So, last February and March I took a break during Ramadan from posting dance videos, and out of boredom I ended up writing and finishing my first novel, a trashy romance called “Northern Lad.” I looked into becoming a professional fiction writer, and I discovered Nicholas Erik's 2022 Double Your Productivity Crash Course: https://nicholaserik.com/double-your-productivity/

In the end, I decided to focus on my music and dance, but I did learn some useful concepts. In one section, he discusses the four types of objectives: long-term destinations, goals, projects, and micro-goals. I definitely agreed with him that time-bound goals can be counterproductive, because individual people progress differently, and those differences can depend on life seasons and artistic development stages. I personally find projects useful for developing skills and as proof of expertise. I've come to use micro-goals as the creative equivalent of the “sewing a handkerchief” meme. In my (aspirational) to-do lists, I set out tasks that move me towards finishing my projects, which in turn move me towards my long-term destinations. So this fall, I'm recording a backtrack or two during my non-college days of the week. I plan to use them for demos. I will be using the demos to apply for grants and opportunities, rehearse songs for livestreams and gigs, and develop into a professional album. I am hoping down the road to use my albums as a proof of expertise to find work as a musician in different ways.

One YouTuber I follow is Kelsey Rodriguez, who has become successful as a business coach for visual artists. In one of her videos she discusses a concept called the Energy Menu, which is especially relevant to chronically ill creatives, disabled creatives, and any creatives dealing with low energy issues. 

I haven't followed the details outlined in that video exactly, but I found the concept of an Energy Menu useful for dealing with the fluctuations of my energy. I have a habit of writing overly aspirational to-do lists, and it's taken me years to come to terms with the fact that some days I will be super-productive and be able to chop produce, clean my bedroom, clean the bathroom, do college homework, practice dance and conditioning, AND work on my music, all in the same day. And some days it's all I can do to watch the 27-second “Drumline” choreography performance talk by Ebony on Datura Online to keep up my 365 Day Streak to qualify for a year's free subscription to the online dance classes. Using the Energy Menu, each day I choose which tasks on my to-do list I feel up to doing. And my morning decision might change after a refreshing nap after lunch, or on the other hand if we've decided to run errands in our neighbourhood. 

What frightens me about SkinnyTok is that in 2003, if GLP-1 medications had been available back then, I would have crawled over broken glass back then to get a prescription. In 2002, I had been prescribed psychiatric medications for a bipolar episode, and as a result, I gained a lot of weight due to a sluggish metabolism and emotional eating cravings.  Now I have made peace with my weight, and if anything,  I want to lift heavy in the gym to get a muscle mommy physique. I am really happy that Kimmortal recently released a song called “SWOLETARiAN” celebrating heavy lifting. At least we have over a decade of history of women being encouraged to lift heavy to help us fight the new oppression of heroin chic.

I had a good year. I took a college course in public speaking in the winter semester. I was hoping it would prepare me for a career in keynote concerts. As it turned out, my public speaking skills weren't as strong as I hoped, although I did end up giving two speeches for the non-profit that I work for. I gave a speech about my experience living with disability and a second speech about my experience working as a grant writer, and was well compensated for both. As my instructor said, “Success is a poor teacher.” Since I have three college courses with good grades so far, I'm planning to complete my Certificate in Communications at Douglas College, inshallah by April 2025.

I completed a job prep certificate called Skills For Life, and certificates in WHMIS, SuperHost, and FoodSafe. I completed an office assistant certificate with courses in Word, Excel, Outlook, office administrative procedures, and telephone skills. 

My piano skills have improved a lot over the past year. I started by working with the Alfred Basic Piano book, but didn't like it. Then I started working with the RCM Level 1 syllabus material. Eventually I discovered Brenda Earle Stokes'  online membership The Versatile Musician. I can now play major triads, minor triads, and diminished triads in root position and inversions; seventh chords; and sus chords. I sketched out chord progressions for several of my original songs and started to learn several western pop songs on piano. Unfortunately, I've been playing the piano so much, my wrist started hurting, and I've had to take a break over the last few weeks and do physio exercises most days. But it's getting better. I helped my mother with her ukulele practice, teaching her music theory rudiments. I began practicing harmonica, tambourine, finger cymbals, and body percussion and enjoyed it, although I'll have to take a break from it for a while because of college, work, and volunteering.

