Gifts that keep on giving....

 

It was my birthday! I turned 28 this year! I have been looking forward to this particular birthday for as long as I can remember.

28 is probably the hugest milestone of my life and I did it! I turned 28! And the craziest part is that I did it while I was asleep!

Impressed? I know, it's incredible that the annoying saying "I could do it in my sleep" just got really real.

Sadly, the day after my birthday I discovered I had gotten an unwelcome gift. I came down with a horrendous coldflubug that I am still fighting off. I am much better today than I was this time last week. I was so weak I couldn't even blog!

Keeping on the topic of gifts...As you may know,  I stole was gifted Blade by my parents over a year ago. He is the best dog ever, I love him so much. However, since I took Blade as my own I noticed that my dad's gift giving began to take an eerie change.

It went from Kindles and Flip Cams to THIS:

Birthday Gift of 2011



and then this year I got THIS: 

Birthday Gift of 2012

(I hope my use of a larger font has served my intention of subliminally heightening the drastic-ness of the situation)

Maybe these are things I NEED but it sends a loud message: TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR/MY DOG! Even though Blade is MY dog (my dad just borrows him for hunting). In fact, they have been training every weekend in the woods for the past month or so. And guess what happened??? The weekend after my birthday I picked up THIS!

My poor little pup had to get stitches! He was attacked in the woods! By a vicious tree, or branch, or rock, or something.

(did telling you about the subliminal bolded bigger font thing make it lose it's effect?)

Luckily Blade has recovered well from the tree/branch/rock bite and is back to normal. Though he does seem to be milking the attention a little bit more than usual.

Usual cute attention seeking behavior:

Post "the accident" severe cute attention seeking behavior:



I know what you are thinking! Look at how much more Blade is trying to look cute now that he is wearing that cast!

Anyway, thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes and gifts! It couldn't have been a better birthday (except for getting sick....so I guess it could have been a better...but that happened the day after my birthday so it probably doesn't count). yay!

Happy Wednesday!

As promised....more skydiving!

I got my pictures in the mail along with a great video. Here are just a few:

Dan and I on the plane! Dan is strapped to the man right behind him.

Solo jumper and his videographer jumped right before us, I think I blacked out because I don't remember this looking so scary:

 Here we go!

 Camera guy: SMILE!

 The jump:

 I love this shot from below of us falling from the plane:

 And off the plane goes and down we go!

 Little fluffy clouds

 The free fall lasted 60 seconds but it didn't even feel like we were falling. It felt like we were just in suspension with a wind machine keeping us up.

All I remember is not being able to breathe because the wind was insane. I do remember thinking "SMILE, Kyla, this is being filmed!" It was really hard to breathe when I smiled but I did it for the BLOG!

We got to float down for about 5-6 minutes, it was really beautiful and surreal. The only thing ruining this moment was that my ears had some serious popping to do. I felt like my head was going to explode, but I did all the tricks (yawning, holding your nose and blowing) and I could just hear it squeaking when it was coming out of my ears.

 Perfect landing! That was so amazing.

We skydove!

Last weekend my friend Dan and I went skydiving! Spoiler alert: we both survived!

The whole thing started with a list Dan and I were making because we felt life just needed some more excitement...plus there was a groupon for it! We both signed up immediately and made an appointment for the one and only day in September we could both go.

The night before we celebrated our possible last day of life with good friends Jessica and Melissa by doing 'skydiving shots' (that we found how to make on the internet). I don't think the bartender had half the ingredients for it but his concoction was....great...

In order to actually skydive you need near perfect clear skies. On "dive day" as we experts like to call it, we rushed to Louisberg, NC (about an hour away) and arrived on time at 10am. Well, actually we got there at 10:35 am because Dan was relying on this navagation system on his phone called "Wayz". Lesson learned: be skeptical of any navagation system called "Wayz".

Once we arrived we were met with gloomy overcast. It was predicted to burn off at some point, but we had no idea how long that would take. So just like at every other airport I've been too, we waited.

  

And waited.....

  

And found a frog which means good luck before jumping out of a plane! (no citations found)

 

2 hours later, after a rushed trip to Sheetz (a gas station/food place) to grab lunch, the sky had cleared enough for us to suit up!

  

Some of us looked cooler than others....

 We boarded a tiny plane with about a dozen other skydivers and made our way up to 13,500 feet. It was one guy's first time ever FLYING ON A PLANE, let alone jumping out of one!

