My Body Will Not Listen!

I first heard this song about a week or so ago.  From the moment I heard it, I knew I was going to come up with some choreography.  I would say about 75% of my choreography is created in my head completely before I ever even try it out.  I will literally listen to a song over and over again dozens of times until I have the moves down pat...in my head!  When I get a chance, I actually DO the moves to the music.  That is where my final tweeking takes place and I make sure that all the moves I came up with flow just right!

It works really well for me...until now!  I created what I envision to be a pretty good warm up...I think it could be number three in my set or one of my mild breather songs...very mild...I have the moves upstairs but cannot get my feet to work!  This dang knee injury and not being able to bend it really bites!  I have only ever done the moves in my head...and my car.  I tried to do some of the steps but not being able to do all the moves, I could not tell if it really worked all together.  I feel like part still needs some work but without being able to dance I just cannot be certain!

I may not be able to dance but that still does not keep me from being passionate about what I love!  I am excited about the next big things coming from Zumba.  There is a new Ab video game coming out, check it out here!  Tomorrow morning Vanilla Ice is going to be on The View previewing his Zumba remix of "Ice, Ice Baby".  Once my knee gets better I will have my Sentao routines down so I can introduce this new program to my area!  Okay, now it is time for me to take care of my knee and try not to vomit...I think I slept in the fetal position last night.  It hurts!

Until next time!

Something From The Heart

When it comes down to it, I want it to be you and me.

Can you see it?

Sitting on the beach?

Bundled up in the snow?

Driving down a back road to nowhere?

With you by my side, I will go anywhere!

What Is Your Song?

Back in February, I wrote about how hearing certain songs can take you back.  Relive old memories of good or bad times.  Remind you of a specific event or person.  This is my favorite song RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT!  I posted the video on Facebook, Twitter and Google + yesterday once I figured out what it was called and who it was by.  Now for your viewing pleasure, "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line.

I really love this video.  Well I love the video because I love the song!  I seriously could listen to it on repeat all day long.  I have not found a song like that since the beginning of summer and I first heard "Shinin' On Me" by Jerrod Neimann.  Wait...you have never heard that one either?  Oh boy...here...watch now!

Now that you are all caught up...from the first moment I heard "Cruise" I had one specific person in mind.  Even though I have not even laid eyes on him since I first heard this song, he is the one I think of when I hear it.  I get all girly and start day dreaming about just taking off and driving into the middle of nowhere together and just getting away and escaping and just be with each other!

The way I feel when I hear this song is amazing.  I find a smile on my face and I can close my eyes and see his which, of course, makes me smile even bigger.  I really like this guy and I cannot even begin to find the actual words to tell him that.  I do not even  know him that well but I want to.  I want to know him.  I want to spend time with him.  I want to feel his arms around me again.  Once was NOT enough.  It left me wanting more.

It really is an unexpected feeling to be honest.  I have been very firm on the fact that I do not want to be in a relationship yet I find myself yearning for one.  If things work out the way I hope, I should get to see him again soon and you better believe that I am going to relish every moment that I am in his presence!

Until next time!

Up, Up, and Away!

It has been a long week and today is only my Wednesday!  Remember when I had one of "THOSE" days?  Not really?  Let me refresh your memory here!  Today seems to be another one.

My head is killing me!  Seriously...it feels like it is going to split open at any given moment...or I am going to vomit everywhere.  These are a few of my current stressers that I know are the reasons behind these nasty headaches:

A)  The fact that the VA (Veteran's Affairs) overpaid me and sent my money into an account that my name is not on and I have ZERO access to (which means having to talk to my ex husband...and only via email so there is a paper trail if he decides to go into douche bag mode).

B)  I am enrolled in an English Literature class being assigned to read work that looks like English and sounds like English but when you put the individual words together to form phrases and sentences, I am screwed!

C)  Speaking of school, I got my work schedule for this coming week and I am only working 17 hours...which after taxes will not even cover my payment for my class let alone the other bills that I have (car insurance, cell phone, credit card, storage unit, and rent) or the fact that I have to put gas in my car to get to work and I need to be able to feed myself something with a better nutritional value than Top Ramen (only beef flavored thank you)!

D)  Then there is my knee!  I do not have the added stress of trying to figure out how to pay for the X-rays, MRIs, Physical Therapy, and doctor's visits since that is all covered by the VA BUT those people are so damn slow!  I originally hurt my knee 8/12/12.  I was first seen by the Physician's Assistant (because my doctor was on vacation) on 8/13/12.  I had X-rays on 8/14/12.  A week later I went back in, with my pain still as high as ever, and demanded an MRI because even though he (the PA) put in a referral for PT, I was not able to get scheduled until 10/15/12.  Seriously!  After several messages I obtained another number for the Radiology department at the VA Hospital in Seattle and got scheduled for Friday 8/31/12.  After playing phone tag for over a week, I finally found out that the MRI came back normal...so I am in pain for no apparent reason but we are going to do PT for four to six weeks and when that does not work (which I highly doubt it will) then I get my MRI with contrast (which I should have fought for in the first place).  We are looking at down time until December at the earliest!

