The one adult thing I had planned to do during this spring break was file my taxes. The rest of the time, I’d indulge my creative passions: writing, dancing, painting, training capoeira, swimming and doing yoga. The last three things may not seem like artistic pursuits, but without the stress from the daily workplace grind, I found myself exploring different boundaries within the exercise disciplines, from slightly altering the way I kick when doing the butterfly stroke to modifying my grip when I’m practicing bikram yoga. Somehow, like magic, my capoeira capabilities change as both my strength and flexibility improves with the other two disciplines.
I worked on my taxes a little Monday through Friday, with the final blitz of “getting her done” on Friday. I’m glad I took my time since this was my first time to file taxes on my own as a small business owner rather than returning to a professional tax preparer. I learned so many things, including that, by sheer luck, I’m using the “correct” credit card for my business expenses. I learned on Tuesday that my business credit card provides me with a year-end summary, breaking down my expenses into different categories and organizing the information into several graphic styles. That just pleased my little Virgo heart to no end!
I made four birthday cards for the family members who were born in April. I still need to create more to get better at card-making, but at least I got them all completed and mailed off while still on vacation. I had the brilliant idea to make all the birthday cards for my family and mail them out in January…that way they can open them on their actual birthday and I could cross that off my list in one fell swoop. One of my sisters laughed at me, but I’m seriously thinking about doing that for 2013.
I completed 1 1/2 mini paintings. I can already tell that both of them will eventually be cut up further and in some shape or form help decorate a future greeting card. I’m not saying they’re ugly, but cutting out the flaws really helped my last batch of paintings.
I trained capoeira on my normal days, but at least I had more energy for it. I’ve even been practicing a traditional Brazilian dance called afoxe. It derives from a Yoruba religious practice,, which in turn became candomble in Brazil, but we’re dancing a secular version. As a matter of fact, I’ve found myself in the surprising role of choreographer, or should I say “dance modifier”? I simply modified funga, which is a West African welcoming dance. I’m impressed that I still remember the sequence. I’m so happy that of all the things I’ve learned and have forgotten, I still remember that one dance, which was the first West African choreography I’d learned.
This is all in an effort to help out the fundraiser that we’re hosting at the Capoeira Evolucao studio next Saturday. In addition to dancing, I’ll have Tribe of One available since my capoeira teacher is allowing me to sell it in exchange for a comission to the studio. I excitedly emailed the information to my professional writers’ association. I advertised it as a “Brazilian style book signing” and included the event flyer. They were impressed at the packaging of the event. One writer showed me her date book where she’d penciled me into her schedule.
Speaking of writing, after Tuesday’s monthly writing meeting, I was inspired to put a gag on my inner critic and let my imagination and fingers fly. I had been wondering how all these professional writers could generate pages of material on a somewhat daily basis. Imagine my surprise when I heard writer after writer admit that the first draft is SHIT! Some confessed to having no dialogue while others stated that their first draft was almost exclusively dialogue with no tags, emotions or background setting.
The next morning, I raced through incorporating a huge portion of the notes I’d gathered when I was in Utila to research my story. I had the ability to do that all along, I just hadn’t freed myself from pursuit of perfection. Another thing that totally makes sense to me now is why pour so much time and energy into a particular sentence, paragraph or chapter for the first draft when I may end up completely changing it or cutting it altogether?
And of course, I’ve managed to grow the overall height of my ever-rotating stack of books. Can’t say that I’ve read more than I’d planned to since I still waited until bedtime to read. I truly think having a hammock on my balcony would help that. I still love how nearly every book has a tangential association with every other book. Some of the connections are intentional. Others are uncanny coincidences that I dreamily think the universe wanted me to read.
Despite the fact that I’ve done yoga about 7 times during this break, I’ve come down with the sniffles, which I’m tempted to dismiss as allergies flaring up again. Yet, part of me thinks that it’s psychosomatic. I know this is the last day of vacation and my body’s reacting like this. One of my friends took pity on me and gave me a variety of herbal teas to help me through it.
Every little bit helps. Just like last night, when I returned from the matinee milonga, I completed the photo gallery of celebrities to base my comic strip characters on and emailed the file to my sister. She’s going to illustrate for me. I’m so excited for this collaboration. I’ll have to figure out how to schedule writing this script into my already busy schedule. I already know that it cannot be a daily pursuit, but I’ve got to make it a weekly thing.
Come what may tomorrow, I’ve truly enjoyed my break and the rest of the school year will rush into summer break. Amen!