way too much about yoga

     I went to see Nick Cave on Friday night! He and the many Bad Seeds (6 of them!) were amazing. They played for 2+ hours. Even though he is going bald and is sort of trying to compensate with the odd  "look" w/ the stache and the long-in-back hair, he is still sexy. I love the way he moves, even when he's doing those weird "dance" moves he does sometimes.
     He played guitar on a few songs and I don't recall ever seeing him play guitar (well) on video; he usually sings/ "dances" and/or plays the piano. They did some of my favorites from the new record, some NC&TBS classics, & a few songs I was unfamiliar with. No songs from Abattoir Blues, just a tad disappointing. His final encore was a rousing and energetic "Stagger Lee."
     The show was sold out, but I managed to find a spot right in the front in the upstairs balcony and had a good view.
     Even though I tempted Fate, I am still alive.

     The new Amanda Palmer record is s-o-o-o-o good! It isn't exactly what I was expecting. I anticipated piano ballads, but there is also quite a lot of good orchestration and production: strings, horns, etc. that work very well. Thank you Ben Folds for your excellent producing work. I am going to see her in Denver in December.

    On the downside, it seems that the Dresden Dolls might have finally really broken up. It depends on who you listen to. I'm very sad, but also optimistic that both Brian and Amanda are doing their own things right now and we the fans can anticipate much good music in the future.
    

     I signed up for a six week "wellness" challenge at work. We are wearing pedometers and the goal is to get 10,000 steps/day. I'm doing fairly well so far. It was actually quite easy to get 10,000 steps at Estes Park, just walking back and forth between hotel room, classrooms, meals, etc.
     Work is strange, though. Sometimes I cover a lot of ground and sometimes it's surprisingly low. On some days I've resorted to pacing around my house. Tonight, I went to City Park after work and walked around the lake at dusk. It was lovely.

     After falling *hard* off my mat this summer, I'm really feeling excited and energized about my yoga practice again! I went to the Yoga Journal conference in Estes Park last week and am also excited about October's woyopracmo theme.
     The October theme is meditation or stillness. I am going to make time for it, practice it, and incorporate it into my daily life. My intention is to practice stillness for at least 15 minutes/ day. What it is: take at least 15 minutes each day to be still and focus on my breath. Sit on cushion,chair,floor, lie down in savasana, stand on head (?not!), whatever...morning, afternoon, or evening. It's 15 minutes, you can find the time and do it. What it isn't: meditating while waiting, doing other things, i.e. on bus. While this is a great use of my "down time" and I'll continue to do it, the point is to choose to make separate time to dedicate to meditation. I dug out my cushion and a blanket at about 8:30 tonight. I've never meditated at that time of night, but I made the commitment to do it every day this month and that was when I was free and thinking of it and...I'm feeling much more relaxed than usual at this time of day. It is also not: moving meditation. Again, beneficial, but the idea is to be still. Wish me luck!

     ... it has been five weeks and six days since my last blog.
     I fried my keyboard about six weeks ago and was without for a while, and then, well who knows. I guess I wasn't feeling so great and then I started to feel behind and overwhelmed and then I got busy and...
     Anyway, I'm now up for a few short(?) blog posts about various mundane details of my life, catching up.
    
    

      After work yesterday, I went to the LYS (local yarn shop, I understand) just to look around and maybe get some more needles and yarn. It was overwhelming! All of the yarn was *so* beautiful and *so* expensive and I had no idea what I wanted. I felt guilty just looking at it! I'd hate to buy such beautiful and pricey stuff just to mangle it. I left without buying anything, though I now wish I'd bought some of those fancy wooden needles, but I couldn't decide and I had to go catch Project Runway. I guess I at least know what's out there now.
     They didn't have any of the metal needles I have grown to love, just circular needles that all the *real* knitters I know seem to favor, and the aforementioned fancy wooden ones.
     I heard my teacher's voice as soon as I walked in! Fancy meeting her there! She was just hanging out.
     I guess I was kind of embarrassed also, not knowing what to buy.
     So I stopped in at the fabric store on my way to Costco today and picked up some more cheap practice yarn and cheap needles: some variegated wool, some "eyelash yarn," and bamboo needles in two sizes.
    I started using the size 10 needles to knit the "boucle" yarn I have left over from my first knitting class. It's not very stretchy, but is also pretty forgiving, I think it may become a scarf! A few inches so far...
     I also tried knitting real wool with the metal 8s. Progressing...kind of pretty so far....learning.... I was afraid of stretching out wool too much, but I think I am getting it. A tad more practice and then I may be able to graduate to the fancy wool yarn at the LYS.