I had actually intended on writing posts about my knee and the whole VA overpaid fiasco but have not gotten to it yet!  However the VA thing is still unfolding so there is PLENTY of time!  Now you see why I have a constant headache!

Then factor in a person.  We have all met that one person right?  The one where just the slightest glance makes your head hurt...yep.  I have one of those people.  Friday I had a headache from the moment I saw this person until the moment he left.  Really...like as soon as he was gone, my headache faded away!  I guess that will be one up side of only working two days this week.

I had a conversation with one of the company's customers today who owns his own plane.  He offered to take me flying if I ever wanted to go and said that his plane has dual controls so if I wanted to, I could get some hands on time.  I politely thanked him but told him that I prefer to just look out the window.  I do not want the responsibility that comes with flying a plane.

I told this conversation to one of my co-workers and told her that being up in the air is really my happy place.  From start up to shut down, my eyes are out the window.  I love to watch the runway fade on take-off.  I love to just look out the window at the cities below.  I love to be above the clouds where the sun is shining and the sky is the bluest of blue.  I love watching the runway get closer and closer until touch down.  After describing that to her, all I have been thinking about is getting up in the air.  I need to.  It is just so peaceful.  I hardly talk when I am in the air.  I physically have to force myself to talk when someone is with me.  Does not matter if it is in a little puddle jumper or a commercial flight.  I just clear my head of any and all thoughts and worries.

Prepare yourself for what I am about to say...it will shock anyone who knows me...it works better than Zumba.  There...I said it!  Flying leaves me with the high even after the flight is over...it lasts for at least a couple of hours.  Anyone remember my flight in the Super Caravan?  Just talking about that flight relieves some stress temporarily!

Now that I have avoided all aspects of my class this week I should at least make an attempt at responding to a classmate or two.  Until next time!

Can You Read?

It is a simple enough question, right?  Can you read?  I can read.

But there is an underlying question, you see.  Can you understand what you are reading?  Not always.

When reading for fun or pleasure (and ladies I use that term loosely...hahaha), you might stumble across a word you might be unfamiliar with.  You might not know how to pronounce it or know what it means.  However there are a few ways to figure out what it means.

• Read the full sentence...you might get the general idea.
• Dictionary.com...not only will you find out the meaning BUT (and this is what I love about it), for most words anyway, it will actually SPEAK the word so you know how to pronounce it!  BTW...I have it downloaded to my Droid 2 from the Google Play Store (I was going to attach a link but as I am currently logged in I do not know if the link would work).  Oh and it is FREE!!!
• Even though I always have my phone with me, sometimes I could care less on having the word spoken to me, in which case I love reading from my Nook Color.  All I have to do is press the screen at the word I want to look up and simply press the "Look Up" button and it will give me the definition.
• Just a side note...it really drives me INSANE when the word is used as part of the definition.  Really people?  I do not know what the word means and you are going to use it as part of the definition?  That would be like the definition of SLEEP being TO SLEEP...okay but what does it mean...(I seriously just spent like a stupid 10+ minutes trying to come up with something cleaver and that is really what I came up with...it has been a long day!)

When reading for the sake of learning, you will come across terms that you do not know but can look them up, like I mentioned above or in the glossary if your book has one.  In my case I am just screwed.

I have officially completed my first week of English Literature: Beowulf to 18th Century as of 5:59am tomorrow morning (6am is when week two will start).  As I am a VERY slow reader, I wanted to start reading next week's material this week while it is just the introduction week and no real work is being done.  I have three reading assignments:

1. "Beowulf"
2. "Caedmon's Hymn"
3. "The Dream of the Rood"

Prior to this class, I thought that Beowulf was an era of writing in English Literature.  I did not know that it was a poem (if it did not have punctuation I would relate it to Homer's "The Odyssey"...except I understand that one) originally written in Old English and translated.  Same with "Caedmon's Hymn" (which I have not started yet).  These were translated into English yet I have absolutely no idea what I have read!  Seriously!!!

I just came to the realization though that the link to "Beowulf" in my classroom (check it out here and tell me if you can understand it...)and the eBook that I downloaded from the library are translated by someone name Gummere...HOWEVER when I was having issues trying to figure out how to download my eBook from the library to my computer and onto my Nook, I placed a hold on the hard copy the library had and I just pulled it from my backpack and discovered that it is translated by someone else...Seamus Heaney...and when I opened it up I could read it AND understand it!!!  It may not be the version that my professor wants me to read but it is the one that I can understand and, damn it, it is the one I am going to read!

