Moving, Parenting and Ballet-ing

This week was busy. Especially for Robert who had to work at/on a really big conference in San Fran this week (he estimated there were about 40 000 people in attendance!), as well as continue sorting out the logistics of our move here. Meanwhile, I had the little man for much of the week on my own. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I feel like having a toddler is more difficult than having a newborn baby. But my memories of having a newborn may very well be rather hazy in the fog of getting very little sleep and early parenthood in general! Regardless, by the end of last week, I thought I'd go mad(der) if I had to deal with another tantrum! And he's not even two yet!

That said, this is now the second night in our apartment! It's quite empty as we have some furniture arriving on Thursday and the rest will be here in a couple of months as it's coming by boat from Sydney. I don't think it's even left Sydney yet. But it feels so good to have a home again. It was only three weeks of being homeless, but it feels like it was so much more! We moved most of our stuff (that we have) yesterday, despite cold, rainy, windy weather. I would not recommend moving with a toddler in that type of weather. But Robert was adamant to get as much done as he could this weekend. Because he's crazy. Although our apartment is only a few blocks from the place we were temporarily staying in, he needed to get a few Ubers to transport a lot of the stuff. And me and mr toddler? We walked. Yes, through the *lovely* weather, our final trip was at about 6:30pm, and boy, did those 3-4 blocks feel like about 100. It's not fun pushing a pram with one hand and holding an umbrella in the other while wind blows you around. I believe the little guy held up better than I did; he didn't really complain while I was cursing under my breath and generally feeling quite angry for most of the time. 

But we got here in the end, and I guess you could say it was worth it... Stuff is everywhere here, but hey, at least we're in and maybe we can get back into some sort of routine and normal life!

That said, although I should have probably been helping Robert unpack and get settled, I took my first adult ballet class today!!! Some background info: I did ballet all through my childhood until it really started getting serious. And then I quit. Typical me: quitting when things get tough. I think people were a bit surprised/disappointed when I quit, but nevertheless, the quitting happened and I quit cold turkey. No more dancing at all. Ever since, I've wanted to continue, but was always too scared, self-conscious and just hesitant. Fast forward to now, San Francisco is home to a few of these awesome adult ballet schools. They're made for people who just want to dance casually. They do have classes for pros, but if you're not pro, you can just pay some monies and attend whatever classes you like. They (apparently) range from very basic to pro level. I was never able to find a school like this in Sydney. All I could ever find were schools for kids or teenagers. Or random classes run by places like Sydney Dance Co. or the Aussie Ballet, which are great, but when you're scared and nervous and haven't danced for a couple of decades, they are quite intimidating places! So if anyone is a dance teacher in Sydney and you're reading this, I really think there'd be a market for the schools like the one I went to today and the one I was looking at previously. 

I rocked up today, expecting to attend a 90 minute beginner ballet class, only to be told that they were holding an all-you-can-dance day, where you just pay $5 and go to whatever 30 minute sample classes they were running throughout the day. Which was great. And a little intimidating at the same time since so many people were there and I was already nervous as it was! Turned out I'd already missed the beginner ballet class and so got the nerve up to go to the advanced beginner class! (It was either that or the very, very basic one: for people with no knowledge of ballet, whatsoever.)

I loved it.

The class had some assumed knowledge, but hey, all that came flooding back like it was only yesterday that I'd danced, the only indication of the past couple of decades going past being that my body is much, much less flexible! Ha... Oh, and then once we moved to centre, I definitely screwed up a couple of times and made a couple of things up, but hey, it was all OK in the end and I had a blast! I'm definitely signing up and making it a weekly thing! It may have taken me a couple of decades to get back to, but I'm so happy I have. And I'm so glad these schools exist! 

Big shoutout to Robert, though, for even being OK with me buzzing off to dance when I probably should have been helping him unpack or look after the toddler. I'm totally OK with him going to whatever Magic the Gathering tournaments he likes...! Heh... (good deal, right?!)

Life has been busy but good here. Loved the ballet, love our apartment and the city is pretty cool: one of the coolest things, for me, is that art is a thing here. There seems to be so much more appreciation for the arts here than Sydney, which I just love. It's so inspiring and I can't wait to be more a part of it. :-) 

I think I should go sleep now. The toddler hasn't been sleeping well with all this change and I've been required to get up multiple times throughout the night again. Sigh... it's like having a newborn again! 

xoxo