Tei has a TARDIS and beginner's mind

[tei_]

Last Challenge, I didn't have many concrete goals because I was living a bit vagabond-ish.  This Challenge is going to be about going back to the basics of my life: sleep, practicing, food, and foundational gymnastics skills! The format will be a @maegs-style checklist of things to do every day. And the theme is going to be Tenth Doctor gifs, because, idk, that's the kinda mood I'm in. 

 

Sleep

 

I am totally in the swing of using my sleep cycle app! My sleep goal for this Challenge is to get 8 hours or more of "time in bed." (i.e. since the app can tell when you physically fell asleep, it tells you how long you spent between putting the app on and the alarm.)  Ideally, this would always mean getting to bed early, but realistically it might sometimes mean sleeping late. Right now my average time in bed is 7:07. i hope to have it approaching the 8 hr mark by the end of the Challenge!

 

Checklist item: Was I in bed for 8 hrs or more the previous night, yes or no. 

 

Practicing

 

This is something I haven't talked about much on here, but I am a freelance classical musician and finding the time/motivation to not only retain your skills but hopefully actually improve while not having a fixed schedule and travelling a lot is hard. Most musician my age/position basically go back to school for multiple post-undergrad degrees (masters' of music! Artist Diploma! Performance diploma! Chamber music diploma! So many options!) just to have the institutional support of a school or conservatory while they practice and hope they win a job some time soon, and I chose not to do that because I just really don't like being in school all that much and, well, didn't want to. (Also I won a one-year full-time orchestral position for last year, so partly I didn't have to.) So I have more professional orchestral experience than a lot of my peers my age, but I don't have an official teacher or a nice practice room or the motivation of regular placement auditions in school ensembles to keep me going. Basically my career right now is an exercise in being hella self-motivated. 

 

Checklist item: 2 hrs of practice and 1/2 hr of reed work, every day. 

 

Food

 

One of the houses I stayed at in Thunder Bay was a friend who has a bunch of roommates and they are all very into fermentation! They eat lots of rad food and I am inspired to try to make friends with some bacteria this Challenge. For now, the two foods I want to try are yogurt and sourdough. Yogurt because I eat a ton of it so why not make it healthier and super cheap. Sourdough-- I had actually never tried non-commercially-yeasted bread before two weeks ago? And it was ind of a revelation, in that I always thought I just didn't like bread, and that bread was a tasteless substance that went down like sandpaper and made me feel heavy and lethargic and I was just not into it. TURNS OUT bread is actually a magical food that has actual taste and texture and nutrition and is filling and awesome. 

 

I dunno how to turn this into a checklist... once I get the sourdough started, "feed sourdough" will probably be the item! Making yogurt will be more of a once-a-week thing, but I aim to always have homemade yogurt on hand. 

 

Handstands

 

For someone who's been going to gymnastics multiple times a week, I sure can't hold a handstand for very long. It's actually pretty pathetic... I can't hold it at all, basically  HANDSTANDS ARE KIND OF IMPORTANT IN GYMNASTICS. 

 

Checklist item: Every day, a 1 min wall handstand and 5 attempts at holding a freestanding handstand for as long as I can. 

 

And that's it! I'm going to keep lifting 3x/week and going to gymnastics when I can, of course, but those aren't really things I ned to Challenge myself to do any more  

 

 

Oh, and I am visiting a friend in Montreal this week, so I am probably going to keep week 0 as week 0 and post a bit but only technically start counting stuff at week 1.

[raptron]

Yessss, excellence all around. 

[Waldgeist]

 

I like this theme!

[TheFatFriar]

Hey there! Awesome theme (I'm not the biggest Doctor Who fan, maybe, but Tenth Doctor is my favorite). Going back to the basics is the best when you feel like you've started slipping.

 

I'm assuming you're talking about Greek yogurt? Maybe you can track your food intake like "eat X bowls of yogurt a week" or something like that.

[Asa Pond]

Love this!!!

 

 

Can't wait to see how the handstands come along!! 

[tei_]

6 hours ago, Kunmaar said:

Hey there! Awesome theme (I'm not the biggest Doctor Who fan, maybe, but Tenth Doctor is my favorite). Going back to the basics is the best when you feel like you've started slipping.

 

I'm assuming you're talking about Greek yogurt? Maybe you can track your food intake like "eat X bowls of yogurt a week" or something like that.

