Colors of Spring

This is just a sampling of some of the colors that are starting to appear here in Houston.

I would strongly suggest going for a walk... Nat and I have taken several exploratory trips around parks and similar places (this one was taken by a park between my apartment and HCC). The two big ones - Hermann and Memorial - have their own strengths. Hermann has the reflecting pool and the large pond and open space. I miss the water when I'm at Memorial, but it has the forested area so, if you find those places where you can't hear the freeway, it almost feels like you are on a mountain or some wilderness area. There are plenty of other places to go see as well though. Go explore! It's the perfect time of year to find something new! I love just heading somewhere new and getting lost. Natalie and I have made this into a dating habit for us. We might just take a walk and find something, or sit down with a map and see where we might be headed and what we can do when we get there (we got locked in a park at lake Houston a few weeks ago doing this). It's fun, it's free, it's relaxing, and you always can find something that you enjoy (exploring that is, not getting locked in a park).

Here we have Nat, who found an engraving of her home planet, showing us how they sit there...

Sean

Spring!

It was a beautiful day here in Houston today. Nat picked me up for church, but came early so that we had a few extra minutes to stop at Hermann park. It was perfect today. Warm but not yet hot. Clear skies. Birds singing. A gentle breeze. I've lived from California to Japan, and I've discovered that some places feel... Stagnant. Like the small, mosquito ponds, that develop when a creek dries up. But others have a feeling of life. It isn't one thing in particular. The sound of kids. The colors. The smell of street vendors food. The different languages you hear as you walk through an area. That's how today was, and I loved getting to stop and enjoy it, while sitting by the reflecting pond and holding my Natalie's hand. I'm grateful to live in a country where we have such freedom of personality. Whether it was watching the bride getting her picture taken, or the oriental couple wearing an interesting mix of eastern and western styled clothing, it was nice to see such a broad mixture of cultures.

The other thing that was prevalent in the park was families out for picnics. In fact, the park was so filled with them that we spent half of our few minutes there trying to find somewhere to park. It was nice to see so many families. It made me miss my own. Especially with my siblings headed to Chile, it would have been nice to have seen and spent some time with them and my parents today for a picnic. Ah well. Such is life.

We went to church, which was great, but then headed to Memorial park since we only got a few minutes at Hermann. Everyone was there. I was surprised that we did not come across more bikers - though there were still quite a few. Everyone seemed to be walking though. And they all seemed to bring their baby, their dogs, and their two best friends. We didn't do too much. My side was hurting by the time we got there. It's slowly getting better. But it's not there quite yet. Not only that but I'm still sore from PK yesterday. This actually makes me quite frustrated. Why? Because I should be in good enough shape to not really notice much from yesterday. We didn't work our legs much, but my legs are quite sore. This makes me mad because I've been dancing for the past two months. With as much dancing as I'm doing, my legs should have no problem... But I guess I'm just used to more physically challenging dance classes. I fell in love with dance because with it I could throw my body around and test and push my physical limits. I don't like prancing around dance. I want something with some meat to it... So I feel a little jipped to be honest. But such is life. It's PK season again, and I'm sure I'll be back to my normal level of physical fitness in no time.

With all the walking and exploring we did, we did manage to get at least some extra fun stuff in though...

Side pain, plus my first day with Houston Parkour

I have decided that I need to become a cartoonist. Too many uptight people get offended at cartoonists. I tend to offend certain people. At least if I were a cartoonist I'd have an excuse... Plus other people would get a kick out of it.

- If you were offended by my last comment then... (finish this thought yourself). -

So, my side... I get up in the morning in mild pain - after a shower and pain reliever I feel normal. I go about the day and in the afternoon it starts hurting mildly. By evening the pain really sucks... So I think I really do need to be a little more careful with myself. I might head to the doctors if it doesn't start getting better soon.