I've started doing teacher training sessions in Indian classical music with my vocal coach Neeraja Aptikar. I recently began working on an Indian fusion cover version of U2's “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.”

I was hoping to learn the Rachel Brice and Colette Todorov material on Datura Online and do the 365 Day Challenge, which I had succeeded at last year. I wasn't able to do that - I sprained my tendon and eventually had to see my physiotherapist. It took me a long time to get back into practice. But I took my first ever live Improv Team Sync class with Jessica Roh, who said positive things about my video for Lizzo's “Special.” I'd made a few dance videos on YouTube at the beginning of the year but had given up at the lack of response. This December I started making dance videos again on TikTok. I'm not aiming to go viral, I'm aiming to record my progress as a dancer and as a musician - I'm eventually planning to upload voice and piano covers. I'm aiming to build a body of work, a portfolio.

In June I flew for the first time since 2005. I went to Sarnia, Ontario for my sister's wedding. I had a wonderful time, I wore pretty clothes and ate delicious food. As I previously wrote, I think I like travel, as long as it involves luxurious accommodations. 

All in all, it was an excellent year. I could have done without the ongoing wars and the surge in COVID. Here's hoping for peace and well-being in 2024.

I did four physio exercises and some lower body foam rolling.  I practiced with a body percussion tutorial by Salvo Russo. He speaks entirely in Italian, but I was able to understand the movements and rhythm without difficulty - it helps that he has the sheet music for the rhythm in western notation at the bottom of the screen. I was able to memorize the first part easily.

I practiced the flower mudra from Riya's Dance Tutorials. This time I was able to figure out the placement of the elbows as the hands transitioned, which had been bothering me.

For the first time I practiced the maqsoum rhythm with fills at a higher tempo for ten minutes. I'm going to check with the Ken Shorley video this week to make sure that I'm doing it right.

I played five note scales, major 7th, dominant 7th,  and minor 7th broken chords up and down by half steps in all 12 keys. I want to work on playing them around the circle of fifths.

I did 30 minutes of vocal riyaz. I was having trouble doing the last exercise in akar, so I'm going to work on that this week.

In 2017, I had subscribed to the first year of Pali Chandra's Learn Kathak Online. I barely studied it because my stomping disturbed my downstairs neighbour. Today I watched a dance improvisation by her to Raag Bihag and a video by her talking about how the 50s are the best time to reconnect to dance. When I worked with Salvo Russo's body percussion video today, I was able to do the footwork softly. I tried doing the footwork in Lesson 8 and 9 of Pali Chandra's free Youtube classes, and I was able to do it softly. So now I think I'll study Pali Chandra's free kathak classes on YouTube, to at least see how far I can progress with a home practice.

And in the evening I put away my laundry.

We did three loads of laundry in the morning. In the afternoon Ma baked a breakfast oats cake, for which I grated an apple and finely sliced some carrots.

I did four physio exercises in the morning - side leg raises, clamshells, glute bridges, and figure four stretches - and some lower body foam rolling. I will have to do these for a long time. I danced along with a 10 minute Tagore dance performance from YouTube, trying to copy as best as I could the poses and arm pathways. I've decided to study regularly Riya's Bengali dance tutorials from YouTube - I'll be starting by improvising with one mudra a week. Today I learned the flower mudra. In the morning I had listened to Kishori Amonkar's performance of Raga Alhaiya Bilawal from her album Sangeet Sartaj, Volume 1 & 2. Tonight I did some freestyle dance using the Bengali poses and arms to Moumita Mitra's Raag Bilawal with tintal bandish from YouTube. 

I played five note scales, major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th broken chords up by half steps on the piano. I played maqsoum rhythm with fills on the riq for five minutes. I practiced vocal riyaz for 20 minutes. Today I found a YouTube video detailing modern ways to play the tambourine. The teacher, Arlyn Deva, had a video on his channel where he performed body percussion. This lead me down a rabbit hole of body percussion performances and tutorials on YouTube. I've decided to study body percussion - I found an excellent website called PassTheSound.com. I'm one of those rare people who can't snap their fingers, and it's not wise to stomp your feet if you live on the third floor of an apartment building, but there is a lot I can do. 

