Tuesday Afternoon

Here's a picture of Bounder. Bounder is alive and well. Worry not! Just thought I'd post a picture of a living pet of mine. Bounder bounded up to the back yard in Waco three years ago or so and her black nose was so endearing that we started feeding her. She and Jade really never got along, so Bounder lived downstairs and Jade had the rest of the house. They actually got along a bit better after the move. Bounder's adjusted just fine to Austin. She's really mostly an outdoor cat and is not really very snuggly except on her own terms. Comes inside to eat and sleep awhile, but then is ready to bound back out. She bounds a lot, hence the name.


Just got back from a very lovely lunch at Madam Mam's with Sherri Brooks. Sherri and I both went to Trinity and we ran into each other at a yoga class I subbed a while back and then at some other yoga things, Johnny Kest, CTs classes. I meant to go to CM on the way home, but forgot, so I'm going to read and write awhile and then head back out.

I really enjoyed and learned a ton at the Lois Steinberg workshop. More on that on the two yoga blogs sometime soon. Had my first dinner party in the Westrock house. Various Iyengar Yoga people, Devon, Randy, Leeane and Pauline from Houston and Jeff (representative of Anusara Land) and me. Looking forward to hosting more gatherings now that I actually have a dining room table.

Sunday Jeff and I went to A22 the wine bar at CM and I indulged in very small amounts of very fine cheeses. But in general I'm doing okay with the more vegan approach and I'm still feeling better.

yesterday CT and I got mani pedis went to Whole Foods and then took in Peggy's class. (more on that on the Iyengar Blog. That's pretty much what's been going on.

other big news, I ordered a new cell phone today.

Friday Morning

I'm up very early this morning, actually I usually wake up pretty early/can't get back to sleep and so I do meditation and pranayama and go back to sleep for a couple hours. This morning however, I'm sufficiently awake that I am not feeling the need to go back to sleep. I'm excited about getting at least an hour of writing in before I go to Heide's class, actually closer to two. I've had a relatively productive week even though I haven't felt all that great.

Let's see yoga wise, I subbed three of Ct's classes while she was away and two of Devon's while she was away and practiced with Heide and Yves on Wednesday, but otherwise I've pretty much taken it easy yoga wise.

The biggest news of the week is that I started in on a new eating regime that is approaching being more vegan. I called Mary and Eddy about yoga and thyroid and they did give a couple poses and said double your time in inversions, but Eddy's primary recommendation was omitting fat from animal products. Told me to read the book The China Study . I really love cheese and eat way more of it than I should and I've been eating a lot of egg whites lately, so shifting to more vegan sources of protein is a lot. After an initial mourning period of a few hours, I've actually not found it very difficult so far. This is only day four. But I made a great sweet potato dish yesterday, yummy hummus and wrote a long list of all the vegan friendly foods I do actually like. I ordered some Vegan cookbooks and some books on Plato from Amazon and they arrived yesterday.

Randy and Leeane are coming down for the Lois Steinberg workshop this weekend. It will be fun to see them.

I'm looking forward to CTs return also. It has been a different feeling week not taking five of her classes and I don't think we've even talked via cell phone since last Friday.

A New Week

Well, I'm getting ready to start on a brand new week of writing. I've got a number of non writing related tasks to accomplish also, found a nail in my tire yesterday and there's a bunch of house organization stuff to do. I finally got Grandmartha's dining room table moved down to Austin. It looks great. Fifties furniture in a fifties house. Also, Jeff and I went to a garage sale saturday and I found this really cool wicker baker's rack so now there's more storage. That's the main drawback about the Westrock house. Very little storage space. My house in Waco has tons and I definitely got spoiled.

I have to say I'm glad to put last week behind me. This weekend was fun however. Heide and I practiced Friday afternoon and then I went to Wahoo's with her and a friend of her's Callie. Wahoo's food and drink wise was really good. I'd definitely go back. Later that night Jeff and I went to go see Mark Franke's band play at Flipnotics. I'd never seen hip hop live and it was just great. Really elemental. What you go see live music for. I didn't even mind being about 20 years older than the average audience member...

Saturday I taught my class at Yoga Yoga worked on a back bending restorative ish sequence and then Jeff and I drove upto Waco to get the furniture. Stopped by to see Lenore and H.W. H.W. is huge and then we met Gabrielle and Tony and Marie, Brian, and Catherine at the Dancing Bear Pub. It was great to see everyone. It is strange going back to Waco after such a long stretch it is like seeing it with the eyes of someone who doesn't live there anymore.

Sunday I subbed for Charlie, inverted, looked up poses that relate to stimulating the thyroid (found out last week I have hypothyroidism)... and went to my favorite HEB down here on a massive grocery shop. Excellent news for the apple eaters! Honey crisp apples are in and they were on sale at HEB, 50 cents off a pound... Yum.

