Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

This is the first time it has happened this whole year, but this morning, I was awakened by a knock on the door that set River into panicked barking. I leapt out of bed and informed the housekeeper that I didn't need any service today. In broken English, I think he tried explaining to me that there is a Do Not Disturb sign for hanging on the doorknob. I did and it seemed to satisfy him.  I made my coffee using my brand new electric kettle. It was great. I don't miss the old one at all. This one is more compact and easier to load and pack, so I'm thrilled for the change.  I had much of the day for lazing, so River and I spent some time on the lawn outside, and hanging out like hermits inside. I had a Nia class tonight at Mandala Center for Movement Arts  but it wasn't until 7pm so I had lots of time. I went to  Bexley Natural Market  where I got some organic produce and healthy foodstuffs, but I forgot to fill up my water jugs, even though it was a p...

A horrible thing happened this morning. I couldn't make my coffee. My electric kettle stopped working, so I had to pack up the car and head to the local mall where I found a Starbucks and a Target. I went in and bought a new electric kettle and a dark roast drip coffee.  River and I stood under a tree in an island in the huge parking lot as I contemplated on the sameness of malls across the country. It saddened me that even I resorted to shopping at these comfortable homogenous institutions over supporting local business.  I don't know if it was from going out into the sunlight before having my coffee, or if it was bad air quality in Cincinnati today, but my eyes were stinging and burning as I drank my coffee in the parking lot.  It was just another hour to the motel and a good three hours before check-in, so I stopped at a rest area and River and I hung out for a long time. I was fascinated by the trees; especially the ones that were rotting or dying. Rive...

The sky this morning was a familiar patchwork of blue, white and steel grey. It reminded me of typical Seattle skies and felt nice and comforting. I took River for a long walk around the property in Evansville first thing in the morning. I also made myself a pot of coffee in my mini French press using my incredibly handy electric water kettle. Unbeknownst to me, it would be my last cup made in this convenient way. More on that, later. I stayed in the motel room all the up until checkout time, because I had six hours to fill and only a 90 minute drive ahead of me. Even though I was going to drive into the Eastern Time Zone from Central and lose an hour, I still had a lot of time to waste. So I stopped at the nearest rest area and River and I hung out there for about three hours. At one point, while we stayed under the picnic shelter, the sky opened up and pour a torrent down upon us; It was gorgeous. I had left my car windows open, so River and I ran through the downpour to Bab...

Today is the first day of the third week of this eight-week trip. Having just completed two full weeks last night, I noticed this morning that my trip odometer reads 3650 miles. (By the end of today it was more like 3825). For those concerned with these things, she's just reached over 66,000 miles and I'm getting an average of 43 MPG. After teaching and shopping, my main plan for today was to drive four plus hours to what I think is a suburb of Louisville, KY called Jeffersonville, IN and stop at a forest on the way. But the night before, I was going to look up the location on the website to see if they had an onsite laundry, and the link from my reservation didn't work. I couldn't get to the information about the property, but I could on any of the other reservations. I figured it was a glitch in the website, so I went to google the location and found over 300 reviews of the property. It was overwhelmingly one-star reviews. People were saying that the customer servi...

I started my day by making a salami and cheese sandwich for lunch and taking it with me on a nice drive to Edwardsville for Nia at Studio Gaia .  We did the Profound routine with a focus on liquid movements. I missed a lot of cues this morning, and I don't know why. It wasn't bad; I think it was because I was getting lost in the experience. It didn't negatively affect the class, and I didn't let it get me down, but I did notice it. I totally had fun, and I felt like the class did, too. Some of the ladies speculated that because it was a particularly gorgeous day, the attendance was lower than expected. I don't usually pay much attention to who's not here, so it didn't matter to me. I had fun with those who did arrive. And River was perfectly quiet the whole time. After class I ate a sandwich while taking River out onto the grass to pee and get some sunshine. I took off my shirt so I could also get rays while I ate. Then, in between my class and the up...

