Picking Up Where We Left Off...So, going back to two weeks ago, after the acting class ended, I rushed to pick Susan up and we drove to Santa Fe for a fabulous afternoon at Ten Thousand Waves Japanese Spa. We got there very early so we found a nice spot to relax a bit in the Santa Fe National Forest and hiked around a short distance, until it was time for our reservations at the spa. The next two hours were absolutely glorious. First we had a private soak in their nicest tub room, the Imperial Ofuro, which had a dry sauna, a private shower and a matress (wink.wink!), then had an extremely relaxing couples massage. It started raining during our hot tub soak, and they made everyone get out of the tubs when lightning started happening. Luckily we only had a couple minutes left on our soak time when they did this. The massage was wonderful, and was performed by two female therapists. Of course, I got the more "masculine" of the two, whose name was "Fish," but she had the kung fu grip happening and basically beat the crap out of any tension I had in me, especially in my back and neck. The whole experience was extremely romantic, ultra relaxing and we left feeling like a couple o' wet noodles.

Last weekend I finally got my opportunity to perform improv in front of a live audience. It was the final "assignment" of my improv class to do a short-form improv performance. Lani, Steve, and DJ, my classmates, had done some previous performances because they were on the earlier student team, but this was my first "official" stage performance. In the past I would be very keyed up and obsess about my performance all week, but thanks to a lot of meditation, and some good advice from Dr. Wayne Dyer and Kelly Williams from Gorilla Tango, I was strangely calm and confident going into the show. I also had my "harem" of lady friends in attendance rooting me on; Susan, Joan, Sue, Wendy, Vivian and Barbara. This was a huge help, and they laughed a lot. The show flew by quickly, I had a really fun time, made no awful blunders, and felt great about the whole experience. Also got many congratulations from the GT regular performers and much encouragement. It was a blast!

I needed that encouragement, because less than 12 hours later, I was back at Gorilla Tango for the latest round of auditions for the student team. Seven people showed up, and unlike the previous audition there was no panel of judges. There were also fewer games to do. We had about 8 games listed, but they stopped us after 6 and announced that ALL of us made the team!!!! HOORAY!!! I have been visualizing this for 4 months and IT HAPPENED! The folks who made the team are all cool and I know I will enjoy performing with them. Our student team classes start May 15th and will end with at least one performance. I am also moving on to class 5, which is another long form class, which will also end with a student performance.

Right after the audition, I sped over to the church where the singles group met to carpool up to Tent Rocks, near Cochiti Lake for a hike. Wow, what an awesome place! The hike was just over a mle long, but felt much longer, because there was a 600 foot rise in elevation along the trail. If you haven't been there, Tent Rocks is an area of eroded rock formations that look like a series of tents, teepees, pagodas or african huts, depending on your imagination. Some dirty minded ladies on the trip also felt some looked like a certain erect male body part, but I won't go there. Much of the terrian looked other-worldly. This is really something to see, and I highly recommend it. I am going to attempt to post some pictures of the area here, but I have to figure out how to do that first.