What an auspicious start to my goal of being more intentional, and sticking to a plan. Good God Gertie… I’m already a day late for ‘starting April 1, I’m going to…’
But I’m here now and writing it down. Within these next 4-5 months I’m going to:
As promised, my report on hot yoga.
Loved the heat, loved the teacher. But yoga is still a bridge too far for me. Full transparency, much of that bridge is my own drama. Blah blah, have the wrong clothes, have the wrong look, have the inability to understand the zen. And what is not bs drama, is aptitude – good god gertie I have the flexibility of wood, and zero ability to understand directions on the fly.
In the other classes I can camouflage most of my spaz; in that quiet little sweaty yoga room, not so much. Even my mat was squeechy and squeaky.
Wait wait, back up, start from the beginning. I walk into “the studio” clanking weights, music, gym sounds fade away – quieter chatter rules, and by my tally everyone is 5′ 9″, 119lbs, and lithe. Not even a little bit true, but I’ve had years of practice with this flawed system of observation. So me and my garage oil mat I mean yoga mat look to escape to the back of the class – a trick known by all wishing to escape notice. Well damn it, the front becomes the back sometimes in yoga land. Strike One.
Strike Two – I could not hear, no no not the instructor’s fault, actual ear mechanics – almost fully deaf now in one ear and not great in the other – so even if I could put one hand behind, flip into a side plank and come out a crocodile on the other side, I could not hear her direction. Holy fuck I think she was saying dragonfly not crocodile…
Strike Three – Disruptive me. We all pay the gym fees, we all have a right to the classes, but do I want to be the jackwagon spaz disrupting the class? As mentioned, very quickly there was a lot of squeaky mat happening, and everyone facing one way, and me facing the other way chasing that damn elusive crocodile pose. But how do you leave a yoga class and not be disruptive?
Lovely teacher to the rescue – whatever she sensed, she nipped it in the bud. She came over, and I whispered (or at least I hope I did), this is a train wreck I’m going to grab my map and go.
And she said, No. No, this is your time, do something, find something in the pose or the directions that you can do, and do it. And so I did. And I tip my hat to that wonderful professional. We all start somewhere and even if yoga does not become my thing, it was an hour that I appreciated and just “did something” and I would have found an out if she had not come to my rescue.
Side note funny, walked out with a lady who said, “that’s a one and done for me” – and when I asked why, said I loved it in spite of my “limitations” – she said “too hot”. I laughed, we’re all batshit crazy am I right?
To quote the old ’60’s phrase, “Keep On Keeping On” and I hope to see you along the way.
Full disclosure my friend Susan coined that title phrase, and its apt, and she said it was “stealable”, so voila.
It came about as I was previewing today’s class selection at my fabulous local gym. This real girl is slowly trying all the classes at the gym.. well the free ones at least, hahaha. Making myself step out of my comfort zone of long time runner / swimmer who gobbles cardio with abandon, time to work on the whole body.
Rather than lament the aging storyline, the woulda coulda shoulda, today is today. And who knew those ab muscles made you more stable?? (lots of experts). Apparently if you engage them, core muscles punctuate stability and balance – a couple of nice friends to have right? Cracked ribs, broken collarbone (2x) fully detail how I have not engaged those core muscles when running turned into tripping. And in each instance, there has been time to form the thought ‘shit this is going to hurt’, but missing was, ‘you hooo little core can you help me not hit the pavement’. Those core muscles are sticklers for the love connection, you gotta pay attention to them, for them to pay attention to you!
Which brings me back to the gym. So many classes, so many options to love up on my core.
Have steered clear of gyms for so many years; a) my chosen sport running can be done anywhere and a treadmill inside is this side of hell, 2) the age old stupid thought about looking stupid. Maybe this is the grace of age, maturing enough to say who the fuck cares, just get out there and be somebody. I give this advice to anybody about running. Who cares what you look like, how slow you go, how far you go, just get out there – but don’t we always give way better advice to others, than we ingest for ourselves??
Well not this time – I am a real gal in search of fitness. First foray was “Ringside” – cardio/strength class with boxing moves as the recovery. My Sugar Ray Leonard was on tilt! If I knew how to insert an emoji it would be the one with the hearts for eyes. Slight drawback for the people on either side of me, as it was not until the end of the class that I asked the instructor for a tutorial on jab/cross/uppercut/shuffle/duck – needless to say my classmates did alot of ducking with sugar ray on the move! And that class is fully in my rotation now. Fabulous!
Today is a real leap.. hot yoga. Visualize your Champion gym shorts, cotton t-shirt, mat that may or may not be used in a garage during oil changes – that is who is walking into the class today.
