Rain

While I do admit that it is all very pretty (as I have always secretly enjoyed the rain), it has been raining a lot these past few days.  It seems like that too when I check in with my friends from scattered around the northeast, and some a little farther south.  It rained on Monday and Tuesday pretty much all day.  If it wasn't raining, there was still a bit of a mist to keep everything wet.  Wednesday was nice and sunny, but today I wake up on this Thursday morning to see it raining again.  It seems to be a similar case tomorrow as I saw by some weather forecast.  I'm just glad I took the opportunity when I was given it and went out for some food shopping yesterday. :P

Anyway, Tuesday was pretty intense.  I had to take another Wednesday because my body just felt so beat.  We continued with the same style of rotations, but they changed up the groups and the stations.  For some people (like me) the group remained mostly the same, but for others, they changed completely.  On Tuesday we did an hour of Spanish web, followed by an hour of duo trapeze.  Two hours of aerials really takes its toll on your hands.  I got a wonderful rip right at the end of duo trapeze on the outside bottom of my right ring finger, just above the tip of my little finger.  It's still right now not feeling so good, but at least the two rotations we have today are only pole and wire.  Wire doesn't really involve your hands at all (thank god), but I think I can work my way around pole without hurting my finger too much.  Web gave me a few slight abrasions in places I thought I wouldn't still be getting, such as the spiral around the leg and to the foot, from sliding down.  It wasn't a bad burn or anything, as just a day later it was like nothing had happened, but I found showering not to be the most comfortable of things that day.  We mostly sticked to the basics in both classes.  In web (with Serenity), we worked on opposite side hip-key climbs (if you don't know what those are, don't worry about it... they're basically just a great ab workout) and practiced spinning and being spun on a rope with a handloop.  In duo trapeze we worked on individual tricks, which ended up being difficult, but at the same time rewarding since we had to learn to work together with others on what becomes a very shaky apparatus.

Weeks 2+3

Hey guys. I know it's been a few days since I've posted last but the reason that I have not been able to post so much is because my computer has been in for repair. The backlight bulb for the monitor has been getting dark on the left side now for a little while and finally went completely out a few times. It has been doing nothing but getting worse. The repair ended up requiring more money than was expected, so I'm not really sure when it's going to be fixed. Anyway, this weekend, I've taken a trip up to my family's house upstate, where I have access to an actual keyboard (my iPod touch's keyboard gets rather cumbersome to use after a while, but if I don't end up getting my computer back for a while, I'll resort do using that for future blog posts), which is why I'm able to write this blog post and tell you guys about all the wonderful happenings.

Anyway, I heard some pretty shocking news this weekend about stuff back at home. My cat, Mystery, who we've had in the family for about the past 8 years started developing a tumor in his right leg. It only became noticeable about two weeks ago and has grown very rapidly to about a golf ball size now. They said it was a malignant tumor, which means it's of cancerous level and is likely to spread to other parts of his body. The one resolution they offered was amputation of the leg, but that seems to be a bit of out of the question given the time and circumstances (such as cost, his age, and quality of life post-operation). The ironic thing about it all is that it is a known side effect of the annually required rabies shot, which is also applied on the back right leg (a condition known as a Feline Vaccination-Associated Sarcoma). He's been having progressive trouble using his right leg when walking/running/going down stairs, so even without the spreading factor, it's still causing issues for him. We're likely going to be putting him to sleep within this next week.

The return of the callouses

Today is Wednesday, and as such, there aren't any regularly scheduled group classes.  Today is also halfway though the second week, and I have to say, at this point, my body has gotten pretty tired.  For that, I have decided that today would be a good day to take a day off.  Since we started last Tuesday, I have been doing some sort of physical activity each day (whether it be group classes, coming in for open studio, or going to the Outer Limits gym to work on my cardio).  I felt it'd probably be best for me to give my body a bit of a break from constant movement.  It's definitely much more frequent of exercise than I've gotten since camp last year, so I want to make sure that my body will be able to handle it well.  Also, there's just something about working out and stretching for extended periods each day that somewhat seems like its going to backfire.  Haha.  Maybe it's just my imagination.

