Exceeding High Expectations

I was really eager to come to Austin today. It seems like forever since I've been down here. Christina and I went to the Harold's Outlet going out of business sale. We only scratched the surface of what is there. more trips needed. Then, I had coffee with a yoga yoga student at Halcyon. Very cool coffee bar downtown and headed to the yoga marathon. I did actually, with help touch my toes however briefly in Eka pada rajakapotasana and so it goes.

then I went to get more acupuncture with Craig for my shoulder...

somewhere in there I walked Dylan. Actually, he accompanied us on the trip to Harold's.

Anyway, it was a much needed fun day in Austin. and only two more days of driving up and back on Friday and Monday morning!!!!

Saying Goodbye to Sam

This morning I put my favorite cat, Sam, to sleep. It was a very sad moment, but he was sick for a long time and was really only a shadow of his former cat self. Sam was originally Christina and Kelly's cat. They found him at a state fair in Oregon. He was drinking out of a cup. He lived with them in Georgia and survived the wilds of the Northeast Georgia woods while they were on long camping trips.

In 1996 or so, Sam came to live in Waco. Not too long after that he developed diabetes and we had to give him shots for many years. Anyway, he was a great cat, super fluffy, great fur. He was sort of like a classic cat, like the kind you might see in a Ralph Lauren ad.

Tuesday Morning in Waco

Well, Thanksgiving is over. The Thanksgiving pretty much left me ready for Christmas Break.
The Tri City Thanksgiving involved a lot of time on the highway, but the new adventures were well worth it. Friday I taught yoga in Austin and then met mom and dad at my Austin House. We walked Dylan and Indy and as luck would have it the owner of Kepa the Corgi who lives in the neighborhood was driving by and spotted Indy. Kepa is the offspring of the famous corgi Harry Potter who we saw a couple years ago at the dog show in Waco.

Even though the weather was icky, we drove upt o Sun City so Mom and Dad could show me the lay of the land up there and then we went into downtown Georgetown for the lighting of the Christmas Tree and we ate at Romeo's on the square.

Saturday marked the 13th anniversary of my first yoga class with Walter, so it was quite fitting that I got up and taught a class that morning. After that, Mom Dad and I headed up to Waco. Dad had his annual thanksgiving massage with CJ and we planned to have dinner with Lenore Henry and H.W, also part of the annual festivities. Lenore unfortunately, had the flu, so Henry brought dinner over for us. Then Sunday night, I restarted an older tradition. Post Thanksgiving Party!

Lots of Fun.

Yesterday a busy day at Baylor and today as well.

Off to Shower and get ready to teach the last morning yoga class. It just hasn't taken off and it eats up too much of my own time, so I'm cutting back to just the evening classes in my waco life.

First Thanksgiving Holiday in Austin

For about a decade, if not more, Mom and Dad, have spent Thanksgiving week in Texas. Prior to last year, they spent all that time in Waco. Last Thanksgiving, they came to Waco, went down to SM and I joined them there for a while and then they came back upto Waco I believe.

This year, Austin is in the mix. I came down to Austin last night after a great intermediate yoga class. James was in town for business and visiting his family for the holidays. We went to several places on South Congress. It was sort of strange seeing him in my "real life" or my "new real life." Usually, we connected when I'm in NYC for conferences. We had a good time, though I do think Austin is not particularly cool for someone who lives in NYC, where as it is very cool for a former non-dual citizen of Waco. There's much that Nietzsche is right about, but he's surely right about the perspectival nature of our experience of truth..
Be that as it may.

. I got up early enough to go to Devon's class and mostly had a mellow day. I read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This is a memoir of the former editor of Elle. He suffered a stroke and then "locked in syndrome." he could only communicate by blinking his left eyelid and he managed to write this totally life affirming work.

Peggy is coming by in a bit to deliver the art I won at the silent auction and then I'll go to Devon's afternoon class. I may drive down to San Marcos after that, not sure.

Post Weekend Update

Well, another fun 48 hours in Austin.