My trusted accomplice Susan has yelled from the sidelines – I look forward to reading the blog with the words Never Again. My super fit friend Toop said – “it is a strenuous class!” – exclamation mark FFS?? And my niece who is a yoga instructor said very encouragingly, go you, be a badass, oh and don’t do more than you can. What does that even mean as downward dog means I bend down to pet the dog!
Stay tuned. Noon class, update to follow.
Whatever your fitness journey, hope to see you along the way.
I smell like chlorine, and that’s a good thing! Have been chasing the Lake George swim challenge. X number of miles in X number of days. All very attainable unless you procrastinate. Hello, please call me Procrastinator Plus. Queen of talk, less royal on action. Down to 4 days and have 5.5 miles to go. Oooph, my muscles and maybe mostly my tendons are screaming. But I am determined, and next year hoping that at least one of my swims will be in the actual Lake George.
Talk soon
Hope to see you along the way~~~~
You know you have a day off when you take the time to wash, scrub, tone, serum and primer your face. And blog about it.
You know its been an insanely long time since you have written, when you have to reacquaint yourself with your log in credentials. Mon dieu!
But a day off it is and I can check off run, shower, freshly scrubbed face. Currently conducting an inventory of an insane amount of cosmetic samples. And of course making grand plans to start using them every day, regardless of their born on date. Can you say.. breakout??!!
So so much has occurred since we last chatted, but I’m determined to stay on point on the day: said inventory, clutter, groceries.
More later, no promises of when, but I miss you.
Must run, cannot avoid that hodge podge drawer any longer.
Hope to see you along the way.
Picked up my mail today. Have a home address but also have a P.O. from years ago that I’ve never given up.
Peeked in this evening and saw 2 letters! Have no expectation of responses to letters I am sending but it was fun nevertheless to see mail with real stamps. Spoiler alert, one letter was a return, IA, Insufficent Address. Don’t fret, I’m chasing that address down as I liked my letter hahaha and I like the friend. The other letter has to wait, my treat for posting.
Been a little over 2 weeks, fun so far, and every day a “reason” presents itself. Birthdays, celebrations, and even a letter to an author of a book I finished and LOVED. Likelihood of that letter hitting the mark is slim, but that’s okay, fun to write it.
Okay – gotta run.
Hope to see you along the way.
Hello you, long time no post.
Have an idea, have had this idea, but as of yesterday the idea took flight, as in went in motion, as in not back in the closet called ‘ideas’.
Write and send a letter a day for 365 days. Friends, family, strangers, who knows. And aim to blog more routinely. Simple? Yes.
I have stationery, boy do I have stationery. Stationery I have collected (okay okay hoarded), and a treasure trove collected (okay okay hoarded) when we cleaned out my Mom’s house. Man, did she have / hold onto / apple does fall far from the tree, some fun, now super vintage cards and stationery.
The other gem we found at my Mom’s, though in truth she asked us repeatedly to go through it with her, fantastic letters dating back to the 1890’s. What a miss there, so many stories she could have provided background, and now will remain forever unanswered. (The letters from my grandmother about her dislike for my father require no interpretation – hahahahahha).
So all influence combined makes me pull the trigger, write letters for pete’s sake.
And better understanding this fun blog tool can’t be bad for my brain either.
Talk later.
Hope to see you along the way.
8 months or so since we last chatted. Why so long? The usual..busy, distracted, busy, disconnected. No promises but let’s stay in better contact.
Happy Birthday to my lovely mother-in-law. 80 – such a milestone and she wears it well. Enjoy your day lady!
Have been making waves lately…the good kind..in the pool. A running injury, actually and probably a strain occurring during a pickle ball game exacerbated by a long run later in the week. Anyway, rest from running ensued, but reignited a reliance and relish of time in the pool. After slow manatee like laps, the body feels elongated, lean, fit. Good feeling! No promises, but let’s stay in touch.
Miss my Mom, recent trip to Palm Springs, her sometimes respite from winter. Always used to catch up after a trip away and she would tease me as invariably I would say, “I have to move there”. Palm Springs was no different, just no Mom to tease me.
Gotta run, hope to see you along the way.
Early morning walk with the dog yesterday, peered into a shop window, not sure what they do.. fix bikes? peloton? bike race training? There was a video monitor with a rolling video of people on bikes, custom bikes being made, and then the video flashed “Quit your day job”.
Is this my, “The World is Yours” moment from Scarface???
Hmmm…maybe.
