I'm just a girl...

So one of those huge decisions was taken out of my hands and is now left up to a total stranger I have never met. The short version is I was going to have a procedure done that has an 8 week healing time. It doesn't have to be done now, it can wait until next year. But the procedure means I can't dance for 8 weeks and if I don't do it in February the healing time would go into the busy wedding season and my inability to work during the busy season would threaten the stability of not just my current business but the new studio as well. So it's in February right now or not until next year.

So the doc's office says, sorry we can't do the procedure in February because the doc is going on vacation the last week of February. The soonest we can do is March 1st. So I go to my instructors, tell them what I need done, and oh my god they totally want to help me and start volunteering to take the busy days in shifts so that all pole parties and private lessons can be covered by them! I love my instructors!! They cannot, however, cover upper level classes that I teach. So the procedure must be done by March 1st and that way upper level classes are only suspended next session and two weeks into the following session.

So I call doctor's office yesterday and say, "Let's go ahead and schedule this for March 1st." Their reaction is, "Ooops, it looks like March 1st wasn't available after all. We can do March 8th." So March 8th would push my non-teaching healing time so far out into the Spring session that the two studios would be too financially threatened by my absense and it is out of the question. So the doctor's office yesterday called the patient who is scheduled for March 1st and asked her to switch to March 8th. Said patient, for some strange reason, is not returning their calls!!!!!

There is nothing I can do but sit and wonder why this person doesn't return phone calls. Are they on some kind of vacation? Do they not check messages? Or did they get the message and they are trying to re-arrange their own time off work to switch their appointment and recovery time so I can have March 1st. I don't know. I live in suspense now.

Comments disabled because I won't be ready to talk about it until the appointment is confirmed.

Two unbelievably expensive and life altering decisions have to be made. One I kind of already made, need to confirm with some one I can't reach until tomorrow. I'm trying to put off the other as long as possible, but probably have to decide in the next two weeks. So...yeah, I'm under a lot of stress.

If you folks that know my number want to help me make these decisions, I'm all about the feedback. Call me if you have my number and the inclination to make major life altering decisions.

Insanely busy today. Lots of teaching, practicing, supervising, catching up on e-mails, following up on Eastside location possibilities, discussing the changes to the lesson plans with instructors, sending out confirmations, running to the PO box to pick up packages, sending important paperwork to instructors and trying to get some of the advanced instructors to take some extra hours in March. Not a minute of "me" time yet today.

In an e-mail today from one of my students:

"I want to thank you for all that you do and providing a way for me to become more comfortable with my body!"

I had a great discussion last night with one of my instructor trainees about shifting the classes to focus more on the techniques we use that make women comfortable in their bodies and focus a little less on technical moves like crazy pole inverts. We will still have both, but more equal emphasis. I think it may be time to re-do some of the lesson plans.

I got these adorable Hello Kitty shorts at Hot Topic and I'm teaching my classes in them this week! Could they be any cuter!?






They also had this bra for only $16 but they were out of my size. So I just ordered if off the Hot Topic website:

I have a fresh set of new bruises on the inside of both thighs as a result of working on this trick recently:



I'm working on a rather complicated way to get into it from an upside down move on the pole directly into it. Doing this causes a tremendous pull on the right hand and often my grip just isn't enough to hold me as I flip and twist from being upside down on the pole to being in this superman flying position. So about 1/3 of the time I attempt the trick I actually lose my grip and fall off the pole to the ground. So at this point I'm only attempting this trick about 2 feet off the ground (so I don't have far to fall).

The only way I can think of to get over this falling thing is to do the trick over and over again as often as possible until I eventually can get it right every time. This might explain the bruises on my legs.

This is exceptionally moving...

Every year at Norwescon I feel like I want to top the costume I wore the previous year. I think this might do it! This metal bra below was made by the same artist who made the metal bra I wore to Norwescon last year (pictured here).







I love it for many reasons. For one the style makes it incredibly flattering for a girl of modest chest size and no cleavage. And believe me, there aren't many metal bras that do that. It also works for both a goth belly dance costume AND a steampunk belly dancer because of the copper colored bits. It can eventually be made into a warrior princess costume (maybe for next year's con). I also anticipate getting years worth of costume use out of it. And finally, I'm a huge fan of Akasha (which the costume it was modeled after).

The metal bra is, however, insanely expensive. So much so that I'm ebarrassed to admit I'm actually considering purchasing it. But I am. So please cast your votes...