So, it's been a while since I updated my blog. I was taking online classes in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook, and office administrative procedures and telephone skills five hours a day Monday, Wednesday, and Friday over August and September. I got my office admin certificate from the school with excellent grades.  

I learned that I need a total of 15 recent transferable credits to transfer from Douglas College to Vancouver Community College, if I want to take the Music Diploma there. Of the three college courses I did at Douglas last year, only Academic Writing transfers to VCC. But all three do count towards the Certificate in Communications at Douglas, and I only need 21 more credits to obtain that credential. So I'm planning to take the courses I need for the certificate and hopefully graduate from Douglas finally by the summer of 2025. At least this way I have more time to build my songwriting chops and music theory knowledge by the time I audition for the September 2025 intake at VCC.

I managed to keep up a minimalist piano practice while doing my office admin courses. I recently started four note chords - I'm working on major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th chords on the piano. I'm working on building hand strength and flexibility to do the four note chords by doing them broken first, and once my hands stretch out, to try doing them solid. Although it might be easier to do them in inversions, because the 1st and the 7th are then next to each other.

I've started to learn how to play the riq. I bought one in 2012 but struggled to play the ka/tk on the jingle until last year. I buckled down last month and decided to aim to practice playing the riq for at least 100 days. So far I'm up to day 17. I've been practicing the maqsoum and malfuf rhythms, which I've been learning from Ken Shorley's videos on YouTube. Once I've gotten some chops down, I'd like to start studying the late Faisal Zeidan's videos from Datura Online, and then begin studying Karim Nagi's DVD, which I'd bought when I bought the riq in the first place.

A week ago I started Hot Pot Improvisation Team Sync classes with Jessica Roh. It was wonderful. She was very encouraging and said I did an amazing job of picking up the cues and the ground zeros for Hip Figure Eights (the corrected term for Taxeem), Floreo Poses, and Upper Undulations. 

Last year my vocal teacher Neeraja Aptikar had given me her blessing to teach singing. I had hesitated, but finally I decided to undergo teacher training with her when Jessica said she would be interested in trading dance classes in exchange for lessons in Indian singing. So far I've done two teacher training classes. I'd told Neeraja that I was interested in learning sound healing, because I thought it would be easier. Hah! Neeraja started by having me sing dhrupad with her in the first class. I'm proud of myself that after all these years I was able to follow along with her with ease. She suggested I listen to dhrupad performances by Uday Bhawalkar in Yaman and Bhairav on YouTube. In the second class she focused more on music theory and history, started with information about three ragas in thaat Bilawal, Durga, Bihag, and Alhaiya Bilawal, and suggested I listen to kheyals and bandishes in Alhaiya Bilawal. 

I recently started studying the Datura Style Focus program. I probably won't be able to take Initiation because it's either in March or September and I will be in college at that time for a few years. But I still want to learn Rachel Brice's material. I've finished most of Month One, except for “Shoulder Love”, and I've completed the first hour of the “Datura Style Fundamentals” video.

I finally got stabilization shoes from SportChek yesterday. A lovely salesclerk steered me away from the ASCIS shoes, which my physiotherapist had recommended, to the Saucony brand. He said that because my feet were very flat I need a lot of support, and I need wide shoes in a size 7.5 or 8. He's only completed high school but has run lots of marathons. I hope they pay him well, because he's so knowledgable and helpful.

I was sleepy today after breakfast. After taking a nap I changed my bed linens. I watched “How To Read Chord Symbols” and “Minor Tonality Explained” from Music Theory, and listened to Brenda's tutorial on “Blue Bayou” on my phone while I chopped vegetables. After lunch I played piano exercises and sang and played the piano chords of “Let It Be”, all three verses and chorus. I did five minutes of solfege, then decided to get started on Week 1 of Piano Technique and Ear Training, which focuses on the key of C. I'd been feeling low over something small, but singing and playing “Let It Be” had cheered me up so much, that after having my afternoon cup of milk and cookies I practiced it again. I sang it again a cappella, then sang and played it with the accompaniment groove. Haltingly, but I'm getting there.

