Instructional video

Here's a little something to share at your Labor Day parties this weekend! Make sure you have your sound on!

*Titus Film Production

Cheer, dammit, cheer!!!!

on my jog today, I passed by the high school and saw a bunch of football players in uniform standing outside, looking like they were getting ready for a game. As you may know, I tend to have a bit of a soft spot for football players... but that's another story. (a story i like to call "college" :)) anyway, as i was passing the football players i saw the glint of something sparkly and was immediately drawn to it.. Pom poms!!! (or Pom pons...) CHEERLEADERS! YAY! GO TEAM! but no, they were standing there, slumped shoulders, frowns down to their shoulders, looking bored. um, that's not the way you do it girls!!! you are wearing adorable shorts skirts! you have your school name displayed in bold letters across your chest in your school colors! you are a CHEERLEADER!!! lots of girls want to be one! you are one! look happy!! Don't make me sing the school song, cuz i'll do it! I tell you, I just about went up to them and gave them all a demerit.

Then I came home to dig out my cheerleading album so that I could remind myself of what cheerleading is all about! This is how cheerleaders are supposed to look when they aren't cheering:
Homecoming 1992:


and because it was right next to it in my album, here's what cheerleaders are supposed to look like when they are carrying the band banner in the parade!

Yearbook yourself!

Dear Jessica,

We didn't actually go to school together so its not realistic that I would be signing your yearbook. But thanks for the good times and best of luck in the future!

2 good + 2 be = 4 gotten!

Love,
Shan

PS: thanks for the link to this website: http://yearbookyourself.com/

This website was pretty darn fun.. Here were some of my best years.

and here I am as a boy in 1994:

I like to imagine myself as the drunk math teacher when I see this one. My name would be Mrs. Tipsy.

Here's John looking dapper in 1952:

It was way more fun when we saw him as a girl:

La Pine or Bust....

The weekend before last, we hopped on the bike to meet Nic and Kim in Redmond and go rock out to the R3 Festival in La Pine (where?), which Nic's band DFiVE9, was headlining. It was hot out... We made it through town and got up into the mountain and in the shade, that was fantastic. When we started to descend to Warm Springs, we got hit with giant heat waves and had to stop. We pulled into the diner in Warm Springs and could not get our helmets off and indoors fast enough. We found another biker couple in there as well. The thermometer outside was in the shade. 102. Iced Tea and water cooled us down enough to make it to Redmond. We had a nice dinner at the condo with many, many drinks. silliness ensued:

In typical Nic and Kim and John and Shannon (JNKS for short), it became games and dares before long. This time, Kim lost at Rock/Paper/Scissor to Shan. This happened because Shan knows Kim well enough to know what she was going to pick :) she had to take her shirt off and run through the golf course. Shan went with to take pictures, where she then lost the next game. Giggles from outside brought the menfolk out and pretty soon, there where naked cartwheels, posing, running through sprinklers, and angels in the sand traps. Here is farmer John raking up the sand angel remnants:

In the interest of keeping this site fairly family-friendly, the rest of the pictures from that night will remain unposted.

The next morning, we are up and ready for a breakfast of champions: bloody marys. We discover the awesome lounge at Mrs. Beasleys. We had drinks and various foods (all with lots of cheese) and Kim doubled her money at Keno. not enough to cover a limo to the festival. or pedicures. or breakfast... but she could've bought something at the dollar store if she wanted to. Here we are in the lounge with our waitress, Elizabeth. She said she wouldn't have her picture taken, but Nic charmed her....

We had a couple hours to kill before we had to leave for La Pine, so we hit the pool!

Tan, rested and now sober, time to hit the road for La Pine. We sang songs, made fun of each other and arrived at the festival ready to rock and roll.. Nic had rockstar schmoozing to do, so John, Kim and I went to find a local watering hole to pass the time til we should go back to the festival. The locals at that watering hole though John was the king of the world when he walked in with these two floozies on his arm..

The bar kicked ass. we had a blast and met all sorts of interesting folks and sang along with the free jukebox. I think our tab was $18.

OK, time to rock! back to the festival.. frisbee, porta-potties, resting and snacks. Then 2 bands til DFiVE9. Something that is awesome is that sometimes DFiVE9 lets us shake our shakeables with them on stage.... This was one of those times:

They Fucking Rocked.

