Nia

Recently, a friend of mine recommended a class to me.  She said "you have to go! you have to try it!" When I asked her what it was, she described it as a "free movement dance class."  The class was being offered at a local Rec Center, Twin Lakes. Previously, I took kickboxing at the Rec Center and had a positive experience. We had a great instructor and kickboxing helped to strengthen my core and help me with my balance.

We belonged to our local YMCA for several years- but I wasn't satisfied with my experience.  Despite being members for several years, I knew very few people- including instructors. In my opinion, the instructors didn't make an effort to meld the class in any way. The last class I took at the Y had an awful instructor. I'm sorry, but this is true. It was a dance class and she could never remember how to do the dances. We should have had to pay for the class, but we did. For several reasons, we made the decision to leave the YMCA.

 

Twin Lakes Rec Center is offering free classes this week. Tonight, Nia was offered and we decided to give it a try. Before we left, Doug said "you do know you do this class barefooted."  I nodded.  I knew this.

 

All of my life, others have considered me to be a strange duck. I do not like to go barefoot. First of all, I am a germaphobe. Secondly, I am allergic to bees. I don't want to step on anything and get hurt. I do not like my feet to get dirty. I like to wear my shoes and socks. I don't understand why this is considered to be strange, but people have always made fun of me because of this.

 

For me to take a class barefooted is a big (bare) step for me. Because I don't go barefooted, my feet are soft and tender. I greatly enjoyed the Nia class, but at one point I looked over and saw my friends, my shoes and socks and wanted to run over and put them on. I'm sorry, I have an aversion to being barefoot...may I please wear my shoes and socks?

 

The class was wonderful. In the beginning, we all formed a circle and introduced our selves to one another. This is great- the first step to getting to know others. Part of the class was structured, part of it was not. The instructor would say "anything goes!" and we would dance about on our own. The class was made up of people of all ages - I would guess from people in their twenties to mid-sixties. Everyone works to the best of their own ability. It was in the 80's outdoors today and I'm certain they had air on in the studio, but I was sweating buckets. There was a lot of jumping and dancing and stretching and some poses similar to those in Yoga. At the end of the class, we rolled about on the floor and I realized why little children roll about on the floor. It felt great. Kind of like a self massage. We stretched and rolled and wiggled. Similar to how I feel after a Yoga class, I felt very relaxed. I have a "bad" ankle that was broken in '97 and still gives me pain. After class, my ankle felt good.It felt relaxed.  My entire body felt good.

 

Free or not, I predict Nia will be a new joyful discovery.

 

Read more about Nia here.http://www.nianow.com/practice

Massage

She was a friend of a friend.  On the night we met we talked quite a bit.  Doug had a stiff neck.  She told us she was a massage therapist and volunteered to work on Doug's neck.  Right there in the bar. She friended me on facebook and I asked her how much she charged and  asked if I might get a massage after work.
Tonight I went out to her house for a massage.  I looked forward to it all day. I hoped she had one of those rooms and she did.  It was wonderful.  It was warm and had a candle.  The bed was covered in oatmeal colored flannel sheets.
My last massage was several years ago.  When I had those massages, they were with the same woman in my home town.  When she massaged it was hard and deep.  I felt good for some time afterward.  But what it felt like was a person working on another person. 
This was a massage very unlike the ones I had previously experienced.  This woman seemed to push out all of the bad with love.  When I told her that her hands felt like my Grandma's hands on me she told me she wasn't surprised.  My Grandma was one of my most beloved people in my life and she passed away in 2006.  Until tonight, the memory of how her hands felt had floated away from me.  I cried.
I've been experiencing major sleep issues for some time now.  When the massage lady put her hands on me she asked me how many hours of sleep I get each night.  My answer was "not enough."  I asked her if she could tell how tired I was just by touching me.  She said she could.  She told me my body's energy was messed up.  I'm sure it is.
When the massage was over I got dressed and went into the bathroom.  When I looked at my face in the mirror, it had changed.  The relaxed face I saw in the mirror was quite different than the face I wore before the massage.
I can't go often but since it is now socks and shoes weather, I won't be getting a pedi.  I suppose my pedi money could become massage money.  I'm about to go to bed and I expect I will sleep well tonight. 
I've lived here for almost five years and hadn't had a massage since I lived here.  I could never get a good referral from anyone.  I feel as if this woman was sent into my life just when I needed her. 

Bring green!

I can't say I was thrilled to have an extra day of February.  I am ready for GREEN.  I found this adorable green trench at Old Navy recently and I've been waiting until March 1st to break it out.  Shall I wear this coat in Paris in May?  

I pulled the above photo off of the Internet, the photo below is of my coat, to explain the difference in shades of green.  It truly is a kelly green even if it doesn't look like it is in my photo.  I'll accent with my scarf and vintage (but original to me) porcelain floral pin by Avon.