Speaking of being more careful with myself... I went with Nat to Houston Parkour today. I took it carefully with myself because of my side. Soooo... First impressions (keeping in mind that these may all be completely wrong - I'll update and write what is really up after I've been around them a little while longer)... I enjoyed the people. Everyone was nice. The warm up was ok. It was fun to start off with, but was missing a structure and wasn't quite thorough. But it's possible that they work certain areas in rotation... The problem was that the lack of a structured leadership meant that once it petered down, it stayed low energy with little going on (the 3 minutes of rain we got may have contributed to this, but it was mostly caused by the lack of structure). Things got going again a little bit with some creative focused movement, but the farther into the jam we got, the more and more people ended up standing around. The youtube videos probably aren't a great example of everything that they have going on, but it seems that there is a focus on practice of single specific movements, creative movement, and gymnastics, but they forget to put them to use in certain ways that are needful for a well rounded parkour practice. I see a lot of people performing one movement, perhaps followed by a second, but I am very surprised to see that a group that seems to have members with at least some level of competency in it, has videos of gym stunts and single movement mastery - but not a single video with a longer flow, hooking movements together. Likewise, I was once again surprised to discover that the jam didn't have a single flow that was presented in it - nor were there others off practicing alone creating their own flows. And I, for one, believe that is one of the most essential elements of a good parkour practice. The creation of a flow trains you to adapt each movement in a new way. It is by making fast transition flows that you learn grace and ease of movement, while being able to generate power with little or no preparation (ie: you don't get to run up to it, you only get a single set for example). Most importantly, that type of a series of movements allows you to really learn how to control that power. It is the combination of those things that allows a tracuer to move through obstacles with "flow" or grace and ease. Similarly, long flows, and other training methods all have elements that are essential to training for PK. Practicing - even mastering - each "move" does not a traceur make. I left feeling as if I had not yet done Parkour. I had exercised and prepared myself. I had fun with the creative movement section (I would do similar things if I were getting ready to choreograph a site specific work). I had even practiced some moves. But I had not strung them together in either a run or a flow. I had not had the opportunity to experience hooking one movement into the next, into the next... I had not gotten up from a roll with my eyes focused on my next target, my legs already sprinting before I'm completely upright, my body adjusting as I gauge the distance, to complete the next movement, etc... I felt as if I had done all the movement and physical things which surround and relate to the art of Parkour - without ever actually doing Parkour.

As for the group... I don't know them very well yet of course, but I have been around such groups enough that I'm pretty sure my impression of them is fairly accurate. There is the core group. They have some experience and skill, but are still green. They know that they have something, and they know that the something is going somewhere. They even know that they are supposed to figure out where it is going and how to get it there. But they haven't quite figured out what that something is yet, where it is going, or - since they don't know those things - how they are supposed to get it there. This makes me a little anxious actually... The reason is simple, I've been doing Parkour for almost half of my life. I'm not necessarily great. There are things I'm learning new all the time. But I have a good deal of experience, and I'm really not that bad at PK. It is a part of who I am. What that means is that I have a very good idea of what parkour is to me, and what it means in my life. Where I want to go with it. What I want to do with it. I see this group and I think I have a lot to offer. They have skill. They just need direction. The reason that makes me nervous is that they have a group that has been built around certain things. They may not have a perfect vision of where they are going - but they have some ideas. They have mentors. They have favorite YouTube videos. They have a general direction that they have been going in all along. They even have followers. Such groups are always going somewhere... And they have been going somewhere since they first started meeting and saying: "Hey, lets try this." They just don't have a clear enough vision of where they are going yet. Like driving with a foggy windshield. You get the general idea, but the details come later. So if I jump in and say: "Hey, this is what these guys did, and this is what I did, and this is the history, and if you did this you would probably do really well with this..." etc. Then, if I'm pointing them in the wrong direction for their group, then I can cause them a lot of frustration. For example... I am very much into Parkour philosophy. It governs a lot of my person PK practice. I saw a couple of guys who came later who seemed to be a little more into showboating... So, if this group is headed in a freerunning/showboating/etc direction, and I come and try to point them in a direction based on my philosophy, then it just won't work. And I think they are great, if my ideas and philosophy are different from theirs then I will find others with my attitude, and this group can go and do what they want. I see no reasons to rock this boat... Of course, if they do harmonize with how I feel about PK, then I really might have a few things to offer (or I could just have an inflated ego).

