To expedite the next 12 years, I’ve bullet-pointed the Aprils from 2008 through 2020, lol:
*·April 2008 met me with a new job as the chief choreographer of Club Med in Cancun after holding an assistant choreographer position at Club Meava in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico (that was its own version of crazy, but a different blog entry all together). This new post would determine the course of the rest of my life (i.e. meeting Eric, my now husband, and learning aerial acrobatics).
* April 14, 2009 - got the message that I was leaving Turks, where Chef Eric and I had fallen in love and was one of the most paradise-like, fantastical work vacations I’ve ever experienced. Then, we had planned to continue talking and did not, which broke my heart and inevitably helped in my decision to leave Club Med.
* April 16, 2010 - got married in New York City to Chef Eric after a few conversations about how we thought eloping at NYC’s City Hall would be a good idea. It was a Friday around 3 pm in Brooklyn, and we knew City Hall would close soon, so we snatched up our roommate as our witness and took the subway to elope, arriving at City Hall close to 4 pm. It was all very “Modern Love.”
* April 19, 2011 was when my water broke overnight while I was sleeping at 28 weeks pregnant with Luke. That resulted in me being hospitalized on bed-rest for 13 days while everyone held their breaths for Luke’s well-being in utero. I ended up having Luke pre-maturely at almost 30 weeks pregnant, and he spent two months in Staten Island University Hospital’s NICU.
* April 2012 met me with a lively involvement in Hollywood background work, teaching and training aerial and pole, and starting to day-dream (which would lay the foundation for) what would become Stellaria Creative Company. Eric, Luke and I were living in Long Beach at the time.
* During April 2013 I was beginning to look into studio ownership in Santa Cruz, as well as create an aerial and dance teacher and performer reputation locally. I was beginning to see the light after a grueling four months of helping Eric heal from a double compound fracture, which was the result of a gunshot wound to the leg (again, a different blog entry for a different day). He wasn’t healed yet, but at least it was a few months behind us.
* April 2014 was when I wrote my first musical, CounterCulture (that would premier the same year in the Santa Cruz Fringe Festival and lay the foundation for healthy playwrighting). I also starting procuring a lot of long-term gigs that; my first year at Cathedral of Faith during their Easter show, as well as a bunch of other performance opportunities that would “set the stage” for years to come.
* April 2015 was more an emotional time for me as I was battling internal issues in my studio, leaving me nearly no choice than to re-brand after almost forced to shut the doors. The duality here is this was the same month that the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk hired me to perform in their Circus of Nations show on the bandstand stage that many a famous musician has graced. It was a very bittersweet time and experience for me.
* April 18, 2016, I found out I was pregnant with Eli after returning from an anniversary trip to Tahoe with Eric.
* April 2017 was relatively mellow for me, although this month (and actually Earth Day specifically) was very confusing as I wasn’t sure which way to pivot Stellaria after having sold Aerial Arts Santa Cruz. There was a little sense of existential crisis going on, but aside from this, I was able to breathe. From that feeling there grew a real sense of progression and hope that I clung to. I modeled for Sebastian International during a large hair expo in San Jose, which brough me full circle back to my 2003 and 2004 days of modeling for the same company.
* April 2018, much like 2015, the year was difficult for a multitude of reasons, although this month was a highlight when Google asked me to manage an experiential marketing team for their Google Pay app, and then I was re-hired as Sebastian’s hair model again for the same expo in San Jose.
* April 2019 felt a lot like 2017 with me making lateral steps in Stellaria, while taking on more responsibility in other facets of my life.
* And then there’s April 2020. We ALL know what happens next as my personal “April’s Omen” problem explodes to include all of humanity; when the world stopped dead in its tracks, grinding to a halt over the global pandemic, COVID-19.
Curios to know what’s in store for April 2021…