The Blogdate Thus Far

Update time! Alright, this is my life so far... Just over two weeks in to my gig working and living in Titusville, FL, love my co-workers and roomates (LOVE 'em!), love my job (it's SO much fun!!!), am meeting some new peeps and making some new friends, and slowly starting to find my own way 'round here...

The tally so far is as follows, I have:
- seen several dolphins, one very special one in particular that I have decided is 'my' dolphin
- seen an ARMADILLO(!), a family of wild hogs AND a wild eagle's nest (SO HUGE!) all in one day!
- held a wild chameleon AND watched a rocket launch in to the sky (also in one day)
- seen waaaay to many 'gators (that's the abbreve for ALIGATORS, fyi) than I can count
- made two edible dinners for my roomates, in addition to two batches of apparently delicious brownies (!!)
- partied at The Clarion Hotel bar in Titusville, two saturdays in a row
- discovered a yoga studio that I plan to visit regularly
- performed a fun, 30-minute show about the science of space travel, for families from around the world, approximately 24 times so far
AAAAAAAND...
I have said "I love my life" more times than I can count, and more times than most people seem to feel is humanly possible.

But it's true. I'm lovin it!

So here I am in my role as "Kelvin" (the zany side-kick to 'Professor Pruvitt' in our awesomely fun show here at The Kennedy Space Centre Visitor's Complex - 'Mad Mission to Mars!')

And here I am with my co-star, Dave:

And here is Dave at the 'Veteran's Memorial Pier' in Titusville - one of our favorite spots to enjoy some sunset photo-taking and dolphin watching (have I mentioned that I love my life?!?!):

(One of my favorite sights)

Well, I realise this blogdate is a little succinct, but to be honest, I'm not feeling hugely motivated to be writing on here right now. But I wanted to keep y'all updated on the greatness that I'm livin and lovin these days. I will write more again, and soon, I promise.

But for now, bon soir.

And NAMASTE.

XOX

Dream (And Be Thankful) Every Day

"Would you rather be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be great?"
- Jimmy Johnson

The above is a quote from the page I wrote in today of the lovely journal that my dear friends Mark and Christie gave me for christmas (despite my requests for no gifts, I did get some this year, and they were all ridiculously thoughtful and perfect, I must say!) This journal is rather special, in that it is quite pristine looking and just so, so, soooo appropriate for me! It's far too special for me to use it merely as an every day/morning pages kind of journal, so I've devised a special purpose for it: Each page on the left has an inspirational sort of quote and each page on the right says "Dream Every Day" in the lower righthand corner. So I write each day on two pages; I read the quote of the day, write down the date and then fill up the lefthand page with gratitude - listing all that I can think of to be thankful for on this day. I then proceed to the righthand side page and fill that one up with my hopes and dreams and intentions and plans... for the moment, the day, the week, year - for my entire life! It's great. I love it. And it makes me think fondly of my dear friends Mark and Christie each morning when I write in it - a definite added bonus!

So here I am: living a life that I feel many can only dream of living... My job is to perform a high-energy kids show for families who have travelled from all around the world to The Kennedy Space Centre in Titusville, Florida. I live and work with two positively amazing individuals with whom it is not just a total pleasure to be on stage with, but also a wonderful adventure to be living and hanging out with! Both Julia and Dave have worked this gig before, so they both also come with their own set of friends here and their own ideas of what life here is like. Which is nice for me, in some ways, to be able to tag along on their already-established good livin'. But I also feel like now that I am a little bit settled here, I am ready to find my own way a little bit, and discover and develop my Florida life and style!

Today is my first day off. Dave and Julia just left for work which means that I have a few hours here at the condo to myself. Oh, and Big Plans, Big Plans... Ha! I think actually I will spend this glorius day at the apartment doing a little bit of writing, a little bit of reading, a little bit of solo-dance-partying with my music cranked up nice and loud (though not too loud 'cause we do live in the land of senior citizen retirees!), a little bit of long-distance phone call making, aaaaand... (drumroll please) I am going to practice this thing on Dave's guitar that he showed me because some people here have got it in their heads that I am going to learn how to play bass. Yes, me. Oh my.

You see, both Dave and Julia are very musical - Dave with the guitar and Julia with piano and vocals. And Dave's friend Jim, who also works at The Kennedy Space Centre, plays the drums and is all about getting together for jam sessions. So we went over there the other night, and it was lovely. We didn't have Julia's keyboard so mostly she and I watched and chatted as Jim and Dave jammed, but then Julia tried out the drum set and the three of them played together a little bit while Jim's partner Della and I watched happily. It was lovely:
So Jim's all about me learning to play bass guitar so that we can all jam together. We'll see. Might as well try, right? In any case, I am super-duper thankful to be where I am right now and with who I am with on this adventure... so on it goes!

(Will get around to taking and posting more pics on here soon, I promise!)

NAMASTE

This Is How I Roll:

I've been deliberating for a few moments now about whether to write a blog entry right now or not... You see, it's been a busy few days, and I want to tell you all about it, but I also want to SHOW you... Alas, I lack the particular energy and motivation right now to run around taking photos of my new Florida bedroom, my new Florida apartment and it's beautiful view... I promise I will take some pics of these things, as well as of me all costumed up for my new show and with my new colleagues and roomates... Later.