But then again, there is a pretty good possibility that I'm wrong and they know exactly what they are doing and where they are going and I just caught them on a down day (I'm not wrong. It's possible. But I'm not).

All in all: It's a really good group with some great people. They lack structure, and certain things in their practice (from what I have seen so far) that really need to be incorporated - but as they figure out what they have and where they are going, those problems will fix themselves. I left disappointed because I really hadn't done much PK - even though I had done everything else but parkour, but I'm going back and have a feeling that this group will be worth it to stick around with a while and see what happens. If I can contribute to the group then AWESOME. If not then I'll continue to do my own parkour practice and will find those with whome I can contribute.

Move,
Sean

Life Rules

I am an interesting mix of interests I have discovered. I love the opportunities I receive to experience new things - whether it be taking a class in a subject I know nothing about, eating a new kind of food, or enjoying a cultural performance. I'm also an organizer... My room is currently a mess, and that makes me very unhappy. Every few minutes I mentally go back to the note to myself to clean it because I won't be happy until it is arranged and organized. My journals are organized, not by time frame when they were written, but by the subject matter of which I am writing. Even my "adventures" must fit within a certain schedule within my life (Natalie is the same way, some of our biggest relationship problems occur - I recently realized - when the process by which I quantify my time and energy, and the process by which she does the same thing, yield very different results).

So I go through this process of "Clarify, Quantify, and Qualify - and then compartmentalize." When life gives me an experience that I want to remember as a life lesson, I try to simplify it down to the most concise statement that I can create defining that lesson. I call those statements my "rules." I didn't mean to start coming up with them. In fact, it has only been recently that I realized that I lived my life by a "code" so to speak. The list isn't long, but it has been integral to every major decision I have made in the past few years, and many of the smaller decisions as well. As I am making certain decisions now, dealing with problems, and individuals in my life - as well as changing certain life goals - I keep coming back to several of these rules to help me make certain decisions. I'm not a guru, but here are a couple of my rules:

1). You have a limited amount of time and energy: Discern, Prioritize, Allot, and Eliminate.

          This is, by far, the single most important rule, and one of the oldest, I have discovered. It seems to have a lot of new layers every time I go back to it I learn something new. It came about in High School. I discovered that there were a group of girls who would cause any type of drama they could to get my attention. I didn't recognize it as drama at first. I gave in to it to a certain extent. So I realized that by giving in to other peoples drama I waste my own time and energy. So, the rule I learned was my "Zero Tolerance Policy." Real life problems were fine, but drama for the sake of drama was not to be given in to. (This rule seems to make people mad...)
          On my mission I discovered another rule. It's simple and shouldn't need much explaining: As a part of human nature, we make time for the people and the things which are important to us, and excuses for everything else.
          These both melded together in college. It was then that I began to realize that a lot of what I needed to do (schoolwork for instance) was interrupted by the things which seemed important at the time, or were fun, or easy. I had a realization of something which I had already known in my head, but never had to apply to life, it was this: In life, I have two resources which are very precious, very limited, and easy to squander. Time, and Energy. I was busy. I had things that needed to get done. If I was to do them successfully, then I was going to have to decide what was important, and make sure that I allot my time and energy to those things which were most important before I give it to other things. If I don't then I would never get them done (there is always something else that I could be doing).
          With a little bit of time (remember, I wasn't consciously making rules, it was just a set of things that I had experienced and used to guide my other experiences) it started to apply to everything else in my life and has become what it now is.
          I have discovered that this applies to almost everything in my life. It has become the measuring stick for my life. Hate, for example, I have discovered just isn't worth the time and energy it takes to maintain it. There are people whom I know who I feel like I might have reasons to feel strong negative emotions for... But why? I don't really need to. I make a mental sticky note reminding myself to be very wary of that person for whatever the reason is, and then move on. I simply don't have the time and energy to waste on something that, quite frankly, is going to do absolutely nothing for me in the long run. It won't move me forward towards any of my goals. It'll just sap my ability to perform in other areas of my life.
          So... Discern what you spend your time and energy on now (a journal can be good for this, most people have absolutely no idea what they actually waste their resources on). Prioritize what is really important. Whether it is going to school, learning a new language, making sure that you get to go fishing once a month, or spending quality time with your family. If it isn't a priority, then just let it fall off your list. It's easier to let go of things when you just decide to let them go. Allot your resources (time and energy) on those things. How much do you have of your resources? How much are each of your priorities worth? Spend your resources on those things (yes, some amount of recreation should not make you feel guilty if you have it on your list). And finally Eliminate... Everything that sucks up your resources and distracts you from what is really important. New flash: Farmville is not more important than spending quality time with your kids. If you are spending 10 hours a week on farmville, and 2 hours with your family, then get rid of the distraction. You won't miss it (be it farmville, or too much tv, or even reading, or texting you BFF, etc). This is the hard one, but do it. You'll be happier. Whatever is distracting you from your real priorities, then eliminate it. Period. Don't be gentle. Don't try to balance it - you won't succeed. Just get rid of it.
          And then, once you've done it once, do it every single day. It makes life easier... Of course, that's just my point of view. Feel free to disagree.