It was a balmy day today, 67 degrees at the end of the work day.  I wore an oxford blouse and Pendleton wool blazer and about burned up.  Tomorrow I'll wear Khakis and a lime twin set. 
I'll go after work tomorrow for a pedi.  I don't often go for a pedi, but after neglecting my little piggies all winter, it is time.
How will you welcome March? 

FILLED to the brim and overflowing

Do you ever feel as if you are so happy that you might just overflow? That is how I've been feeling. I don't cry often, but I think "if I get any happier I'm going to cry!" Does that make sense?

I have been extremely busy the past two weeks. I haven't even made time to pick up the paper. I had a huge assignment from the shop so I stayed up to get the cards made. Then, I wanted to make a little baby book for my friend Elisa, so I stayed up to do that. I has been close to midnight or twelve-thirty nearly every night!

Elisa had her daughter too soon. At thirty-one weeks. Her tiny little baby was only three pounds, four ounces at birth. I was able to meet her this week and she now weighs a whopping seven pounds and is twenty inches long and doing very well! She is now two months old.

Introducing Miss Audrey

The duggles and I are leaving on a jet plane this evening. We are flying to Portland, Oregon. Then we will drive out to a little hippie town called Manzanita. Then we will return to Portland and on Monday will do the famous Powell's book store. Then we will drive through the gorge and finally to dug's brother's apple farm where we are going to help with the apple harvest. I've never been to the pacific northwest but am very excited about our trip. I read Annie Dillard's book, The Living a few years ago. It is a very long book, spanning several generations, fiction based on historic fact. If you haven't read it, you might consider it. I was pulled in by the first sentence.

This very well may be the first vacation that Doug and I have done where we aren't out to challenge our bodies physically. We have backpacked in the Rocky Mountains and canoed in the Boundary Waters and last year, to celebrate my fiftieth birthday, we hiked down into the Grand Canyon ,(7 hours) stayed at Phantom Ranch, and hiked out (7.5 hours) on my birthday!

We will get some hiking in and we will be picking apples. One of my friends said "don't they have a machine to do that?"

My friends insist that I "unplug," so I am not taking my laptop. I'm not certain if I will be online at all, so you may not hear from me for awhile. I will return on the twelfth of October. Doug keeps saying "have you told her?" I haven't come right out and said "Chelsea, mommy and daddy will be gone for awhile, but we will be back." But she knows. My cat Milo had to be dead center on the bed as we packed and vocally protested each time Doug put her on the floor. Chelsea paced around, nosing at our feet. She knows something is up.

This was her face this morning.

She was so forlorn. She knows. Don't tell me that she doesn't.

So happy to be happy! I hope this find you happy, too. I will return. "Buh-bye."
(waving and smiling.)

Why we love...

I've written about Clear Creek trail several times before, and I decided to show you why Chelsea and I enjoy walking there.
Like a dancer en pointe, Chelsea strains, standing on her short hind legs at the edge of the seat, stretching her body as long as she possibly can, wanting to catch every fragrance that is carried in the wind. Lest she fall out of the window, I hold onto her leash with my right hand.

From the bridge. I like the way that you can tell Fall is on its way by the fallen leaves. I watched from above.
I was convinced he was going to fall in and I was determined to capture it.

His arms flailed and circled like twin helicopter rotors, but he did not fall in.
She taunted "you are going to fall in!"
He made it all of the way across without falling in. I was amazed.

The entire length of the trail is 2.5 miles out and 2.5 back.

Beautiful.

Edging the entire trail - many different varieties and colors.
In storage - to keep it dry.

I call this one "bales and lines."

Brilliant
Weathered

Do you see the birds?

And back to the bridge. These evenings, I am struggling to finish before dark.
Now, you understand why we love to walk this beautiful farmland trail.

Sailor's Delight

Chelsea and I walked the Clear Creek trail tonight. We headed out and I was packed like a camel heading out into the desert - doggie-do baggies for Chelsea, treats, tissues, cell phone, my car key zipped into a pocket and my water bottle in my "woods purse" which I carried cross-body. The sky was amazing.

Clouds that were flushed with colors of pink, red and glowing white, like looking at the underside of a seashell. Clouds that billowed in layers.

The trail side is filled with wild flowers (a.k.a. "weeds") that I picked in my mind and arranged - bouquet after bouquet. Bulbous purple thistles, pink-lavender clovers, black eyed daisies, a small yellow flower that looked like sweet peas. Feathery flounces and ferns and spikes of leaves. I gathered them all.

We didn't get started until 7:30. Really, too late. I walked as fast as I could, stopping once for a potty break for Chelsea and once for myself. Chelsea had a water break heading out and coming back. There is a water fountain with a ground level dog fountain. Whoever thought of that one had to be an animal-lover. We finished in an hour and a half. The entire trail is four and a half miles total, so I was pleased with our time. When we finished, it was getting dark and I felt a bit uncomfortable as the populous of the trail diminished as it grew darker.

I was soaking wet when we finished and had a tired dog along for the ride home. Sailor's delight? Color me delighted as well.