The first thing I did today was drive through a dead zone. I woke up and got out of Cedar Rapids early enough to stop and visit  Wakonda State Park  for lunch. I was listening to a Spotify playlist as I drove, but somewhere around the Iowa-Missouri state line, I lost service and was driving in uninvited silence. The silence wasn't irksome or unwelcome, just unexpected.  We stopped and had lunch on schedule which was nice, but I kept it brief. Nothing much else of note happened along the drive. The weather was nice; it didn't feel too hot and sweltering. It was in the mid 70s and slightly humid, but there was a nice grey cloud layer keeping things from baking in the sun. It was especially nice when I drove under a green canopy of trees, but those were few and far between. I had read about the Motel 6 I was headed to, so I wanted to get there right at 3pm, when checkin hours begin, so I could get first choice of the available rooms. And sure enough when I go...

My big plan for today was a playshop on Nia FloorPlay at Body Moves  in Coralville, which is 25 minutes drive from here. And that wasn't scheduled to start until 5pm, so I had all day to chillax. Months ago, when I was planning this road trip, I scheduled myself for a visit to  Lake MacBride State Park , which might have been lovely. But I failed to estimate the need for rest. It doesn't seem like I'd need that much, because all I do is drive and teach Nia, but both of those things cost energy in different ways, so when I have a day like today where I'm not required to do either one, I tend to not want to do anything else but rest. So I slept in today and caught up on my Facebooking and blogging. I answered my emails and took River on a walk around the property. Since I had stocked up on food yesterday, and I have a microwave right in my room, I didn't need to leave. But I did; as I said, we spent a nice long time on the Motel 6 lawn. Finally, mid- aftern...

Today started in the dark as I woke up before the sun so I'd have enough time to enjoy a leisurely coffee and get from St. Paul to Minneapolis in morning commuter traffic to teach Nia at Sattva  at 8am. And to make the morning just a little bit frazzling, I can thank Motel 6 for putting me in the middle of the hallway on the second floor, so every load I had to carry from the room to the car took not the few seconds that it takes in a proper motel, but over a minute, since I had to walk halfway down the second floor corridor, open a door, go downstairs and open another door and then walk through the parking lot since I was unable to get the only good parking place, right by the only door. Even as I type it out it sounds so petty to get frustrated over, but I do anyway. I detest this indoor corridor set up. And what's extra frustrating about is that I can't complain to anyone.  No one is at fault and no one can do anything about it. All I can do is write about my expe...

Google had suggested two ways to get from Omaha to St. Paul; both of them right angles. One was through Des Moines and the other was through Sioux Falls. I was planning to take the Sioux Falls route, but Mini had a different idea, so we went diagonally through Iowa, taking US Highways instead of Interstates. I drove by a lot of corn. And places like  Vail: A Little Town With a Big Heart  and Lake City: Everything Except a Lake.  We stopped about halfway through the five hour drive to eat some lunch near some corn. It was my least favorite kind of day. When I wake up in one city and have to drive a long distance to another city and teach a class that night. This was a 7:30 pm class so it gave me a long time. And I hit no traffic or mishaps, so I had enough time to check into the motel, and feed River before heading back out to class. There was a touch of city rush hour traffic, but I allowed for that and was fine.  The  Center for Performing ...

I woke up early so that I could have my coffee and allow for traffic before getting to the studio in Lincoln for an 8:30am class. I didn't hit much traffic and got there in plenty of time to feed River in the parking lot and get changed for class. I'm always delighted by the group that Holly Nastasi has going on when I visit Lincoln. This is my third time, and it was Fantastic.  After class Holly and Kami and River and I stopped at Bagels & Joe for some ... well what do you think, bagels and coffee. We chatted for a long time about Nia and life in general.  I was going to pay a visit to the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln before heading back to Omaha. And I was also planning to stop at Platte River State Park which is in Louisville, NE, about midway between Lincoln and Omaha. But when I drove by the Sunken Gardens, I could see throngs of people, which detracted from it's appeal in my view, so I drove on by.  As I was headed back east, I realized I was ver...