2). Follow the path of least regret.
          This one is fairly simple compared to the last one. It tends to be the piece of advice I give most often to people when asked what I think. If you are going to regret getting a degree in physics when you want one in dance, then get the one in dance. If you are going to regret not breaking up with your boyfriend because you don't want him to feel bad, then break up with him. If you are going to regret not taking a job on the other side of the world then take the job. If you are going to regret that you didn't go back to school to learn to sing then go to school. Even if you are 65. You aren't getting any younger. Don't do what everyone else wants you to do. And don't do what you just think that you are supposed to do (I'm not saying to disregard your values. Do that and you'll regret it which would defeat the whole purpose - but don't give in to the idea that such-and-such is what I am supposed to be).
          And I don't use this as an escape route to get out of things I don't want to do. This is the tool I use to say, what do I really want? It turns out that most of the time I actually end up taking larger risks and working harder because of it. I put my heart on the platter and say that it's better to try and fail than to go through my whole life wishing I had tried. It's not always easy (neither is the last rule I put up, and they both require large doses of self honesty - which is something else that our culture seems to lack). This tool is especially helpful when you have to make a decision between two or more things. It is extremely helpful when you have a lot of voices pulling you in different directions and you need something to help you decide what decision to make. Follow the path which YOU will most likely regret the least - and don't look back.

So... those have been my thoughts, or some of them, as winter turns to spring here in Houston. Maybe not terribly wise, but they have been very practical in keeping my life going in the directions that make me the happiest.

Sean

New Year, New Goals

Well, 2011. It sounds so futuristic... What ever happened to the 90's? They weren't my favorite time to be honest, but it doesn't seem like it's been 11+ years to me. Time flies when you are having fun...

Recap to 2010... Work at the Henderson. Met Natalie and fell in love. Decorated her car for valentines. Not enough dance. Not enough dance. Not enough dance. Snuck into the Henderson (with permission) and danced on the stage (many many many times). Taught dance. Taught some more dance. Choreographed. Taught some more dance (for the college, for the high school, for D4H). Put on an amazing end of the year dance show at SJC in the Henderson. The dances were great, the dancers were great and had grown so much, and it was a lot of fun. Worked sound, worked lights, stage managed, and back to sound. Taught Parkour for the college, hated the red tape. JUMP Farmington with the Parkour Conspiracy! Taking classes just for fun. A week of improv and then NOW THE SHOW in SLC with Graham Brown, Brandin Steffensen, Brad Garner and more! Craziness as I try to move. Trying to pack Roberts stuff into our truck. Breaking down on the way to Dallas. Can't find anywhere to live! Finally, we found an apartment and moved in. Hoofing it through Houston. Free theater shows. Work at Lucky Strike bowling. Work at the Masquerade Theater. Random techie jobs around Houston. Trekking out to Cypress. Running spot here. Running Spot there. Choreographing dances in my kitchen. Giving dance lessons to Natalie. Having a phone that fell apart a little more everyday. Natalie taking me all over for birthday adventures! Loving learning Mandarin Chinese. Tons and tons of food for Thanksgiving. Playing dominoes with our neighbors - Nat and I officially became the pet white people that they love. They feed us soul food:) Going to the beach and movies with Nat. Nat performs for Juries so well that they have to pull her aside afterwords and tell her that she completely left everyone in the dust and blew them away! (She was amazing!) Walking and running next to the bayou. Discovering a new, outdoorsy type of park that we enjoyed walking through. Christmas shopping for the family and Nat. I got some grood gifts for people I think. Doctor Who addiction. Best Christmas and New Year ever! And so much more...