Today I got my FoodSafe certification. My instructor wouldn't tell me my marks but said I did very well. We'd started at 8:35 AM (some of the students came in late) and ended at 1:30 PM, three hours early. Ma told me when I got home that she went to Metrotown. The mall didn't open until 11 AM, but The Real Canadian Superstore was open, and she managed to get some good produce and fish, including rainbow trout, which we never find in other grocery stores. She spent the afternoon frying the rainbow trout and salmon and chopping up mushrooms for freezing.

So in the last week I've gone through the Music Theory 101 modules and the Circle of Fifths module from Music Theory in The Versatile Musician. I've started to work on piano improvisation, ear training, solfege, sight-singing, and rhythm workouts in five minute increments. I can sing and play the piano chords of the first two lines from The Beatles' “Let It Be.” I've been able to do some physio exercises. I've started to read the first chapter of “Grant Writing For Dummies.” I caught up with friends whom I hadn't spoken to in a long time.

In the morning I did my piano exercises and worked on singing and playing the chords of the first two lines of “Let It Be.” I practiced ear-training, solfege, piano improvisation, and sight-singing. I watched the video “Moving to the Beat” from the course Rhythm Workout from The Versatile Musician, and practiced moving around to Tori Amos's “Raspberry Swirl - Lip Gloss Version”. I'm going to watch the video again to get more out of it.

We went to Columbia Street. We hadn't planned on going to Car Free Day, but it had started by the time we got there. We looked at the stalls and bought a pair of Turkish cushion covers from a store that mainly offers workshops on painting ceramics and lamps. We went to the Mexican cafe at River Market and had leek and parmesan pastries and tre leche cake. I had a ham and cheese croissant. We bought some fruit from City Avenue Market. We stopped at the festival and I watched a set by a jazz trio. I would have stayed longer, but they were having some sound difficulties. We bought a few groceries from Safeway and took the bus home.

I finished watching the module on the Circle of Fifths from Music Theory, which I had started yesterday. Next week I'm planning to include playing major triads around the circle of fifths as part of my piano exercises. I did four physio exercises. And I started reading “Grant Writing For Dummies.”

On Tuesday I had Occupational First Aid Certification, which was paid for by the job skills program I had completed. I got 20 out of 25 on the written portion, but flunked a few of the practicals. They offered to have me redo the practicals for free, but I decided against it, because I feel nervous about administering First Aid, no matter how well-trained I might be.

I was so enervated on Wednesday. I did speak to my facilitator from the job skills program, who told me about a really good office administration course that they would pay for. I booked my appointment with the physiotherapist for next week. After a long while I got to talk to my friends Tracey and Matthew on the phone.

I was supposed to have my bloodwork done on Thursday, but when I went to the lab they informed me MSP wouldn't cover me until September. At least that gives me extra time to improve my eating habits and fix my blood sugar levels.  I talked on the phone with my friend Chrisariffic, whom I hadn't talked to in a long time. I was tired but desired stimulation, so I watched Brenda's Zoom workshop replay from The Versatile Musician on ear training, and learned a lot. I completed the Music Theory 101 modules from her Music Theory course. 

Today I worked on piano exercises and tried singing and playing the piano accompaniment of “Let It Be”. I can play  the groove, but I need to work on memorizing the lyrics and singing it while playing the basic chords to get the tune in my head. I worked for a few minutes each on piano improvisation, ear training, and solfege. They were difficult and challenging, but rewarding. I listened to Brenda's brand new tutorial on “Mercy Mercy Me” by Marvin Gaye while chopping vegetables. I watched her video on sight-singing from Piano Skills For Singers Level 2 and got a simple exercise that I can do a few minutes a day. I did three of the six physio exercises that I had been given. I got to talk on the phone with my friend Kathleen. I'm planning to go to her commitment ceremony in October.

I slept a lot in the morning and decided to skip my voice exercises. But I did 20 minutes of piano exercises - I worked on five note patterns in the key of C, then triads in root position and first and second inversion. I played major triads clockwise around the circle of fifths in root position and first position on the right hand. I rewatched the first couple of sections of Brenda's “Let It Be” piano and voice tutorial, then watched her video on how to play a pop ballad accompaniment. After lunch I tapped out the accompaniment rhythm to a lyric video of “Let It Be” on YouTube. I have ADHD, so I practiced singing and playing the piano accompaniment of the first verse and chorus in three short increments of 10 and 15 minutes. 