Today was the big day. I woke up early and looked out the window. I was surprised that Babe was the only car left at 6:00AM. I guess everyone else was off to look at the sun. I took care of coffee and poop and packed up the car and was off with the throngs to gaze at nature.  My intention was to drive to  View Solar Eclipse in North Platte, NE . I was a little bit confused by all the mathematics involved with knowing how far I was driving, how fast, when I started, where the sun was going to be, and a changing time zone, to top it all off. So I was making my best guess and not getting my hopes up for seeing anything. And with this, I was off... I saw right away that the lines in MiniNav's map were red which meant bad, slow traffic. I was prepared to join the processional, but took a wrong turn that ended up to be a mitzvah, if I'm using that right. Mini recalculated based on my wrong turn and came up with "stay on this road for 96 miles." So I was happy t...

My original plan for today was to visit Rocky Mountain National Park after this morning's class at Mayama Studio .  I loved it so much when I was there before and it was only just over an hour away. But then, considering all the driving I'd been doing without a break, and all the unexpected and unprecedented crowds with Eclipse Fever, I decided against it and instead found a city park in Lyons where River and I could chill for an hour in nature. So I got up and drove to Lyons first thing in the morning. I don't like to stop for gas on the way to an appointment, and Babe was saying she had about 100 miles in her tank. So I could go to class and back on this tank. I wasn't TOO worried.  This system of Babe telling me how many miles she has in her is similar to that indicator of how many minutes until your download is finished. It can vary wildly depending on conditions. I can find myself accelerating up a steel incline and watch the indicator suddenly drop f...

It got down to 44 degrees last night and I woke up cold. It's not shivering cold, but it was the first time I'd really cared that I forgot to bring my hoodie. A quick hot shower and cup of coffee later and I was fine. It wasn't long before it was in the 80's and I was glad I was wearing shorts. Before heading to Colorado, Nia @ Body Wisdom  was the first order of business. It was my fifth time visiting this group and we had a great time together today. I love it here because they always do snacks in the next room after class.  I was impressed at how this group was able to FreeDance with ease and also fallow along with my choreography. I enjoyed all the smiling faces and the looks of satisfaction as we were finishing up.  After class and before snacks, we all sat on the floor in the dance studio and had a long discussion about Nia and recovering from trauma and being 'in your body'. I love talking about this stuff; so I was in a little bit of heaven. W...

Today is my first day off from teaching since leaving Seattle. The shiny pants that I've been wearing, require hand-washing, so my laundry doesn't accumulate like it did when I was wearing cotton Chubbies shorts for class. But I did a small load of laundry in Riverton before we hit the road for Evanston. The drive was mostly uneventful. But when I was almost to Evanston a guy at the gas station noticed my license plate and said, "You're a long way from home!" I laughed and said I guess I was. He asked where I was headed and I said, "We're driving all around." Then he warmed, "If you want to see some of the worst snarled up traffic, go on up to Jackson Hole." He explained how everyone was gathering there to watch the eclipse.  I told him I was going to be in the middle of Nebraska for that and he said that was probably a good idea. The Motel 6 in Evanston is old and tired but still going strong. I've stayed at this one several tim...

We woke up and went for a morning walk in Billings. In the parking lot across the street, I saw a rabbit bouncing away from us, but River was so preoccupied with whatever he smelled in a bush that he didn't see it. When he was satisfied with the bush exploration, I led him in the direction of the rabbit. I found it crouched down, playing dead. I pointed River at it, but he never even saw it. Kudos, Mr. Rabbit; your camouflage technique really works. I had to check out of the motel at noon, but class wasn't until 4:30, so I had time to do some food shopping and fill up my water jugs at the local food co-op and get dog food at a boutique pet food store. Food @  Good Earth Market , Billings Dog Food @  Lovable Pets Bakery ; 1313 Grand Ave.; Billings Inside the pet store there were at least three off leash dogs that came to greet us at the door. The smallest of the dogs yipped aggressively, which panicked River. I had to pull him away to a corner of the store and...