This post just too a turn with this new discovery!  Okay...well now that I know I will understand it, I am gonna go read!  Plus I plan to watch the 1999 version of "Beowulf" on Netflix after I finish reading.  Wow...Until Next Time!

How Techie Are You?

I really am not that technologically stupid.  I swear I am not!  Shortly after getting my Nook Color for my birthday (which I absolutely love and mostly have been using to watch Netflix instead of reading), I went to the local library and got a library card.  I had one when I lived in Oregon so I could check books out from the local community college for my papers I had to write for school.  Before that I had not had a library card since I graduated high school.  I am pretty sure I still have my very first library card ever issued to me (I believe the sticker said 1991 or 1990) from the King County Library System or something like that.

Anyway, I filled out the paperwork and got my card issued to me and asked if the eBooks that they had available could be downloaded to my Nook and she briefly showed me how to do it and said that it would definitely work.

I signed up for English Literature - Beowulf to 18th Century.  My school's website listed the book that would be used and I looked to see if it was available from my library (and it is not) but I did find it available to rent from Barnes & Noble and could get it for the entire duration of my class for about $40 or $50.  I thought that was pretty neat.

My class started Monday.  Since I take classes online, it does not matter that Monday was a holiday.  All classes start on the first Monday of each month regardless of holidays.  I think I have had mid-terms, finals and tests due on holidays before.  This class actually ends two days before Christmas!  Yeah!  Anyway, I enter my virtual classroom and let me tell you something this stuff has CHANGED a lot in the last two years that I have been MIA from online learning.  The classroom set up is different, discussion boards are now called forums.  Email is now called messages.  Lectures and the reading material is now under lessons.  I think I have it kind of figured out and I am sure that I will have it down by the end of this class (which is 16 weeks long).

I am a very slow reader.  I have a few pages that I printed off from a website that is part of my required reading for this week and decided to print out next week's reading so that way I can try and get a little ahead so I do not get behind.  I printed out the first two links which comes to about ten pages of reading (I think) and went to print the third link and discovered that it was going to be like 93 pages so I said PASS and jumped onto my local library website to see if it is available as and eBook...

...and it is!  The website said that there was only one eBook copy so I checked it out before it was too late.  I downloaded it to my computer but could not open it.  I remembered that I had to download the Adobe program in order to access it.  I found the link and tried to download it but it kept popping up with some message that said I had to "retry" and I kept clicking away and it kept saying retry until I finally just threw my arms up (literally) and said (out loud...to no one...alone in my room) I GIVE UP!

I tried calling the library to see if there was someone who could help me figure it out and after pushing who knows how many buttons and then just hitting "0" to finally talk to a person.  This woman heard my problem and then transferred me at which time I was disconnected.  Today I reserved the one and only hard copy that they had available and drove down to pick it up.  I saw a gentleman at the Information desk and told him my problem and he took the time to kind of walk me through what I had already done.  I did everything correct last night but for some reason my desktop just was not having it!

I decided to give it one more shot when I got home and busted out my little tiny Netbook.  Miraculously I was able to download the Adobe program and figured out how to download the eBook to my flash drive and then load it onto my Nook.  Let me tell you what...they do not make it easy to check out a damn eBook from the local library!  It is a good thing that I have it for 13 more days but only need it until next Sunday!

Now that I have shared my horrendous journey to download a eBook check out from the library, I am going to get ready for dinner...I kind of have a date!  Until next time!

Bacon Brownies?!?

 I have been procrastinating...not on purpose or anything...I did not have these pictures on my camera but on my phone.  It was a matter of figuring out how to email them from my phone to my email account and then saving them in a form that I can upload.  So here is the skinny!  Pictured with me in these six pictures is my friend Nick.  Nick is the bus driver for skydive.  Our friendship came about this past winter when his bus needed a jump start every day!  We bonded in those 15 minutes that the jumper cables were attached to the battery and that is when we discovered our mutual love for BACON!!!

I am talking bacon as in breakfast food...made from pork!   Anything bacon related on Facebook, I share with him and vice versa.  I decided to start experimenting!  I decided to make bacon brownies.  We were toying around with different ideas of what we can make that includes bacon.  That is where bacon brownies came from.  I did not want to use just any kind of bacon and I remembered watching Kelsey's Essentials on the Cooking Channel.  She made candied bacon to put on top of deviled eggs so I got on the website and found the recipe (which now you can find here).