My physiotherapist suggested I take a break from dance and conditioning because I have sprained a tendon in my left lower leg. Today I did four of the six physio exercises he had given me to do. I'm hoping to see him in August, once I figure out my course and volunteering schedule.

I'm surprised by how much I got done in the past few days. I wrote, practiced, and submitted to my teacher and class meeting chair the outline for my mini voice lesson, which I'll be presenting as the second speech for my college course next Wednesday - it's supposed to be a demonstration speech. I do have to create a document with the visual aids, that is the vocal exercises and song lyrics. I submitted my reading response video and the self evaluation for last week's workshop presentation. Yesterday I rewrote my song “Naive” using western style chord progressions in D minor at a practice session with my friend Tracey. Afterwards we went to a live band karaoke benefit for the Vancouver Tenants' Union. It started late, so after singing “You Oughta Know” Tracey drove me home. 

Over the last three days I filmed seven full-length dance videos for my YouTube channel - unfortunately one of them was struck down right away due to a copyright claim, sigh. But I'm hoping to keep making dance videos for my YouTube channel over the coming weeks. A video that I filmed for an Arabic pop song yesterday has already got 122 views. I was just listening to an old podcast from over two years ago that talked about the many benefits of doing a 30 day/50 day/100 day/365 day creativity challenge - getting better at one's craft, pushing past perfectionism, putting oneself out there, building a community around one's art, creating a body of work. I hope I can keep it up.

I managed to squeeze in my dance practice between breakfast and my online grant-writing meeting at 10 AM. Class 2 focused on the Rib Up movements in Datura Style - rib cage lifts, chest lifts, bodywaves, undulations, Wave Step (formerly Arabic), and Inverted Wave Step. It was good to go over these movements and distinguish between the rib cage lift and the chest lift. When I first started studying bellydance many years ago undulations came easily to me, so I didn't practice them as diligently as I should have, and now they're rusty. I'd like to do the 90  x 90 practice with bodywaves as Rachel Brice recommended, especially in order to prepare for deep backbends. I was doing that at one point but I fell off the wagon. No matter how hard I try, the timing for the Inverted Wave Step just doesn't seem to click in place for me.

I'd been dreading today's grant writing meeting because I had been working on a challenging grant writing application, and instead of emailing my coworker to help me out, I emailed my boss over the weekend and never heard back from her. Today she told me she never read my email, and as it turned out the application required complicated documents that my coworker would probably not have been able to help me with.

We went out afterwards to run some errands. My mother picked up an activity guide from the local seniors' centre. I went to the library to pick up my USB drive, which I had left there a couple of weeks ago, and a couple of self-help books - as I told the librarian, I didn't have the bandwidth to read “real” books. I met up with my mother at Shoppers Drug Mart in the mall. We discussed whether we should pick up milk and eggs from there - Ma gets a seniors' discount on Thursdays which makes them cheaper than from the supermarket. We decided to go to the Shoppers at the skytrain station to pick up some other items that weren't at this location. We had lunch in the food court. I had Italian hash and Ma had grilled boneless chicken thighs with potatoes and vegetables. The restuarant was run by a single Asian man who was nice enough to give me free green onions and cheese sauce. Ma was wavering over which soft drink to get. I steared her away from the Crush cream soda, which I knew would be too sweet for her tastes, and suggested she get the Fresca. She liked it. She picked up a few things from Walmart, and then we took the bus to the skytrain station. I waited at a bench while she shopped at the drugstore. Someone had left a blank passport application on the bench. A woman came up to me and asked if the bags on the bench were empty and if she could have one. When I replied no, she apologized for being scattered and repeatedly said she was having a terrible day. She took the envelope and said she would drop it off at the police station nearby. At first I was suspicious, but I realized that she just wanted to be a good citizen, and who was I to deny her that. Ma and I took the bus home.

I've done Ashley Lopez's Beginner Fusion Series Class 1 a few times before. She begins with a brief Pilates-based warmup, which I found excruciating, but got the job done - I was able to maintain good bellydance posture, and even managed to do a deep level change with the snake arms at the end of class. She broke down a basic travelling footwork pattern, glute locks, hip lifts with one foot up and oblique contractions, shoulder and chest isolations, and snake arms. I've learned the majority of these movements a long time ago, but it's always good to go over the foundations.