For now, let me tell you this: I am happy to be here. It is a crazy-full swelling of happiness and joy that I feel to be back doing this work that I love, to yet again be living and working with some truly lovely and talented people, and to be discovering yet another new place! It is so great, so great! I also feel full and brimming and overflowing with a sense of love and gratitude (and maybe a little nostalgia too) for all of my wonderful dear ones that I had to leave behind... in Canada, and elsewhere. I love and miss you all so much - THANK YOU for all of your lovely little messages via facebook, blog comments and emails!!!

It's been a typically whirlwind first few days here for me - but that just seems to be how I roll with these things: minimal sleep coupled with maximum exposure to all sorts of things new and unfamiliar (new living arrangements, new roomies and co-workers, new show to learn, etc!) Yes, it's been busy. My main focus since we arrived on Monday afternoon (yes, just two and a half days ago!) has been on learning the new show that I am going to perform for the public (here at the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex) for the first time ever tomorrow!!!

Today will be my last day of watching my colleagues and roomates Dave and Julia perform their version of the show, then I will get a few rehearsals in with Dave this evening, and then tomorrow... it's ON! I'm super excited, but I feel like I want to get on with my day and get prepared for all this excitement. So here I go...

Again, I promise to write more again (and post some pics) reeeeal soon!

It Must Be Done (therefore I must do it)!

For those of you who've been following me and my life via this blog for a while now (oh you sweet ones you!), you are familiar with my, uh, 'travel anxiety'. I have attempted to process this anxiety of mine via writing several times here now... And to some avail...

It is a somewhat perplexing phenomenon, even to me, this anxious/nauseaus feeling I have throughout the days and nights leading up to my departure, despite the fact that I truly love to travel! Anyhow, it is what it is, and I do what I can to ease it. One tactic that I've found particularly useful is getting myself packed and ready quite far in advance of my travels, so that I'm not procrastinating my responsibilities and prolonging the anxiety. This sort of helps. I also tend to write myself motivational messages and post them around my room. Oh, okay, I do this even when I'm not preparing to leave! At the end of my summer in St Louis I was quite a mess and had all sorts of lists and notes posted up for myself. My friend Jon found this quite entertaining. He and I are still in touch and he asked me to take some pictures of my current lists and post them for him to see, so Jon my dear, these are for you:

Above: My calendar for the last few weeks as well as my to-do lists, checkboxes and all!
And below: an embarrassingly closer look at my lists!

Well, I'm not sure if it's clear or not, but I do actually have most of these boxes checked off now! Tomorrow will be my last day in Toronto before I hop on yet another plane and fly on Monday morning to Florida, where I will be working and living for the next four months. Ultimately I am really looking forward to this next adventure of mine, for many reasons, and thankfully I am able to remember that despite the slight fog of my current 'departure anxiety'! Tomorrow will be a good last day in the city for me, I hope... It will be spent mostly at home, or close to home, I think. I will go to one last yoga class in the morning, and then home to do a final load of laundry and the final pack of all (I call all suitcase packings - and I do do several! - up until this final pack, "pre-packs", oh my) and then hopefully a relaxing evening at home with my roomies.

Then bright and early on Monday morning I will be Florida bound! It will surely be an interesting time, so I promise to try and blog more often than I managed to during my last tour (but it was SUCH a whirlwind!).

As I prepare myself for my next adventure, I draw comfort from the safety and security that I feel from all of my loving relationships... friends, family, etc... past, present & future... I carry each of you with me everywhere that I go!

*NAMASTE*

A Perfect Night?

I was talking with my yoga teacher the other day about New Year's Eve plans and she mentioned that the two "holidays" that she's not really a big fan of are New Years and Valentines Day. Tell me about it! They both seem made-up and apropos of nothing. Well, sort of. But nonetheless they tend to be dates on which you somehow find yourself thinking about doing something notable...

And so, as I walked home in the snow last night, I found myself fantasizing about all the different ways I would like to be spending New Year's Eve tonight... And if I could be in a million (or even just 10 or 15) different places at once, this is what we'd do tonight:

We would go skating in Forest Park and then party in a suite a The Chase Park Plaza Hotel and reminisce about the summer...

We would make pizza and pancakes and sing "I'm Yours" over and over again until it's 2009...

We would finally follow up on that plan of sitting on the balcony of our suite at The Wynn and watch the crowds in Vegas ring in the new year, from the 'peace and quiet' of our hotel room, drinking and smoking, of course...

We would drink red wine using red licorice straws and play Scrabble by the fire, and talk about being "excited about our future"...

We would watch TV and eat appetizers for dinner and drink wine and let tonight be like any other night...

We would party at your sister's house and drink beer from the keg you bought and I would get to kiss you at midnite, and other times too probably...

We would cozy up by the fire in a chalet somewhere in the mountains (in Colorado, maybe?) and it would be quiet and warm and lovely...

Well, I'm actually still not %100 sure what I will be doing tonight, but I will certainly be thinking of all my dear ones - here, there and everywhere!

Happy New Year All!