Drove down Saturday morning and taught at YY. Teaching yoga there is such a great learning experience. More on that at some point on the yoga and philosophy blog. Saturday, I practiced the sequence I mentioned last post. Devon and I went to Galaxy cafe again and I had sweet potato french fries for the first time. I'm now quite a fan of them. Then we went to this open house, art and music fund raiser at Austin School of Yoga. Met some new people and had fun just seeing yoga people in a more social context. I bid on some art in the silent auction, but apparently didn't win... Sunday I went to yoga class with Larissa at Castle Hill and then went to Mandy's Advanced Hatha class. Both women did an excellent job. Got some much needed grading done and then had coffee with a former student (actually a former Peer Instructor) Robert Watson. Robert is now studying French at Vanderbilt and was in town visiting his sister. It is really exciting to see his enthusiasm for learning.

Then I headed down to San Marcos. Had dinner with Mom and Dad at Christina and Kelly's house. Great pizza and salad,

Well, the traffic has cleared now so I'm back up to waco until Tuesday evening.

Fun night in Waco

I had a busy day at work Friday including a grad council meeting that lasted until 4, so I just decided to stay in Waco Friday night. Lenore and Henry and H.W. came over for dinner (pizza from Rosati's YUM). My house does look a bit like a small hurricane hit it. H.W. is now very mobile. He likes to climb on everything and really likes to play with kitchen utensils and he was quite fascinated with the turtles who guard the hearth.

Got up this morning and went down to teach a sun saluation class in Austin. Now I'm here catching up with various things hanging out with Dylan and Reggie. Plan to practice the excellent twisting/ arm balancing sequence from Carrie Owerko's class in NYC in a bit.

On the advantages of dual citizenship

well, it has been a bit of a hectic week, nothing like missing a bunch of school and playing catch up, but now I've caught up to normal levels of being behind on grading and T Day break is coming up and the end of the semester is definitely in sight.

today, the benefits of dual citizenship really hit me. I won't go into any detail, but various political issues at Baylor got me very down and it was so nice to just leave them physically and go down to Austin to walk Dylan and go to kick ass yoga with CT and then have a great accunpuncture session with craig.

Also, Tabitha gave me a pink pearl apple in class, that I cannot wait to try. Granny smith but better apparently.

I've moved some of my art and photos down to Austin and am personalizing my space down here a bit.

looking forward to mom and dad's arrival on sunday.

Update

Wow, it has been an eventful week since last I posted. I went to the Spanda workshop. here's a picture of me and christina at it. Tuesday morning, mom called to say Grandmartha had passed, so I drove back down to Austin, Christina and I hopped on a plane and several plans, trains and automobiles later, we were in Lavonia. Check out Christina's blog for more details. I'll just say that it was certainly the funnest funeral I've ever been to. We had a really good time hanging out with mom and dad and the hall/hamilton clan . Here is a picture of the whole clan.

Christina and I barely made our plan from Houston to Austin, but we did and the following morning I went down to the Southwest Philosophical Society, got there about an hour before my paper. Met some interesting people and had coffee with Willis and Vicky my two favorite English professors from Trinity

I drove back up to practice at Christina's worskhop, Here's a picture, you can see I'm looking a little tired,

Down in San Marcos

Yesterday was a lot of fun and a lot of driving.

Claire Katz , from TAMU, was on campus for the Heschel Conference and she spoke to a joint session of the feminism class and the teaching philosophy class. It was a great talk, more on it on the philosophy and yoga blog.

I didn't end up leaving Waco until 3:30 so got my first real taste of Austin at rush hour. Won't do that again if I can help it. It took about an hour to get from one end of Austin to another, but I made it to San Marcos in time for Carlos Pomeda's talk on Sponda (the pulsing vibrational energy that is the universe).

Decided to spend the night down here with CT and Kelly and the animal menagerie rather than just driving up and back. Good to catch up on a little sleep.

lots of yoga coming up.

Great end to a great day

So this morning, I woke up early and headed down to Austin. I went to Connie's class, which was excellent, nothing like the pure pristine Iyengar class experience. Then I met up with Pam and Christina at whole foods and then we drove up to look at a possible venue for john friend's up coming workshop.

Came home, walked Dylan and went to CT's advanced class. My backbends are really getting a lot better. Shoulder held up well. Then I went to Mr. Natural and bought tamale's for the dinner party Kelli threw. Lots of fun. I met a lot of really neat women. Then afterwards, I was walking Dylan and there was a deer right outside in the yard across the street. Very cool.

I love wildlife sightings.