Today I presented a workshop on body language in my Public Speaking class at college. I thought I did a better job this time than on my first speech, but I got a smaller percentage grade for this assignment. My instructor was very nice about it and said he didn't place much emphasis on grades as a measure of education, and that what was important was the feedback you got and what you learned in the end. He said none of his instructors ever asked for his GPA and that it was only important when applying to grad school. I still felt sad, but I felt better after writing my second speech, a demonstration speech. I will be teaching a mini voice lesson on how to sing Indian songs, using vocal exercises, and "Kehna Hi Kya" as an example.

I did "Pilates Conditioning and Warm Up", rested a little, and decided to do "Basic Full Body Pilates Workout." I've done it several times before, and this time found it mostly easy. It started with a brief talk about the movement arts creator Joseph Pilates and the benefits of Pilates for bellydancers. It consisted mainly of core exercises, and ended with a few exercises from the sideline series aimed at strengthening the glutes, and a few gentle stretches as a cooldown. I've alway found it challenging to keep my legs up during core exercises, but it got easier this time.

Today I worked again on the intro, chorus, and first verse of "Kehna Hi Kya" on voice and keyboard. I learned that I got accepted into one of the four online artist development workshops offered by the Tiny Lights festival, Shruti Ramani's "The Art of Vocal Practice." I was disappointed that I didn't get into the other three, but they were very nice about it and encouraged everybody to apply again. On the downside, I learned that the guest speaker scheduled to appear at our college class next week would be appearing on March 8th instead, so I have to present my second speech next week instead of after reading break.

Recently I watched a couple of videos:
The Secret is to Train Your Body All Day Long

You Can And SHOULD Train Every Day!

This has inspired me to change the way I approach my movement practice. Note that neither of them are talking about training intensely all seven days a week. Ashley Lopez recommends doing stabilization exercises regularly for everybody, so I'll try to fit them into my rest days. Today I did her "Pilates Conditioning and Warm Up" from Datura Online. I got a good burn in my glutes and my knee felt better. Later on I did one round of side leg raises, leg circles, and clamshells, and an hour later a round of side leg raises and clamshells.

I find it hard to focus on playing difficult parts on keyboard for extended periods of time due to my bipolar/ADHD. Today I first practiced the intro and part of the chorus of "Kehna Hi Kya" on voice and keyboard. I took a break and practiced the rest of the chorus. After a second break I practiced the first verse of the song.

I submitted my workshop outline to my teacher and the classmate who'll be chairing the next in-class meeting. I downloaded an e-book, "How to Grow A Blog in 2023", from Ultimate Bundles. I'm a quarter of a way through - I'm not sure how much I'll be able to apply to my own blogging right away, but I like free education.

I wasn't able to work on "Kehna Hi Kya" on voice and keyboard as much as I would have liked to. I had a good class on Wednesday and three assignments - a peer speech evaluation, preparing for presenting next class's workshop, and creating a reading response video. The peer speech evaluation was relatively easy because my classmate had presented an excellent speech. Critiquing polished students is easier than critiquing struggling students. I needed to expand my workshop, which when I ran it through in front of my mother was only 8 minutes, to between 20 and 30 minutes. Luckily one of my classmates came to my rescue and advised me to include clips from relevant videos during the workshop. I had to write down the notes for the reading response video today to make sure it was between 1 to 2 minutes long. 

On Thursday I had a grant-writing meeting and a meeting with an accessibility specialist. She suggested I speak to my student success advisor about applying for student funding and encouraged me to undertake lifelong learning at college even if I didn't intend to obtain a credential. In the afternoon I went to the local mental health clinic to meet with my case worker and a new community living support worker from a different organization to set up independent living goals as part of my contract for obtaining a rent subsidy. We decided that she would be my accountability partner for me trying to get out of the house more often, getting a job, and creating a bunch of voice and keyboard covers for my YouTube channel.

On Saturday we went to New West Skytrain station to pick up my mother's medications. We went to River Market, where a crafts fair was taking place, which took me by surprise. Apparently it's happening every weekend or once every two weeks. I met an author of self-published books who sold their own jewellery along with their paperbacks. I saw a book continuing the story of Alice in Wonderland, so I asked them if they had started out with fan fiction. I learned that they used to write Gimli/Legolas stories based off of Lord of The Rings. I had a lava cake and a Mexican juice at a cafe in the food court, while Ma had a three layer cake. She bought a herbal tea, but burnt her throat trying to drink it. We had a pleasant walk down the river. She took a photo of the sun in the sky.

