Buying a House and Making it Green

So...we might have found a house in New Jersey! But, there's an underground oil tank.

UGH. All we want to do is buy a house and make it green!

Any suggestions?

Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD)

Do you know what GSD is? Did you know that there are close to 10,000 people with this disease, very little research has been done, and there are no real treatments at this time? Thousands of children have already died...and I had absolutely no clue. Not one little idea that this even existed.

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Until I went to a fundings meeting the other night that my mother knew about. (Okay, I'll give you the basics but read all about it here, on the Feldman's non-profit groups' webpage.)

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GSD (Type 1a) is when a person cannot form glucose since they are missing a certain enzyme. Like diabetes, this can affect blood sugar levels to such an extent that thousands have died. Many parents do not realize their children have this disease since their is no test to find it and both parents have to be recessive carriers to pass it on. Parents have found out that their children have had it after sudden seizures and long hospital stays were luckily (sadly, "luckily"), a doctor has been able to recognize what it might be. And once a parent is told what it is, they realize that their lives will be changed drastically. If their child does not receive Agro Corn Starch (yup, straight from the supermarket shelves and proved to be the best therapy at this time) EVERY TWO HOURS, their blood sugar levels will drop to a dangerous level. And when I say every two hours, I mean that the parents have to set alarm clocks for the middle of the night to go put a mixture of water and corn starch through a tube directly to their childs' stomach just to make sure they stay alive. They can never be late by even fifteen minutes or their child could die.

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I cannot believe that I have never heard about this. They not only need donations to help fund the research...they need researchers! I hope that I have explained it well enough and that you will feel compelled to learn more about it...I know it will indirectly affect me for the rest of my life.

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http://www.curegsd.org/

Get CapoFit!

I just realized that some people may think that this "personal trainer" thing is coming out of nowhere! Well, here's a little piece of unknown history that will make some sense out of it all - I was in a fitness video!

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It all started when I was a sophomore in high school and my teacher told me about Capoeira. (For those of you who know absolutely nothing about it but want to, here's more information. Click on history...and there are videos on YouTube of course!) I didn't actually hear much more about it for a year-or-so until I was accepted into the Center for Creative Youth (CCY) summer program at Wesleyan University for violin. (Suzuki trained...learning a lot about me today, huh?!) Well, the program was not just about mastering your instrument or art, but learning about some other cultures and their arts. You guessed it, Capoeira was offered. For two weeks I got my butt kicked (and learned a little Portuguese...and Japanesse, but I digress) and fell in love with Capoeira. I could not wait to get started - but I had no idea where to look. And like many other teenagers, I soon forgot about this extra activity...what with field hockey, ski team, jazz band, orchestra, applying to college, SATs, blah blah blah - you know the story.

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Well, turns out it wasn't over yet! A couple of kids at the University of Connecticut had started a club. (Look! They even have a webpage now!) I had to try my fair share of other clubs before I found it, including a sorority and Army ROTC, but hey, I got there eventually. In fact, I started getting a little obsessed with Capoeira and stopped nearly everything else I was supposed to be at college for (like English class, apparently). On Thursday and Friday nights a group of us would drive to New Haven, CT to attend Mestre Efraims' school and I even met my husband there!

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Capoeira got me in the best shape of my life, introduced me to my husband, and even landed me in a fitness video with Professor Fabiano Lucas...so you will probably think I am crazy when I tell you that I have not played in about two years! (Yeah, I think I am out of my mind.) But I miss it, so as I move to New Jersey and James and I start our lives together - I am getting back in to it. I just found a few schools to try out and might even see a few friendly faces. I am RE-finding myself and proud of it. Now if I could just find those tight, white pants of mine!

Litchfield Hills Road Race & Featurette!

Woohoo! My best friend and I are off to check out the Litchfield Hills Road Race Trail. This will be our first year running it (7.1 miles) and we want to get a feel for it. Wish me luck! (Thank gosh I still have a few more weeks to train - the womens' record is something like 38 minutes!) HA!
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I've also been featured on Bigib Designs Blog. Read about it here. And check out her store here. It truly is a history!
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Well, that's it for now. Life is crazy busy and I'm off to check out Litchfield!!! Ciao Ciao!

House AND Job Hunting

Sorry for the delay - my husband and I have been HOUSE HUNTING in New Jersey! Very exciting. The not so exciting part? I am also job hunting. I have no idea where to look?! Monster.com and Yahoojobs.com don't seem to be "big helps" in the creative/art world and http://www.nyfa.org/ seems to have all NYC creative arts jobs...and I truly have no idea what I want to be doing! I'm willing to try anything new and I am definitely good with statistics, data handling, research, anything artistic and creative, spontaneity, weird hours, hard manual labor, dirty work, scheduling, organizing, working out, cooking...blah blah blah. If I could find a job hand-painting sports equipment, I think I would be set.
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I'm just so unsure of myself right now and I've never been in this position before. I do not know where I want to go and I am working on who I want to be! I'm thinking personal trainer, freelance writer/photographer, and/or sticking with fine art. There are a couple of contests coming-up, like the Diesel Wall (it's almost due). Maybe I should concentrate on those?
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Gosh, I wish I knew.