 

Nope, regular yogurt--  Greek yogurt is just yogurt with the liquid whey strained out, so if I'm making it myself I wouldn't bother doing that. I will definitely gobble it if I make it, it's just a matter of getting past the learning curve of figuring how hot to get the milk, how long to leave it to set, etc. It seems like a less involved process than sourdough, though, since you don't need to feed it regularly, just save a little bit of the old yogurt to start off the next batch. 

[RogueLibrarian]

Following!

 

 

[Hazard]

On 5/2/2016 at 11:59 AM, tei_ said:

foundational gymnastics skills

 

Woot!

 

 

[tei_]

Wow, I am super glad this is zero week! I had a great time in Montreal, eating out for every meal I went to the gym once, which was fun in that the last time I went to that gym I was in my  "30 min on the elliptical+abs" phase, so it was fun to revisit the space from a different perspective. Unfortunately I strained the muscles in my neck, I think doing pullups, possibly exacerbated by the deadlifts I did afterward before realizing my neck was fucked up. Whoops. Today I am spending all day on a bus to Kitchener, so I can see the concert my fiance is curating tonight, and then I will be back in Toronto tomorrow with hopefully a healed neck and the prospect of a brief period of non-travel by Monday. 

[RogueLibrarian]

Oww. Take care of that neck! Bus travel doesn't sound fun with an injury.

[Suzaqu]

Hello! I love Montreal so much, glad to hear your trip was awesome!

 

I'm super intrigued by your fermentation goals and definitely want to see where that goes!

[tei_]

Day 1:

Sleep: Did not get 8 hours. I SET THE ALARM FOR 8H 30MIN AND THEN WOKE UP BEFORE IT, IT'S NOT MY FAUUUUULT.

Practicing: Yes. 

Food: I MADE THE YOGURT LAST NIGHT! It set overnight and I woke up to yogurt this morning! Success! It was actually quite easy and not finicky at all, which is good because I don't have a food thermometer so I was worried I wouldn't get the temperatures right. It's not as thick as the store-bought, but the kind I usually buy also has cream in it, so that could be a contributing factor. And I don't really mind slightly runny yogurt. 

Handstands: Yep, did them at gymnastics tonight. 

 

Gymnastics stuff: did five (although not in a row) kip-back hip circles! Then got a monster rip trying to figure out long hang kips. Vault was REALLY GOOD I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT VAULT. I think I actually popped off of it! My twelve-year-old self is swooning in the corner.

[Suzaqu]

Yay for yogurt becoming yogurt! I've never done yogurt, but whenever my bread becomes bread and not a big pile of flour and water, I get way too excited. Looks like you had an awesome day 1! 

[tei_]

2 hours ago, Suzaqu said:

Yay for yogurt becoming yogurt! I've never done yogurt, but whenever my bread becomes bread and not a big pile of flour and water, I get way too excited. Looks like you had an awesome day 1! 

 

Haha yeah it was way too exciting for a food where other organisms did literally all the work  What kind of bread do you do?

[Suzaqu]

18 minutes ago, tei_ said:

 

Haha yeah it was way too exciting for a food where other organisms did literally all the work  What kind of bread do you do?

I've done quite a few different kinds over the years, no sourdough though. My husband doesn't like it at all, and keeping up with a starter for just me would be a lot of work and too much bread. (Not that you can ever have too much bread, but I'd eat it all, which is a problem). Recently I've been doing a lot of focaccia and soft pretzels.  

[SymphonicDan]

Ahh I have the problem too when I give myself plenty of time in bed but then I wake up too early and can't make the most of the extra time

 

Following because gymnastics and music. Exciting that you're going to be living in a new place too!

[tei_]

13 hours ago, Suzaqu said:

I've done quite a few different kinds over the years, no sourdough though. My husband doesn't like it at all, and keeping up with a starter for just me would be a lot of work and too much bread. (Not that you can ever have too much bread, but I'd eat it all, which is a problem). Recently I've been doing a lot of focaccia and soft pretzels.  

 

Aaaaaaa that sounds delicious!

 

4 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

Ahh I have the problem too when I give myself plenty of time in bed but then I wake up too early and can't make the most of the extra time

 

Following because gymnastics and music. Exciting that you're going to be living in a new place too!

