They opened a new Gold's gym less than a mile from my office. It's pretty sweet, all brand-new equipment and .... a POOL. I've swum laps there twice now and I have all the excitement for the beginning of a long term relationship. They have a nice sauna too. I suspect that will become attractive for me, stop there a few times a week after work. Swimming has always been such a meditation activity for me, it would be perfect after a long day to "process" as we say. Their spin room is big too, I'll have to try that out. Brand new bikes. I've started running again. My knee really felt better after that week in Holland with just walking for exercise. Took away all the weights, yoga, spinning and rowing. So I've started VERY slowly. I run one song, walk one. And I stop after a cycle of 3. After two weeks, I'll let myself increase. This is so NOT what I did last time. I think in less than a week, I was running 30 minutes straight. Through the knee pain. Don't do that.
Ken and Dani are in Taos. They skied yesterday, I'm waiting to hear a snow report. And it's supposed to be a super-chilly day here. I should have some great snowy pics for my next post. They ate at Tecalote Cafe in Santa Fe, one of our favorite places. Blue corn pancakes.
Ken and I are going to Carnaval Brasileiro www.sambaparty.com this year. I figured no Mardi Gras, this'll stand in. And I bought the VIP tickets, so we'll have a nice little area to chill when we get out of breath from dancing. And baby, I sure plan to do that. I'm working on my costume, so far I've settled on freaky stockings and boots. Maybe a Lululemon top, I need some extra support for all my jumping up and down. Ha. Can't wait. From what I read online, this is a real feast for the eyes as well as the legs.
The holidays are over and I'm so ready. Not my favorite time of year, and I think with the work issues it was particularly bad this year. It's funny, I spend much of my days being somewhat of a cheerleader to my patients -- "What skills could you have applied in that situation? What things work for you to improve your mood? What's standing in your way of making those choices?" and I catch myself thinking, maybe (just maybe) I should apply them to myself. Certainly it's easier to tell others than to do it yourself when you're blue. Or stuck in the black and white of it all, technicolor gone missing.
Over the holiday revelry, here's something interesting that came up in the dining table conversation this year. We were all sharing the most interesting thing from our year's work. My brother owns a vintage furniture store in Austin called Modern Salvage www.royt.com and as part of his inventory acquisition process, he buys foreclosed storage units. One of the units he bought was owned by a great-grandson of Jack and Rose from the Titanic story. Yes, the movie. Those were actually real people, although they weren't that young, and they had children that were not with them on the boat and survived. So yes, most of the movie's plot line was fiction. Anyway, this guy that owned the storage unit has had a difficult life. Lots of money handed to him (the family was wealthy) but he was a sucker for con men with schemes. Lots of detritus in that unit from failed deals that he was involved in, and also lots of expensive, little-used things he bought (great for my brother). One of the items was this beautiful Movado pocket watch that you slide apart to see the lovely little clockface - pic below. And here's the real kicker - there were Krugerrands in the unit too. Why would you put such a thing in storage and then stop paying the rent? Isn't that an interesting question.
I've been reading some of my friends' New Year's resolutions on Facebook, and so far my favorite one is "take more naps". I kind of hate the whole idea of setting goals, usually not realistic, at some arbitrary point. Maybe it stems from my distaste with my ridiculous overcrowded gym for the month of January. Yesterday I had to place my yoga mat right smack at the front mirror so that people who only stayed for 3 songs could have the primo spots. I'm serious, Erika even remarked "where did everybody go?" ARRRGGG. Lots of people with no sense of gym etiquette - muddy shoes, doing their sets right in front of the rack, using F'ing cell phone on the machines..... But on the other hand with resolutions, few of us take the time to stop and take a breath and evaluate our lives. So yes, I've taken a few moments to do that, need to do it some more. I heard a great thing on NPR this week about this by Two Guys on Your Head. I love them. It's locally produced by KUT and exactly the kind of stuff I think about constantly anyway. Here's a link. http://kut.org/post/how-make-effective-changes-new-year-0 So what are your resolutions? I am toying with the idea of taking a drawing class but wrestling with the reality of having to drive through traffic at the worst time of day to make that happen. I think I would love it but the truth is that my time is limited and precious. If only I could find something close - I'd be all over that. (Austin friends -- any art classes in the Westlake/Lakeway area?) The other thing is meditate more and get in at least 2 yoga classes a week. Odds just went up on that one with that delightful Westlake gym.
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