Poll #1518552
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: Friends, participants: 17

Buy this bra for Norwescon and future costume use...

I swear I don't do this for him. Vader burrows under the covers and then pops his head out and naps that way. So I walk in and find my cat all self-tucked in!

13 hour work day, yo. I've been working non-stop all day (including teaching classes all night) and now that it's almost midnight I'm too tired to finish payroll. Employees would get paid a day late if I can't stay awake. Must...stay...awake!

I also have not had time to pick an outfit or come up with a routine for the AIDS/Lifecycle Strip-O-Rama event. But if they have a pole, I plan to rock it! It's also costume night Saturday night at the Vogue. I want to try and go after the Strip-O-Rama but I have not had time to pick a costume.

I need more hours in the day.

• breakfast
  
• Teach private lesson to dancer
  
• print up lesson plan for level 7
  
• print up forms for lap dance workshop tonight
  
• send week 2 and 3 level 2 lesson plan to instructor
  
• send out confirmations to next week's lap dance students
  
• type up names that were submitted for mailing list
  
• E-mail level 1 students about level 2
  
• search back up files for missing payroll log
  
• teach lap dance workshop
  
• teach level 7
  

I have always thought that roses were the lamest valentine gift ever. Not only do they not last, but they are dying from the moment they are cut. So essentially you are giving your beloved a dying plant as a token of love.

I saw this gift online and I think this is a gift that will last forever. Every time you are away, he or she can open it and pull one out and feel loved: http://www.healingbaskets.com/prod_91793.htm

That $26 gift trumps $150 worth of roses any day.

We were supposed to go to the strip club last night but did not. So seeing as how I would have spent $20 to get into the strip club and a minimum of $50 (or more) tipping dancers on stage (and more if I had purchased a lap dance or two), I just saved at least $70...right? So that means I can buy the $75 PVC bustle skirt in my previous post without guilt...right? RIGHT?

So the white corset I bought on eBay to wear to the white themed dressy event at Noc Noc tonight doesn't actually look all that good with my white pirate dress or my white steampunk lace skirt. So it looks like for the white dressy event I'll actually be half white and half black and wear a black tule ballgown skirt under the corset. I'll add white stockings though.

PVC tie on bustle: OMG...yes...YES!




$75 on etsy.com

Happy Birthday kety!

Thank you for being an honest and open and amazing friend!

Happy Birthday shadist

Those that know you are blessed and you deserve all the happiness in the world!

Who am I?
That you would care to know my name.
Would care to feel my pain.
Who am I?
That the bright and morning star,
Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wondering heart.

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
You catch me when I'm falling,
And you told me who I am.
I am yours.

I am...yours.

~Casting Crowns "Who Am I"

Found the perfect place for the Eastside studio! It has:

• Major frontage on a busy street (all the other spaces I looked at were sort of hidden deep in the back of shopping centers)
  
• Just a few seconds from a 520 off-ramp
  
• Huge amount of space, could fit 7 to 15 poles depending on whether I want to gut it or leave the false divider walls up
  
• Parking
  
• A computer shop next door where the geek cool manager told me he's totally fine with loud music (and they are closed evenings anyway and won't hear it)
  
• A place downstairs used to store cars - no one will hear the loud music
  
• No other neighbors that can hear the music
  
• Ceilings 9 feet 6 inches, which will fit removable poles (permanent poles for higher ceilings cost a fortune)
  
• Enough space to build a reception area in front and still have plenty of room for poles
  

This would be a swank studio with reception, changing room, lots of parking and super easy to find from the freeway. What more can you ask. The problem, we didn't know the rent when we looked at it: $2,800 per month with water and taxes (electricity, heat and air are extra). My goal was to stay in the $1,500 range. I'm willing to go up to $2k. But what are the chances we can talk them down that low? The owner's agent thinks there is a chance it will happen if we agree to pay for all the tenant improvements (tearing down false walls, putting in new wall for reception, tearing out the 15 year old carpet and putting in new floors, tearing out the false ceiling and re-doing the ceiling underneath, etc.). The owner's agent is giving our offer to the owner now.

If the owner won't come down that low, wondering if I should go several hundred dollars over budget for a shot at this place and just risk that it's worth it.

I am simultaneously eating breakfast, snuggling Vader and printing up directions for my two meetings on the Eastside in 30 minutes. I am *SUPER* multi-tasker!!