This year was pretty amazing. But I have a feeling that next year will be better. My mother sat everyone down and had us write down goals for last year that she put up in her bathroom. We did the same thing today. I accomplished my goals for last year. My goals for this year include getting my own apartment (not meaning to be rude to anyone, but I'm ready to be done with having a roommate. It was fun when I was younger, but I'm getting to the point where I want my own space). Organizing a improv/site specific dance group that performs "intrusion dances" (A dance in a non-theater space, where the audience doesn't know that they are about to participate in a performance - but in a good way) monthly. And producing/choreographing at least three dance productions by the end of the year. I'll keep updates coming.

I look forward to the new year with a great deal of optimism. I'm going to be taking tech classes again. I should be working with the China Cat dance company starting next month (updates will be forthcoming). I have found a performance space for my own works. And am working things out for work. My best friend and I will be going to school together at the end of the year... and so many more things to look forward to and be grateful for.

I'm headed back to Houston tonight. I've missed my family, and will miss them again. But such is life. Nice thing about family is that they are stuck with you.

Thank you to all of you who have affected my life so positively this year. And to all of those terrible, creative, beautiful, ugly, kind, mean, and deeply human people who have made my life what it is. I wish you love and peace. I take the good you've given me. I forgive the negative. And I hope you have an amazing year this year.

Dance and Dance again,
Sean

P.S. Stay tuned. I'm going to start posting my personal thoughts and reviews of various dance productions. From live performances, to youtube. The point will be to highlight various choreographic tools and options, for anyone interested in growing as a choreographer, or in just understanding dance better.

The Payoff...

I remember, as a kid, always knowing what I wanted to be. First it was a doctor, a policeman, or a firefighter. Then I fell in love with ice skating - though we never had the money to let me take lessons. I loved watching gymnastics and ice skating on tv. My parents like to tell people funny stories about how they signed me up for dance classes to improve my coordination - but my desire to ice skate and do gymnastics was as prominent a factor as my inability to walk over a clean floor without tripping (it is still true, however, that whenever I was intentionally performing a physical activity I was incredibly coordinated - whether it was parkour, or climbing a tree). And so they signed me up for my first dance class at the Virginia Tanner Creative Dance studio. They didn't have the money, and I was much too young to contribute, but they did it anyways. My first class was great. My teacher kept pointing out how high I jumped to the rest of the class, and said to jump that high. I remember going home and wondering why we needed a class for that because I did all of it on the playground in front of our apartment. In fact, I was slightly dissapointed to learn that the movement I had created to mimic skateboarders was, in fact, already created and given the name of a chasse which meant "to chase." There were many other such discoveries. I was, I believe, a choreographer before I was a dancer. My first few classes were fun. But I felt awkward among all the girls. All the girls who were so much better than me and had friends in the class. I was the new kid. And I was the only boy. People are surprised when I tell them that I hated my very first dance class. But I did. I started to dread Tuesdays and Thursdays when we met. I skipped too many classes. My parents would get unhappy and so I started finding other ways to get out of them. I'd hide my dance pants and spend forever trying to find them - and only succeed in "finding" them when I knew it was too late to go. My parents made me go anyways sometimes. I'd pretend to get sick. I'd do anything I could to get out of it. But I still had to go most of the time. I loved dancing. But I hated being so much worse than everyone else (I had yet to learn the lesson that to do anything well, you must first allow yourself to do it badly). I felt so awkward with all the girls, that going to dance was just humiliation.