So we kick off another summer which always makes me thoughtful about what I should be doing and beating myself up about what I am not…
yawn, get over myself already and just move forward…
On the summer docket:
Mah Jongg
Consistent Running
Consistent Reading
Consistent Writing
Healthier Eating
Maximizing the day
More Spanish practice
Evie – orange/pink/purple
JCB
Paris
Spain
See ya tomorrow.
Blogger lesson learned…post each night or at a minimum, journal sights, sounds, smells, tastes.
Once we left Nairobi, connectivity was spotty at best so for this trip, it will have to be a retrospective view. Truth be told, we were so busy experiencing that I forgot to write.
Long post, apologies in advance.
From Nairobi, we headed to 3 safari camps. Camps being a very loose term, think glamping (glamorous camping), not a Bunsen burner in sight, but all 3 strict eco camps where maximum effort is made to minimize the impact on the planet. Bye bye, throw away this, and plastic that, creative use and reuse is the order of the day. The strategy of choosing these 3 camps was to maximize the variety of animals seen, and more specifically watch the Migration of animals as they make their way from South to North for food. (oh and the side benefit, all 3 camps were beyond anything I could have imagined) A total of 4M animals, prominently wildebeest, zebra, gazelle are on the move during this time.
Our first camp bordered Amboseli National Park where the elephant “ellies” are king. And if you leave Amboseli without falling in love with these intelligent and mighty creatures, you need to check your radar.
We met our guides, Eric and Simon at the airport. And our Tortelis Camp hosts, a Scottish couple Candy and Graham met us at the camp with a Welcome. We would soon learn that each time we arrived “home”, someone would be waiting to greet us and ask us about our day.
For these 2 days at Tortelis, we went out early in the morning (6:30), and end of day (4pm) to maximize viewing. Rumbling around in an open air jeep with animals around us on all sides, quite simply doing their thing. Both of our guides love their job, love their land, and were able to answer all of our questions. It was a running dialog each day, pauses as we came within feet of something instead of yards, and then we would resume our conversation. Besides the animals, we started learning about the culture, the tribes, and much detail on the Masai tribe who rule the land we were exploring. Our guide Eric is Masai and lived the traditional Masai life though now raising his children in a more modern life. He takes his children back to his village on vacation so they don’t lose their roots. Could spend a long blog on what we learned about old vs new in the Masai world, but generally new represents education, farming the land in addition to owning cows, monogamy vs polygamy (insert the Mr.s comment here “more than one wife? I question the reason for one!). Our tour of a Masai village was eye opening..maybe eye popping is more appropriate, and then hilarious as the exit was through a gauntlet of bead selling women. (Not to be outdone, a Masai warrior offered Kathleen 20 cows for Katie..and he was serious!)
Back at the camp, we ate buffet style for meals. My only regret of the trip..how I wish I had written down the dishes we ate, and took pictures! One meal was better than the next, not glamorous, not froofy, just a a great mix of food and spices. And dessert!! After every meal!! Divine.
The staff could not have been more gracious and kind addressing every request.
Highlight for me at this stop was an elephant within 5 feet of me telling our jeep, “no closer”, and we listened, and on our final night, a Sundowner.
“Sundowner” to uneducated me meant a type of cocktail, instead, it means an event, i.e., we’re stopping for the event of the sun going down. Our jeeps climbed to the top of a range, and there at the top waiting for us were camp chairs arranged for maximum viewing and cocktail and snack set up. And alas the bottle of tequila that we risked life and limb for in Nairobi was part of the bar set up. Not sure that the staff knew what to make of the old white lady who said, “take a load off boys, I’ll make some drinks”. Hello tequila and some concoction of Kenyan juices. Many laughs later and the sun long since set, we drove back to camp.
After lots of hugs the next morning, we left for Cottars Camp on the Mara Reserve. One we again we took a hopper flight, landed in a grass field, were met by jeeps. Not sure how I am ever going to fly commercial again, let along stay in a Courtyard Marriott!!
Cottars Camp was built in the 1920’s and the camp is still owned by generations of the same family. Here we stayed in one house together above the camp and looking over the Masa Mara Reserve…oh and the Serengeti. Our guides were Doug and Ken and house staff was William, Phoebe, Sephora and Bonny. In a lifetime I may never live this well again, but man for a few days, it was outrageous. We had 3 days at this location and we did not miss a minute. Similar schedule, out early in the morning, wake up our animal friends, breakfast out on the range complete with a loo with a view,
lunch at the house, evening game drive, and then dinner.
