So... What next?

February 13th, 2010

It's been already almost 4 months since my last post here. It's insane, it doesn't feel that long...

I had left you off at the 85-mile ride to San Antonio. Yeap, that went great. 5 hours later, we were at the brewery bash in San Antonio, not as sore and tired as we were expecting! It was a very fun ride!

What I didn't tell you was that that ride was pretty much a self-test. I wanted to see how I would cope with such a long ride and I handled it like a pro! (Well, maybe not quite like a pro, but you get the point...) So now that I have passed that test, I decided to sign up for my first triathlon ever. And not just any triathlon. A half Ironman.

10th of April is the date. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 miles run. For the metric system people, that's 1.93km / 90.1km / 21km respectively. Have I ever done anything like that? NOPE! Am I physically fit enough to do that? NOPE! Do I have any chance of winning? NOPE! Will I finish the race? YES!!! I will most likely be in immense pain and will suffer for a week after the event, but I will cross that damn finish line!

I'm doing this more than anything because I wanted a reason to be exercising a bit more, but I was lacking motivation. I'm not the kind of person who is going to wear running shoes, shorts and a bandana and run 5 miles just for the hell of it. I don't really enjoy it all that much, and especially when it comes to running, I hate it. So I needed a purpose. And even more so, I needed to do something that I don't believe I can actually do. Something to challenge myself with. I always used to watch triathlons on the TV and would think "How in the world are they doing this?!?!?". So here I am, ready (ready. ha. whatever) to do my first (and perhaps only) half ironman challenge. The ones of you that know me well know that I don't half ass things. It's all or nothing and this falls within the all category.

Other than all this fitness stuff, my life has been revolving around my photography and improv theater and that's just about it.

When it comes to photography, I have by now decided that the previous types of work I used to do are simply not fulfilling enough. I love photography. This is what I'm best at and as long as I have a camera in my hand, I don't care how long my work hours are. So I decided to pursue it 100%. All my time and effort goes into that and it's slowly but steadily paying off.

As for improv, I saw a couple of shows, loved it and decided to get into it. At the end of the day, I'm being the same silly, random person I always am, but this time on stage and people actually buy tickets to come and see me! Who would have ever thought?!?!
After about 9 months of classes, I've fallen completely in love with that art form and it really takes up ALL of my free time. I don't really socialize much, I don't go out, I don't spend full days at the park any more. And best part of it all is that I wouldn't change it for anything!!

Most confusing thing is to see how much I have changed since my time in Argentina. Over there, I wouldn't care about anything. It was all about having a good time. People, parties, friends, good food, juggling, more parties, more craziness, shitloads of couchsurfers, gather around and drink and the beat goes on... Now, none of that. And I don't even miss it. It was undoubtably 2 of the best years of my life and I treasure the memories dearly, but that's not me any more. I don't care about hanging out with lots of people right now, I don't meet an army of new faces every day. I will often sit in a cafe and work on my photos, or practice improv in one way or another, or just sit at home and chill a bit. My preferences have changed drastically since I moved to the US! All I want to be doing is to be taking photos and to be on stage. It's a little bit surprising to me too, but this is really what keeps me happy right now and only the next adventure will change it.

You have all probably figured out by now that this blog won't be getting updated quite so often as it used to any more. Or not at all, I guess. I've been focusing all my energy and time into all these aforementioned things, that I have not been able to write anything significant. And let's face it. This is more of a travel blog and the amount of travel I do right now is negligible. I'm a permanent resident of Austin, TX (me. Resident in the USA. I *never* saw that one coming!) and I intend on keeping it that way, because this city rocks much more than any of you could possibly imagine! I've also been working on another project of mine, called Do You Know Austin?. Check it out, you might like it.

So yeah, you won't be hearing much of me through here. Not till I decide again to move on to another continent at least. Every now and then I'll probably be posting something random, but at the end of the day, most of you know how to find me. And if you don't, just ask. :)

See ya around.

M.