It was quite the Twirly weekend!

So, this weekend, I basically should have spent the night at the Twirly Girls studio.  I was there every day and had the BEST time!

Friday night, the gorgeous Kat taught a sensual workshop at Twirly Girls.  Check out the photos here.  We had a really great group.  Of course, you feel slightly silly rubbing up on your girlfriends and learning how to give a lap dance.  But we still had a lot of fun and it's always a treat to watch Kat dance!  The workshop ended around 9:30 p.m., but a lot of the girls stuck around to chat and we all ended up performing pole routines for each other.  I think I left around 12:30 a.m., but Bel and Rita were still going strong!

Saturday morning, I got up at 7 a.m. for a 5k at Mt. Diablo (or, in case Annie is reading, I got up for a little-more-than-three-mile walk/jog).  I always like the Brazen Racing events.  They're usually well put together and everyone is very supportive and nice.  This was my third 5k with Brazen.  The first one I did took me about an hour (but there was a VERY big hill toward the end).  The second one was extremely muddy and took about an hour and 15 minutes.  This 5k had some rolling hills and streams but wasn't too difficult.  I did it in 50 minutes!  I was pretty proud of myself.  Thanks to my mom and Robert for walk/jogging it with me.  There is another 5k scheduled in Tilden Park next month and another in June somewhere in Pinole.  I have some photos up on flickr.  Once Brazen puts their photos up, I'll add more. 

I went straight from the 5k to Twirly Girls.  It was the regularly scheduled Saturday morning class.  I ended up making Rita and I about 30 minutes late (didn't realize I'd be taking a bus from the parking lot to the race start and then back again).  Once I got there, I was a little tired and probably didn't put in as much effort as I should have.  But, as usual, it was a fun class.

After class, a group of us headed over to Pierre Silber in Santa Clara to try on shoes and costumes.  They were really great to us.  I put on a costume and twirled a little on their newly-installed pole.  Pierre took some photos and gave me a write-up on their blog. 

Sunday morning was the BIG DAY.  Rita and I had set up a Twirly Girls party.  We didn't really have a reason in mind, but the date ended up coinciding (somewhat) with my new-birthday.

We started the day by going to Bare Escentuals in Walnut Creek for a girlfriends party.  They did our makeup.  I want to thank Gaby for doing an amazing job on mine!  I loved it!!  

We had an awesome group of girls at the party.  I had asked Andrew and Misti of Liquidpulp Photography to come and photograph the event.  I was nervous about how the girls would react to (A) pole dancing and (B) having a guy there photographing it.  But it went perfectly.  Everyone dug into the costumes, shoes, wigs and other fun things.  We spent the first hour acting silly and taking photos.

Then I performed my solo to Darling Nikki (the Foo Fighter's version of the Prince song).  (3/23/2010:  The video is now up...check the end of this blog (before the photos).  I won't bother critiquing myself...I know what I need to work on for the Kidney Foundation recital though!)  I was SO nervous.  I think I was fine up until the moment I put on my costume and then I KNEW I had to actually do this in front of new Twirly Girls!  I have to say that even though I missed some things I wanted to do and felt like my timing was off, having the other girls cat-calling and yelling and clapping for me really made me feel good and helped me feel like I still did a good job.  I will also link to some of Andrew's photos once they are up!

After my performance, we had a little bit of a Taster class, then Andrea did her beautiful performance (LOVED that it brought Misti to tears).  Bel also gave us a little taste of her abilities.  Then it was more silliness until it was time to go home.  All in all, it was a really fun party and I was glad that everyone (especially the shy girls) had a good time.

So after abusing myself all weekend, I have an appointment with Keith at Tri-Valley Bodyworks tonight to put me back together.  Although, that man is going to put himself out of a job, because he fixed so many of my problems in that first visit, I am still almost virtually pain free!