Anyway, I used today to go to the Coop and get some food (other than NECCA, it's honestly my favorite place here in Brattleboro :P).  I organized the food and whatnot and have my lunches all set up for approximately the next two weeks.  ^_^  I also signed up to be a working shareholder, in order to get a discount on future purchases.  I only wish it wasn't uphill coming back home from the Coop, though.  >.<

Week 1

Typically at this point, I think people usually talk about how surprised they are that an entire week has passed.  Sorry to disappoint you, but that's not how I'm going to begin this post! :P They have been plenty of fun, for sure, but they have also been very demanding, and I certainly have been feeling it in my muscles even when I'm not training.  By now, though, most of my soreness from Tuesday and the following training days has gone away.  My shoulders and arms were the big annoyances.  It was very difficult to even raise my arm straight up over my head for a while.  My legs are now sore because of running from yesterday and today, but I'm constantly working to counter them with stretching.  Live is still very good here in Brattleboro.  :-)

Since many days have passed since my last blog post, and since many different things have happened on those days, I think it'd be best for the sake of organization if I give you a bit of a summary of what's happened since Wednesday.

First Day of School!

I'll be rather frank with you: currently, I'm pooped.  There is not much more that I feel like doing today than things involving absolutely minimal body movement.  I currently find myself in fear of how sore I'm going to be tomorrow morning.  I took a one and a half hour nap already today but actually didn't find my muscles to be in too much distress, so it might not end up being so terrible after all.

These first two weeks are essentially devoted to a wide variety of evaluation.  This morning we began with stretching with Deena at 9, and began with our "Physical Assessment" at 9:45.  During this time we attempted and recorded down our physical limits when it comes to many circus related strength tasks.  These included pull ups, push ups, legs-free fabric climbs, regular fabric climbs, length of time of a handstand against the wall, wall sits, hollow body on the ground, L-sits on the trapeze, and V-sits on the trapeze.   It got very tiring toward the end, resulting with many people crawling across the floor to record numbers on their sheets with their very shaky arm muscles.  It was quite funny actually.  :P  I'm not sure if there has been another time that I have done so many exercises where each one is to be held for as long as possible.  Usually things like that would be individual, or when in groups, simply to a certain amount or length of time.  I quickly found it an easy way to make your muscles not listen to you, which I've honestly found to be one of the strangest feelings.

Journey, part II

The room I'm staying in,
the result of a couple hours of assembly.

Hey everyone!  It's been a teeney bit longer than I was expecting since my last post, but I guess it's better now than later.  :P  Anyway, the day before yesterday (Saturday), my parents and I arrived here at my place in Brattleboro and moved all of my stuff in.  We did a bunch more shopping for extra room stuff and had a lovely Thai lunch at the Thai Bamboo restaurant in town.  It's by far my favorite restaurant here in Brattleboro that I've gone to.  There is always such an incredible amount of flavor in their dishes and soups.

My parents stayed over with me in my room that night and in the morning we went for some more shopping at Wal-Mart and Price Chopper, got a wonderful $5 lamp, as well as some shelves, a refrigerator and a microwave, and some food.  As we were going to lunch, I ran into my old Smirkus Camp counselor, T (he's here for the year as well attending NECCA's Intensive Training Program).  We all went together to the Co-op to get some food and then headed back to my place for me to say goodbye and whatnot.  The move-in process was very smooth in general.  The only real problem that we had was that my iHome transformer blew out when I was trying to plug it in, but I am grateful that everything else went so well.  I don't get cell service in my room though, which is kind of awkward since if I'm not online, there is no way for anyone to contact me, but hey, that's a little bit of Vermont for you.  Other places in town as well as at NECCA itself I get sufficient service.

Journey, part I

I wasn't originally going to make a blog post today because I didn't think I had very much to say but I feel like I should update all those interested as to where I am in my Chappaqua to Brattleboro transition.  :-)  My parents and I finished up all of my packing and we put everything I'm planning on bringing into a U-Haul trailer.  We drove up today to our house that we have upstate, which we're basically using as a rest stop for the rest of the trip tomorrow.  Without a U-Haul trailer, the drive up to here is about four hours from Chappaqua as opposed to the about three to Brattleboro, so it is a bit of a detour, but it's nice to have a place to comfortably stay for a night (as well as a place to drop off the cats while I move in).  There also are a couple of things that we have kept up here that we're going to bring to Brattleboro as well.  The overall combination of these things made it make more sense to come here first.

Tomorrow morning we leave with all of my stuff for my new home for the next nine months.  I am still a mix of emotions, but I currently find myself more excited than anything.  I have been waiting for these days for quite a while this summer, and really am overjoyed that they have finally arrived.  I can't wait to meet everyone who's going to be in the Professional Development program (it's only 18 people, which I think should make for a very interesting experience!) as well as to start training.

When I arrive, I plan to take pictures of my room, so I can post them on my blog here for all to see (In a predicted "Journey, part II" post :P).  I really hope moving in goes smoothly.  Wish me luck! ^_^

Trevor