Mel Edwards

Run, Forrest, Run!

You might recall that last fall I began dancing for the first time in decades and searched for a teacher to give me ballet lessons. I tried every dance studio in town and NO ONE had a class for beginner adults that I could be part of. The closest was a ballet school that works with people aiming for professional careers, but I honestly was too intimidated to even try with them, so I decided if I got into good enough shape I’d join a class. Then, I did Pilates when I “had time” (or so I thought) and continued with my art studies (to add on a certification as an art teacher, grades k-12) and didn’t do much else. That is, until June.

I had a rude awakening in June. It went like this:

• Teaching job was cut due to reduction in force.
• When the school year ended, I sat on my butt at my computer at home and did scholarly things and generally screwed around.
• Then, I weighed myself and I had put on 10 lbs in a month!
• After I got done hyperventilating, I decided it was time to do something serious about my exercise routine.
• I bought a Bodybugg to track my activity, steps taken and calories burned.
• Watched every episode of Losing It with Jillian (Michaels), joined a weight loss forum, and got moving.
• Then, someone on the forum mentioned Couch-to-5k, a running program. I checked it out here and decided I’d try it.
• I’m now half-way through week 5, largely in thanks to Robert’s podcasts. I’ve lost that pesky 10 lbs plus four more, got offered part of my old job back (working half-time), completed two more classes at school for art and business, and yesterday….
• I registered to race in my first 5k on October 30th.

So, I’m still not in toe shoes, but let me tell you, I never, ever once in my life considered myself a runner, not even in 1991 when I thought I was going to join the Marines and knew I’d have to run for boot camp. I’m not sure that I have ever run three miles in my life, but as of today, I can run 8 minutes, walk for five, and run 8 more minutes, covering 2.5 miles in half of an hour. Friday I’ll do my first 20 minute run and when I finish, you’ll hear me cheer all the way from Greenville, SC!

No Comments | In: Mel Edwards | tags: Bodybugg, Cool Runnings, Losing It with Jillian, Mel Edwards, Robert Ullreys. | #

My porch looks like this right now.

Ever have a day when you hit an invisible wall and your inner voice says, “Stop. You can’t do any more. You’re killing yourself and there’s got to be a better way”? I’m there today. I spent a good while still trying to scrape old adhesive off the cement front porch where a carpet used to be. Then, as I still there all red-faced and dripping with sweat, a plumber told me I don’t have hot water because I have 30 ft of copper pipe and I just need to waste 30 gallons of water before the hot will reach the faucet…or I can pay $900 for a hot water-on-demand system. I paid the $60 service fee (half of a day’s wages for a 20 minute visit) and took a lukewarm shower because I refuse to waste 30 gallons to wait for the hot water to reach the spigot. Feeling a bit burned out and sorry for myself I started to slip into Eeyore mode, but this video made it a little better.

When you’re too tired, try to give yourself a break.

-Mel.

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Today, for some unknown reason, a 9th grade male student sang that song about me when I said I was coming to assist him. The song brought me back to my elementary school days when we used to sing as teachers tried to control our behavior before assemblies. We’d often crackle through “This Land is Your Land,” “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands” and “Michael Row the Boat Ashore.” (I’m still not sure why Mike’s rowing what such a hallelujah moment and set to song…and if you know, please enlighten me…but I digress.) The point is, I’m not sure most kids know these folk songs. I’m guessing someone well-meaning adult decided these songs were too political or religious to sing in school, but I can’t help yearn to belt out “Red River Valley,” “Polly Wolly Doodle” or “If I Had a Hammer.” It could because as I’ve noted before Pete Seeger’s songs are in my soul. (He was my first crush based upon a picture of him on an album and his voice coming from my 33 rpm LP.) I can’t help but wonder, how long Pete will still be with us and if our eventual loss of his body on earth will also lead to dust covering his life’s work. Not if I can help it, my friends. Not while I can still crackle out a tune or two. Wait for my songs…his songs, our songs…as I come around the mountain.