This week I did the first two days of the Datura Online program Intro to Fusion Belly Dance and the first two days of the conditioning program Fusion Fit 1. I was tired today after doing four loads of laundry with Ma, so I did Nikki Mae's knee/hip rehab video.

I got a lot done in January. I've been doing well in my Public Speaking course at Douglas College. I've been keeping up with all my assignments. I created my first dance video for YouTube in a long time. I wasn't able to do all of Rachel Brice's livestreams this month, but I'm glad I tried, because it made me realize that I needed to work on conditioning to heal my knees, which I've been doing over the past couple of weeks. I did some volunteering as a grant writer and as a Student Ambassador at the college. I've been blogging regularly. I went to a cooking class and had my first western voice lesson in a long time. I've learned how to sing and play the keyboard melody of the intro, chorus, and verses of "Kehna Hi Kya." I've played scales, arpeggios, chord inversions, and  i-VI-VII and i-iv-VII chord progressions in A, D, and E minor. We went to the Bangladeshi Cake festival (Pitha Utsav) in Burnaby on Sunday.

I was feeling depressed because I only managed to practice music and movement on Monday this week. I practiced some keyboard, vocal exercises, and singing, worked on a single Bengali dance step, and did Bevin Victoria's Isometric Core Workout, followed by Rachel Brice's Monster A. My knee acted up and I had to focus on Sedona's Knee Joint Exercises and Ashley Lopez's Knee Stabilization - Mat Exercises the past four days. I went to Metrotown to buy clothes on Tuesday, had a good college class in Public Speaking on Wednesday, had a grant writing meeting and a webinar with a funding organization on Thursday, went to a cooking class on Friday, and bought groceries with Ma yesterday. I felt better today after submitting a reading response video and writing the outline for the first speech for my college course. Doing laundry and putting it away also helped. My knee is feeling good now. A couple of bellydancers in the Datura Online Facebook group suggested that I work on strengthening my glutes and hamstrings to heal my chronic knee issues, so I'm looking into doing knee-friendly lower body workouts.

This year was even better than last year and has been a year of great growth and success for me. I didn't complete the business program, but I realized that my music wasn't ready yet to be released. I had been hoping to record a lot of my song poems, and while I didn't succeed, I did manage to record my first instrumental "Frost Flowers," my second project for my college course, "Intro to Music Technology." I got an A in "Academic Writing" in the summer and an A minus in "Intro to Music Technology" in the fall, while working, volunteering, and practicing music and movement, and persevering through a tooth extraction, allergies, and depressive episodes. I passed my Intro 2 to Improv course - I was taking it again a second time around - and successfully performed my first stand-up set in front of a live audience. I studied with an online music program based in the DTES called Women Rock! and cowrote a song with my classmates. I completed 29 out of the 30 workouts in Caroline Girvan's 6 week strength training program IRON. I completed the 365 day Datura Online challenge, watching one or more videos from the website each day of the year, and will hopefully win a year's free subscription to the online classes' website. I worked as a grant writer for a nonprofit ten hours a week for 20 weeks as part of a paid work experience term, and volunteered 23.5 hours in the fall semester as a Student Ambassador at Douglas College. My dance video for WUT, "White Walls," was displayed on a community billboard art installation for several months in East Vancouver, and I was paid a substantial honorarium for my work.

Last night before bedtime I was feeling bored, so I danced improvisation for 20 minutes. I felt stiff, but enjoyed my imperfect dancing. This morning I did Rachel Brice's "3/4 Shimmy Boost: Day 2". My full speed three quarter shimmies are getting there. I followed it with Day 8 of EPIC Heat. Back and biceps were easy, I got in a good sweat, which I hadn't in the past couple of workouts. I used my 8.8 lb milk jugs filled with water for the standing position rows and my 5 lb dumbbells for the bicep curl variations. I was actually able to keep my knees up while doing the renegade rows with one hand elevated on a yoga block, instead of knees on the floor, although I had to use my 5 lb dumbbell.