So... How did I end up a dancer? It was simple. It happened in one single conversation. Miss Ashley, my teacher, decided to reach out and encourage me. She is my hero for that - taking the time to say something to a kid that she could have easily passed up and forgotten. It was the end of the session. My parents had already said that they wouldn't make me take the next session. At Virginia Tanner we were getting ready for our "big" end of summer performance (it had something crazy like a thousand or two kids) and then the session would be over, when she had a conversation with my parents inviting me to audition for the Childrens Dance Theater! She said I was very talented and that she really hoped I would do it. Looking back, it seems funny, but that was all I needed. Ashley had been my teacher, and I idolized her because of how beautiful she was when she danced. So if she said I was talented, then it was so - and I just hadn't known it before. Dance was now something I was allowed to love. And so I did. I also auditioned. I remember the audition in vivid detail. So vividly that I can tell you about the movement game we played that was based on leap frog. You had a partner and had to repeat their last movement, and then do your own to get past them. They would, in turn, repeat your last movement, and do their own. Thus, you would do a leap frog dance around the room. I was partnered with a boy who was the younger sibbling of another dancer who would become my hero (Graham Brown). I can only recall the boys name sometimes - though I spent alot more time with him and his family over the years - especially Ginger, his sister - and should remember it - but I recall in crisp detail almost all of our duet around the studio.

I was accepted into CDT. I was ungainly. Uncoordinated. Unimaginative. Had bad technique. And was not creative enough. I was that way for most of my life at CDT as I remember it. I had a very hard time in my class. The other boys there were accepted easily for the most part. But I always felt like an outsider. Not that it really was the classes fault. They had been together for years. But it was difficult for me. Some of them actively disliked me. A certain girl, in fact, cornered me after class one day and told me that everyone hated me and that I should quit CDT. But I loved dance. So I stayed. I never completely lost my discomfort around my class. I was never myself in that group. I always felt far too awkward. It simply didn't work well. But that's ok. I got better. And I loved them because, quite simply, I got to dance with them. And in time, I made other friends. Friends like Josie Marine and Kiran Matthews - both of whom I still love with my whole soul. There were teachers as well, whom I believe God knew that I needed. Joni Urri-Wilson took me under her wing immediately. From her I learned to dance roots and wings - and gave me roots and wings as
well. I learned how to teach creative movement. From her I learned about juggling a million things at once and still taking time for the student that really needs you. She taught me technique. And she listened to my dreams and pains. She was, for many years, one of my greatest pillars of support. She still guides me, though she doesn't know it. I can't teach without relying on what she taught me first. The next big one was Misha Bergman. I don't know if she ever really liked me all that much to be honest - which makes me laugh as I type because of how much she effected me for good. I had done improv before and loved it, but she turned every class into a game - while still requiring me to start acting a little bit more my age than I did at times. It was here that my love for dance was sealed. It was in her class that my creativity was unlocked more than anywhere else. It was there that I started to appreciate those people who required a certain professional attitude. Then I got Tina... Tina Misaka was already my hero - and I don't know if I could really ever explain all that she taught me. If Joni taught me about love and perseverance, and Misha taught me about creativity, then Tina taught me about respect, responsibility, and quiet passion. She also gave one of the best technique classes you could find, and was an incredible choreographer.