Dan and I both hired our own personal videographers to jump with us. They jumped solo beside us with cameras strapped totheir helmuts to record the whole thing. They gave us amazing video footage of the whole process from before getting on the plane to our landing on the ground. We also got hundreds of still photos.Currently I only have Dan's pictures because mine are being sent in the mail, but here are a few that are amazing.

The most anticipated part: jumping from the plane

 

After that you free fall for about 60 seconds. We fell from 13,500 feet to about 6,000 feet. Personal videographer capturing every moment:

Then our experienced parachuting guide (that were were very tightly strapped to) pulled the chute at 6,000 feet

 For 5-6 minutes you just glide through the air, seeing all the best views of central-ish North Carolina...

Afterward we celebrated our survival:

 Our friends were happy too:

This comic came out the same day we skydove!

When I get my pictures you can be sure that I will share them, stay tuned!

Dirty Southern Monkey Business

I haven't lived in Madison, Wisconsin since 2009, but I was so excited to see that I am still a part of the Monkey Business Institute family! As you can see from the facebook snapshot below, I am in the picture! I like to think this is because everyone wants me to come back and just thinks of me as being on a long vacation....but it is probably because they haven't gotten around to a new photo shoot. WHATEVER the reason, I think it is cool to still be connected.

Monkey Business is where my improv life started and I have the BEST memories of all our classes, our practices, our shows, and of course all of wonderful improvisers I got to work with.

This was where I found my favorite thing in the world! I do improv to mentally escape, to challenge myself, to learn, to live in the moment, and most importantly to play and have fun.

Now I live in Carrboro, NC and I have a new family at Dirty South Improv (DSI). I adore my new community and get to play in lots of shows. This summer I've been especially immersed, being at the theater 3-5 nights a week. It's awesome; not just because I PASSED MY QUALIFIER (did I mention that?) and don't have classes this summer, but because I'm working with new people and different combinations of people all the time. Everyday is a new experience and I've been having those A-HA moments pretty regularly. (Also there are lots of WTF moments which are exciting too).

My next challenge is to MC a show. I haven't done this before and it makes me super nervous. More nerves than a regular show. I don't know why this makes me more nervous than when I am a player in a show, but I actually cried in practice the other day because I felt so overwhelmed! I've watched people MC shows a thousand times yet I still get tongue tied. However, even though I am scared out of my mind, I am excited to do it. The nerves and adrenaline keep me from becoming complacent and keep me in the moment, good or bad. I really really really hope it's not bad!

I PASSED.... and other scintillating news

This is month old news but I PASSED my doctoral methods qualifying exam!!!

In other exciting news, my parents are at their 35th college reunion at Carleton College and stopped by St. Olaf College since it is just across the railroad tracks in the little town of Northfield.

My mom bought me something I have wanted ever since I cursed the old people clogging up and slowing down the cafeteria line at Winterfest when I was a young college student. What is it??

A 100% Real, 100% Wool, made in Norway specifically for St. Olaf College, Norwegian Sweater! 

Oh. My. God. I can't wait until I'm 80 and my grandchild scores me tickets to Winterfest and I can wander around the cafeteria wearing my sweater, purposefully getting in those punk college kids' way along with hundreds of other alumni doing the same thing.

She also got this for Baby Blade:

the other side

I disappeared and now I'm back!

The last couple months I've been finishing up school, doing research, writing papers, and studying for prelims. TWO YEARS of UNC methods courses were going to be tested by 25 questions over a 6 hour time period.

I took them on Monday May 7th, a date forever marked with terror, and I have to say, the 3 weeks leading up to the exam were absolute HELL. By the time I sat down for the exam I was numb and just wanted to get through it without totally losing my mind.

I thought I'd start drinking right after the exam and never stop but all it took was one beer and I crawled into bed where I stayed for the next four hours.

Tuesday was a recovery day. I slept, I ate, I saw a movie, I went out to dinner and it was wonderful. I walked into work this morning and my boss said "Wow, you look like you got some sleep.I didn't want to say this before but you kind of looked like a cat zombie dragged through the mud these past few weeks. The bags (under my eyes) are gone!"

I find out if I passed in 3 weeks. Until them, I'm going to enjoy my summer.

It was a beautiful day for a walk....

So we took the Emma (in the back) and the Blade (in the front) and Reese (in the middle) on the trails near my house in Carrboro.

They are so cute running and...wait, where is Blade?
NOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo!

Apparently Blade wanted to blend in more with nature..luckily there was a stream nearby
But this was the best I could do!

And now I have the sweetest pup in the world. AKA exhausted!