TKO Look

I've gotten another weekend of yoga teacher training (YTT) under my belt.  Learned about restorative and yin yoga from a guest lecturer and she was so well-versed that I felt overwhelmed. Have to continuously tell myself that YTT is a learning experience.

I've also finished another yoga book -- Judith Hanson Lasater's Living Your Yoga and I can see how people totally immerse themselves in the study of yoga or other pursuits...

Went to Zumba today and so many of us had that Monday TKO look on our faces. Zumba definitely helped.

One of my colleagues took me out to lunch even though she had gifted me items already for my birthday. I chose this new smoothie and juice bar and had the Ocean smoothie bowl made with blue spirulina. Not even sure what spirulina is but that smoothie bowl was amazing. My colleague also insisted that I get the avocado toast. I usually make fun of avo toast but this was the most amazing  toast in the whole wide world.

Was also pleasantly surprised when one of my former colleagues rounded the corner with her sweet baby in her arms.

I won't mention how my right shoulder blade was so tight this weekend that I had to stand against the wall, to brace myself, whenever I had to sneeze. My shoulder blade tells me that my stress level is higher than it's been.

Visitor

I was genuinely surprised when I woke to discover it was just Thursday.

Was not at work for long before someone told me and another coworker that there was a cute little kitty at the front door. The kitty had gotten in and someone had placed him back outside.

No one in my family ever had cats so I can't say that I'm a cat person but this little guy certainly tugged at my heart strings. He was super friendly and playful and, at one point, he wrapped his legs around my arms -- so cute.

The consensus is that he belongs to someone but one of my coworkers says that if she sees him again, he is going home with her.

I’m glad that I got chance to spend time with the kitty and I hope he’s safe.

E

Coincidence?

It's always "fun" when a customer starts off a conversation with "I have a problem." That's how I was greeted immediately after a Friday meeting... This customer did surprise me by saying "Never give up" twice.

Went to Saturday Zumba which I haven't been to in over a month. The Zumba teacher's mother surprised me by being super chatty. She said that, lately, she struggles M-F and Sunday to get in 10,000 steps. She's been averaging 4,000 a day and she's also been eating way more than she had been eating.

All that to say that "the struggle is real." Her story is a reminder that we all struggle, duh!

I've been requesting a lot of CDs from the library, including Bob Marley's Live! Have I never heard Get Up, Stand Up live or does the refrain Don't give up the fight... resonate with me right now?

Played Damian Marley's Stony Hill while cooking earlier and the lyrics Don't you give up on yourself ... from  Looks Are Deceiving stood out to me. Coincidence?  I think not.

Ha, just realized that the Aretha Franklin CD that I got from the library was due two days ago. There's totally a waiting list.

The Real World

There was a family and friends' picnic yesterday -- spearheaded by the patriarch, Charles, on my father's side of the family.

My sister-in-law visited and I haven't really sat down and had a hearty conversation with her in a while. Saw a cousin that I hadn't seen since junior high school and I was introduced to a cousin whose parents divorced when she was two. Because her mother moved to California, she didn't know any paternal relatives; what a trip -- not much different than my own trip of not really knowing a lot of my father's folks.

One of my younger cousins  said the same thing about not being familiar with many of the people at the picnic. It's kind of weird because I am more familiar with this cousin's sister than I am with her. Oh well, what can you do? As Maya Angelou said: When you know better, you do better.

My cousin, the patriarch, has unbelievable carpentry skills. He made a train for the kids! It was somewhat funny, though, because someone was driving it and she said that my cousin had too many rules about the operation of the train.

There was regular barbecue type food plus popcorn, snow cones, candy apples etc. When the call went out for homemade ice cream, I was like, ugh, but my cousin Chiquita's childhood friend was like Get some. You don't eat like this every day. We live in the real world... 

And the last part of her statement resonated with me a lot.

Inching Along

Tried to mow the lawn before I left for Vegas last month. And, wow, Vegas seemed like it happened eons ago... The mower would not start so I decided to use an on-demand mowing service. It worked three times.

On August 7th, a scheduled service date, it rained and the guy didn't come and he didn't come and he didn't come. Finally, I texted him to say that it was okay if he didn't want to mow the lawn anymore but to let me know. He assured me that he was interested, looked forward to my business...then nothing.

In the meantime, the grass continued to grow. I texted my brother who recommended a couple of things, including looking for troubleshooting tips for the brand that I have. It kept turning over but wouldn't stay on and I was so frustrated that I started crying.

At some point, my neighbor heard me trying to start the mower. This neighbor is good at fixing and building but I hadn't wanted to bother him because he had a health scare recently. Still, he told me that he'd check out the mower and that I could also borrow his.

Had today off so I called him at a respectable time. He put his foot on top of the lawnmower and it started immediately. I was gobsmacked. He said that, from listening, he didn't think much was wrong and he was also surprised by how long the cord is. He advised me to wait because the lawn was wet from yesterday's rain but I couldn't take the untidiness any longer. I tried to hack some of it down but where it was biggest, I just inched along. It took me a little over two hours because, of course, the mower stalled out because of the wet grass. I was so relieved, though, because I was on the verge of loading the mower in my car and taking it to a shop.

My yard, especially the back, was a proper jungle and, yet, I still didn't mention monkeys...

No one really uses the expression “monkey this up,” even when they’re not running against a black man for governor It isn’t whether he intended that to be racist. It was racist. No walkback changes that. Nothing to add. https://t.co/Tr0GsJXUOx

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) August 29, 2018

Risks

The 'Fugee sent me a 'gram with Oprah and Gayle who are in Croatia right now and my first thought was Oh, it would be nice to be rich and in Croatia. What a thought...

I went to Croatia and I had a good time without the rich part...

Thinking about my mood and the word doldrums just popped into my mind. That's not a completely accurate word but I'm also not feeling light-hearted either.

Worked at a festival this weekend and I was at the entrance. Didn't get to do a whole lot of people watching but the people sitting near the park signage captured my attention...and so did the bumble bees.

The bag that I was carrying dropped from a chair and my camera (within a camera bag) was in there and hit the ground. The shell of my camera cracked a bit. I was so annoyed with myself for being careless but, of course, I didn't think my bag was going to drop out of the chair and I also thought the camera bag offered more protection.

What to say? Accidents happen. I like to take pictures and I like to have my camera and there are risks with anything.

Never been here before! Where?? Everybody looks great in a walking-sitting -shopping -when clothes match the door shot ...swipe left

A post shared by Gayle King (@gayleking) on Aug 24, 2018 at 1:42am PDT

When You Don’t Feel Like Sitting Up

Took a different way to work to see this hibiscus...

The teacher, Kelli, is about 4'11, petite and all muscle.  I've heard about her before but I'm pretty sure that I'm relatively safe in a Basics and Beyond class. Although, the beyond part can be played with...

The Kundalini teacher (who taught the class before Kelli's) explains that her class is new and that she enjoyed Kelli's 15 minutes during the special relay class that happened during the studio's one-year anniversary but that she is strictly Kundalini and will  have to work up to participating in Kelli's class...

Kelli checks in with everyone and hands out assist/no assist coasters. It's yogi's choice for how we start -- in easy pose or on our backs. I go with the back because, frankly, I didn't feel like sitting up.  The beginning of class is so sweet. Kelli asks us to remember when yoga first came on our radars and what kept us going back to our mats; she asks us to connect to that feeling.

I almost laughed when Kelli said that we were doing "Turbo Dog" -- I'd never heard downward-facing dog referred to in that manner but, you know, I'm better at taking care of myself so I modified. Plus, my body had not fully recovered from the hours of yoga practice that took place last weekend.