I haven’t talked much about what’s been going on in my life, or what my plans are, and I thought it was time. Since there’s always a lot going on, I figured I should probably cue my readers in. So here’s what’s been going on in my life lately:
1. I’ve started taking Parkour classes at one of the 12 gyms in the world that teaches it. Every class thoroughly kicks my ass, but I can already tell that I’m getting stronger. Parkour focuses on functional fitness and strength training, which is the direction I’ve always felt is best when it comes to exercise-related stuff. Plus, I get to spend my evenings jumping on stuff, cllmbing on stuff, and generally pretending to be a ninja, which is pretty damn awesome. Marc is probably going to start coming with me in January, which will be fun, as it will be something for us to do together as a couple.
2. Marc and I are taking a quick trip up to New England this weekend. We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon and returning next Tuesday night and will be visiting western Massachusetts and Vermont. I haven’t seen some of my best college friends in four years, and it’s about damn time. So, we’ll be starting off in the Pioneer Valley, where I went to college, and then will be spending a couple days exploring southern Vermont. Marc and I have toyed with the idea of moving to Vermont, and while I’m familiar with the area, Marc has never been there, so I want to give him a bit of a feel for the state.
3. I’m going to be going home to Houston, TX for a few weeks over the Christmas holidays. One advantage of doing teaching work is that you don’t have to worry about taking off time during the winter holidays, and I fully plan on taking advantage of that. While I’m home, we’re going to take the family plane for a day trip up to Bentonville, Arkansas to see the brand new Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, and we may take a day trip over to New Orleans as well. One of the advantages of having a family plane is that it makes quick trips like this quite easy!
4. Marc and I have been working with a group of Georgetown University students who are doing a documentary on reenactors and the culture of the hobby, with a focus on motivations and the connections that reenactors have to history. It’s a pretty cool project. They talked with me for a good 3 hours about 6 weeks ago, and then about 3 weeks ago, they interviewed both Marc and I on camera, and also filmed us as we talked a bit about some of our equipment. They want to accompany us to an event in January and also to film us as we prepare for an event. It’s pretty fun, though it’s weird for me to be on the other side of the camera for once!
5. Work is coming along quickly on the new sites, and I’m already near launch for the redone Historically Speaking site. Next will be Traveling Tomboy, followed by my photography blog, then my personal blog, and then, finally, a redo of my landing page. The work is tedious, but because it’s broken up blog by blog, it is much more manageable than trying to redo my entire site at once.
6. I’ve been subbing for a high school art teacher all week, which has been pretty awesome. I mostly just sit back because there are two student teachers who are in training and who run the class. I occasionally advise students on their work, or help kids who are doing stuff in Photoshop and so it’s nice to be able to actually help the students with something I know, for once. It’s also cool because the kids are much better behaved than my average students, and the teacher has set up an audio jack that goes to the classroom speakers, so I get to play music for my students. It helps the kids relax and it creates a very “chill” environment that tends to smooth over the rough edges that many of my students have. I wish I could play music in all of the classes I sub for.
Life is definitely pretty good right now. I’m getting more subbing work, I’ve gotten a couple offers for design work, I’ve gotten some photography work, I’ve gotten my blogging situation worked out, and I’m about to take some trips. I am holding off on blogging here much because I don’t want to have additional content to import over to my new blog locations, but I should have them up and running soon, with great new content, so keep your eyes peeled for announcements!