     Tonight, I finished the 3rd and last class of the 3rd sequence of knitting classes I have taken over the last few years. I now have the 4 core competencies to "graduate" from Knitting 101. I am fairly competent with: casting on, knitting, perling, and binding off. I also practiced knitting and perling in the same row to make seed stitch pattern, more practice needed, and I understand that ribbing is just the same only different, again more practice needed.
     I still need to learn to increase and decrease, but that's for later when I feel ready.
     I have worked a lot over the last few weeks and finally have a small finished project. I worked and worked and worked and finally made a, wait for it, *washcloth.*
     It's humble, but my tension is good and it's a very respectable washcloth.
     I don't usually even use a washcloth in my daily regimen, but I may reconsider. What else shall I do with said washcloth?
     Long ago, when I was trying to make something out of nothing, just clay, I was thrilled when I finally made something and I called it "I pinched it!" Now I can also say "I knitted it!"
    

     I'm taking my 3rd knitting class and it looks like I may finally get it this time! I re-learned casting on and was able to remember the knit stitch with a little prodding. I guess there is such a thing as muscle memory.
     I don't know why I am such a remedial knitting student. Most of my classmates seem to get it/ got it *so* fast, but I am always behind. Is it the 3-D thing? Doing sculpture, I could put separate pieces together pretty easily, but clay was always beyond me, making something out of formless *stuff.*
    J is such a great teacher. In my 2nd class, she actually put her hands on mine and knitted so I could get it. She was a tad disappointed that it *didn't take* that time and said I could come by anytime for a refresher, and now I am.
    I'm not interested in knitting anything particularly spectacular, just in getting to the repetitive part of it and getting into the zen of it, a sad scarf would be more than I want.

     I watched some of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics Friday night. I'm generally not much of a sports fan these days and definitely not a big Summer Olympics fan, but I wanted to watch for the spectacle and to see how China presented itself to the world. It's a big PR opportunity and I was curious to see what they'd do.
     It was quite the spectacle and I loved the 2008 drummers and the dancers/gymnasts? drawing on the big scroll as they moved across it. The printing press blocks creating characters and images, the waves of the maritime history, the Buddhist muses, etc. Beautiful. 15,000+ performers, wow!
     I found the commentators' patter intriguing. It was interesting hearing them explain the symbolism, ideas, etc. behind the pageant, but it was also clear that they were working from China's crib notes and promoting a certain agenda. For example, there were the 56 children in different costumes paraded out, representing the 56 ethnic groups of China. This was followed by Chinese soldiers in uniform carrying a huge China flag and *goose-stepping.* Our American commentators told us that this represented that the Chinese government would care for these children, these groups. Well, I got a *slightly* different message from this display. I'm sure there was a child in traditional Tibetan dress, if I knew enough to spot it.

    Wow, It’s raining. I mean really raining with actual water falling from the sky and soaking into the ground. I don’t remember the last time we had real rain.
     During the long heat wave, the record-breaking 18? 19? days of 90 degree+ weather, the forecasts often predicted some sort of rain for the afternoon or evening, but I never saw any of it. It got to be a bit of a joke. There was sometimes a little *spit* of water, but now here is the glorious rain.
     It’s amazing. It’s been raining steadily for several hours.
     Don’t get me wrong; I love the dry climate here and am no big fan of humidity. Humidity tends to make me very sleepy (and also frizzes my hair!) but there is something a little bit *unnatural* about the lack of precipitation for a girl who grew up somewhere very humid, where it rains nearly *all the damn time.* I really appreciate what rain we get.
     I got out and experienced it, walked around the neighborhood. I forget about the smells the rain brings: the lovely sage in my yard, the earth, the freshness, as well as the less pleasant dust, garbage, urine...ick. Worth it though.
    We also had an actual tornado *warning* tonight, with emergency sirens and everything. That’s the first time I’ve experienced it at home since I’ve lived in Colorado. I couldn’t make myself go to the basement; I went outside to stand in the rain and *look around* for the sighted tornado. I wasn’t the only loony standing out there. Luckily, it didn’t show up.

     The Yoga Health Festival is coming to Denver at the end of this month! City Park -- I can even walk from home. It looks cool, and a good deal with the early bird registration. During the DNC.