Rockin and Drivin in Southern Colorado

I had packed most of my stuff into the car last night to ease the pressure of this morning. I woke up at 8, showered, walked River, ate and had my coffee and was on the road by 9. An hour away, I rocked Jasmine Lok’s class while she was in Telluride and had such a great time with ten of her Nia students. Even Ali, co-owner of Mayama Movement Studio stayed and took the class. The students were thrilled to see her in the room as it is a rare treat that she joins in on the Nia classes.

Immediately after class we loaded back into the car and drove to Boulder, where we joined Marty and Jackie Diner as they were in the midst of a White Belt Intensive. We turned it into a rock and roll jam. I guess both them are rock fans but haven’t done a lot of Nia to the good old tunes, so since I was passing through and bringing my rockin Nia, they decided to jump in and rock with me. It was a blast. And Marty chose to put my White Rabbit song at the end of the routine as a cool down instead of how I’d been using it as the warm up. And I liked it. And I may keep it. It’s funny, but so far, every time I’ve taught Rockin, it’s been a little bit different. It’s obviously still tweaking.

After class, the Diner’s bought me lunch and we chatted until the white belt trainees came back from lunch to create space for the afternoon session on Principle #6: The Base of the Body.

So once again, we hit the road. This time driving through Denver to Pueblo to rest for the night.

I stopped at Starbucks and saw this sculpture at the mall

Now... in an earlier post, I made a comment about how I thought that the drivers in Colorado were remarkably considerate and polite. And I’m afraid I’m going to have to respectfully retract that statement. Actually most of today was totally cool, but as soon as I got into Denver, it started getting a little weird, and it never really let up, even as I pulled off the highway to check into the Motel 6 in Pueblo. I’m thinking maybe the polite driving thing is just a northern Colorado custom.

Most of the time, the flow of traffic was about 10 MPH over the posted speed limit. That always confuses me, because I like to drive the speed limit; it relaxes me. But if I did, people would make big demonstrative lane changes around me. I was cut off more than once and for the first time ever since I have owned my Mini Cooper, I had to use my horn. But if I tried to ‘go with the flow’ instead of fighting it, every few minutes, I’d catch up to some joker doing the speed limit. 

I kept trying to tell myself that it wasn’t really happening. That it was me. I was wearing some sort of filter that only let me see and appreciate the negative aspects of my drive, for some reason. But no. No matter how objective I tried to be, or how much I actively sought out the peace and love in the traffic, it just kept proving to me that it wasn’t going to have any of it. 

I saw people changing multiple lanes of traffic while talking on a cell phone and others passing me like I’m standing still when I’m already going 10 MPH over the speed limit. One guy even peeled out, displaying how strong and masculine he was.

I stopped for gas before checking into the room, and while I was pumping it, a man walked up and asked for food for his mother and himself.

River made this video about his first impressions of Pueblo.

We had a long day full of awesomeness so we’re going to hang out in the room tonight and relax. I’ll check around the internet to see what there is of interest to enjoy in Pueblo before we head down to Santa Fe.  Hopefully we will have some fun outing to report on tomorrow’s post.