John took some really kick ass pictures. Also, he moshed a little :)

After that, back to Redmond. Mike and Sarah stayed with us that night. We were all a little tired so we didn't make it back out to the golf course to run through the sprinklers, but we did have a good time. Sunday, we woke up and took Mike and Sarah to Mrs. Beasleys (most of us ordered our dishes with no cheese this time around) and then spent the afternoon at the pool. Then, back on the bike and back to Portland... We got rained on a little and heard some really close thunder... It was a fantastic weekend.

Some other tidbits:

I love my husband

JNKS discovered that they like golf

Sharon Titus thinks of everything

John is learning to like bloody marys

Not everything is better when you put cheese on it

Keno is fun

Eddie can jump the side of the porch. Henry cannot.

Kim can't see things that are clear

It takes Shan and Kim a long time to make brownies

DFiVE9 is better than a lot of bands that "make it"

From now on, when JNKS spend the weekend in Redmond, they will be known as "The Beasleys"

pedal pal.....

When I met John, he was big time into cycling. I joined him for a while and our weekend life revolved around many beautiful rides out in the various countrysides near portland. The best ones, for me, were the 20-40 miles rides. more than that got to be a little bit rough. However, I did make it through two centuries (100 mile rides). I am glad that I did that and have it in my back pocket, but I don't think its something that I will want to do again. John was a fantastic cyclist and he rocked the races out at PIR for a while too, coming in second on every race he did :) that was all a few years ago and since then, we haven't done a lot of riding. I even sold my Trek. however, we have talked about riding a little more, out to coffee or the bar instead of walking. Toni's bike pub crawl was just the incentive we needed to put that plan in gear and get me back on a bike. Meet "Sparky":

In addition to the ride on Saturday, we went out for breakfast on bikes on Sunday morning and then down to Hawthorne for lunch and shopping on Sunday. The "seat muscles" are a little sore, but we really had a blast.

Tony Toni Tone!!

OK, just Toni.... Toni has a birthday one month before mine and one day after Drew Barrymore.... Its a good day to have a birthday, but sometimes the weather sucks... She decided this year to celebrate her birthday and a half with a bike pub crawl!!!! good times were had by all...

Second stop, BOG: Toni and John with their matching tattoos:

The whole gang at BOG:

Third Stop: Hawthorne Lounge:

To proove we actually rode and didn't cheat:

Stop 4: Gold Dust Meridian: We drank a Radio Cab Fishbowl:

Also, there were toys on the drink!!!!

Stop whatever is next: Blue Monk... Toni and John look a little drunker than before....

Peggy and I might not be totally sober:

After that: Slow Bar... The jukebox there is good...

Also, we had cake.. then, the battle of the bellies!!!

(note that Toni is holding her dress up and has matching panties... Funderwear!!!!

and then, we had to ride home... there were crashes..

We will do it again. You should come.

fa la la la la?

Every year, John and I send out a Christmas letter with a picture.... It's always hard to figure out which picture best sums up that year of our life. Does this say "Happy Holidays" to you?

jinxed

i should know better. any time that i tell someone what i am going to choreograph to, i become completely unable to dance to that song.

on monday, just plan to be surprised.

Ballet for perverts...

So the discussion at girls night last night turned to fundamental dance movement (good times, we are. one exciting topic after another...) tendu.. jete... pique.. echappe... double entendre?

I couldn't make this up...

Me: Hello, can I speak to Todd?

Receptionist: I'm sorry, I'm new here, did you say you wanted to speak to Cathy?

Me: No, Todd

Receptionist transfers me.

"Hello, this is David"

Tease and Tone

Tease and Tone is the class I teach at "the studio" aka Vega Dance+Lab. Many of them are fabulous, but sometimes first time students confuse me. Sometimes, no matter what I do, they just stare at me with vacant, expressionless faces.

You see the name of the class, Tease and Tone. What are you expecting when you walk in the door? Are you planning to have fun? The way I see it, the title can be interpreted two ways..

1. A class with a sexy, strip teasey vibe in which we work on tightening our bods or
2. A class where someone makes fun of you while you do sit-ups.

Either way, you'd want to come into it with an open mind and a smile.

PS: If people would actually sign up for description #2, I could totally teach that.

