They even use it, which is perhaps the real surprise, here.

[jecca_mehlota]

... I AM BACK FROM IGNORING THE ENTIRE WORLD NOW. (No one: *noticed*)

So my parents bought themselves a Wii. The system completely cheats at baseball. It came with Wii Sports. The next thing on my mother's list (she... she has a list! I do not know if I am proud or trying not to giggle helplessly) is Wii Fit. NO ONE IS SURPRISED.

I know this because I was abducted and forced to spend the night back at home last night. Without clean clothing or a hairbrush or toothbrush or anything! Though I also borrowed most everything I needed. (It really wasn't planned. Mom wanted to go run a few errands with me, then we had to swing by the house so I could grab one of my old textbooks, then we decided to go through some of the stuff I left at home, then she had to take care of the dog, then my father came home, then it was time for dinner, then they wanted to show off their Wii, then it was 10 o'clock at night...) (Then today was apparently TAKE YOUR CHILD TO WORK!! day, so, even though I am much older than the target age range, I went in to annoy my father.)

While I was home, I HAD SOMETHING LIKE ...EIGHT? INCHES CUT OFF MY HAIR. It no longer comes down to my waist. Just the base of my shoulder blades. It... it is very strange. I haven't had hair this short in... possibly ten years. I nearly killed myself with the brush this morning when I mistakenly attacked my spine instead of the tangle that was supposed to be there. It is very strange. I have been complaining about my hair for a while, because it takes so freakishly long to dry and to comb out and whatall. I am not sure anyone ever expected me to actually get it cut, at this stage. We might have taken it shorter, but this length is enough of a shock as it is, and also my hair is ridiculously poofy when left to its own devices, and any shorter and I begin to risk not being able to pull it all back.

... IT'S REALLY SHORT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS. WHERE HAS MY HAIR GONE.


I am about three steps away from declaring myself on hiatus from FFXI, but I know as soon as I do that, I'll be struck by the urge to log in and get stuck à la .hack//SIGN or something. Possibly just this statement will have that affect.


Someone was lame enough to steal our recycling bin. I am irrationally angry about this. Mostly because I have no vehicle and the closest place to go get another one is... uh. A ways away. GREAT EXERCISE, ANYWAY. I shouldn't have assumed ours would get brought in when I went running off with my mother. ARGH. (I shouldn't have assumed that one of the neighbors wouldn't suddenly need another one, either, apparently.) I AM SO ANNOYED. A RECYCLING BIN. HOW LAME YOU CAN GET? THEY'RE FREE. CAN'T YOU JUST GO GET ANOTHER ONE. I know all of you either have a car or know someone with one! I have seen you all use one! I have endured whichever one of you (what, I don't know their names) it is that thinks sitting in the driveway and honking ceaselessly is a good way to win friends! I DO NOT HAVE A CAR OR READY ACCESS TO ONE. YOU ARE ALL SUCH JERKS. I will stop e-yelling at the people who don't even know I exist now.


LOOK AT THIS! I completely don't have the money for it (how pathetic is that? I COULD COME OFF ACADEMIC LEAVE IF I COULD JUST GET A SECOND INTERNSHIP, OR IF YOU LOSERS AT THE FIRST ONE HAD, YOU KNOW, NOT DECIDED TO KICK ME OUT FOR NO KNOWN REASON AND YES I AM STILL ANNOYED ABOUT THAT HOW COULD YOU TELL), but they are giving us DVDs! (Now all they need to do is NOT EDIT THE EPISODES DOWN, RIGHT? Why is this so hard?) ... ... and also I may or may not have told my mother she should buy it and she may or may not have agreed. uh. yay.


IF YOU DO NOT LIKE TO READ ABOUT BLOOD PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS NEXT PART.




SO PHLEBOTOMY CLASS. PRETTY AWESOME.

We're at the "practice drawing blood" stage. Actually, we've done that twice, and we're going to go again next week. But then we're all done, because the week after that is the last class of the semester. WHAT? MADNESS.

Anyway, the insides of my arms kind of hurt. SEE, WE PRACTICE ON EACH OTHER. And the person who's been stabbing me isn't always on target.

