Gorgeous Georgia
Strangers here say "hi" to each other.
I didn't do any highway driving today, so no map. I spent most of the day on Friday, hanging around the motel room.
I ate some soup, tuna and bread out of my ice chest and cleaned out the car. I accumulate junk, and without the occasional purge, it can really pile up. I found a search engine online that will tell me where the nearest Crystal water filter dispensers are. I found one outside a Kroger store and filled up my three jugs.
I found a great burger on Thursday night, which I blogged about here.
And I checked into my motel room. I've stayed at this place before and it perfectly meets all of my criteria for a perfect Motel 6 experience. I blogged about that here.
My burger blog is done chronologically by the date I ate the food, but the Motel 6 blog is done alphabetically by region. The reason for that is that for the Motel 6 blog, I am creating a database for myself, so the next time I set out to plan a road trip, I can look up the Motel 6 in the area and remember my impressions and experiences there. But for the burger blog, I'm keeping a journal and don't really intend to look things up in it later.
I shaved and showered, fed River at then took off for my evening Nia class at Firefly studio. Sandy was my host, and we used her regular studio rather than the bigger studio. I ended up liking the intimacy of the smaller studio much more than the big one, but some of the student were laughing afterward that they'd never really had to navigate around each other so much before due to lack of space.
It's a good thing I allowed an hour for a 15 minute drive.
There were 13 students in class. We got real sweaty in that small room. A quirk of this group was that they only used the back half of the room. I exaggerate, but they kept drifting further and further back from me. This is another reason I like the smaller room; because when they did that in the big room, they got really far away from me so that I had to yell for them to hear me. But today, the people in the front were being reminded by the people in the back to please move forward and give them some room.
I know that I didn't stink. I made a point of it because both times I was in Atlanta before, I did. Not me, but my clothes. When I came through with Goldfinger and with Frankie Say Nia, I had an established costume I was wearing, which sometimes didn't get washed in between classes. And both times I was here in the past was one of those times. So this year I was sure that I used freshly washed gear and that I was showered and deodorized. Maybe it was my breath this year, since I'm doing the no toothpaste thing. hehe. I teased them goodnaturedly. It's funny behavior. My tendency is to move closer and closer to the teacher all the time.
There's a movement we do in Amazing that I call the helicopter. The movement came to me from the folks in Santa Monica, but I didn't get a name for it from them. As I practiced the routine at home, I'd be asking for a pearl but nothing would come. It's a side travelling with a big arm circle from the shoulder in the frontal plane, one complete circle for each side step. The other arm is held out, stationary, parallel to the floor. We travel four counts in each direction and then back for a full bar. I began calling it The Windmill, because I was trying to think of what that circular motion reminded me of. But it never really felt exactly right. And then, a while ago, while I was teaching it to a class, I said Helicopter instead of Windmill. That's when it started to feel right, and then something else interesting happened. I make small, quick circles with my outstretched, unmoving hand. It felt necessary to make it a helicopter. And, as it turns out, it's a fun and challenging movement. It feels like something Carlos would've come up with; simple but takes a bit of coordination. I love to watch the students' faces light up as they gradually get what I'm doing.
After class had ended and we were all post-Nia chatting, I noticed a woman was spending a lot of time with the crystal that I left out for everyone to connect with. Later, she came up to me and said that she loved what I was doing with the crystal, gathering all the energy from all over the USA, but that she had moved it. I had set it near the microwave, and she cautioned me about putting the crystal near any electronics. She also told me that I could rinse it in water and, with my intention clear, only wash off the unwanted microwave and electronic energy, while keeping the human energy intact.
River hasn't been itching quite as furiously as he was in Texas, but he's still got a bit of a rash on his belly, and he's still super over-reactive when I lightly scratch him. But he's getting better. Today as we were lounging on the grass after feeding time, a man walked by, dragging some roll-aboard luggage and talking on his cell phone. River stared at him for a bit, and I guess the sound of the wheels and the force he was using to project into the phone (must've been a long distance call) freaked him out. He started barking. Another reason I say "Thank you for the bark!" It helps me hold him back when he gets riled up. Before he could bark, all of his energy went into running toward the threat. But now that he barks, he might still be lunging toward the threat, but there's also a force pushing him back. So that helps me contain him. And it increases the likelihood that he will hear me and actually calm himself down enough to lie down and bark his frustration out.
Another last minute change of plans. Originally, my plan was to go to Tallahassee tomorrow and in the morning go to Venice, Florida, where I will teach four classes. Awkwardly, my first class there is at 10am, which meant I would have to leave Tallahassee by 4am to give me enough time to get there comfortably. And that meant I would need to get up by 2:30am! And I was fully willing to do this.... until today. Suddenly it seems to make much more sense to drive all the way to Venice tomorrow. Even though it's a long drive, it's not crazy long. It's only 7 1/2 hours. I like to keep it below 6, but I've also done as much as 9 hours on more than one occasion. But, 7 1/2 hours of driving seems like a much less evil option when weighed against the prospect of waking up at 2:30 am, driving four hours, teaching a Nia class, and then having to wait four more hours before my room was available. What was I thinking?!
