Hey all,
I am finally on spring break and am very excited/relieved about it. This semester is a bit on the crazy packed side. I'm "taking" 4 classes, teaching a math class, teaching ballet, and, of course, trying to work on my research for my dissertation. When I say that I'm "taking" 4 classes, what I really mean is that I am attending the classes and will be doing a presentation for most of them. I don't do homework anymore, so at least I'm not bogged down with all of that. But the classes themselves take up a decent amount of time. And I do occasionally do reading for them.
I'm not upset to be busy again. It's how I spent the majority of my life up until a few years ago, and there is a part of me that functions best when I am over-scheduled and just have to keep going 24/7. I do like being able to sleep in, play with my cats, and generally chill out every once in a while, though.
I think my saving grace this semester is that I am not doing the spring Dance Prism show. I miss everyone, but I am really glad that I get my weekends to myself. And honestly, I don't like performing, especially ballet. It's stressful and the costumes always make me feel like I need to diet (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but on the whole, fuck that shit). My last year of college I really made an effort not to schedule things on the weekends. It gave me some time to myself, but mostly served as time when I knew I was free to do all the random stuff that didn't fit into a busy week. I think I need to make that my policy again; no regularly scheduled weekend activities.
I had my phone interview with the Johns Hopkins CTY program this morning, who I want to teach for this summer. I have no idea if it went well. I think so. They'll be getting back to me in a week or two. I really hope I get a position. I don't even care where at this point. Once I sat down and started planning the enrichment course I realized that I really really want a chance to teach it. I'm being considered to teach a class called "Individually Paced Math Sequence," which is exactly what it sounds like. I think the class basically consists of the students doing their own work while I walk around and answer questions. Not hugely challenging. I get 45 minutes every day to do "enrichment material," which is supposed to be something that they can all manage. I decided to do some very elementary group theory, which really is not as complicated as it sounds. Mostly they will be working with cutout squares, circles and triangles.
I am also going to Bates Dance Festival this summer. If I get hired by CTY, I will be away from home for a straight 6 weeks (3 weeks at wherever CTY sends me and then 3 weeks in Maine at Bates). My cats are going to be pissed. But I am super psyched about going to Bates. I don't care if I have to answer phones or whatever for the rest of the summer, as long as I have those three weeks in heaven.
So yeah, that's my life right now. Oh yeah, hip's doing well. I've been to a few dance classes but mostly I've been running. It's actually surprisingly enjoyable. Up until about two months ago, if someone asked me if I wanted to go running, I would reply, "Only if a bear is chasing me." The fact that I actually
like running now is rather embarassing. Ah well, we all change as we get older. I have my first physical therapy appointment today at 4 actually. I really hope that I like the PT and that she doesn't make me do exercises that don't really help with what I care about. I suppose I should defer to someone whose career is fixing people's bodies, but the vast majority of physical therapists I've come in contact with have
no idea how to deal with dancers. I have actually uttered the phrase, "No, my ankle
is supposed to do that..." during a PT session where I was stretching out my thigh by holding onto my foot. They also don't seem to realize that my legs have to go
all the way up/back/to the side. This office is supposed to be good for non-sport athletes (ie gymnasts, dancers). So here's hoping.