I know this is a repeat, but I think I am going to make watching this video a pre-requisite for attending my class. If you don't think this is funny, don't come to class.

Plate and Pitchfork = Hot and Hippies

Last night, John and I were invited by one of the best people we have met this year, Randy, to go to the Plate and Pitchfork dinner out at Sauvie Island. Randy is the owner of Cava, which if you hang out with us, we have probably taken you to. This is Randy.

The first thing that happened is that we got there about 5:30, when appetizers were supposed to start and a chick in a hat told us "we won't be serving beer til 5:55, go sit in the shade." um ok. So we went to get some chairs and John asked a tall skinny dude by the chairs if we could grab a couple of them. "Those are actually for our living area" he says. steam starts rising from John's head. John hates hippies. We see two chairs off in the distant shade and go sit on them. Other people are coming and are all looking as thirsty as we are.... Hippies let other people share their living area. apparantly J and I just simply weren't welcome. Finally we get to have some beer. YAY! beer! We hang out with Randy's lovely wife Amy and discuss her fabulous new orange hair. Dinner is supposed to start at 6 and we are starving. around 6:45 they call us all togehter.. "Good! time for food!" we think. no, time for farm tours. "Come on, John, it might be fun" I say. We walk over to our tour group and hear the gal talking about the ingredients on the farm... there's uh tomatoes and uh.......carrots and uhhhhhhhh beans and uhhh.. J and I look at each other and decide that we will go have our own tour.


Its was really beautiful out there and we had a nice walk around the farm without the Ferris Bueller teacher-like droning of the list of vegetables that we would view. Finally, time to sit and eat! The hippies start doing some "housekeeping" announcements. really? housekeeping? we come, we sit and we eat. its not hard, people. did i mention that John hates hippies?




We had to sit and wait forever to eat, but everything around was pretty, including my dress.

Vegetarians, Stop reading now.

The main course was to be this pig.

He was delicious.

and the night was absolutely gorgeous.

Dear Cat,

Can I have your dress?


Love,
Shan

What if the food pyramid was instead shaped like a dollop?

I think that there should be an additional food group: the cream group.

It would include Ice Cream, Whipped Cream, Cream Cheese, Sour Cream, and Cream of Wheat.

Cheese!

I have been wanting to try a tooth whitener for a while and when i saw Amy using one, i decided I would give it a try too! I got the Listerine version and it has you put strips on twice a day and they disolve in a couple minutes. i only have a few more days left and i think... that they made a difference!

Rah-Rah-Rafting!

John went rafting with Nic and the HT crew last year. I did not because I was scared to death to do it. I have been a constant "no" on the rafting question. However, earlier this summer, John and I were out on the bike and he took me to Maupin and we went up and down the whole stretch and watched countless rafts do the entire length of run that they did. After that day, I agreed to give it a shot. Kim hadn't been either but we were going to try it. Chewy and Boston were with us too, and they had both done it before so Kim and I were the only newbies.





After we'd gone over a few rapids and gotten splashed plenty, we got a little more confident. You'll notice that even though my hand is very close to Boston's head, I am still standing on the raft by myself!



We stopped and hiked back to these natural waterslides and everyone but me went down them. I have 4 excuses as to why i didn't do it.

1. I didn't want to lose a contact.
2. Someone has to hold everyone's sunglasses.
3. I have to take the pictures.
4. Are you fucking kidding me?! there's no way in hell i am doing that!!!

Here is John plunging to almost certain death:



I will however, stand here with Kim and look pretty.

That was just about the end. We had a few more easy little rapids to take us to the pick up spot. Easy rapids, but we still managed to lose Chewy :)

It was a blast. We're going again.

Rock the Runway

So, my blonde partner in crime, Kim, and I got asked to be in a style show for Blu, a salon in our 'hood. It was a benefit for the School of Rock (who happened to totally rock..) we got to get our hair did and wear fun outfits and be runway models for a day.






also, I was a runway model who did a cartwheel.

Best husband ever actually came backstage and offered to take pictures. Also, there was a silent auction and the quick thinker he is, he bid on two items.. $130 worth of tattoo at a kick ass tattoo place and a massage. he won both. $60 for the tat dollars and $25 for the massage. He let me buy the massage from him. today was victory :)