I am truly thankful for this weekend. I never had a chance to recover from the last weekend. And even though I agreed to sub a class tomorrow morning (must learn how to say “no”), I have nothing planned. I’m going to clean out the fridge and inventory the vegetable stock, grocery shop, wash clothes, and sleep. There’s going to be lots of sleeping this weekend.

Also, I had to rush out of the house early this morning to run an errand before work (not thankful for that). This put me in the car early enough to hear Story Corps on NPR. I haven’t heard a Story Corps story in months. I like to call them Story Cry and todays didn’t disappoint. I am thankful that I was able to hear the story of a man who lost his hearing at the age of ten and his love of baseball and how he got to meet Babe Ruth. Beautiful. I encourage every one to listen. And if tears don’t prick your eyes when Brooks Robinson speaks to the man in sign, then you have a cold dead heart and I’m sorry for you.

As always I am thankful for Chris and the laughter we share, my health, my weekly veggie basket (We got blueberries this week!), and our hilarious dog. Take a moment to find gratitude in your week and enjoy the weekend!

Recently I dreamed that J was still alive (there’s been a lot of dreaming lately for some odd reason). In the dream, J had been alive this whole time. He was just hiding, like playing a game of hide-n-seek. The thing is I can totally see him playing hide-n-seek for four straight years.

I thought for sure that there would come a day when J would no longer visit me in my dreams and maybe that day will come. I am thankful that I no longer have the nightmares and that those ended a few years ago. The dreams that come now, which are few and far between, are simple ones just like J himself.

Through some round of miscommunication, I found myself at the 4-H alumni dinner this weekend. 4-H is celebrating 100 years of service this year and my county extension office thought it would be nice to get the old faces together. And it would have been interesting if anyone I had known from my 4-H years had bothered to attend.

The dinner was the biggest dread of the weekend. I was not even interested in the idea of going. But it turned out to be not so bad (other then the food…I’ll get to that later). I think the main reason I dreaded seeing people from the past was because by the time I ended my 4-H career, I was so burned out and jaded that I didn’t care to get involved with it ever again. But I had a pleasant enough time and it made my mom happy.

OK…so about the food. A few weeks ago I told Chris about a dream I had where I attended a dinner and there was nothing for me to eat. I found myself eating a chicken leg. It was so vivid, I could even feel the grease on my fingers and the entire time I was consuming the leg, I was wracked with guilt. Well, turned out the alumni dinner consisted of salad (iceberg lettuce and tomatoes), corn on the cob, and fried chicken. I did not eat the chicken. Mom and I later laughed about this and I told her of the dream and the one I had about Hooper peeing in the house (which he did when we got back from the camping trip). Mom said “You know, we get that from Grandma Tucker”. What? The ability to dream of the most useless things to come? If it’s an ESP thing, why can’t I dream us up winning lotto ticket?

I’ll just end with this. I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living for my club, my community, my country and my world. Not a bad pledge really if you think about it. Totally amazed that I even remember it.

I don’t think I could have fit more into this weekend even if it had included an extra day. The short list: dinner with the family (all of them), yoga conference at D-Fest, 4-H alumni dinner, Cake concert and a car break down involving a vehicle being towed. And…I’m home.

This year they decided to attach a yoga conference to D-Fest in Tulsa and I agreed to volunteer. I had no idea what to expect, but the conference was great. To be surrounded by so many positive and joyful people all day long, well…it was Awe-some. What I didn’t realize or plan on was that I would get access to all the music venues too. For Free! Cake was really the only band I wanted to see and when I found out that they wouldn’t be playing until 11:30 Saturday night, I was a little torn. That is way past my bed time. Then I smacked myself on the forehead and said “Cindy! You have a chance to see a band you really really really like. A band you’ve never seen before. A band with a lead singer that you’ve always wanted to know what he looks like. YOU ARE GOING TO THAT CONCERT”. And I did.

I’ve never been to a concert by myself. And I kind of did a stupid thing by parking sooooo faaar away from the concert. But I’m cheap and I didn’t want to pay for parking. I realize it was a risk, but I made it safely to the concert and even ran into a friend from high school who just happened to be on police duty down town (Karma). I was also able to score a spot in the very front, kind of to the left, of the stage. So, yeah, concert was Totally Great!

The only down side was that my car didn’t make it home. I think there’s a coolant leak. So we are driving my mom’s van. I have more to say, but golly I’m tired. Plus my brain is crammed to the brim with things that need to be processed. But I can now mark off find-out-what-the-lead-singer-from-Cake question from my list and he looks good.

I stared blankly at the screen for about twenty minutes, which is crazy. I have things I’m thankful for. I do. But it’s the usual stuff like Chris, dog, scooter, things you’ve heard before. Nothing crazy spectacular happened this week and if it did it rushed by way to fast to get a grip on.

I am really thankful to be finished with yoga teacher training. One and half years of teacher training. I am thankful for the compliments and praise I received from my teacher regarding my teaching skills. I am thankful for my students from my evening work class. My last class with them is next week. Part of me is sad to end the class, but I had to let something go. That class, as much as I love my students, was more stress and hassle then it was worth (which apparently was nothing, since I had zero support outside the class). It has been so rewarding to watch my students grow in their practice and I will miss them.

