Easter Sunday

...and now it is Monday. Yesterday, Anne and Jeff and Me and Kelly spent most of the day together yesterday. We went to Lifetime Fitness (Otherwise known as the Taj Mahal of fitness centers and they are open 24/hours a day 365 days a year which is convenient for those heathens among us who want to do yoga on Easter Sunday morning and not go to church...) and took over their little yoga area for a few hours for a lovely back bending practice. We worked with a variation of the sequence Peggy taught in class last Monday and spent a lot of time on Urdhva danurasana 2 and dwipada viparita dandasana with the head on the floor and straight legs. We had good success. Jeff even balanced in shiyanasana which is quite extraordinary.

Then we had a nice soak in the massive hot tubs (Anne commented that the hot tubs at Lifetime are like the prefect's bath tub in Harry Potter. She is right.) and then we spent some time in the steam room and after all that we showered and dressed and then made our way north to Mother's Garden Cafe. Lisa gave me a gift certificate to Mother's for my Christmas present and I saved it, thinking, "Once we live in Austin there is going to be a perfect time to use this." Easter Sunday turned out to be that perfect time because I had the whole day off and was home and not on the road, I really wanted to do something a bit different than usual, and I have been counting pennies a bit lately for a lot of reasons and I wanted a healthy meal that I didn't have to cook. So, I asked Anne and Jeff if they wanted to go out and we used the whole gift certificate and then some and had a leisurely, delicious and completely enjoyable meal together without breaking the bank or our food plans! YAY! (Thanks, Lisa... Merry Christmas and Happy Easter all in one... We all benefited from your gift.)

Then I spent a lot of time in my office getting a grip on all the things that are coming up all of which involve more paperwork than I realized:

• my trip to Vail to teach at the Rocky Mountain Yoga Conference (join me there if you can!),
• the workshop here in Austin with Noah and figuring out some new logistics with that (I will let everyone know very soon the new venue!)
• my visit to Seattle
• and then to Denver for a few days of the Anusara Yoga Certified Teacher's Gathering and
• My 40th Birthday/Yoga Practice Party at Breath and Body on May 7th from 6:15-8:00. Please come for this if you can. The cool thing is that this May 7th practice is my 40th birthday AND is also the first night of a weekly Thursday night group practice at Breath and Body. I am going to offer a practice at this time throughout the summer and see if it takes (meaning, see if people actually come). So those of you interested (and able) to practice on Thursday nights, start making plans now. It will be intermediate/advanced level practice, led by me and while I will be practicing also, I will be available to help, coach and clarify points and poses we just can't get to in the public class format. Definitely the agenda is to get off the basic syllabus of standing poses and into the deeper backbends, arm balances and forward bends.
• Over my birthday weekend there is the workshop here in Austin at YogaYoga on May 8-10. This will be a great opportunity for Anusara Yoga teachers-in-training as well as people wanting to know more about the moethod or who are toying with the idea of beginning an Immersion and want a chance to play with it before committing to 108 hours!
• Also on thebooks for May is a workshop at Castle Hill that Craig and I are going to be presenting together called Shiva Shakti: Bringing Spirit to Life in what Matters Most. Stay tuned for details on that.
• Also exciting is because I had a workshop in California cancel, I now get to go to Prescott the first weekend o June to teach at Prescott Yoga. (85% arranged, not 100% yet.) Rachel and I are scheming about the details but save the date and spread the word, those of you reading this in Arizona and surrounding areas. June 5-7.

Well, I hadn't intended a big commercial series like that but I was dealing with plane tickets, communications, hotel arrangements, rental cars, flyers, correspondences and so forth for all those things last night so it all must be on my mind this morning. I guess I am really part yoga teacher, part marketing agent, part travel agent... Really, it's all in a day's work. Oh right, I said yesterday was a day off! Well, to me "day off" means "a day where I do not stand in front of a group of people and talk about yoga," not so much a day I do not work at all.

So, onward beckons the day. Lots is percolating inside but not ready for words quite yet.