Major

Diffused eucalyptus and lemon essential oils last night and slept decently but woke up with cotton mouth as the post-swimming congestion settled in at some point.

When I talked to one of the guys at the pool last night, he says that anytime he wears his silver ring in the pool, it turns a dark color and he's also noticed that the coins in the vending machine are kind of weird.

At any rate, I battled the congestion with a variety of essential oils and, now, the congestion is gone but I need to cut back on my indoor swimming...

When I went over to my aunt G.'s on Sunday, she gave me her paper. She gets the Illinois paper except for on Sunday when she, erroneously, gets the St. Louis Post Dispatch which she doesn't care for. So,what did I do this morning? I caught up on comic strips and I was drawn to the two below:

A major fire happened today and there's still a plume of smoke. I've been concerned about air quality which made me think about people in war-torn countries and bombs and rubble.

I Settle

View From the Farm

Went to another goat yoga event and, as usual, I didn't do much yoga since I was too distracted by the goats and pig. It was very windy so that was also a distraction but the event still made for a nice animal therapy session and it's looks mountainous in the farm area so it's beautiful.

Gertrude

Want to Frame This One of the Runner Ducks

Alison volunteered to drive. She said that her car is like her purse and she would probably forget something so I got a chance to look around and take pictures during the drive.

Rain Clouds

We also ended up going to the Crystal Festival which got rained on a lot. I joked that there were enough energy workers and crystals so we should have been able to make it stop raining. Alas, that didn't happen but several of the crystal folks said that they saw a hint of the sun. Is that a case of looking at the sky as half full?

From Alison's I went to pick up essential oils that were on sale. Later on I told Alison how I really wanted these expensive fragrances, like rose and jasmine, and she suggested that I could use my gift certificate for an herb shop toward the purchase of one. I had already used part of of my gift certificate for a "lesser" essential oil and hand cream. As I told Alison, I have a history of not getting exactly what I want. When I feel like I'm being decadent, I settle but, in this case, I had a gift certificate and enough money from my birthday to splurge.

Not going full throttle is something that I'm going to have to work on so that I can become the proper queen that the 'Fugee thinks I am.

Super Calming

Went to Gloria's yoga class on Sunday. I am totally digging the eight-minute meditations we are doing before class. If there's a "downside," it's that the meditation exercise makes me super calm and long for savasana right away.

Practice was sweet too and I particularly liked how Gloria took us slowly through warrior I & II, reverse warrior and triangle poses...

In congestion news I mixed peppermint, eucalyptus and lavender oils together with olive oil and rubbed it on my chest prior to bedtime and slept better last night than I've slept in a long time. Also bought raw honey hoping that it will help with allergies...

Walked as exercise for Sunday and listened to part of a Yoga Revealed podcast and the Julia episode of Heavyweight which I found intriguing...

Went to Zumba tonight and this teacher likes to throw all kinds of elements into the mix. Toward the end of class she offered us a choice between two songs. Who wants to do the plank song? One person answered and her friend ratted her out. She was like Shawna said "yes" and she is the only one who wants to do planks.

New Plans

Christmas? At Trader Joe's

Went to restorative yoga on Friday and walked in as Liz explained to two newbies of the male persuasion what a restorative yoga class looked liked. Thought about Gingerzingi when Liz said "...It's not an active class."

Emailed Patti and Alison to let them know that I was on the bench for the rest of the year. Patti's response:

No Zumba? No climbing? How can that be Christmas?

I consoled myself by sniffing essental oil testers at Whole Paycheck. Seriously, Now's Cheer Up Buttercup! is delightful.

Went to get a massage and had the therapist concentrate on my quads, hamstrings and calf muscle of the tight knee leg and it helped...

Had planned to fix Singapore Noodles with Pan-Fried Tofu for Monday but found out that my brother and one of my nephews are coming to town so I'm not going to take up precious refrigerator real estate with a meal that, most likely, only I will eat. Time to draw up new plans...