Sass and Strum

Last fall, I mentioned that I had taken on a few new hobbies to get me into the swing of focusing on me. I took swimming lessons for the summer and signed up for ballet and guitar in the fall. I spent months running from one class to another and there was rarely a day where I had absolutely nothing going on for the entire day. It grew to be exhausting after a while, but it served it's purpose: to get out of the house and slowly crawl out of my depression. It was a joy to meet others and, even if it only lasted an hour or so, to forget about the mess that my life was at the moment.

I was thrilled when my family and friends came to see me at my first ballet performance in December. (Our choreography was set to the music from the Spanish dance in Swan Lake.) I walked out wishing I had done a better job than I did, but had to remind myself that I was a total newbie and had accomplished so much after just six week's worth of practice. A couple weeks before the dance recital, I concluded the end of my first guitar course at the New York City Guitar School. My classmates and I chose Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" for the required performance held on our final class and even though I love that song, I wanted to throw up on myself all day. The idea of singing AND making sure I got the chords right AND doing this in front of strangers just made me sick. Thankfully, those jitters gave way once my bandmates and I started jamming and it was all over too quickly.

I have to admit that those fun activities have fallen to the wayside since then. I took the guitar course that followed, but without the people I'd connected with in the previous class, I quickly lost interest. That and I was officially tired from taking on too many distractions and not resting enough (I was sick on and off for a good chunk of four months). I clearly overdid it, but I still miss learning fun, new skills. I did get some swimming lessons in when my boyfriend (!) and I took a cruise to the Bahamas with friends last month and then added a second leg to our trip with a stay in Miami. (Yes, I'll tell you all about it soonest!) In the interest of saving money, I stopped attending ballet class and instead took a few television production courses that were all free of charge via the local public access station. As for guitar, I still dream of getting my own instrument and plucking away at those strings with the help of YouTube videos and the talented musicians I get to call friends.