Farewell to Jade

Some sad news. Yesterday, I took Jade to the vet. She had become a bit alarmingly thin. She never really settled in that well to the move to Austin. At first, I wasn't too worried about her weightloss, because she was a little round, but she just started seeming really lethargic and uninterested in food. The vet tried to get her on IV fluids and a feeding tube and some where in that process Jade left this world for her next incarnation. (back story: my childhood cat died when I was in grad school and her aura appeared to me in a dream and told me not to worry about her because she had been reincarnated and was living as an artist in Dallas with red hair).

I'm sad about it, of course, but grateful in a way that she went quickly. Sam's decline was so long and drawn out and the decision to put him down so difficult, that at least Jade didn't suffer long and I didn't have to make the decision.

My stepdaughter, Christa, rescued Jade on Labor day weekend about ten years ago. Jade was less than 8 weeks old and she was about to drown in a drain pipe. I was hesitant to take on another cat because Sam had just recently been diagnosed with diabetes, but Christa left Jade with us that weekend when she went to stay with her mom and Jade curled up in a little ball and slept right in my armpit all night. I was hooked. Having Jade around really perked Sam up. Sam would teach Jade things and bath her. Jade had a very perky, inquisitive personality. I missed sleeping with her last night!

A Productive Week

Well, I just spent almost an hour and a half working on the Republic chapter, so I'm taking a little break. I have ten more pages written than I did at the beginning of the week. At that rate, I'll have a draft of the whole chapter by the end of the month, which would be great.

I'm taking a little break and then am going to do some secondary lit reading before having a late lunch. Jeff and I and Jesse and Pam I think.. are going down to San Marcos to practice with Christina and then go see Marcia Ball. Hopefully, we will not hit much hurricane related weather or traffic. Jeff's parents have evacuated Galveston. He's a bit worried about them. It really does look pretty dire down there.

Last night, Christina's classes were quite fun. I did my best Surya Yantrasana ever and got into Visvamitrasana without toppling out of it on both sides. Those were the high points, the goddess and moon squats in the flow class very low points...

Also the post class gathering at Hyde Park Grill was tons of fun.

Off to read Rosen's Republic Book.

Late getting Started

I slept late this morning. I love being able to sleep until I wake up and feel completely rested. Nothing like 4.5 hours of yoga to help with sleep!! Then, I spent some time talking with Christina and updating my other blogs. However, I have no where to be until 4:15 when I leave for CTs Thursday classes at Westgate, so I can still get a good session of writing in.

Yesterday, things started to flow a bit with the Republic Chapter and I keep on having ideas about how to streamline this. It is nice when ideas come. I was telling Jesse after class that I feel like I have a giant jigsaw puzzle, all the pieces I need, just haven't quite figured out the best way to fit them together. Another image of the creative process; it is sort of like an out of focus picture and I need to keep changing and shifting the pixels to bring out the image that's already there in my mind.

So off to it.

Wednesday Morning

Just getting ready to write and read for a few hours before a nice little yoga marathon. Christina and Heide and I are going to practice and then I'll go to CTs class at Seventh Street.

On the agenda this morning, Plato's critique of Homeric poetry... .

On the more mundane level of Anne's life in Austin....Monday, frustrating day of writing, Devon's Restorative Class. Tuesday, slightly less frustrating day of writing and Christina's classes. Also I got my hair cut for the first time in several months. Now that I sweat more in yoga practice, it is nice to have it a little shorter and off of my neck...

Getting Started for the week.

Well, I had a really fun weekend which culminated in going to the Rainbow Cattle Company to see the Austin Baptist Women perform. I was hoping for a bit more direct humor about the Baptists, but really they got the wigs and the hair just perfect... One of my favorite lines about Baptists... the bigger the hair, the closer to God. Jeff, Jeremiah, Laura, and Christina and I had a blast. Definitely one of those, you're not in Waco anymore moments.

I went with Christina to the Johnny Kest Sweat Fest Sunday. Really I've never sweated more in my entire life... However, I was still not even in the ball park of CT she could wring sweat out of her sports bra. It was really more like a free form dance/ aerobics class than yoga... but still a lot of fun.

Jeff and I went out Saturday and had a great time at Polvos. I also taught my first class at YY South, more on that on the teaching blog.

Friday just a mellow evening at home.

Looking forward to the week of writing and yoga yoga and writing

Oh I also have a new blog. iyengaryogainaustin.blogspot.com

It lists all the public Iyengar classes right now... it will also post updates on workshops articles on teachers and things about Iyengar Yoga in general.

Fun day in Austin

Yesterday, Jeff and I went down to the Labor of Love festivities/ back bending extravaganza. It was quite fun. See CTs blog for documentary evidence of said fun.

This morning I worked a bit on revising the Lysis chapter and then spent the rest of the day hanging out with Christina living life as a yoga workshop. We went up to Breath and Body yoga for a fun filled very sweaty flow class. I think I sweated even more than the hatha flow/asthanga extravaganza several weeks back. Then we ate lunch at North CM, came back here and rested on the leather furniture, then she went to pick up Kelly and I checked in on the email domain then went to her classes. I kind of ran out of steam half way through the advanced class, arm balancing, but I was well into my third hour of pretty intense yoga by then...

I'm about ready to go to bed. Pretty beat, though I may watch one of my favorite movies, Practical Magic.