La Pasarela (aka The Mexican Catwalk)

Today and yesterday were busy busy busy days.

Why? You ask.

Well, I'm assuming my "brother" Murphy took a much needed vacation and I had a moment of good luck. Amazing luck actually!

Today was my first "job" in over a year. It was only an hour and half with a day and hours of prep beforehand, but I have made the first steps to becoming a model in Mexico.

I woke up this morning at 3:00am, 5:00am, 5:30am, 6:00am, 6:10am, 6:20am, and at 6:30am I finally got up and got ready to leave. Yes, I was slightly paranoid that I wouldn't wake up to my two alarms so I never really slept, but that's what coffee's for right?!

Super crazy lucky for me, the event took place only a 5 minute walk from home, so I didn't need my car and could actually take the job. What amazing luck in such a big city!

I showed up on time at 7:00am and walked around waiting for everyone to arrive and trying to take in the situation that:

• I was at my first job in over year. 
• I was at my first catwalk in Mexico.
• I was at my first modeling gig in Mexico.
• I was at work!

The picture above is the "catwalk". With covid, they had fewer people, spread out with extra space, and only 3 models instead of a standard dozen or more. Usually the department store would have a giant production in a commercial space, but because of covid, they're doing small private productions. This was the first event. I can only pray that I get to do all the rest of them!

At around 7:10am, everyone (but one model) was there so we began hair and makeup. I'm not a very girly girl, but I do enjoy having my hair and makeup done and with covid for the past year, I've not gone to a salon of any kind. It was a real treat to be pampered as such. The girls that did our hair and makeup weren't very professional imo, as I told them my hair doesn't hold a curl, and they tried, and tried, and tried again, and by the end I had a few waves at the bottom. Oh well. 

The girl that did my makeup also mistook my paler skin tone for a pink-based European canvas. I do admit that it's rare when I find a makeup artist that actually figures out my native American roots and does everything in peach shades instead of pink. So my makeup looked more hooker in my opinion than natural classy woman, but hey, whatever they're happy with. I'm there to get painted, primped, and sell clothes off my body (ok, that sounds very hooker, but you know what I mean!).

After hair and makeup were through, one of the directors took the 3 models to show us a triangle formation walk. We practiced it and he gave me directions on what he wanted for the brand (slow, casual, no crossed feet). We left the runway to head back for clothes prep and to meet our dressers. (Dressers are people who help you dress and undress very fast because you have to run between walks.) We got dressed for the first walk and the 2nd director tried to explain a whole new walk to me. I was so confused. He tried to explain several times and still I had to ask the other girls and even after that, I felt like I was winging it. I understood all the words in Spanish, but together, they meant nothing in English. How frustrating!

I did my thing and walked the walk and even had audience members applauding and nodding approval. 

My head was all awhirl with trying to remember the specific walk patterns, the specific walk notes, the specific walk poses and especially, trying to listen to the host talk in Spanish and respond appropriately in my walk. Whew! I need to study Spanish more, that's for sure! But it was all a whirl of live performance and I loved being back in the pressure of the spotlight, to be back on a stage. I wasn't performing music (and I miss that terribly), but I was back in my element; an element of being watched, being the performer, being the part of a whole, being an artist.

This was the first look I modeled. I didn't have time to take more pictures once the show started sadly.

If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll already know I've modeled in the US for years, but this is the first time I was contracted to model in Mexico. 

Posing at home.

I sincerely hope it's not the last!!

After the event, selfie shot :)

Loving me some Denny Crane after the show. He was happy to see me come home!

Europe Trip 2016 ~ Ukraine revisited (life in Malyn)

Now I'm back in Ukraine. I do like it here. Albeit, I'm staying in a tiny town called Malyn, about and hour and a half from the outskirts of Kiev. 

This welcome sign sums it up well. Welcome to the thriving metropolis that is Malyn.

Obviously not my photo, but the best I could find since I've failed to take a picture as such of the bustling main road through town. This photo looks toward the city center. It hasn't gotten any busier since 2008 either.

The city center...aka....town square.

Needless to say, I don't get to the Kiev much. But it is refreshing here. The forest is literally right out the door.

Looking out the kitchen window toward the woods.

And I work out to T25 in the forest 6 days a week! Killed the last double workout of month 1 today!

Pre workout selfie. Made sure to get a bit of my Vibrams in there :)

Panorama of my view while I'm trying to keep the sweat out of my eyes 8-/

My Workout Tree. Under this tree is a great shady place to workout during the day.

Looking up to the sky collapsed after my double workout!!

Now that I've worked out for and hour and stretched for an hour I'm back to happy and showing off the bottoms of my Vibrams again :)

There is also a nice lake and a dam just a ten minute walk down the road. You can watch beautiful sunsets while providing delicious dinner for mosquitoes.

Enjoy my filter happiness and love of my camera :)

Dynamic Art

Cross Process color

Expressive

The water was mesmerizing with hues of orange and pink and purple!

Really enjoying the cross process color filter on my camera that creates so many blues and pinks.

I get to practice every day and eat tasty home cooked food and study Russian and Ukrainian with lots of practice because my Ukrainian momma doesn't speak English.

That's right! I'm ready to scarf down this cake made from scratch right now!!

Fried zucchini with traditional cream. Love <3

Ukrainian specialty dish called Borsch. It's a beet root soup with carrots and chicken here. Oh was it super duper tasty. Ate it everyday for almost a week!!!

Those pastries on the right in the bowl, called Rogaliki, are my absolute favorite thing. I sometimes accidentally eat them for an entire meal or two.

