The Surprise Murder Mystery Party

So awhile back, I'm watching Big Bang Theory, and they had a surprise murder mystery party.  I have never desired to attend a murder mystery, but suddenly a SURPRISE murder mystery seemed like the funnest idea EVER.  Mama Bel's birthday was coming up, and so I started spinning the idea in my head.  I ran it by a few other Twirlies and it was set!  The theme of a Disney princess murder mystery seemed like a no brainer thanks to Fat Princess (aka AJ).  I realized I couldn't make it a surprise for everyone since the attendees needed to wear costumes and read up on their characters.  So, I decided that only Bel would be surprised. 

I had NO idea how much work one of these parties would be.  I purchased the kit from a website, but I had to print out almost 100 pages of documents, then cut everything up and place them into envelopes.  It took me hours.  Don't get me wrong, it was a ton of fun and so worth it once the party started!

I arrived at Bel's house dressed as some kind of modern punk ballerina Snow White.  I had Rita dressed as a fairy, Ellen dressed as an Eminem'ed out Rap-unzel and Jade as Hansel.  Bel was thoroughly confused.  We just told her that "all would be revealed shortly."  As people began to arrive, Bel started to guess who they were.  It was awesome.  Diana (Red Riding Hood) and Kim (Jasmine)  kindly provided Bel with a yellow dress, as her character was Belle from Beauty and the Beast.  She was dancing around, guessing whether she was a can-can girl or Cinderella.  Sean Michael played Prince Charming, the ultimate host of the evening, and the person aaaaaaalllll the princesses wanted to get with.  AJ starred as Cinderella (aka Cindy), the princess who went missing, and cuing the beginning of our murder mystery. 

We let Bel in on the secret, gave her some information about her character and away we went!  

If you don't want to know who "dies" and how the rest of the party plays out, please don't read past here.  I'm going to post photos of the event.  I want to wish Bel a very, very happy birthday (today is her actual birthday).  She has done so much for me, and I was happy to be able to be part of a fun night in her honor.  Thank you to Ellen for picking up the beautiful cake!  I also want to thank everyone who came to the party.  It was difficult because you have to get a number of guests, then assign characters.  And each one plays a role, so we did a little juggling in the last couple of days, and had a few attendees who didn't get an official character.  But I felt like the entire thing came together well, moved along at a pretty good pace and that, in the end, everyone had a really fun time.

So, happy, happy birthday, Mama Bel!!  Enjoy a photo journal of our evening:

M.I.A.

It has been almost two weeks since my last post.  Wait, is this like a real Catholic confession?!  This *is* Confessions of a Twirly Girl!  I am sorry pole goddess, for I have sinned.  It has been two weeks since my last blog confession.  lol!  Maybe she will assign me five pole-ups as punishment. 

I know, I know.  I haven't been posting.  I have let life get in the way.  I've been extremely overwhelmed with the little stuff since so much big stuff was going on.  We had the Third Annual Lovely Rita Fundraiser and showcase to prepare for (bad English, I know, get over it).  I have been housesitting a lot -- and not close to home.  And some well-deserved vacation days were spent dealing with an expensive broken truck, rather than playing.  Boo. 

Anyway, the fundraiser was amazing.  At last count, we were almost up to $4,000 for the National Kidney Foundation (more on that later).  We had a heat wave last weekend and the freakin' AC broke.  It was 90 degrees in that room, yet everyone stayed to watch and all of the performers still did their thing!  You know, I was an unhappy girl...sweaty bitch...with FIVE numbers (at least two of them were only bit parts).  But I did it and didn't die.

I have some REALLY cool posts coming up.  They are just in my e-mail, waiting for me to find a minute to edit them.  I hope to start with something tomorrow.  Tell the Universe to leave me alone for a day so I can catch up on the fun stuff!!  :-)

Until then, keep twirling!!!

I bring my own fan pretty much everywhere

My blogging challenge is almost done

So almost a month ago, I took the 30 day blogging challenge.  The challenge was to actually have decent content every single day.  I tried very hard not to make any of my interviews a qualifying blog, although I did end up doing it once on a super busy day.  I know that some days, I do over-share by putting up multiple posts (usually when I have good interviews I really want to post).  I also often skip weekends since most of my "clicks" seem to come on week days.  For the most part, I only like to post things when I actually have things to post.  So while the challenge was nice, I'm not sure I would take it again.  Like I warned on my very first day of blogging, some days I might have a bunch of posts and some days I might have none.  I like the freedom of that choice.  Feeling like I HAD to post to meet some challenge was not really my style.  So I have one more day of "forced" blogging...then its back to randomness as usual!  See you tomorrow!

*Day 29 of 30 day blogging challenge*

Learning to Teach

Bel recently brought up the idea of me teaching a non-pole class.  She calls it Femme Fatale (a cardio burlesque type dance/exercise class).  At first I was STOKED.   What better way to "force" myself to do cardio than to be required to show up and teach it?!  We haven't talked details.  I don't know if it will be a one-time workshop or a regular class one day, two days, three days a week?  It's the holidays so we have some time to work that out.  But I thought, well I should jump on this.  I downloaded a bunch of music.  I wrote down the 8 counts in each song.  I had an app figured out the beats per minute.  I started thinking of routines in my head.  Of course, as a jazzerciser from way back in the day, I'm thinking of a combo of some cardio with a few strengthen moves in there is the best idea.  I bought a binder so I can type my routines out and bring them with me but I don't want to be staring at a binder the entire time. 

Then all of these questions started swirling in my little pea brain and I haven't been able to sleep.  Choreographing ONE four minute pole routine is hard.  How will I choreograph an entire hour of routines?  How will I remember it all?  I have been a gym student my entire life...can I switch to teacher mode and start giving cues ahead of time??  If this ends up being a regular class, how often should I change it up?  Should I wing some of it?  Should I choreograph every single minute?  Or should I break down a short routine and teach that for at least a few songs? 

How do all of you teachers do it??  Please help me sleep tonight!!!!  :-D

*Day 14 of 30 day blogging challenge*