This weekend was the third session in my yoga teacher training. The weekend didn’t get hard until I woke up this morning. Now I have muscles that are reminding me just how difficult it was. I don’t really have much to say about this session. I did find out that I have exceptionally mobile shoulders. It’s nice to be above average in some things.

We also have lots of homework. One of our assignments is to wear this bracelet for 24hrs. During the 24hrs we can not complain, gossip, or criticize. If we do, we have to switch the bracelet over to the opposite wrist and start over (at time zero). Something like 98% of your thoughts are not your own. You can think it, but as a long as you don’t say it you’re good. Luckily, Chris voices all the things I’m thinking for me. So does that mean my thoughts are Chris’s or Chris’s thoughts are mine?

Update: I made it through my 24hrs. Whew! That was a challenge. The assignment was no complaining for 24hrs, but I chose to add in all three (complaining, gossip, and criticize). So basically I was a mute. I’ve decided to continue wearing the bracelet, but just for the no complaining part. Maybe I’ll add in no criticizing later (when I’ve tackled the no complaining).

Me: “See…there is an Indian Buffet in JR’s Truck Stop.”

Chris: “That can’t be good. You kind of want to try it don’t you?”

Me: “Yeah. I mean, it can’t be good, but I still want to try it.”

Chris: “I’m so lucky to have a wife like you. You’re just…not lame.”

Me: “You’re quite the romantic.”

When I was a teenager, I spent many Saturday nights at a local indie/punk club. The best nights where when a local punk bad was playing live at the club. My friends and I would be right in the middle of the crowd, dancing like banshees. This was one of the few places where I could get my alternative music fix. There just wasn’t enough exposure to that type of music in a small mid-west town. Actually, since the death of The Spy, there’s still not a lot of exposure to indie/punk radio here. I would be lost with out the internet.

It’s really surprising when one of the bands that I like comes to do a concert in OKC. Last night I had the opportunity to see The Bravery. They played along with The Stock Market Crash, Your Vegas, and Phantom Planet at the Diamond Ballroom. The Diamond Ballroom is a classic venue. It looks like a total dump on the outside and it’s tucked away in an area of south OKC that’s a little sketchy. I felt sorry for the bands not just because the place was not that great, but also because not that many people showed up. I knew it was a bad sign when I could by my tickets two days before the concert at Tan and Tone America.

The kids at the concert all looked like the kids at the concerts when I was younger except they didn’t have to make their retro-punk outfits like I used to have to do. The thing that was different was the attitude. Everyone just stood around like lumps. It’s like they were there because it was the cool party place to be that night, not because they were into the music. Of course, I’m lucky enough to not give a crap what people think about me and danced like a crazy girl all night any way. I had a blast, but I couldn’t help but feel a little sad. I think I’m getting too old to go to these concerts. Its not because I couldn’t keep up, because I could. I think its because the attitude of the younger audience members was just too annoying. I wanted to scream at them “Get up there! Move around! Get excited about this totally cool music!”. Stop being too cool for school.

My boss sent me this link for today’s Friday Science. Boston Dynamics has been working on a robot that can cover rough terrain. You need to watch the video if BigDog to truly appreciate the design of this robot. It’s kind of creepy and looks like something that just walked out of the mind of Stephen King or Dean Koontz, but it’s a fascinating piece of machinery. The video shows the robot climbing up hills and over an obstacle course, but the coolest part is watching it right itself and regain balance after slipping on ice.

Seriously, watch the video!

Occasionally Chris and I would ride the shuttle to work together. One day I was riding by myself and the shuttle driver said to me that he didn’t realize Chris was my husband. I guess it started getting around here that we are married (we do have the same last name). The shuttle driver said that he thought that Chris and I were just good friends and he was floored when I said that we’ve been married almost ten years (ten years tomorrow). Actually, this is the most common reaction we get when people ask us how long we’ve been married.

When Chris and I realized that this was our ten year anniversary, we just looked at each other and laughed. Has it really been ten years?!? I thought the shuttle driver’s comment about the two of us being good friends was a compliment. Ten years and we still don’t act like a married couple (what ever that is). I suppose we don’t have a traditional marriage compared to some, but for us it was never about tradition. It’s about spending the rest of your life with your best friend, the person who makes you laugh every day, that one person you can’t wait to talk to at the end of the day.

Chris and I are celebrating our ten year anniversary with dinner out tonight. I made him a photo for his home desk. I hope he likes it.

My dad turns 69 on Saturday and for his birthday this year I took him to see Riders In The Sky (the guys who sang the theme song to Woody’s Round-up in Toy Story). I called him weeks before the concert to tell him I had purchased tickets so he wouldn’t be off on a dealership drive that day and miss it. He was so excited about going. He was driving a car with XM radio on day and he called me because they were playing a Riders In The Sky song.

In keeping with our cowboy theme, I took dad to dinner at Cattleman’s Steakhouse before the concert. Dad was so cute. He showed up in his cowboy hat and had even dug up his dress cowboy boots. He loved Cattleman’s (it’s the perfect old man place). Then we headed to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum for the concert, where I was one of the youngest people there. I’m not kidding. There were maybe four people there my age. The rest of the people there were senior citizens dressed to the hilt in their cowboy finery. After the concert Dad bought a CD and then had the inside signed by all the members in the group. He was so thrilled and I told him it was very rock star. I don’t think he got it.

Dad told me this was the best birthday present he’s ever had and even got a little choked up over the whole thing. I for one was relieved. I have finally given my dad a present he truly liked and appreciated. He is the hardest person to buy a gift for and he always ends up with useless things or shirts. Of course, I screwed myself over with this one, because I have no idea how I’ll ever top this present or even equal it.

I am stupid. A few months ago I bought some cotton panties on sale at VS. On a whim I bought a size smaller then I usually buy. I got home and held them up to me, shaking my head. “These are not going to fit”. But they did. They fit perfectly which means my old underwear, the underwear size I’ve been wearing since forever, must have looked like huge baggy granny panties.

It gets worse. Today I wet back to VS to buy some bras (I’m done to one that I haven’t sown the wire in twenty times). I bought a size smaller bra, but didn’t try it on until I got home. It fits perfectly. In fact, when I pulled my t-shirt down over it, I said “hey, my boobs aren’t sagging”. And then Chris turned around and said “Whoa, that’s a visible difference”.

Its a given that I would need smaller pants and shirts, but I never thought about smaller underwear. Why didn’t any one tell me these things!

I do remember that I have a blog. I’ve just been incredibly busy lately. Chris and I are working hard to get our stuff organized in the new place and apparently this requires numerous trips to the Ikea store in Dallas. In fact, my mom and I went again today to get a sofa bed.

Space is limited here. Our bed takes up a lot of space in the bedroom. A lot of space. I initially thought that I would be able to roll my cedar chest around and have room to do yoga in the bedroom. This would have worked if I didn’t have arms. I asked Chris what he thought about replacing our bed with a sofa bed and he thought that it would be a great idea. Once the idea was in my head, I wanted that sofa bed yesterday. But we had to wait for payday and for a weekend where my mom could go with her van.

I can’t wait to get it set up and have floor space! Chris is excited because he thinks he’ll get a flat screen TV to put on the wall. Eventually I’ll have my own little refuge from the siege of Deal or No Deal.