First week, we used winged infusion sets with 21-gauge needles. Those were pretty basic. Small, easy to control, kinda stung a bit going in, but, well... duh. (Needles are sharp? SINCE WHEN.) We each got to stick twice. I got blood both times (yay me), but I had a bug bite or something on the inside of my left arm, so I could only be stuck once. TOO BAD IT WENT HORRIBLY WRONG. Tourniquet: check. Feel for vein: check. VEIN LOCATED! COMMENCING ATTACK.

I know what happened, because I am possibly the only person in the class who goes "oooh, coooool" and watches themselves get stuck. So. Needle pokes gingerly, but not enough to, you know, actually pierce skin. Try again! Needle goes in this time! Needle misses vein completely. Needle pokes around under the skin a bit and OW. OO--oooh, look, I can see it poking around under - OW THAT KIND OF HURTS. OW. Pull needle out! TRY AGAIN! Okay, that is the vein. ... Okay, sure, let go to grab a vial and let the needle flop sideways. I'm already a bit sore, what is a little more. ... please take the needle ooout. ;;

A week and a half later, I am still a little bruised there, haha. I can feel my poor, abused vein aching.

Last week (the second time around), we used syringes! With both 18 and 20 gauge needles. And I indirectly bled all over the table and floor. And a fair amount of the supplies. It was, uh. Messy.

My partner got my first arm without much incident (took a while, but then it went well once he stabbed me). He pulled a bit more blood than was perhaps necessary, but meh. I've got plenty. He was busy bandaging my arm up after and forgot to pull the needle in before handing it to the instructor for disposal, so the instructor went to do it. I'm watching the band-aid application, so I don't see this, but suddenly there's a SPLAT! and half the class gasps as the rest of us look over. Blood! Blood on the table, blood on the paper towels, blood on the cardboard box holding all the (SEALED, thank you) syringes, blood on the floor, blood splatter on my legs (cold water rinse and some stain remover will hopefully save them, but if not it's pretty small), blood on the instructor...


Uh.


Apparently the entire thing just came apart in his hands when he went to pull it back. Normally this wouldn't have been much of a problem, since you'd drain the blood out and into tubes, but we weren't doing that! So after that (we were only the second pair to go), no one was allowed to retract the needle.

The second arm, he missed the vein again and tried to suck up my skin or something. It felt really weird, but didn't hurt much. ...Also, I successfully maimed veins on both my attempts this week, too. I wonder if that trend will continue!

Next week we're doing finger-sticks and... I don't remember. Something else. Same needle sizes, though.


Also, I wrote pretty much this exact story in a letter, so if you get this story again, I am sorry? AT LEAST IT HAS LAME PICTURES TO GO WITH IT? (I have two letters to mail! IT COULD GO IN EITHER ONE. I know who I am sending it too, of course, but we can at least pretend to let it be a surprise. First, though, I need to be around when the post office is open.)




OKAY YOU CAN LOOK AGAIN I AM DONE TALKING ABOUT BLOOD.

And am about to throw another chunk of cut text at you. Because more to prove I really have written this and am just too freakishly shy to post it where I am supposed to... It's too long. I will probably try to cut it down first. JUST, YOU KNOW. I SWEAR I HAVE THIS WRITTEN I AM JUST... ANGSTING ABOUT POSTING IT OR SOMETHING.


I took an introductory level jazz dance class through my school last semester. “Yes, Jecca, that’s … very nice for you,” you may be thinking! Actually, I was asked to write an entry about it (like, half a year ago. I am nothing if not prompt, oh yes) and my experience, because maybe it would be something people might want to try, but would be too nervous to! And I thought that might be a good idea! So, uh. Here it is! Yaaay.

(This is where the LJ cut is in the word document. Because you totally care about that. Yes, you do. Stop denying it. …the text reads ”And eventually I wrote an entry about it.”)

First, a little bit about me, just so you kind of know where I’m coming from in this: I’m underweight and out of shape. I’ve never really been in shape, even when I used to be a lot more active. I have never had much in the way of stamina. I tried running cross-country for a few years, but I never actually improved. (It was massively disheartening.) I’d never taken a dance class before in my life, and I’m not one for performing or being in front of people doing anything. Also, I am extremely self-conscious of my own movements. Finally, for the second half of last year, I was seeing a therapist to help deal with, among other things, self-confidence issues (this factors in, I promise).

