Happier things

[missroserose]

--It's taken me about six weeks, but I feel like I'm finally on a more even keel, emotionally. I want to say "I feel more like myself again", but I think that perpetrates an unhealthy tendency to reject our darker and more unpredictable emotional selves; the fact is, bad things happen sometimes, and who we are while we're processing that is no less a part of our self than who we are when things are better. Regardless, I'm glad to feel more upbeat and optimistic, and especially grateful to my friends who've supported me while I dealt with a couple of profound social disconnections. I'm much more used to being the supporter rather than the person in need of support, and I can't even articulate how good to feels to know people are there for me too. I guess that's always the silver lining to Bad Things when they happen.

--Last Monday I taught my third C2 class, and it was the first one where everything really clicked. A good chunk of that, I think, was precisely that sense of connection; a few of the students were ones I'd had for my CoreRestore or C1 classes, and I could tell they were really rooting for me to succeed. It also helped that it was a big group that flowed well together; people listened to the cues and the sequence, everyone worked hard, the timing with the music worked out damn near perfectly, and I got a round of applause (!) after I finished. Best feeling.

--I've got a trip to Alaska coming up at the end of the month. It's not long - just a week, or really five days after flying - but I'll get to see my mother and my hometown and the mountains and maybe Leilani if I'm lucky. My mother's also bought a massage table and supplies and booked a couple of her friends to work with me, so I'll have a bit of extra income, which is nice.

--Speaking of massage (and yoga), I've finally set up a Facebook page for my massage/yoga business. There's not a whole lot there yet, but I'm planning to post my weekly yoga-teaching schedule, as well as links to interesting body-related stuff I find online and maybe the occasional special. And at the very least, it's a link I can point people to when they ask about my services.

--CorePower is doing one of their take-20-classes-in-a-month challenges for September. I completely missed the first five days and I'm going to be leaving on the 27th, so that puts me at a week's handicap already - but for the past week I've been killing it. I'm very tired, but pleased - hamstring strain aside, I can feel how much better my body's doing for regular practice. Definitely time for a rest day, though.

Comments

[ivy]

Yay C2 success! If it can be managed with my work schedule, I'd love to come to one of your classes when I'm in Chicago next month. I'm glad your students appreciated you!

I will just barely miss you in Alaska! (22nd, 23rd, 24th here.) Anywhere you would particularly recommend in Anchorage while I'm there, for dinner or later? I'm going to a class during the days, so I can't do trips or activities, but if there's anything I should make sure to see in the evenings, let me know. Too bad we won't overlap!

[missroserose]

Aw, bummer! If I'd known you were going I would have offered to coordinate plans. :( Most of what I'd recommend is daytime activity-based (hikes and whatnot); the nightlife in Anchorage tends to be pretty bar-based, especially after tourist season is over. As for food, there are a few decent spots (mostly higher-end) and a lot of mediocrity. Depending on which part of town you'll be in (or if you have a car - it's not a big city), Doriola's does dinner on Friday and Saturday nights; I've really enjoyed their food in the past. Snow City Cafe is also tasty, but it looks like they close around 4 this time of year. (Seasonality is another tricky part of Alaskan dining.) I've quite liked Ginger (downtown) and my mother likes Orso (also downtown); if you're in my mother's neighborhood (south Anchorage), there's a place just called "South" that's quite good and is open late-ish. It's only open until 3, but Judy's Cafe is an excellent example of the sort of frontier-style meat-and-eggs diner that was pretty much the standard there until relatively recently, and they have a killer reindeer sausage to boot; maybe for your next trip. :)

[ivy]

It wasn't a thing I planned very much in advance -- a friend of mine's family has a martial arts school up there, and I sort of half-accidentally tried to invite myself to one of their senior classes. (I said "wow, that would be cool, I would love to do that sometime" to my friend. I didn't mean "so ask your Dad if I can crash his invite-only party", but, he did. His Dad said "uh, how about your friend takes our three day 101 class first, and then we'll see about that". Which is this weekend. So, uh, that was a lot more immediate action than I had planned on, but I can't make my friend look bad after sticking his neck out for me! So I'm going to Alaska!) I am guessing that I will not be free for lunches or early in the day; apparently this is outdoor training time, rain, snow, or shine. I anticipate some tired evenings where I want to be warm and eat food someone else cooks; I'm going to bring a bunch of bars and jerky and the like with me from Seattle for lunches. And thermoses of tea, and a bunch of wet wipes so I don't end up drinking a bunch of lead. Thanks for the recommendations -- here is where I'll be.

Reindeer sausage! Some other time; I would totally try that.

[missroserose]

Oh, East Anchorage! That makes sense, it's up by the military base. I'm sorry, my recommendations for that area are slim, but I'm sure your classmates will be happy to offer suggestions - what Alaska lacks in fancy dining it generally makes up for in interpersonal friendliness, haha.

[asakiyume]

I get an impression of you as being in great physical shape, I have to say :-)

And good point about the negative parts of us all being parts of us! But understandable that you're happy to be enjoying a more cheerful, upbeat period.

[missroserose]

I was just saying to a friend today, I feel better physically now, at 34, than I did ten years ago - 24 was when I really began to notice the effects of my then-quite-sedentary lifestyle. Even so, my level of physical activity remained little-to-moderate over the rest of my 20s, due to environment and mental state and social circle and all the other factors that influence things like opportunity and motivation. That said, it's interesting to discover how much of a moving target peak fitness is; you feel great, then something happens in your life that cuts your schedule a little bit, and even just a couple of weeks later (during which you've still been more active than average) you can really feel the difference. The upside is that, at least for now, it's pretty easy for me to get it back - two weeks of 5-6 classes a week and I already feel at peak again. I know it won't last forever, but I'm still happy to have it now; I hope I can keep it up (to a safe degree) as I age, because compressed morbidity sounds like an excellent goal.

[asakiyume]

I would *definitely* prefer compressed morbidity too.

[missroserose]

Me too. :) Even just this experience, though, has given me an even bigger amount of respect for the kind of training schedule Olympians and other peak athletes have to maintain - you can't fight nature, and she's big on "use it or lose it", heh.