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I’m finding my adult mind has all kinds of preconceptions about what I can and cannot do with my body. I’m fascinated with this because I don’t have the same mental road blocks about learning or emotions. I’ve never said to myself, “Oh, I can’t learn that,” or “I could never learn to love ….” but regularly my inner Oscar the Grouch pipes up and says, “Well, of course he can do that! He’s built that way,” or “She’s skinny, and moving 100 lbs is far less work.” These are my excuses, my hurdles to overcome.

Action Step

We have a new addition to our family. We rescued a bunny that some one “set free” to fend for herself in a neighborhood full of dogs. We named her Olive, after Kristin Chenowith’s character Olive Snook in “Pushing Daisies,” because she’s spunky, sweet, adoring and has dark eyes that look like shiny black olives (and yes, that’s her fuzzy little face above this post). So, my solution is whenever I begin letting Oscar grumble in, I stop and think of Olive. Nothing stops her creativity, energy and verve. She’s all that is perfect and wonderful about life. She pirouettes, slides across the floor, stumbles, popcorns in the air and keeps on hopping until she’s conked out from exhaustion. Then, I remind myself, I can be Olive or Oscar, and as much as I have a soft spot for the grungy crumudgeon, I rather be like her.

Coming Soon!

There is one more thing I do to silence Oscar, I keep seeking new ways to be active and creative that match who I am now, so I can be who I desire to be in the future, and having fun along the way. Next Thursday I’ll be trying my first NIA Technique class. I’ll keep you posted.

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If someone aspires to any height in life, there has to have been a “first” idea of that lofty ambition. I can’t honestly say where I first saw ballet. I do recall sitting for hours absolutely transfixed as I watched the New York City Ballet each summer at SPAC. I know I had two neighbors who danced, sisters, and the eldest was part of the NYCity Ballet for a while, but came home after she punished her body to become something it was not meant to be. I often talk about Patricia McBride being the first ballerina I wanted to be like, but most of my dancing heroes were men, including George Balanchine and Peter Martins. Yet, somehow, in my life I learned what ballet was before all of that.

Perhaps my first dancer was also my first teacher: Mom. She did ballet on pointe as a child in a time when most didn’t progress slowly up from slippers to pointe, but just dove in the first year. She was an athletic, strong girl in a time when ballet was thought to add ladylike qualities to a tomboy. As far as I know, she only danced one year. She still remembers her recital costume – green and yellow with a fur-trimmed tutu – and that she danced to a song called “Glow worm,” which she can still sing bits of decades later.

Today’s post is in honor of Mom. (Who is also named Patricia, by the way.) Happy Birthday, and thank you for being my first dancer, first teacher and best friend, always.

No Comments | In: Mel Edwards | tags: ballet, George Balanchine, Mel Edwards, Patricia McBride, Peter Martins, SPAC. | #

To paraphrase Alice Cooper, “Welcome to my daydream. I Think You’re Gonna Like it. I think you’re gonna feel that you belong.” (Hey, one guy’s nightmare is another’s daydream. Right? I mean, check him out on The Muppets. That’s the bomb!) Thanks to my most awesome BlogHer roomie you can now see I have a new blog theme. It is fairly naked and straight forward. Works well with my attitude and creative side and most of all, makes me smile. Hope you like it too.

Oh, and I did the NY City Ballet dvd2 warm-ups and floor exercises this morning. I’m not letting my roomie be the only one to get Thin by 10.

No Comments | In: Mel Edwards | tags: Alice Cooper, BlogHer, Gwynne Lacey, The Muppets. | #

I’ve picked a new WordPress theme for my blog, called Daydreams. (Time for a look that shows more of my creative side.) The work is being done by my BlogHer ‘09 roomie, Gwynne. Stay tuned for the new MelEdwards.com!

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2009 has been the best year of my blogging life already!
1. I won BlogHer registration
2. Votre Vray won the MLK Win a Dream Award
3. Now, I’ve been tagged in another blog with an award — The Lemonade Award!

The bottom line still is, I am all that I am thanks to the wonderful people I’m fortunate enough to know, meet and greet daily.