Doug and Ken have been with Cottars for 14 and 9 years. They were the perfect hosts and mixed education about the land and animals with easy banter. With awe, we watched the first Migration cross the Sand River. Animals in single file heading down and over the river towards the north plains with long grass. Even Ken and Doug sat quietly and watched. “This still wows you?” I asked. “Of course, its the first of the season, we have not seen it since last year”. Kind of like the start of football season? Don’t worry I did not say that out loud. At full throttle it must be amazing as we were wowed by 3-5K animals on the move. Due to unexpected but somewhat welcome rains, the Migration is delayed this year. The animals are not as desperate to find new food sources. We lucked out seeing what we did as other travelers were not so lucky.
Back at the house, we had to keep an eye on William who liked nothing more than pouring a stiff drink, Bonny the chef who used his vegetable and herb garden to its fullest (also an amazing baker..if I can ever get the recipe for his Banoffee pie I’ll be a happy woman) and Phoebe and Sephora who kept us on schedule. This stop also included hot air ballooning for some, for others a lazy drive along the Sand River trying to flush out animals. A walk instead of a drive, complete with guns and spears for safety, and also here is where we ran with the Masai.
The house was spectacular
and Calvin Cottar happened to be in the camp while we were there and stopped up to the house for a drink. Lots of discussion about changes needed in Kenya and specifically the Masa Mara region so that the best balance of progress and tradition is achieved. Whole truth…I zoned out. Too highbrow for me and once Kevin started making me laugh I was a goner and had to discreetly leave the room. But a worthy conversation none the less. With progress comes problems, and who and what interests are behind the progressive stance is a landmine in itself. By all local accounts, corruption is rampant, and seemingly those in the most jeopardy, are those with the least. See…that’s why I walked away from the conversation. I want to pretend I live every day with “staff” and lions don’t need to kill gazelle to stay alive.
Again with tears in my eyes we left Cottars.
Highlight here, hmmm…tough to say…seeing the Migration, a run with the Masai, staying at a house like this, swimming in Kenya in a 25 meter pool in the backyard…meeting this amazing group of people…let me get back to you on the highlight here.
On to Mara Plains..a 3+ hour drive in the jeep with safara-ing (is that a word) along the way. For the final 30 or so minutes, we drove with an armed escort…somewhat disconcerting and we theorized like crazy, but the reality was much more real. After recent floods, roads and bridges were gone so the path to the camp was re-routed, known by local guides only. And the gun, well its the wild, everyone has a gun or spear right?
Mara Plains is the standard bearer for glamping.
For 2 nights we were 9 of 14 total guests and all around us, I mean right around us, were animals. Tony and Cheryl’s tent was next to “hippo highway” with the meaning becoming abundantly clear in the night when the hippos make their way out of the water to wander, and then splash back in during early morning. This was the first stop that the trip caught up with me. I fell into bed on night one and missed all the “in the middle of night wildlife sounds” that kept others awake for the night. And according to the Mr., my snoring rivaled the hyenas laughing, rhino’s snorting, and water hogs rummaging.
Our guides for Mara Plains, Kevin, very studied and serious; and Nick, who never met a Lion King movie line he did not like, and maintained hours of rift that made me laugh until my ribs hurt. He had voices, opinions, stories (he is Masai, one of 33 children of a father who had 5 wives).
Mara Plains is home to cats…and cats we saw!! Along with the complement of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, wart hogs, gazelles.
The highlight for some was surely a cheetah in successful pursuit and catch of a Thompson gazelle. With 4 baby cubs to feed, a swing a miss was not an option. I was in the other jeep and missed it, probably for the better. Much as I would have loved to see a cheetah in full sprint, the kill would have killed me. I know, I know, its nature. Watching the cubs feed off the kill was mesmerizing. And later we drove passed the kill site, nothing left. Cubs had first dibs, then the mother, then hyena, jackal, and finally vulture. All very tidy.
At Mara Plains, I started to feel the window closing. This adventure of a lifetime was soon over. Our next stop was Nairobi and then home. We sat by a fire the last night and reveled in the canopy of stars, never has the phrase been more appropriate. It was like netting there were so many. And the Southern Cross which we cannot see from here…how cool!!
Monday, we made our last trip to a bush airport and flew back to Nairobi. I swear every animal knew we were leaving and stepped out to wave goodbye..even a python snake!!
So so so many amazing things that we saw, heard, smelled, touched, experienced. Cannot recommend this trip more. And do it now if you’re my age, not for the faint of heart. Each day is long and the sensory overload is that much more overwhelming. Someone had said to me, you don’t go to bed, you fall into bed. True statement.
Periodically the Mr. and I would look at one another and the unspoken exchange, can you believe this… On the plane ride home, we laughed or maybe cried thinking about our diminished bank accounts and said, where to next. We wrote our top five picks and then exchanged notes.
Hope to see you along the way.