I suppose I am also thankful for how uneventful the week turned out to be. My weekend is chocked full. So I needed a low-key week in order to prepare me for the coming crazy. Whether your week was dull or crazy busy, find something in it, any thing, that you are thankful for.

Have a fabulous weekend!

I travel down this road every day to work. It’s not a very pretty road. It’s not even well paved and tends to be a bit bumpy on the scooter. It’s mainly an industrial road that passes by a couple of refineries. People tend to dump their trash out there, things like old mattresses and couches.

But there’s this one spot where the road crosses the Canadian River that’s very pretty. It’s my favorite part of the drive, particularly in the mornings. Often, when the water is low like this, you can see dozens of white cranes dotting the river. In the mornings, the swallows are swooping back and forth around the bridge and some times you can even see a kingfisher hanging out on one of the telephone wires that cross the river.

In the middle of all the garbage there’s this small oasis of beauty. I love being able to find beauty in the most unexpected places.

Happy Love Thursday

Last night I had a dream, well really more of a nightmare, where I was in the woods studying Big Foot. Up until this moment I’ve always imagined Big Foot to be a peaceful creature, just choosing to keep to him or herself, quietly leading a happy sasquatch life.

The Big Foot in my dream apparently didn’t get the Happy Sasquatch Living handbook or just didn’t read his copy. The dream one was mean, territorial and violent. And scary as shit. I mean really scary. I kept telling myself to dream about something else. Stop thinking about Big Foot. It wouldn’t work. I kept coming back to Big Foot attacking our research outpost and tearing the arm off of one of the research assistants. Big foot ransacking our camp site. At one point Big Foot even picked up a marker (Sharpie, of course, a red one to be exact) and scrawled in big letters “GO AWAY” on the side of a tent.

Well Mr. Big Foot, I wish I could have gone away. Truly. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve had Ethiopian food and I know the house was full of people trying to fix Mrs. Swan’s satellite. But really, I had no idea the combination would illicit such a reaction. And I promise (God willing) to leave you alone tonight Mr. Big Foot. Perhaps you might in turn try picking up your copy of Happy Sasquatch Living and giving it another go.

I’ve been a little blue lately. I’m pretty sure it has something to do with my 7 AM class being canceled at Art of Yoga. Then I thought I’d be teaching in the evenings there in August, but that fell through too. So…I’m no longer teaching at my dream studio. I feel bad about that, but realize that my morning class is not the only one to bite the dust. And those teachers have been there loads longer then I have. Tough times for the studio I think.

Any way, I put together a little yoga resume and took it to a couple of gyms on Friday. The downtown Y called me before I even got home. I have to do a little more CPR training to work for them, but as soon as I finish that I’ll be teaching three classes a week there. Yeah for a job, but not so thrilled about taking over a class where student have serious conflicting intentions for their practice. We shall see how this goes.

Though I did get some emails this morning that really made the mean reds lift a little. My students from my evening work class (free) sent me a gift card. Sweet. And the best news, was that my yoga teacher has reviewed my video. She said it was wonderful and great and awesome and that I pass. I passed yoga teacher training! Done! And Done! OK…must stop. Tears stinging the eyes. Relishing the good moment.

There are many things to be thankful for today, but I think I’m most thankful for not being struck by lightening on the way to the studio yesterday. Yes…I was on the scooter in that crazy storm yesterday.

But everything was fine. I have to take kind of an odd path to get out there and it kept me just barely on the good side of the weather. But every time I turned north on a rode, I was sweating it. I actually saw a lightening strike and then I said (I’m pretty sure out loud) “I’m in trouble”. The scary stuff didn’t happen until I got onto the lake road and then the wind was so bad I could barely keep the scooter up or in the right lane. But I only got a few sprinkles before I made it to the studio (in the nick of time).

By the time I left the studio, the storm had cleared. Our neighborhood was actually in the worse line of the storm. There was plenty of tree limbs and other debris to be dodged in the road. Our neighbor’s chain link fence is leaning into our yard. Yup, the winds were so bad they blew over a chain link fence. We’re cleaning up and the cable is finally back on. I feel blessed that I was able to avoid the worst of it.

And…despite the damages, I’m thankful for the rain. Happy Thankful Friday!

My best friend’s dog passed away on Friday. It was a good peaceful death, but still seemed to happen too soon. It really made me think of how little time we have with the furry members of the family.

It recently hit me that Hooper is getting on in years (he’s nine!). I don’t think it really became an issue until our recent camping trip. I never thought for an instant that it would be Hooper that I would worry about the most on that 12 mile hike. And then that night, when Chris and I had to physically lift his body so he could go to the bathroom, turned me into a ball of worry. I’m not kidding when I say it took him a full week to recover. Well…he’s back to his old self and playing Chris and his mother for suckers (they’ve been letting him stay inside all day). But he prances and trots and can jump up on the couch.

Hooper is a gift. We may have purchased him from the local animal shelter, but I think we got the best deal out of that purchase. Today’s Love Thursday is a reminder to spend just five more minutes throwing that frisbee, five more minutes on that walk, five more minutes on a belly scratch. Because you just never know. Life is too short, particularly for dogs.

Happy Love Thursday!