Two Days in Houston
We hit some heavy rains as we drove into Houston. It felt nice after the heat of yesterday.
I was distressed to learn that my Mini Navigation didn’t recognize the address of the studio I was teaching at that night, even though I could see the street in the map, the system wasn’t showing that street name as an option, so I couldn’t set it.
In fact, it didn’t recognize any address in that neighborhood. I was very lucky that I had actually been to this studio before or I don’t know how I would have found it. Luckily enough a search for the studio gave me the address of their prior venue, which I recognized as being just around the corner from their current space. So I navigated to that.
My idea was that I’d drive to the studio and then hit the button that says “Set current location as a Destination”. But when I got there and hit that button it said it didn’t have the information for navigation to this location. I was really bummed at Mini. That seems kind of lame. Houston is a major city. Why would there be no navigation to a whole section of town? There must be a lot of new highway construction, too, because I noticed a lot of discrepancies between what Mini was saying and what was really going on. Frustrating. There are a LOT of highways in Houston. It was easy to miss making a switch even WITH proper directions.
But I managed not to be late to anything.
That evening, I taught the 90 minute MEGA ROCKIN for a group of about a dozen. It was so intense. They were a great group who definitely came to rock out.
After class, Kristie Bryant, co-owner of Studio NiaMoves, took River and I to the local Whole Foods, where they had outdoor seating. We took turns going into the store to buy our food from the buffet and we ate with River under a warm Houston night sky. I hit the sack as early as I could that night because the next morning was a rowdy 6 am class. Which meant I was getting up at 4:30. The class, as I expected based on past experienced with this group, was wild and crazy and there were probably 20 people in the room. It was electric. Especially when we were doing Paranoid by Black Sabbath. What fun!
Afterward a few of us caravan'd over to a dog friendly cafe and Georgia Lister bought me a yummy breakfast burrito and coffee. After breakfast I went back with Georgia to her house and cooked up some of the food that I had gotten at farmers markets. It was nice to have a stocked cooler again. As my laundry washed and dried and my food cooked and cooled, Hal worked on his computer at the dining table and Georgia home-schooled her two kids. After her son, Jones was done with his work, he came and kept me company in the kitchen. When he grows up he wants to be a game warden.
Back at the motel, I put away my clean and folded clothes and packed my freshly cooked food in ice in my cooler and then I showered. I fed River and took him for a walk. After walking around a bit at the back of the motel, I noticed River walking strangely. Like he was prancing and hobbling or walking on something really hot. So I picked him up and rolled him face up on my lap and saw that he had 2 or 3 thorny burrs imbedded in the pads of each paw.
I went to pluck them out and they were
stuck in there pretty good; they didn’t just come right out, I had to
really tug on them. And they were sharp! It hurt my fingers to take them
out. He laid perfectly still while I did.
Ever since then he has
preferred to walk AROUND the grass if he can at all manage it.
When we
got back into the room, I rubbed some coconut oil on his feet.
I spent a little bit of time looking at the song I was going to teach that night in the Nia teacher Jam at Studio NiaMoves. The Jam was a celebration of Nia’s 30th Anniversary, so I chose to teach a song that I originally choreographed within a few weeks of returning from my White Belt Intensive in 1996, “Come On Eileen” I hadn’t taught the song in quite a few years, so I listened to it a few times and it came right back to me.
The Jam was off the hook. There were maybe over 30 people in the room and 12 of them were teaching a song. Everyone was so different and the whole thing flowed wonderfully well. I felt great afterwards and it seemed like everyone had a good time.
That night, I was so tired and hungry, and I was craving a hamburger, so I stopped on the way back to the motel at a DQ. Later, I saw an ad referring to the red DQ sign as The Texas Stop Sign.
In fact, it didn’t recognize any address in that neighborhood. I was very lucky that I had actually been to this studio before or I don’t know how I would have found it. Luckily enough a search for the studio gave me the address of their prior venue, which I recognized as being just around the corner from their current space. So I navigated to that.
My idea was that I’d drive to the studio and then hit the button that says “Set current location as a Destination”. But when I got there and hit that button it said it didn’t have the information for navigation to this location. I was really bummed at Mini. That seems kind of lame. Houston is a major city. Why would there be no navigation to a whole section of town? There must be a lot of new highway construction, too, because I noticed a lot of discrepancies between what Mini was saying and what was really going on. Frustrating. There are a LOT of highways in Houston. It was easy to miss making a switch even WITH proper directions.
But I managed not to be late to anything.
That evening, I taught the 90 minute MEGA ROCKIN for a group of about a dozen. It was so intense. They were a great group who definitely came to rock out.
After class, Kristie Bryant, co-owner of Studio NiaMoves, took River and I to the local Whole Foods, where they had outdoor seating. We took turns going into the store to buy our food from the buffet and we ate with River under a warm Houston night sky. I hit the sack as early as I could that night because the next morning was a rowdy 6 am class. Which meant I was getting up at 4:30. The class, as I expected based on past experienced with this group, was wild and crazy and there were probably 20 people in the room. It was electric. Especially when we were doing Paranoid by Black Sabbath. What fun!
Afterward a few of us caravan'd over to a dog friendly cafe and Georgia Lister bought me a yummy breakfast burrito and coffee. After breakfast I went back with Georgia to her house and cooked up some of the food that I had gotten at farmers markets. It was nice to have a stocked cooler again. As my laundry washed and dried and my food cooked and cooled, Hal worked on his computer at the dining table and Georgia home-schooled her two kids. After her son, Jones was done with his work, he came and kept me company in the kitchen. When he grows up he wants to be a game warden.
Back at the motel, I put away my clean and folded clothes and packed my freshly cooked food in ice in my cooler and then I showered. I fed River and took him for a walk. After walking around a bit at the back of the motel, I noticed River walking strangely. Like he was prancing and hobbling or walking on something really hot. So I picked him up and rolled him face up on my lap and saw that he had 2 or 3 thorny burrs imbedded in the pads of each paw.
I went to pluck them out and they were
stuck in there pretty good; they didn’t just come right out, I had to
really tug on them. And they were sharp! It hurt my fingers to take them
out. He laid perfectly still while I did.
Ever since then he has
preferred to walk AROUND the grass if he can at all manage it.
When we
got back into the room, I rubbed some coconut oil on his feet. I spent a little bit of time looking at the song I was going to teach that night in the Nia teacher Jam at Studio NiaMoves. The Jam was a celebration of Nia’s 30th Anniversary, so I chose to teach a song that I originally choreographed within a few weeks of returning from my White Belt Intensive in 1996, “Come On Eileen” I hadn’t taught the song in quite a few years, so I listened to it a few times and it came right back to me.
The Jam was off the hook. There were maybe over 30 people in the room and 12 of them were teaching a song. Everyone was so different and the whole thing flowed wonderfully well. I felt great afterwards and it seemed like everyone had a good time.
That night, I was so tired and hungry, and I was craving a hamburger, so I stopped on the way back to the motel at a DQ. Later, I saw an ad referring to the red DQ sign as The Texas Stop Sign.
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