Z is for Zipline

Photo Source.

The first time I ever did this I was in Costa Rica. There is nothing quite like zipping into a huge cloud of mist and having no clue where it ends. We also got covered in rain after each cloud too.

I am completely freaked by exposure/heights so, the first platform I basically had to be pushed off. I screamed and once I stopped being so scared, began laughing. Or at least I remember myself being that smooth.

If you have never been to a zipline then now is your time. These are really catching on in popularity (at least around here). If safety concerns you then look into the certifications required, call up the businesses and ask how their facility and staff meet standards.
Then….DO IT.

So much fun!!

This concludes Kat’s ABC’s of Fun. Did you miss the other 25 letters? Catch up here.

New Blog Mini Series~Coming Soon!!

Hey all!

When I returned from my trip, I asked what types of blogs you have liked in the past or would like to see in the future. So this is what is coming up!

I am currently drafting (weird for me) a blog mini-series in which I categorically break down my adventures in Spain. Brief though it may have been, I tried to soak up the culture and every scrap of food during my stay.

Currently, my mini-series consists of one introductory blog and eight blogs of content.
If, while writing, I find they are too long for the reader of average interest I will break it into better bitesize installments.

Food
People
Places
Hiking
Travel
More about food
Camino

And more….      (probably about food)

Y is for Yoga

photo source

Yoga is the one kind of meditative exercise where I am not constantly thinking, “are we done with this stretch?” Or “what exactly is this doing for my body?”

I can even meditate at the end of lengthy sessions and let my mind just occupy my body. Meditation has always been a struggle for me. Only once outside of yoga have I successfully calmed my mind.

The hour-long free yoga classes at college are what got me through the stress of some projects and many a finals week.

I remember going to the yoga sessions feeling the weight of the my classload. Leaving, I felt calmer, stronger and rejuvenated to approach my tasks.

Besides doing it for stress relief, I have done yoga with children. This fun and amusing because they tend to question every pose and admit the silliness of it all.

Doing yoga with my neices was the most fun, after I said agreed they got very serious about it. By the end of it we had a contest of who can stretch the furtherest and who can hold the tree without falling. Auntie Kat didn’t win against the six and ten year olds of course.

I hope one day to take more classes. I have a silly dream to lead my own yoga classes someday, but for now I’m having fun with doing the warrior for my bathroom mirror.

X is for Xyloglyphy

Photo source.

First, there are so many jacked up words beginning with X, no wonder kids only know “X is for X-ray”!! Words that have to do with wood, yellow or gross illnesses.

My word Xyloglyphy refers to wood carvings. I like em, I think they’re fun…I also found out I had an incorrect definition for the word I wanted to use so I was scrambling. Forgive me.

What I like about wood carvings is there are so many things you can do with this art form. Pieces can be functional or pretty. Created by hand with a small pocket knife, a lathe or even a chainsaw.
The subjects can be earthly related woodland spirits or animals or your favorite sports team’s mascot.
They can be painted, left bare or stained to bring out the grain of the wood. This is a type of art form where a piece of the artist is inside it.

Do I think doing wood carving is fun? I’ve never tried it. Sure, I’ve shaved down sticks and played vampire slayer in my backyard. Around my area of the woodcarving and whittling something done by our grandfathers who sit in front of hardware stores and burn time watching the town.

Female hobbies pertain more to the kitchen—traditionally anyway. I’m sure there are tons of super skilled women carvers and I don’t feel that I can’t because I’m a woman.

My Christmas tree holds a tiny handcarved shovel made by the grandfather I never met. I don’t know who else in my family tinkers with wood.

Is this a dying art?
Should we revitalize it by teaching our youth?

How do we bring back something like this?

The hand embroidery that I do is an outdated craft, but I hope to pass it on to the youngsters in my family.

W is for Writing

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I love to write. When I was younger I dreamt of becoming a writer for a newspaper, but there is a lot more to studying journalism than I took interest in. Perhaps when I am older, I will write on my perspectives of the world and people will eagerly flip through newspapers with inked black thumbs just to read my quips over coffee.

I know that it can only be a fantasy because by the time I’m old enough to have opinions worth hearing there won’t be printed newspapers—unless we’re all very lucky.

All the money and glory aside I really enjoy it. I can blame my sister who struggled to get me to keep a diary at a young age.

I can’t thank my sisters enough for being cool and keeping journals. It gave me the inspiration to write, content with misspellings, and come to terms with my feelings through paper and pencil.

Let me be clear that the fact I (still) cannot spell “diarrhea” angers me to no end. I’ve gotten a bit better. My first journal entry involves me discussing my cold symptoms, such as a “soar thoark.” Maybe it wasn’t that bad, but it was close.

I haven’t counted the number of journals I have filled recently, but I’m fairly certain that I’m close to the 30 journals filled mark.
The picture is most of my journals, but lacks at least four of them.

For me, writing is fun!