Back in Austin

 I’m so glad to be back in Austin! I wish I could have updated a little sooner but we didn’t have internet until yesterday. So our new apartment is about half the size of the condo we were living in while we were in Washington DC… our second bedroom is just packed full of furniture and boxes of stuff we don’t need to unpack. Our living room is PACKED with furniture though; it can feel cramped but I just tell myself that it’s cozy. We have lots of books and DVDs on our shelves, but I noticed that all of our furniture is dark earth tones, so I hung up a really colorful painting I did years ago. It’s about 3×4 and super bright!

Yesterday was my birthday, and we’ve had some really tight times financially. I’m super lucky that I could get back in to my teaching and training gigs as well as my makeup job, but I haven’t had any paychecks yet… so I told Rich a few weeks ago that I knew it would be really tight and we shouldn’t plan anything, and that I didn’t want a gift. I’d rather have food in the pantry and gas in the car, ya know? So here is where the Universe once again takes care of me…

Last Saturday I sat around and was being lazy and I watched Xanadu, one of my all time favorite movies from my childhood. Then I listened to the Xanadu broadway musical… it’s awesome. On the morning of my birthday I got an email from the office manager of the Tech industry job I had over 12 years ago, and she was wondering if I would like to go see the Xanadu musical here in Austin! They had free tickets and she knew I liked musicals, and Facebook told her it was my birthday so I she called to offer them to me! So of course I said yes and got the tickets and then we had something fun to do on my birthday and IT WAS FREE! AWESOME! It’s so good to be back home! When I taught my class yesterday (yes, I taught on my birthday; I love what I do!) I had almost 30 people in the room, and ended up leaving with flowers, candy, gift cards…. it was very unexpected and very heartwarming. 

So we’re watching this show, and it’s hilarious! a couple of the muses were guys in drag, and one of them kept staring at me; so much so that I thought "oh, he’s just looking in this direction. He can’t possibly be staring this much." During the final musical number (Xanadu, of course) he ran all the way up to the top of the audience to grab me and make me dance on stage with him… so I did, and it was awesome! After that, we went out for a drink and ran in to some friends and listened to some good music before grabbing a late night snack and eating it while sitting in bed with the Daily show on DVR; it was probably around 1am at this point… such a great birthday. Thanks Universe!!

Side note: EVERY time I see a musical I end up on stage. It’s happened during Forever Plaid, Little Shop of Horrors, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hair, and now Xanadu. 

I’ve been working that Secret magic waaay before Oprah made it cool. Also; I’m finally hovering at the 170/169 lbs range. My goal was to get down to 165 so I’m almost there… We don’t have gym memberships (money, ya know) so I’ve been doing 100 pushups, 100 squats, and 250 situps every day. I want to ride my bike to work, but I have a flat tire; so I’ve just been walking to work. It’s not far, it’s just about a 15-20 minute walk. I’m super close to the bus stop, and the bus actually goes past all three of the yoga centers that I work at; that makes it super easy to get around to work. 

When I picked out the apartment, I picked it out for exactly this reason 🙂