…When asked why I signed up for the class, I like to say I was struck by a fit of madness, because I have no better excuse.

But there I was, enrolled in a class that required me to move around for three hours (and then practice at home), learn four group dances, choreograph my own dance, and then eventually perform it all in front of the rest of the class as well as whoever else showed up for our recital at the end of the semester. It sounded like something out of a nightmare.

Here’s the thing, though: it wasn’t that bad. I actually really enjoyed it.


I was worried a lot of people in the class would be better at it than me, and that I’d end up looking like an out of shape and hopelessly uncoordinated goof. However, in the first class, we all had to introduce ourselves and say our experiences with dancing, and at least half the class had no experience (several people were taking it because they’d been watching one of those dancing reality shows and decided they wanted to give dancing a go, but had no idea where to start). Almost the only person who was actually in shape was our instructor. Right there at the beginnings, one of my worries was taken care of.

We’d start each class with a warm up. The time spent on that was pretty varied, but the activities were always pretty basic. Sometimes we’d do some lower body stretches, but usually we’d be up and moving, just doing some really simple stuff to help us improve coordination and multi-tasking our bodies. One of the common ones was just bouncing our knees a little and stepping to either side then front and back a few times, eventually adding in some slight head or arm movements. Then we’d work on our group dances for the rest of class.

As I said above, it was a three hour class, and we only got one fifteen minute break at about midway through, but it wasn’t as ridiculous as it sounds. I was always tired after class got out, but it was never really that hard to keep going through the class. And after only a few classes, I noticed I was getting better at the activities. The instructor was very encouraging to all the students, too. Her attitude led to the rest of us encouraging each other a lot, and pointing out places we thought others were doing well with, or sharing ways we’d learned the step.

About halfway through the semester, we had to start working on our own pieces. Groups were allowed, but most of us ended up performing solos simply because coordinating time to meet outside class to work on the dance was hard. Each week, at the end of class, we had to show our dance. We started simply by sharing our music, and if we had any idea what we might be doing. For the next week, and every week after, we were supposed to come up with a couple steps, until we had the entire song (or clip of the song – the solo only had to be about a minute, so most people picked longer songs and then cut them down) completed. After each person shared what they had, the group would give their input and suggestions.

While learning the group dances was difficult (I didn’t have much trouble remembering what do to, but actually convincing my body to do it was another thing entirely), it got easier over time. My therapist was helping me learn methods of dealing with my self doubting and discouragement, and that coupled with the fact that I really did know what to do next helped me to stop being so hesitant and unsure.

Choreographing my own dance, though, was probably one of the hardest things I’ve done. While I was getting better at not stopping mid-step to question myself when someone else was in charge, I was still having a lot of trouble allowing myself to make my own steps – I was worried I’d look stupid, or come up with something that was either impossible or that someone else had also come up with for their own dance. Encouragement and help from the group and my mother both helped me a lot, and after a while, I even began to feel proud of myself for going out and doing it. By the end of the semester, all of us had not only learned four dances, we’d all managed to put together one on our own – all when so many of us had no previous knowledge of dancing! And then we even managed to get up in front of a decent-sized crowd and perform them without freezing up.

(I’m not going to go into it, but our recital ended up going really well for the most part, If you want to know more about how it went, I wrote about it here.)

(HERE IS WHERE THE /LJ-CUT IS!)

Overall, even though I was very nervous about the whole thing, I thought it was a really good experience to have. Aside from the obvious bonus of getting me up and moving around a lot, it also helped me with my self-confidence and helped me feel a lot more comfortable with my own body. Once I have more free time, I want to try and find something similar, because in the end, I had a lot of fun, and I felt better from being more active. So, if you’re looking for a simpler, fun activity to get into, I’d recommend at least looking into finding a beginner’s dance class, or group, or whatever they decide to call it, somewhere.


And then someday I will actually, you know. Work up my courage and actually PUT IT IN THE COMMUNITY. OR SOMETHING. GEEZ. I've never made a community post and it intimidates me some. That is all. ...


..... yaaaay?