Save Me From Myself

Lately I have been toying with the idea of going back to school for a second Master's.

What a horrifying, masochistic thought.

Just kill me.

Wine

I read somewhere recently that, despite the initial depressive effects of alcohol on the body's system, once the alcohol begins to dissipate, it has the opposite, stimulating, effect. This is why people don't actually sleep well after they've been drinking despite sometimes feeling drowsy and falling asleep quickly.

It's kind of irritating. And then I fall into the equally irritating wine cycle: Fall asleep. Wake up, need to pee. Fall back asleep. Wake up, dehydrated, drink water. Fall back asleep. Wake up, need to pee. Fall back asleep. Wake up, dehydrated, drink water. Fall back asleep. And so forth.

So yeah, that was basically my night. I have the day off today, thankfully, and I think we're going to head down to Alexandria to visit a jazz festival. The forecast calls for isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon, though, so that may negatively impact our plans.

Long Weekend

Time is ticking down until I leave for the sunny Mediterranean! If I can get through this weekend and four days of work, I will be home free...

Last night my brother, his girlfriend, and I had dinner at Rosa Mexicano in Chinatown. I ate way too much of their guacamole, made tableside, and a light and lovely seared tuna filet crusted with avacado leaf served over a spicy salad. Yum.

I think I will spend the next few days just enjoying the feeling of being hungry, if it ever happens again... I wouldn't be surprised if I feel full for the rest of my life.

I Want A Cheeseburger

A double cheeseburger. With bacon and bleu cheese. A crispy thin seasoned fries with barbecue sauce. And a coke.

But instead I think I'm going to take a yoga class and have some cereal for dinner afterwards.

I need my strength for the game tonight.

This playoff series is giving me a stroke

I don't think I can take much more of this.

The Ducks tied the game at one with 47 seconds to go. They won it with a goal in the first overtime.

Next game is Tuesday. God help us all.

Update

At long last! I've been terribly delinquent of late. I've been busy, which is unusual!

It's been kind of a hell of a week, so I'm just hanging out by myself tonight and waiting for the Red Wings to continue their psychological and physical domination of the Might Ducks in game four of the Western Conference finals. The Ducks are lamenting the loss of their star player, Chris Pronger, who must sit out a game because of a rough hit he made on Tuesday night.

Am I sad? Hardly. Pronger can suck it. His team is doomed no matter what.

Of course, I don't get the fancy cable channels that are showing the game, so I'll be listening to it on streaming radio. There's something old-school about listening to a hockey game. I like it.

Underground Claustrophobia

This afternoon I had a speaking engagement at a conference in Crystal City. I was a little early for my lab session and subsequent lecture, so I took a few minutes to wander around the weird underground village.

My verdict: slightly creepy. I mean, they have EVERYTHING down there: restaurants, grocery stores, drug stores, salons, clothing and shoe stores, a cobbler, newstands, a food court, a weird store that sells those Pinnochio things, what are they called? Mobiles? Those things? Marrionettes? Whatever. There was even a woman sitting at a little table outside the Starbucks.

TODAY IS A BEAUTIFUL, 70-DEGREE, DRY, SUNNY DAY and she was sitting UNDERGROUND drinking her coffee and reading a magazine.

That underground city is a tease, too.. every now and then you walk around a corner and see what looks like a beautiful open courtyard in front of you with sun streaming down and greenery.. then you get closer and find out that it's still enclosed. Skylights.

So, I'm sorry. I realize that in some strange way this may be convenient, to never have to set foot outside, ever, to do any of your errands or even go to work. But I think it's creepy. I'm going to go take a bottle of wine up to my rooftop terrace right now... and soak up the rest of the sun.

Just Thinking

When a student of yoga is ready to make a greater commitment to the Ashtanga practice, he or she is encouraged to begin Mysore classes, the traditional self-led practice. I've posted about this before, I think. My yoga studio offers Mysore classes every day of the week, although I actually go to work too early to take advantage of the weekday times. Recently one of my teachers encouraged me to begin coming in on the weekends, which I took as a complimentary recognition not only of my commitment to the practice but also to my potential for improvement.

The problem is that I've recently realized that coming to Mysore has occasionally been out of a motivation to impress my teacher. This is Not Good in yoga. Yoga is not about the teacher. The teacher is a medium, but when the practice becomes about the teacher as opposed to the practice, problems can ensue.

I have a history of wanting desperately to please my teachers, dating wayyyy back to my days showing horses... then soccer... then my incredibly demanding Polish piano teacher... my martial arts instructors... for me the tendency is for my focus to gradually shift from the activity at hand to gaining approval from my teacher, and this desire begins to overtake the practice itself and eventually I burn out.

So as I sit here at home over a lovely glass of Pinot Grigio, just having finished a small dinner of whole wheat orzo with sauteed portobello mushrooms, garlic, and shrimp in a basil pesto, I am beginning to agonize over going to Mysore tomorrow morning.

It's not that I won't be awake in time. It's that for one or two days out of my week I don't want to spring into action immediately upon waking up. And I could go to a 10:30am class, but then I caught myself thinking, "Oh God, David won't see me and he'll think I've skipped Mysore..."... when really he should understand that at this point in my life, simply having a consistent yoga practice of any sort indicates quite a strong commitment on my part.

The funny thing is that David and I recently talked about this - about the danger of an individual yoga practice becoming teacher-centric - and now it's beginning to happen.. but there are two people here... and I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I've recognized this pattern in my life and try to change it.

This time next month I will be practicing yoga in the sunny Mediterranean! I got some of these just for the occasion.

In the mean time, I haven't had much to post about. I have a few friends that will be passing through town this month. Yoga, tunes, work. That's my life, for what it's worth.