Thank you to everyone for supporting Votre Vray!
-Mel.

No Comments | In: Lemonade Award, Mel Edwards, Votre Vray, attitude, gratitude | | #

Recently, I went to a workshop given by Pamela Bruner. She’s originally known as being a master at the harp, but she is also a coach for service professionals. The focus of the workshop was money — something most artists and creatives always want more of. Even though I’m pretty savvy when it comes to mind/body connections and energy work (I’m a Reiki master and an Ashtanga yoga teacher), Pamela introduced me to EFT.

What is EFT?
The acronym is for Emotional Freedom Techniques. Apparently, it is used for treating soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and the rest of us with our morass of personal challenges and blocks. In the workshop, we used it to treat our emotional blocks to receiving money.

How Does it Work?
It involves vocal acknowledgement of an emotional issue, ranking of the level of anxiety the issue produces on a 0-10 scale, and tapping along your meridians as you state the problem, what you believe. Later, once anxiety is below a level 5, what you’re willing to accept as your new truth. I used it this morning in regard to some sciatic pain that has recently developed, shortly after a medical practicioner treated a minor injury and said, “You must also have terrbile sciatic pain too.” I said, “Actually, I never have,” but sure enough, in a matter of days, I manifested the pain. I can say, after a few minutes of EFT this morning, the pain is gone.

You Can Do it!
Please visit her site to watch a video of her teaching the basics of EFT in a workshop. Give it a try, but understand, some emotional issues may be too intense to just work to a zero or one level in a session, especially when done by a newbie with no coach or trained professional to assist you. Still, I believe it was worth the price of the workshop just to learn this technique.

Oh, and if you reach out to Pamela, tell her Mel Edwards sent you!

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Trek (the bike company) is looking for a few good women bloggers…who ride. This morning I submitted my entry about why I love to ride and why they should select me. I hope you have fun reading my entry. I had a giggle or two writing it.

WOO HOO!
As a girl, I rode every day of my life — for fun, to go see friends, recreation — and the sheer trill of coasting down a hill yelling, you got it, “Wooo hooo!” As an adult, I have barely used a bike at all because I find it difficult to find a place to ride that is safe and away from highways, or a bike that is WSD and small enough for my 5’ tall body. This year, I’ve decided to return to my roots because I was healthier, happier and life was simpler in my hometown. These days, I ride for the fun of it, the physical activity and to reacquaint myself with a natural pace. (Let’s face it, multi-tasking only makes me a harried, grumpy girl!)

My Commitment to Ride
I sold my truck (my husband and I now share a Toyota Yaris if a car is necessary) and I am getting a bike that fits my stature. Currently, we have a bike trail located a few miles from our current home that is safe to ride but hard to get to without being hit by a car. (No death wish here.) As a result, we plan to move to my childhood hometown (Glens Falls, NY) early this summer so we can live in a place where bikes are used regularly: bike lanes on almost all of the roads, and a bike trail that leads to Lake George village (9 miles from our home there to the lake).

My Commitment to Others
I believe that I have a moral obligation to share my learning and expertise with others. I’m a teacher and hold a master’s degree in storytelling, and am a blogger already. My primary blog is www.votrevray.blogspot.com, and focuses upon people living their “truth” or truest life path that honors who they are. I believe these combination of skills make my writing suited to teach others in an entertaining way. I don’t hold back. If my butt hurts after a ride folks will know it — on the blog, my Facebook friends and I’ll Tweet about it too. I’d love to help encourage other curvy girls to get their butt in the saddle and give the wheels a whirl again. Together, we’ll have one heck of a year!

Why Pick Mel Edwards?
I’m going to have my bike, be out there riding and writing about it anyway. Why not pick a chick who has the passion and commitment and a big mouth to shout about it? I’ll be at BlogHer Conference in Chicago crowing about my work, living in two states (SC and NY) and I’m telling you, it is better to hitch your dreams to my wheels than to build a blogger from scratch.

No Comments | In: BlogHer Conference '09, Mel Edwards, Trek Bikes, blog | | #