Breadcrumbs

There were so many happenings this weekend that it was difficult to choose.

Went to an African Ancestry situation at the library. Got some information but not the breadcrumbs that I was looking for. I did leave with about 10 yoga books though. Later in the day, I went to a gathering with my fellow yoga teacher graduates that had been planned about a month ago; I had a nice time as we caught up. Camille hosted the event and made most of the dishes. Everyone else brought desserts and appetizers.

Part of the Yoga Crew

On Sunday, I met up with a friend, Lori, whom I hadn't seen in ages and we saw Your Immigration Stories, Mine and Ours. The production was put on by That Uppity Theatre Company which has a Playback Now! wing that does improvisational theatre.

I was a little disappointed because the verbiage said immigrants and refugees but the stories were all immigrant stories. However, I was almost glad that they didn't do refugee stories because the immigrant stories had me crying.

Uppity started by asking everyone if they knew what improv was and most people did but I love that they still gave examples. The director asked a couple of people how they felt and someone gave one answer and she asked her if she was feeling anything else because people rarely feel one emotion. The audience member answered tired and her friend said irritable. So, two actors did tired and irritable. Plus, there was a musician that accompanied their improv; it was good and funny and the whole show was poignant.

Before the improv started, we had a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting at the California synagogue. As the director said, The terrorist act that happened on Passover...

First Ride

Got in my first 2019 bike ride.

Went down my usual road on the riverfront and was met by part of the levee that isn't usually in place. Weeks before riding, the river crossed my mind and then I forgot about it. We got as far as mile six when we met water on the road. It wasn't that deep but it was muddy. I have memories of being caught in the rain on a hike and how I almost fell several times because of mud.

We saw one of those hardcore bicyclists and his friend had gone through the water but he was like I'm not going through that -- you don't know what's in that water...

We saw many animals on the trail: frogs, turtles and turkeys. A guy at the visitors' center told us that a geese had attacked him. When we approached the geese, I rang my bell. One hissed at  me but no attacks. When we saw the goslings later on, we knew why the geese were on the defensive.

It's amazing how animals and nature make you feel connected.

Oooh, I like the new artwork at the beginning of the trail.

Went to Zumba tonight and saw one of my new Zumba friends. I had noticed her absence and when I talked to her after class, she said that she hadn't been feeling well at all and she talked about how fragile she felt and how she'd barely moved. She also felt guilty for only walking and I told her that's what I did when I first became active again and I reminded her how experts extol the virtues of walking.

On The Fly

Had an exercise date last night. Jessica and I went swimming and, since I hadn't been in months, I was looking forward to it. My abs were on fire afterwards; I don't usually have that experience. It made me think of the book that I just read and how Sanford talked about not being able to use his abs...

Thankfully, I only experienced mild, post-pool congestion. My sleep was disturbed but not totally.

Work has been hellacious. I'm still teaching a yoga class once a week at work and it's a great lesson as far as digging deep enough to, at least, not have a tense face and energy.

It's so weird. People who sign up for yoga don't come and the people who tell me that they don't think they'll be able to make it, show up. One of my colleagues who has never been to a class thanks me, constantly, for holding the class. She says that maybe after she finishes with obligations, including a choir one, that she might be able to attend. Had three people in attendance today and one told me that she might get a work-related call that she would have to answer.

I usually try to write sequences on Saturday and practice them at some point before Wednesday and I also do whatever tweaking that's necessary. That sequence went out the window in about eight minutes. One attendee had back pain and the other was really tired so we got on our backs before we hit the 10-minute mark.

One said I'm sure that's not what you had in mind...

I've had several of my yoga teachers say that students will be your greatest teachers. It's a bit scary, as a new teacher, doing a class on the fly but I made it work. Just wish that I could have remembered more poses that ease back pain. I was also trying to think of poses that I could have done with the child while the adults had their restorative time...

It was also interesting that the person who was experiencing back pain said one of the singing bowls made her back tense up. She hasn't said anything about that before. Wonder which bowl and note it was...

Went by the library then came home to eat after work and, not too long after that, I went to get gasoline for the lawn mower. Even though I wasn't looking forward to mowing the lawn, I'm thankful that it turned over right away.

Took a stroll through Tower Grove Park as I was still in desperate need of decompressing. The park has done such a beautiful job with the tulips and it was nice to see so many people out admiring the flowers.

A Day Late

I'm not a trivia buff but went to an event on Friday because a paid contractor that I work with thought it would be a nice occasion for us to socialize and have fun and it was.

To my surprise, I knew more than two answers.

I was impressed by my table mates. There was a question about what year Florence Griffith-Joyner won two medals. While I tried to remember the year she died, Rafael was, like, the Olympics were in 1984, 1988... I know that they take place every four years but the dates don't stick in my head. Another table mate is well-traveled so he knew answers that none of us did and yet another one is well-versed, period.

There was a question about Pokemon and none of us had a clue so we used a mulligan for that one. We did pretty good but didn't win and we joked about studying and being more prepared for the next year's trivia event...

Yesterday I went to a class, Yoga for Healthy Joints, which was more like a workshop. It was great way to spend the afternoon.

I signed up for Deepak and Oprah's meditation challenge but not really feeling it but I am reading Meditation Made Simple and I'm enjoying it.

Went to get a smoothie bowl after Zumba yesterday and saw these kids sitting on the bump-outs and they looked so cool.

Looked outside the window and kept trying to identify the precipitation coming down -- couldn't believe my eyes.

What else? Emotionally, I'm in weird space.

No Rest

Wanted to go to yoga yesterday and had my eye on a 2 p.m. class called Yoga Therapy for Strong Bones or a 4 p.m. Restorative. Decided to go to the 2 p.m. because that would still give me time to play around before visiting relatives in the evening. Also the teacher, Linda, doesn't teach often so I thought it would be nice to mix things up.

I've gone to one of Linda's classes before and really enjoyed it. During the Bones class, I kept thinking about Robert Flack's Killing Me Softly.

Linda did say that if we were in India, we'd probably take lots of rest in between postures because that's how she learned yoga but we only had 75 minutes so no rest.

At one point, we did half moon pose which is normally a challenge for me on my left side but this time my hip joined in and I felt a pinch which made me come out of the pose rapidly and Linda came over and told me to Take a break. Thought that was so funny and I also thought it was funny when she asked a really quiet yogi if she was okay. Like I said -- killing me softly.

Came home and took a bath then read for a while. I did a Kindle Unlimited trial.

After that yoga class, we talked about books -- actual ones versus e-readers and this woman made a good point about the volume of screen time. While I can roll with e-readers, I definitely like the feel of a book more when I'm drinking coffee.