Today I saw a YouTube video by a woman talking about how she worked out twice a day every single day for five months, not to lose weight or become super ripped, but simply to improve her mood. The thing is, even when I workout intensely for up to an hour or less in the morning, I spend much of the rest of the time lying in bed if I don't have specific work to do. I have been trying to get in a couple of hours of resistance training, flexibility training, and dance practice each morning, but trying to do it all together hasn't worked out for me. So now I'm thinking of splitting up my movement practice into a resistance training session in the morning and a light exercise session later in the day, depending on my other commitments. I'll definitely be taking my rest days. I started my new movement methodology today by dancing improv for 20 minutes in the afternoon. My bellydance technique looked a lot better compared to last night - a greater range of movement vocabulary, more fluidity, and I was able to incorporate three quarter shimmies, always a challenge for me. It felt good.

This afternoon we went to the crafts fair at the Riverside Market in New Westminster. We bought chocolates, cocoa powder, tea, and greeting cards. We then had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. I'd avoided the place back in the day, although I did like their ice cream. We started going there this year regularly, because their food has improved and for the price of an entree one gets bread, soup or salad, tea, and ice cream included. I had chicken Alfredo with mascarpone ravioli, green salad with blue cheese, peppermint tea, and Spumioni ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, and pistachio), while Ma had roasted garlic grilled chicken and the same extras as me.

I was considering doing knee exercises to prepare for leg day, but felt too enervated, so I did Heather Louise's "Romantic Combo" from Datura Online instead, because it was only 8 minutes long. Today's legs workout was a mixture of bodyweight and dumbbells - I used 2 lb weights, and substituted static lunges for the Bulgarian lunges on a chair. The staple exercises were lateral lunges, which I liked - I actually felt them in my glutes, quads, hamstrings, and adductors, rather than my knees.

After lunch I was feeling guilty for feeling so tired after just 45 minutes of exercise in the morning. But I realized that I feel tired even when I don't exercise, and at least I'm staying in shape. After writing that in my diary I didn't feel so tired, I felt bored and restless. So I did one of Girvan's 10 minutes abs/core bodyweight workouts. It was extremely difficult, but I improved towards the end. I actually liked doing it, which was new for me because I usually despise core work.

After a break of some days I practiced Indian classical vocal exercises for 30 minutes. I improvised a I-IV-V-I melody in D minor on the keyboard. It felt good.

I'm glad I took yesterday as a complete rest day, no movement or music practice at all. I did have a highly productive session with a career coach from my college and went to my music technology class in the evening. I was planning to do only resistance training today, but I decided to do Zoe Jakes' "Cobra Combo: Short Phrase" from Datura Online as a mood-lifter. The fourth day of EPIC Heat was a full body workout, mostly bodyweight - I actually prefer weight lifting exercises because I find them easier, so I modified a lot of the exercises. I substituted incline pushups on my chair for all the push up sets and burpees, and did elbow planks on my knees instead of the mobile plank exercises. I substituted glute bridges on the mat for the hip thrusts, using  a 2 lb dumbbell for the first set and a 5 lb dumbbell for the second and third set. At first I tried to do the chest presses with my 8.8 lb milk jugs filled with water, but thought better of it and used a pair of 5 lb dumbbells. The workout went by quickly and I felt good if tired at the end of it. I'll be skipping the HIIT workouts because they're hard on my knees, but I'm glad I finished the first week of Heat.

I was supposed to go to a free cooking class this morning at the local mental health club, but I didn't want to trek uphill in the pouring rain. I did day 8 of Spirit of Dance's Step of the Day series on Instagram and Colleena Shakti's "Traveling Two Spin Combo" from Datura Online. I did a knee/hip rehab/injury prevention video from the Patreon of one of my Vancouver fusion bellydance teachers, Nikki Mae. I like it because it's short and sweet and works well at protecting my sensitive knees. I then took a short break, just moving around randomly to music from bellydance videos on YouTube. It exercised with Day 1 of EPIC Heat, a leg day workout. After a few minutes I almost gave up, but I saw on the screen that I'd already done 5 percent, which was encouraging, and I figured that even though the complexes were 3 minutes long, I was getting 45 second rests in between. So I finished it. The staggered Romanian deadlifts to squats, which had been the hardest part of this video when I first worked with it, weren't so hard this time. I got an excellent sweat and my mood felt good.