Cautious Success

I set out this morning determined to enhance my wardrobe. I was even prepared to go into debt (and I did, heh). After trying on a gazillion things at Lord & Taylor only to feel my frustration mounting (why does a SMALL hang like a BAG on me??), I decided on a whim to stop by a little boutique. I had been by a few times but couldn't decide from the window displays if the clothes were really me, or if they were even my age!

But the girl who helped me was amazing and everything fit beautifully and I ended up spending way too much money but I love all the clothes I bought.

My refrain while at clothing stores is always, "I never see anything I like!" Why can't that ever be my problem at the grocery store??

On that note, I'm going to have a bowl of Breyer's Black Rasperry Chocolate Chip ice cream and enjoy the hot, sunny day.

Lazy!

It's been a weird week. Not unduly stressful, but a couple of evening committments and late nights amount to no yoga and a drowsy Diana.

Just now, I slept right through my 4:45 class, and I don't necessarily feel up to rolling out my mat right here and flowing through the poses.

I hate going a whole week without yoga. Not only because I feel flabby, but because yoga is such a great anchor for me.

So I'm going to have some tea and try to slowly wake up and find the energy to do a few Sun Salutations and try not to feel so generally useless.

I AM NOT ASHAMED

Yes, I am about to go watch Larry King's interview with Paris Hilton.

Whatever, don't judge me.

A Taste of the Other Side

This evening, for about an hour, I had a sugar daddy! About a month ago the owner of my yoga studio threw a party and I got a chance to talk to some of the people I practice beside every day. One of those was a guy about my age and his girlfriend. We had a good time talking and then went out for drinks and food afterward. They were a fun pair.

I've been seeing them in class from time to time, and tonight he was there alone. We walked out together and ended up going to the Thai restaurant next door. Looking over the menu, I made my choice rather quickly. When the waitress came, he ordered soup and three appetizers for both of us, and his own entree plus a couple bottles of Perrier. I ordere my entree.

So, not a $500 tab or anything, but I'm getting to the sugar daddy part - when the check came, he paid with one of those black American Express cards...

Wednesday Evening Blues

For reasons of feeling stressed and rushed in general this week, and also possibly dealing with an existential crisis, I decided to skip my sign language class tonight.

Did I mention that I'm taking Advanced American Sign Language at the library? First class was Monday night and it was great. There is even a very attractive deaf guy in the class, sort of like an assistant-teacher. I think he's friends with her and just likes to sit in.

But tonight I would have had to rush and barely make it in time and I just decided to come home instead. I took a bottle of wine and The Seven Storey Mountain up to the rooftop terrace and read for a while, then came in and painted my toenails.

How Considerate

A few minutes ago I noticed that my kitten Elena threw up on a dishtowel that had fallen onto the kitchen floor.

What considerate aim she has.

Back Into The Groove

Well, it's my last day of vacation before heading back to work. I feel like I've been gone a long time. I feel decompressed. I feel... ready to get back to work! It's a good feeling, enjoying the routine you've created for yourself.

Nice to get away and nice to get back.

I spent most of the afternoon and evening yesterday with Matt working on some artistic ventures. The man's a genius, I can assure you. I take full responsibility for his impending photography career, which will be wildly successful. Of course, he'll still continue to shoot me pro bono - or, as he corrected me last night, pro-food-o. Hah.

Today I woke up at a decent hour to try to reclaim my space at the yoga studio. I feel fatigued. In a few minutes I might wander around and do some clothes shopping, maybe see a movie... maybe not... just a lazy, drawn-out summer Sunday.

It's good to be home.

Photos Hellenica

Just a sample from Athens and Santorini:


The Parthenon




The Temple of Olympian Zeus




The Porch of Maidens at the Erectheum




View from Mars Rock of the Agora, where Socrates used to question his students and debate with other philosophers




View of the cliffs from our hotel in Santorini




Me in a cafe overlooking the village of Ia on Santorini

Home (Sort of)

I'm back in the States, but for the life of me I can't figure out why. Certainly not for the rich Midwestern scenery.

I'll be flying back to DC later this afternoon and will post pictures and details soon.

Yassou!

Hello from Greece faithful readers. I'm currently enjoying the gorgeous dry weather in Athens. My hair looks amazing because of this weather. I know many of you cannot picture what that would be like. Just trust me.

There are Artemis icons everywhere, her Roman counterpart being, of course, Diana. For those of you who don't know, Diana/Atermis is the goddess of the hunt. She both hunts and protects wild animals, and also inflicts cruel punishments on men, who are usually trying to court or rape her.

Tomorrow I will go all the way to Delphi, then it's off to the island of Mykonos, and beyond.

I have already eaten my weight in feta cheese, which is so creamy and unbelievably seasoned. I also like the wine very, very much.

I'm Off

In a few minutes I will embark to the sunny Mediterranean.

See you all in mid-June!

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.