I didn't do any highway driving today, so no map. I spent most of the day on Friday, hanging around the motel room.
I ate some soup, tuna and bread out of my ice chest and cleaned out the car. I accumulate junk, and without the occasional purge, it can really pile up. I found a search engine online that will tell me where the nearest Crystal water filter dispensers are. I found one outside a Kroger store and filled up my three jugs.
I found a great burger on Thursday night, which I blogged about here.
And I checked into my motel room. I've stayed at this place before and it perfectly meets all of my criteria for a perfect Motel 6 experience. I blogged about that here.
My burger blog is done chronologically by the date I ate the food, but the Motel 6 blog is done alphabetically by region. The reason for that is that for the Motel 6 blog, I am creating a database for myself, so the next time I set out to plan a road trip, I can look up the Motel 6 in the area and remember my impressions and experiences there. But for the burger blog, I'm keeping a journal and don't really intend to look things up in it later.
I shaved and showered, fed River at then took off for my evening Nia class at Firefly studio. Sandy was my host, and we used her regular studio rather than the bigger studio. I ended up liking the intimacy of the smaller studio much more than the big one, but some of the student were laughing afterward that they'd never really had to navigate around each other so much before due to lack of space.
It's a good thing I allowed an hour for a 15 minute drive.
There were 13 students in class. We got real sweaty in that small room. A quirk of this group was that they only used the back half of the room. I exaggerate, but they kept drifting further and further back from me. This is another reason I like the smaller room; because when they did that in the big room, they got really far away from me so that I had to yell for them to hear me. But today, the people in the front were being reminded by the people in the back to please move forward and give them some room.
I know that I didn't stink. I made a point of it because both times I was in Atlanta before, I did. Not me, but my clothes. When I came through with Goldfinger and with Frankie Say Nia, I had an established costume I was wearing, which sometimes didn't get washed in between classes. And both times I was here in the past was one of those times. So this year I was sure that I used freshly washed gear and that I was showered and deodorized. Maybe it was my breath this year, since I'm doing the no toothpaste thing. hehe. I teased them goodnaturedly. It's funny behavior. My tendency is to move closer and closer to the teacher all the time.
There's a movement we do in Amazing that I call the helicopter. The movement came to me from the folks in Santa Monica, but I didn't get a name for it from them. As I practiced the routine at home, I'd be asking for a pearl but nothing would come. It's a side travelling with a big arm circle from the shoulder in the frontal plane, one complete circle for each side step. The other arm is held out, stationary, parallel to the floor. We travel four counts in each direction and then back for a full bar. I began calling it The Windmill, because I was trying to think of what that circular motion reminded me of. But it never really felt exactly right. And then, a while ago, while I was teaching it to a class, I said Helicopter instead of Windmill. That's when it started to feel right, and then something else interesting happened. I make small, quick circles with my outstretched, unmoving hand. It felt necessary to make it a helicopter. And, as it turns out, it's a fun and challenging movement. It feels like something Carlos would've come up with; simple but takes a bit of coordination. I love to watch the students' faces light up as they gradually get what I'm doing.
After class had ended and we were all post-Nia chatting, I noticed a woman was spending a lot of time with the crystal that I left out for everyone to connect with. Later, she came up to me and said that she loved what I was doing with the crystal, gathering all the energy from all over the USA, but that she had moved it. I had set it near the microwave, and she cautioned me about putting the crystal near any electronics. She also told me that I could rinse it in water and, with my intention clear, only wash off the unwanted microwave and electronic energy, while keeping the human energy intact.
River hasn't been itching quite as furiously as he was in Texas, but he's still got a bit of a rash on his belly, and he's still super over-reactive when I lightly scratch him. But he's getting better. Today as we were lounging on the grass after feeding time, a man walked by, dragging some roll-aboard luggage and talking on his cell phone. River stared at him for a bit, and I guess the sound of the wheels and the force he was using to project into the phone (must've been a long distance call) freaked him out. He started barking. Another reason I say "Thank you for the bark!" It helps me hold him back when he gets riled up. Before he could bark, all of his energy went into running toward the threat. But now that he barks, he might still be lunging toward the threat, but there's also a force pushing him back. So that helps me contain him. And it increases the likelihood that he will hear me and actually calm himself down enough to lie down and bark his frustration out.
Another last minute change of plans. Originally, my plan was to go to Tallahassee tomorrow and in the morning go to Venice, Florida, where I will teach four classes. Awkwardly, my first class there is at 10am, which meant I would have to leave Tallahassee by 4am to give me enough time to get there comfortably. And that meant I would need to get up by 2:30am! And I was fully willing to do this.... until today. Suddenly it seems to make much more sense to drive all the way to Venice tomorrow. Even though it's a long drive, it's not crazy long. It's only 7 1/2 hours. I like to keep it below 6, but I've also done as much as 9 hours on more than one occasion. But, 7 1/2 hours of driving seems like a much less evil option when weighed against the prospect of waking up at 2:30 am, driving four hours, teaching a Nia class, and then having to wait four more hours before my room was available. What was I thinking?!
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