 

Thanks!  Although it would be more exciting for me if I got to not live in a new place for once, haha!

[tei_]

Day 2 tally:

Sleep: Same thing! Woke up too damn early!

Practicing: I ended up making reeds for 1h 15 min and practicing for 1h 15 min, instead of 2h and 1/2 hr. Which was kind of what was needed, but, 2h of practicing was the challenge, so, doesn't count. 

Food: I am giving myself a "yes" on this for every day that I keep up with caring for my microbial friends/being I am well stocked. So, yes! I started growing a kombucha scoby! Woooo! And I bought some cultures to add to my yogurt to make it more robust next time. And located a person on kijiji who will sell me some kefir grains for $5! Kefir sounds pretty magical and ridiculously easy and I am excited to start making it.

handstands: Yes. And... actually noticed some improvement in the freestanding handstands? I think those are called noob gains... bit of an ego blow to discover I am still in the noob gains portion of handstand learning

 

Then I went to the bar and ate lots of fish and chips. 

[raptron]

Oooh, kefir too? Awesome. 

[tei_]

Day 3:

Sleep: Ughhh nooooo

Practicing: YES. It was a struggle. But I DID IT.

Food: Next batch of yogurt is proliferating right now, and my tea is starting to get little bubbles on the top, which is apparently a good sigh w/r/t scoby production!

Handstand: Yep.

[raptron]

Perf! 

[tei_]

Some not-so good days:

 

Yesterday, Day 4:

Sleep: Nope.

Practicing: Nope. I think I got like an hour, plus some reeds?  My excuse is that I spent literally all day doing my taxes at a coffee shop with a friend who said he would help me do my taxes. MY TAXES ARE DONE AND I PAID THEM. Okay, I realize this does not actually replace practicing. 

Food: Yep, made some more yogurt!

Handstand: LOL, I did the minute against the wall and then fell asleep before doing the freestanding ones. 

 

Today, Day 5:

Sleep: At 6 AM this morning, my roommate was walking out the of the bathroom on the landing outside my bedroom, had a seizure, and fell down the stairs. I was the only one to hear it (seriously, my other roommates sleep though EVERYTHING, this is not the first time I have been the only person to notice a significant disturbance), and was about to call 911 when she woke up screaming and grabbing at me and then regained lucidity quite an astoundingly short time afterwards-- she remembered everything that had happened and explained that she had had them before and had just started a new medication that she felt was making things worse. She went back to bed, but I was awake for good, so I tried out Zombies, Run for the first time. Good stuff. 

 

(Oh, and before I left Toronto today I told one of my other roommates about it and asked her to go through a concussion checklist with her, just in case.)

 

Practicing: Ugh. Well, I took a bus to St. Catharine's this morning, managed 45 min of practice before the rehearsal, and then had rehearsal until 10:30 tonight. On the bright side, my reed efforts over the past week paid off, and I have an new reed I can probably play the concert on, which shouldn't be as exciting event as it is but I have had such a bad run of reeds this year, ye gads. 

Food: I didn't make any today, but I did pack for the weekend: I brought a jar of my new yogurt, some oats I pre-mixed with sugar to make oatmeal to mix with the yogurt for breakfast, some cookies for the bus, and some vaguely curry-ish lentil-chickpea stuff from the freezer. I am trying out a new airbnb which I am super happy with, the girl who lives here isn't here and just gave me the code to her apartment, so I basically have an apartment to myself for the weekend within walking distance of the concert hall. So I just finished eating the lentil curry stuff with yogurt! Yay, bringing your own snacks to Mordor!

Handstands: Yep. 

[tei_]

Yesterday, day 6:

Sleep: Yes. Haha slept 1 AM-9 AM. 

Practicing: Nope. Another 5 hours of rehearsal, probably would not have survived an additional 2 hours of practice. 

Food: Didn't make any, didn't expect to, ate the yogurt I brought, my kombucha SCOBY will hopefully be in mid-adolescence by the time I get back to Toronto?

Handstands: Yep, at the gym. 

[Suzaqu]

Awwwww, the SCOBY is growing up! It will be driving and off to college before you know it

 

I love Zombies, Run! Their C25K is the best attempt I ever had at running. But that is absolutely terrifying what happened to your roommate, good call on letting your other roommate know.

[raptron]

Packing food is the best kind of packing. Go, go fermentation!