA VIE BOHEME!

You guys, I get to perform onstage this month. :D The GPP is holding a "Cabaret Dessert Night" fundraiser (to pay for the theater space rental for Proof, our upcoming play) on November 22nd, and I'm so stoked about it. I'm in THREE numbers!

I'll be puppet-acting the role of Roxie Hart from "We Both Reached for the Gun", from Chicago, and my hilarious and talented Hubby will be Billy Flynn:

I'm butchering Hungarian as the Hunyak in "The Cell Block Tango", also from Chicago:

And I'm goofing off as Liza's partner Joel Grey in "Money Money" from Cabaret (the movie):

Photos will be posted after the event, but I just wanted you all to join me in my excitement and nervousness. It's happy nervousness, but nonetheless...

As of today, we already have 41 tickets sold out of 100 possible tickets, which is pretty darn good when you consider that each ticket costs about $20.  !!!!!!

Carpe diem, seize the stage!

SQUATS: 105, DONE.
SPLITS: 2:30 on each leg
BOOKS: I made good progress in Dubliners today! On story #4, Eveline.

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 9 "Strength"

Recently, Adam posed a question to me: who are some female fictional characters that you admire/respect/are a fan of?

We were weirdly stumped for a couple hours, trying to pull up more examples than the obvious (for me, Anne of Green Gables; for Adam, Hermione from Harry Potter).

In Italian, we even share a name!

But then, once we really got in the groove, the names started FLYING: Lyra Belacqua, Lucy Pevensie, Clarice Starling, Princess Cimorene, Aria Stark, Hit-Girl, Ramona Quimbly, Lisbeth Salander, Jane Eyre, Mary Poppins, Maria Von Trapp, Amelie Poulain, Mrs. Frizzle, Chihiro Ogino, Mathilda Lando (played by 12-yr-old Natalie Portman), Hua Mulan, Tiana, Zoe Washburne, Princess Leia, Elizabeth Bennet, and so on. These women are strong, intelligent, brave, honest.

I've been thinking a lot recently about being strong. About being a strong person who is independent, self-sufficient and competent. Who can handle stress and responsibility maturely. Who finds pleasure in giving, but knows when to take and get reprieve.

I feel like this is something I've been getting better and better at. I've taken on several leadership roles with heavy responsibilities, and haven't dropped the ball. (yet) My feelings aren't hurt as easily. I'm able to work through conflicts without bawling just because someone is upset. I have dreams to open my own business, and I actually believe I can make it happen.

In a recent conversation with my mother (Hi mom!), however, I shared my fears that I am losing my compassionate side in the acquisition of strength. My feelings aren't hurt as easily, it's true, but I also seem to be hurting other people's feelings more than ever before - sometimes without even realizing it. I've lost patience for excuses, and I apparently have very little problem with telling someone off if I believe they've acted out of line.

It used to be, the mere idea that someone might be upset at me would set my stomach churning with anxiety. When I was an au pair in Switzerland, I spent the entire year becoming intimately familiar with that sensation, due to a couple of very unhappy and unkind hosts. In retrospect, my experience with Cedric and Marie was an important turning point. I had a choice: It was either 1) accept that there are people on earth who can't and won't be satisfied, and who may dislike you no matter how hard you try to make them love you or, 2) believe that I was an unworthy, deficient, and hypocritical human being, as they would have had me believe.

I chose the former. And my skin grew that much thicker, and my lovely but naive trust in others diminished just that much. I'm not sorry about changing - change is healthy, change is inevitable. But how thick should one's skin be? And isn't there value in sometimes giving others greater credit and trust than you might think they deserve? I don't want to lose my ability to sympathize, I don't want to feel like a detached and unlovable witch.
Adam is my constant reality check, and is always happy to elaborate on my good qualities, to remind me that I'm no true witch. (Thanks, Boo) But... I'd be lying if I said I hadn't felt that way multiple times this year. (Usually after writing a difficult email, or having a tense meeting, or telling someone off!)

In our previous conversation, my wise mother suggested that it's more of a balancing act - finding the line between strength and vulnerability.

I haven't found it yet, but I'm searching. And maybe that's enough for now.

Carpe diem, fellow humans.

Finding strength, freedom

SQUATS: you know what's a bad idea? Forgetting all day about the 100 squats you have to do, and then doing them ALL in the 10 minutes before bed. ...DONE.
SPLITS: Done, 2:10 on each leg.
BOOKS: A brief reading interlude in the taxi on the way to breakfast, and during the tail end of breakfast.
WATER: HA! You thought I'd forgotten about drinking more water? ...Oh, well. You're right.

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 8 "Baby Boss: President"

I didn't win an election, actually. The previous GPP gurus, Travis and Gail, were leaving Korea. They said, "Hey, so we're going back to Canada. We think you should take over the GPP. But if you don't want to that's cool, too, eh. *foot shuffle* But we think you'd do great. So, you know. Eh?"