I did not have time to make the brownies from scratch so I used a box mix that came with a package of frosting.  Now I am a no frosting on my brownie kind of girl but I made an exception for this.  I chopped up half of the bacon and sprinkled it onto the brownie mix once I put it in the pan.  I diced up the rest and mixed it into the frosting.

 Before even trying these brownies I decided that next time I am using bacon not as thick (even though the recipe calls for thick-cut) and let it cook a little longer to get a little more crispy.  I am going to dice up the bacon into a lot smaller pieces and possibly mix it into the batter and I will buy a thing of frosting because I ran out.  These pictures are the first pictures taken of the bacon brownie experience.

The first picture is us toasting away our bacon brownie virginity!  The second picture is our first bite.  The third picture is us contemplating the greatness of the bacon and the brownie.  The fourth picture is us falling in love with the marriage of the bacon brownie.  The fifth picture is a missed attempt at a high five...and that is where the sixth and final picture comes from!

This Is It!

This is what I want to accomplish in the next 12 months:

• Eliminate credit card debt
• Find a place to live on my own or with roommate
• Take and PASS 6 classes
• Build up my savings
• Get my knee fixed and recover 100%
• Teach more Zumba®
• Get my Zumbatomic® license (to teach children)
• Build my businesses (Zumba® and AdvoCare®)
• Participate in at least 1 Zumbathon® charity event
• Attend my family's annual camping trip (even if my cousin picked the worst theme ever...Christmas in July is just plain WRONG Amber!)
• Advertise my Zumba® class everywhere
• Become a Zumba® Affiliate(?)
• Create a Pay Pal account to accept online reservations for my class(es)
• Get a love life...or a sex life...or both...lol
• Bake and cook a lot more (I want to create my own go-to from-scratch brownie and cup/cake recipe that I can continue to tweek)

I am sure that there is more that I want to add to this list and you best believe that I plan to keep an eye on this list and add to it and cross things off as they are accomplished!  Now it is time for me to try and crash!

Until next time!

I Am Woman...Hear Me Roar!!!

I am a woman! (SHOCKER!!!)

I am a working woman! (GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER...NOW!)

I work in a male dominated field.  There are not many females that can or would do my job.  I come home daily...covered head to toe in sweat.  I am dirty...I smell...I usually have fuel and oil on my shirt, shorts/jean, tennis shoes...not to mention my legs and arms.  It is heavy work.  It is hard work.  I am on my feet about 98% of the time I am at work and, especially this time of year, generally get home at night and realize that I have not gone to the bathroom since I woke up that morning.  Dehydration is my enemy in this heat.  I cannot seem to keep my water bottle glued to my hand without actually gluing IT to my hand.  I cannot suck down the water fast enough.

Where am I going with this?  Well, Friday I was asked to work for three hours.  I ended up working a little longer trying to fix some paper work errors.  I was talking to my co-worker (a guy), giving him a run down of the day when a gentleman (someone passing through the area who has never stopped at the airport) walks passed me to get to my co-worker and asks him a question.  Well I took the lead since I was on the clock and even though I was the one answering his questions, he kept directing them to my co-worker (who was trying to leave to do something he was tasked with).

After I finished answering his questions, he said thank you...to my co-worker, not at me...and left.  I stood there...stunned...shocked...I could not believe what had just happened.  I have had gentlemen approach us but when I take the lead, they seem impressed that I know my stuff and direct their attention to me.  I looked at my co-worker.  "Did that really just happen?"  A slight laugh of astonishment followed by a, "Have a good day."

When will men realize that in some cases, women really can do the same job as men.  Now I may not be able to lift things as heavy as my counter part but when it comes to speed I know that I am not as fast as him but I am pretty damn quick and am right at his heels (metaphorically speaking of course).  Funny thing though...my boss joking looked at me yesterday and said, "You know this is a dirty job."  I looked at him and told him that I distinctly remember him looking me up and down when I came in for my interview and he said, "Do you know what job you are interviewing for?"  We all laughed because I said, "Well the sign out front said part-time aircraft refueler...and I can do that!"

Yesterday marked my 1-year anniversary at the airport.  I have learned so much since I started working there.  I have met some amazing customers...I have wonderful co-workers...and I could not have asked for a better family to work for.  They have made me feel like I have entered into an extremely large extended family.  They all have a very special place in my heart!

Now that it has taken me like two and a half "Gossip Girl" episodes to write this (oh I am so easily distracted), I am going to find something to eat...I think I might give in and order Thai...however it is not an "I might give in"...I am signing off and call them now!  Shrimp Pad Thai (at a 4...I am craving spicy) and some Spring Rolls.  Okay...now my mouth is watering!!!!

Until next time!