A Day in Olympia

As was the case in the RV, River doesn’t seem to want to stay in his crate over night. He jumps up on the bed with me pretty much as soon as I turn out the lights. I’m sure I could demand that he get down and go back into his crate, but the truth is, I sort of like having him there. 

When he did it in the RV, I was worried that he’d carry the habit home with him, but when we got home, he didn’t even hint that he wanted to come up on the bed. So I’m hoping again that he understands this is just road rules.

The shade on the windows in the Motel 6 does an excellent job at keeping out the light. I slept until about ten am and the room was still dark. 

I ate an egg. We took a nice, long morning walk. So long, in fact, that when I swung by the lobby to get my free cup of mediocre coffee, it was gone! So I put River in the car and drove to the Starbucks drive thru to get my morning fix. 

I spent most of the day in the hotel room. I was writing and going over my music and notes for the afternoon’s workshop.  I didn’t get maid service today. I saw them passing by as I was working. I also had lunch.

At about 2:30 we headed to the studio. I was distressed to see that River has now taken to starting to shiver (indication stress) even before we get into the car. As soon as I led him to the door and opened it, he reacted. So I took some extra time getting him comfortable, and sitting in the car with him before starting it. Once we got going, he seemed to relax a bit. And the studio was only a ten minute drive from the motel, so there were no mishaps. 

River LOVED being in Waves Studio.  He enjoyed the attention and the love and strokes and scratches from the students there. He loved running along the big beautiful dance floor and chasing his rope and playing tug with me.  We played before and after the class.  I think eventually, he’ll learn to stay inside the crate without my having to close the door, but today, after I told him to “Go Home” he came back out as Julia Annis was introducing me. Then I told him, “You get one more chance to stay in there or I’m going to close the door.”  And he came out again, so I sent him back inside and closed the door. And during the class, he slept in his crate.

The Super Human Strength session is so exciting to me. I love introducing people to these concepts.  And I love to see the look on their faces when they can suddenly do a pushup, or when they can jump out of a squat with seemingly no effort. 

And then, to follow up that workshop with a Nia class really brings so much energy to the routine, that I find myself saying things like “WOW.” or “Oh my God” in between songs. 

Later that night, back in the motel room, I found a person who was willing to do some grocery shopping for me. I placed an ad on Craig’s List offering a half hour massage in exchange for doing the errand, and fortunately, someone was interested. Well, in fact, a lot of people were interested, but I was only able to accommodate one person.  I went to bed with a fridge full of fresh vegetables and some chicken and pork. He also got me some almonds and blueberries. 

my purple pants

I realized, as I was getting ready for class today that I forgot to pack my shorts. I only have two pairs of pants, my purple pants and some black ones that Lululemon makes. Fortunately, even though I usually wear them as street clothes, the lululemon pants were made for exercise, so I wore them to teach class. But I didn't know what I was going to do for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I couldn't wear the same pants for four classes!  Not if I wanted the students to stay in the same room with me for the whole hour. So, after class tonight, I kept my clothes on as I got in the shower. I learned this trick from Helen Terry. I washed, with soap, with my clothes on and stripped in the shower and then washed my skin. I squeezed out the excess water and will let them drip dry. This is Sunday night; they should be ready to go by Tuesday evening, when I teach next. 

I still don't know how I'm going to handle three consecutive days of teaching. Especially when one is Wednesday night and then the Thursday morning class is at 9am. Using the Helen Terry technique, they'd still be wet in the morning. 

my Lululemon pants, hanging to dry in the shower

I'll sleep on it...