Ok, ok. They didn't say "eh" that often. :) They were wonderful, though, and the reason the GPP exists at all. I couldn't say no. I couldn't turn down the opportunity to manage a whole theater organization. And in addition, I couldn't resist trying to build on their successes by making the GPP bigger and better than ever.

My vision is to build something permanently intertwined in Gwangju's community. An organization that both Korean and foreign residents turn to for their (amateur) performance hungers and dreams. Something that won't be in danger of vanishing if I neglect to ask someone else to take over for me.

And hoo boy, I think I've done it.

Make a committee of people to share decision-making and responsibilities? CHECK.

One of the earliest meetings of the GPP Players

Start offering workshops that teach performance arts skills to the community? CHECK

Our inaugural Workshop: Stage Movement for Actors

Workshop leader, Kelly

Being "Warriors for your Want"

very well-attended first effort 

Character Workshop, led by Tori and Jamie

Bold and brave workshop volunteer

Hold fundraisers to sponsor shows so we can perform in nicer venues? CHECK

GPP Players gathered goodies from aound the world to auction off for profit

I'm proud of these baskets - put them together myself!

Some happy raffle winners

Our upcoming fundraiser, in which BOTH Adam and myself are performing. Yippee!

Other GPP Players are taking initiative and moving the group forward - Heather and Caitlin started a choir which has regular perforances, and an improv group and dance troupe are also in the works... All in all, EPIC BACK-PATS FOR EVERYONE. And me, too. :)

If I left Korea today, I'd still be proud of this particular legacy, because I don't think the GPP is going anywhere anytime soon. (knock on wood)

Carpe initiative, performers.

SQUATS: rest day! wheee!
SPLITS: Done. 2 mins per leg!
BOOKS: No reading time today, sadly. I'll make up for it tomorrow, a day when I already have a pre-written blog post rrrrready to go.

NaBloPoMo 2014: Day 7 "Baby Boss: The Director"

My previous post about leadership woes was all truth, but only half of it.

I'm planning to go into business for myself in the future. That's a heckuva lot of leadership I'm looking at, and appropriately, it feels like this year has been baby boss boot camp.

I've learned a ridiculous amount of skills in the past 11 months.

 I directed and produced my first ever full-length play. ...In a foreign country. I assembled a team, ran auditions, chose a cast, organized rehearsals, booked a theater, advertised, got the whole play translated and projected as subtitles, painted and decorated our beautiful set, stuck to a budget, and in the end put on a show that I am extremely proud of. Everyone who came had a great time, and were impressed with the production value. I had some amazing people working on this show, and they were my sanity, along with Adam. Because I also had some occasionally frustrating people working on this show, and they regularly tested my patience and afore-mentioned sanity.

My assistant director Heather was my lifeline. I can't imagine putting it on without her.

Opening night!

There were some members of my cast whose unfailing optimism, positive attitudes and hard work were what kept me smiling in rehearsals. And there were some whose insecurities, wretched line memorization skills, and emotional ups and downs kept me on my toes and taught me there are depths of patience previously unreached to Anna-kind. I also got better (somewhat) at recognizing needs, and encouraging my actors in ways that actually made a difference in their performances.

I got better at not taking it personally. I learned new strategies for responding to emotional crises. Problem-solving skills were taken to new heights. I fell in love with theatre all over again. I fell out of love with it, a little, too. I was eating, sleeping, dreaming Rumors (the play), and yet still handled my work life, planned a killer surprise party for my husband, and didn't completely abandon social life outside of the theater. :)

The best part? I found that I was more than strong enough to handle all the work and frustrations and stress. Finding that strength was exhilarating. Like when you sign up for an advanced class, but you're not sure you'll be able to catch up and get a good grade, and then you ace it in the end. Or you try out for something and you're up against a lot of other talent, but you nail it. That kind of exhilaration, but on a subtle, spread-out way.

I'd do it all again, for sure.

One of our early rehearsals

Reahearsing, pre-theater

Laura as Officer Welch

Rachel as Chris Gorman

Joey as Ernie Cusack and Jess as Claire Ganz

Relja as Lenny Ganz (middle left) and Elizabeth as Cookie Cusack (middle right)

Billie as Ken Gorman

Justin as Glenn Cooper and Susie as Cassie Cooper

Lindsay as Officer Pudney and Anissa, our ever-cheerful swing as Myra Brock/Chris Gorman

Hilarity

construction begins

Our all-around handy-man and Lighting Designer Jonty and our amazing Set Designer and Carpenter, Scott

The lovely sound lady, Kate - she had a ridiculous number of cues and nailed them every night

Working hard....

...and hardly working. ^^

director stuff: texting while painting!

Backstage: Why are you looking at your lines, still??

Carpe diem, world!

SQUATS: Done, I'm at 80 already! Woot.
SPLITS: I actually did them today, 1 minute 30 seconds on each leg.
BOOKS: Still reading - finished the first short story in Dubliners, halfway through the second.