It's idyllic in many ways. 

There are downsides as there always are in life. The other day the water randomly shut off with no warning. I was instantly transported back to India and my stomach turned into knots and my stress level skyrocketed. There was no one to call and no way to know when life could continue. This is semi normal here.

Another down side for me is the lack of activities. This is a tiny town so the biggest thing to do is go swimming in the lake in the evening. There's no music concerts to attend, no dances to go to, no movies to sit through, no impressive churches to tour, no sports activities to participate in, no social life whatsoever. For me, it's ok for a short time, but not long term such as my life is now.

There is still no job, no contract offer. I wait and pursue and wait some more. Phone calls, emails, internet searches for other people to contact are my daily life as time continues to pass and no jobs surface. 

Recorded two different demos here in Malyn. One with just a pianist, the wonderful Nataliia, and the other with a fellow violinist. Enjoy watching them!

I'm very thankful that while I'm reaching the very last cents in my bank account and soon will no longer have the luxury to keep waiting, I have a wonderful Ukraine family where I feel at home and loved. 

Here I go again on a new adventure!

It's finally time, yes finally I say, for another big adventure.

It's been nearly 2 years since I was last working full time on cruise ships. In the interim I've been getting odd jobs around the country in music, sales, home improvement, personal assisting, and anything else I could do that wasn't permanent so I could get a travel job.

The last 2 years have been a long and hard road of uncertainty, poverty, hunger sometimes, frustration and searching.

Through it all I never lost track of my dream even though it seemed like I should give it up and move on or as most people would put it, "get a real job (grow up)". But I don't conform to popular definitions or expectations. I never have and I never will.

Now, it's all worth it.

I'm flying out in the morning for Chicago where I will retrieve my visa and continue on to South Korea, specifically the island of Jeju.

 

I can't wait! A new place, a new language, a new culture, and new food, a new job, and new friends are all part of this new adventure on which I'm embarking!

Details are not firm yet so I will write more later on other aspects, but for now, this is where I'll be working and some pictures of the island.

  
 

And please, if you get the urge, VISIT ME!! 

Relifted

It wasn't easy the few days after the big disappointment of not having a new job (or any job). I'm always up for trying new things and living off the cuff so to speak, but even I need a hope of possibility and I had run out it seemed.

It only seemed though. My life seems to have more blind curves and near death intersections than probably safe...lol...but it keeps me alive and excited.

Only days after the letdown, tears and dismay subsiding and depression and hopelessness setting in, I happened upon a possibility.

That's all I need.

A possibility.

That possibility is now my new summer job. After a couple small gigs in June I'll be moving to Albuquerque NM for the summer. I'm excited about spending time in a part of the country I've only driven through and experiencing all the things Albuquerque and surrounding areas have to offer (and yes, there are things there including good mountain biking I here!).



So after a completely helpless and financially oblique and desolate outlook on summer I now have a hopeful and even anticipated eagerness to the forthcoming adventure.

Many new and wonderful things will come of this I feel.

Until then...

Seattle's Folklife ~ HERE I COME!!!!!!!!!!!

Final preparations

The day is fast approaching for my last Backroads interview. I've done nearly all I can do between the time I was invited and now. There are still a couple of loose ends I hope to tie on Monday, but there was such a short amount of time to do everything that I may not succeed.

I have accomplished a few things in this time though. My favorite was spending a day at a bike coop taking apart my bike, putting it back together, taking it apart, putting it back together, taking another bike apart, putting it back together, taking...

Here's proof!

Yes, my bike may look like it's together but you wouldn't want to ride it right now!

Here's another picture of a last minute crazy frenzy....

Pretty huh?!

When you only have a week to schedule this stuff it's definitely not easy, not even remotely.

But I want this so I made it happen!

Now it's just a lot of time spent with Rosetta Stone, Latino friends and choffy :)

So glad the last concert is tomorrow so I have one day without practice and music concerts to get everything ready to go. It won't be easy since there is also a 4 hr drive included in that day, but it's possible!

Check back in a week and I'll let you know what the outcome is.

Praying that all the time and money spent toward this end will be repaid plus over by my new job. I really can't afford a depression counselor nor an alcoholic lifestyle so it's all or bust.

Please wish me luck everyone and think of me this Thursday :)

A New Venture into the BACKROADS

Much has happened since my last post.

I went snorkeling. I went cave exploring. I went boating. I went ATVing. I got badly sunburned.  I went swimming on a nude beach. I had a surprise stay in NYC. I lost two potential jobs. I stayed up for nearly 3 days straight. I helped fall a tree and saw it into firewood with a bow saw. I improved my 5 mile runs to under 10 min/mi. I did my taxes. I lost an accompanist. I made new friends. I lost a friend.

Yes, lots has happened. And it all seems a blur and a whirlwind of insanity until now.

I am submitting my application to what I hope will be my job for years to come; a trip leader for BACKROADS. It's an outdoor vacation company and they're hiring trip leaders for hikes, biking trips, and more. Everyone (no, I'm not exaggerating) that I've talked about applying for this job has said this sounds like the perfect job for me; exactly what I'd be great at doing.

So with all my eggs in this one basket, I will either have a summer job or my life will go in some direction I can not possibly fathom at this time. Although I can imagine it won't be ideal for me.

So here's to hoping and praying that in the next few weeks (up to three), Backroads will read my application and reference letters and also agree with all my friends ~ that this is the job for me and then this summer I'll be who knows where doing who knows what with who knows who!

I couldn't imagine a better summer!!!