So, I was taken care of. But CDT was still hard for me. My awkwardness caused a certain amount of pain. I went through a phase where I came home from every class and cried. But I couldn't quit. Dancing was in my blood now. I lived for it. So I kept going. I kept dancing in walmart, and the parking lot. I danced with Bene Arnold (who became another important mentor). I danced with RDT. I danced with Ballet West. I danced with Papa Chuck. I danced and danced and danced. Even when it was hard. Even when the boys were competitive and the girls were mean. Even when I was told I would be given a certain part and then had it taken away. Even when we didn't have enough money - which was most of the time. I worked to help pay for it (even when I could only get a paper route). My family made sacrifices for me. Teachers at CDT even helped at times. I helped teach classes at CDT and VT for most of my life there. I stayed in homeschool so that I could have the time. I passed up JROTC, though I wanted to do it, so that I could maintain my dancing. I passed up the spot I was offered in HS football because it was too time consuming. I didn't run for an OA Lodge VC position so that I would have the time to dance.

And so my life has been... But with all the work, and all the sacrifices from so many people, it turns out there is a huge payoff. I am able to have a life doing the thing which I so love. I dance. I choreograph. And I dance more. Every day, lately, new opportunities develop. I'm booked with various things for a year. I have more things developing. Not only that but I am the person who can't ask for much else in my life. I am who I am, in large part, because of those family members, and friends, and teachers who have worked so hard to give me the blessings which I enjoy so abundantly now. I am grateful. I am happy. I love the life which I lead. I love dance more than I ever have. I am blessed. Thanks go to God, and to all of you who have given me all that I have now, and helped me to become the person that I am right now!

Move and move again
Sean

Weather change, job change, and I am choreographing again!

I am a warm person - I have always told others. I hate the cold. Or at least that's what I say. In all truth, I love all four seasons. I love the warmth - but there comes a time every year when it just needs to start getting cold to keep me happy. So, as Houston has begun to cool down, I'm loving it! Farmington never really had much of an autumn - so it is nice to be somewhere that does. It isn't cold yet. Though a slightly chilled breeze tends to linger in the air. The leaves are just beginning their transformation - with little bits of yellow seeping into their green. People are wearing coats instead of shorts. It is, in short, beautiful.

I finally have another job. I can't really complain, I got one in theater after only having lived here for three months. I'm very excited. They seemed like great people, I like the environment, and they have a dance space! I am hoping that I'll also be able to help with dance for them, and possibly even perform with them. We shall see I guess. I will probably work there a couple days next week - and start working full time the week after that. If all else fails, I will at least be working in theater again - doing something that I love to do. And possibly able to use the dance floor every now and again.

I've also gotten some opportunities with local theaters. I worked overhire as a spot op for HCC last week. I'm doing the same thing for Lone Star next week. And Lone Star is considering me as a choreographer for their spring musical.

Speaking of which - Rose is trying to get me to stay at Lucky Strike for just a few nights a week. My instant reaction is to say no. I like Rose - but I'm tired of all the drama that goes on at that place everyday. Without saying anything bad about them, I think my emotional health might be better if I said no. But then my wallet reminds me that I have bills to pay... And the two nights a week would, hopefully, save me from some of the drama, but still pay me enough to help me get by. So... I haven't decided. We shall see what happens...

I am choreographing again. Those who know me know what I mean when I say that. I have dances that are fighting to get out. I need a knew dance notebook. I run around making notes about dance. Choreography ideas - from full fledged dances, to single moments. Notes on technique. Notes on teaching. Reminders to study certain movement relationships. Thoughts on dance theory. And more and more fleshing out of specific dances. My body is moving on it's own. I find myself dancing in the kitchen, in the bathroom, at work... And in the in between spaces. It's time to find somewhere to dance and start my own dance projects again... I am considering starting to write a weekly post on this blog that would deal with ways to find choreographic ideas - or perhaps a simple guide to dance choreography. I'm not sure that it would interest anyone - but I'm not really writting for anyone but myself now so that's ok.

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I am here in Houston. I will miss spending it with my family, but I am proud of having achieved my goal to have moved back out by my 25th birthday. I should be taking responsible care of my life, not living off of my parents, by this time in my life. And it's working - so I'm happy. I will, however, miss my family tomorrow.

I am off to enjoy this beautiful, chilly, day before I have to go to work.
Move and Move again,
Sean