Talya, the beach and Barcelona

My friend Talya had a full afternoon evening together. We went to the beach and told stories on ourselves (we did verbal spring cleaning), we went to dinner and started desire lists, and we saw Vicki Christina Barcelona. Spring Cleaning was great, we got the charge off several different topics for each of us. Dinner was yummy (Library Ale House). And the movie... Well the movie was a slice of life that while interesting, after all was said and done, I didn't see the point - perhaps that is the point.

Quick side notes: Frankie seems better. And I did a splits catch in trapeze class on thursday. AND I am almost done with my Diploma A in Shiatsu school.

Frankie and the Vet

Frankie is 18.5 years old. I have had her since she was a kitten. Her kidneys are not working at the level to which she needs them, but they are probably working pretty damn well for someone her age. Unfortunately, it isn't good enough for her to function really well. Lately she seems like a crotchety old lady (some of you might say, like her mother). She wakes me up early; she doesn't like to clean herself (like a really old lady) and she is a VERY finicky eater and every so often (actually rarely) she is incontinent. Last week, she pretty much stopped eating, so I force fed her baby food. I took her to the vet Friday. She had started picking on food a wee bit again. Yesterday, I left her at the vet all day for her to get fluids intravenously. And she was sent home with an IV of fluid for me to prick her with each day (or every other, depending upon her) a give her fluids under her skin (thank god, they don't expect me to find a vein). She did have a catheter in at the vets yesterday, so she has a bald spot on her paw now. I just gave Frankie her first dose of fluid today. She was actually good about it - I was much more upset than she. Here she is with the bandaid they gave her (her bald spot is under the wrap) - unfortunately my camera always pauses before taking a picture. Her bandaid matched her eyes.

Trapeze pictures

Teri slowly climbing ladder.













Teri getting set to "ready & hep" with the help of Jonathon and Jonathon












Tracy waiting for commands














Rie waiting for trapeze.













Me listening to directions on how to get down.

After a break of about 18 years...

After a break of about 18 years, I have made my way back to the flying trapeze. Trying it in Club Med when I was 23 caused me to quit my job and run away with the circus and do single trapeze (actually a lyra). The Trapeze School of NY has come to the Santa Monica Pier. Jonathon, who runs it, offered a class for me and my friends/co-workers and 5 of us took him up on it. Teri (who is horribly afraid of heights and ladders) did it once. The rest of us did it several times and even got caught on the other end. The physicality of it came back quickly. It is a test of nerves every time. Kind of like climbing the tower at camp. Everyone enjoyed it. It was Teri and Laura's first time. Tracy and Rie had done it much more recently than I. And now I am signed up for classes that I will take thursday mornings. I am so excited. I just realized I should have taken a picture of us all together afterwards with the people helping us (the guys helping us were hot). But, oh, well. (see pictures of us in action in next post)

First Week of Being Underemployed

This week was my first week of being underemployed. It was amazingly still full. Monday I discovered Facebook - okay that is a time suck. Fun, but wow. Tuesday I have classes that aren't back to back during the day, which was fine when I worked in the office. Now it is a little wierd. But after my second class, some of my long time students wanted to grab something downstairs to eat and after my third class (which isn't normal for me to teach) we went and saw Batman (which was good). Wednesday I had both school and work and the time in between seemed to disappear quickly. Thursday, I had appointments in the morning and then work. Friday I had school; I took Frankie to the vet and I went to yoga. It is amazing how easy it is to fill up a week. Now in addition to school, I have trapeze class on thursday mornings (see next entry).

Theme of the Week

Funny, last night just before going to bed, I realized this week has a theme - clearing out shit. It makes me laugh. Not only am I doing this literally (see the Coffee Episode), but I am cleaning out my desk, my filing cabinet, my email, my files on my computer. Perhaps next week will be about clearing out my shit at home. Hmmmm....

Mash ups

In cleaning out my desk, I found a website for mashups. I found two that I really like.

Pour Some Hot Sugar
by A plus D

and

Tender Umbrella
by Party Ben

enjoy!

Friday August 1, 2008

Tomorrow (actually today, but I have yet to go to bed) is my last day at work. It is weird. I plan to get all of my outstanding expense reports done and turned in. What seems really weird is that almost no one will be in the office tomorrow. My office mate (one of my bosses) will be in the OC, her assistant isn't in, my other boss is in SF, and the two big bosses are in Chicago. And I don't think many people will be in at all. odd and weird. I am taking class in the evening to end my day, which will be a good end to a weird day.

A friend said to me this evening that it is the end of an era. Which seems so apropos, and I had named my playlist for this evening exactly that. I didn't finish the playlist as I found another I really liked and hadn't used in a long time. But here are some of the songs from it...

18 - Moby
Smoke and Ashes - Tracy Chapman
Perdido en Ti - Diego
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got - Sinead O'Connor
Fallin' - Alicia Keys
Where I Stood - Missy Higgins
Like This - Mims
Fight the Power - Korn featuring Xzibit
Elevator (feat. Timbaland) - Flo Rida
I Say Hey - Kinky

(some of them are just new things that I just got, some are old favs, and some that I didn't even choose for the "theme" are very apropos).

Life is weird. And I am so glad my week now seems so full of possibility rather than full of "have to"s.

the coffee episode

So, anyone who knows me, knows I gave up drinking coffee about 2 years ago. Well, this has nothing to do with drinking coffee. So continue reading at your own risk.

Two weeks ago in my Pain and Orthopedic Evaluation class, my teacher got tired of telling people one on one how to do a coffee enema. So, he gave us all the directions. My thought was, hhmmmm...some day.

Well, this last Saturday in my deep tissue class, my teacher announced that this week (the upcoming Saturday) we would be working on the Psoas - which lies under your large intestine (i think i have my anatomy correct there) and we should clear out our large intestines before class this week and the best way to do this was a coffee enema.

Okay, I thought, I can do this, my mom used to do them all the time (part of the Gerson Therapy). But, I'd better try it before Friday or Saturday, because I don't know the timing of my body.

So, Sunday, I bought an enema bag and Monday, I bought coffee - organic, free trade coffee. So, Monday night, I proceeded to give myself a coffee enema. Granted I completely disregarded my teacher's directions that one should not do this at night (because I wasn't going to have any day time to do it until Saturday) and I disregarded my friend saying it was like really good cocaine (hmmm... what does that do, keep you up?). Well, I didn't keep the coffee in as long as you are supposed to. Perhaps that was a good thing. I was so wired, it was hard to get to sleep and when I did, I didn't sleep well. Granted, I slept on the floor due to my concern that relaxing might make a mess (which it didn't - thank goodness) and I think people were climbing on the fire escape during the night - or I might have just imagined that. Anyway I didn't sleep well or much and I was still wired in the morning.

The wierd, nostalgic thing was the smell reminded me of my mom as she did coffee enemas as part of the Gerson Therapy when she was sick.

Anyway, I am going to do it again early Saturday morning. We shall see how it goes the second time.

thoughts

So many things to write about. Tomorrow is my last day at work (the office part of my job aka the stable income portion). The coffee episode from earlier in the week. My new portable hard drive (yes I am a geek). A phone call from someone checking in on me to make sure I am okay. A referral on LnkdIn from a woman I used to work with (at my current job) that made me feel appreciated. I haven't written at all about massage school - which I love. And I keep coming up with things I want to do and I will actually have time to do now (although I may not be able to afford them - but where there is a will, there is a way).

(yes, this entry is total stream of consciousness).