what i did on my summer vacation

i took the whole week before labor day off from work, and i didn't go anywhere. since i'm going to maui for three weeks in december, i was fine with that. i used my time off to get caught up around the house and yard. luckily i have a lot of comp and vacation time at work.

i worked on my studio, cleaning and sorting my CDs, organizing my exercise props, hanging photos of ramana, papaji, and gangaji. i then used my studio to meditate and exercise and do free movement/dance, to listen to music and to paint. i got tempera paints, and one evening, hannah and i painted pictures.

i cleaned the entry hall and my room. took a load of stuff to goodwill. scraped candle wax off the marble-topped furniture in my room. made it a nicer place to spend time.

i cleaned and rearranged furniture in my living room and enjoyed watching videos--the three burials of melquiades estrada and children of men. i cleaned my kitchen well, then enjoyed cooking and eating in it too.

i got a haircut and a lip wax at jr salon. i did cranio-sacral therapy for the first time, with nina davis, LMT and CST, working on my lymphatic system and cerebrospinal fluid. felt great, wonders of subtlety. i noticed that i was gentler with myself after that, and not so driven.

i went to a potluck/games party at my friend zoe's and had a blast playing rummi-qub, a new game to me.

i had ordered some raw goat milk from ringger farms. i picked that up. it's delicious.

i attended an NLP meetup and learned about timelines.

i went out on a date with james, whom i met on plentyoffish.com. we saw stardust. i like him so far and want to see him again.

one day i picked hannah up from school and gave her her first bike-riding lesson. it's hard, balancing, steering, and pedalling with control, and especially hard to get started. she got a feel of what it will be like. one of these days i'll let go, and she'll be doing it by herself.

another day i ate lunch with her at school. i brought my lunch, and she hardly touched hers. i got a real sense of how much order is required for a class of second-graders. i appreciate her teacher, mr. karabaic. he's got his job down, and nine months of work ahead of him with the 19 kids in his class.

i went to liquid sol and loved sharing that big space at the mexican-american cultural center with only two others. i moved in ways that pleased me and didn't try to be social. what a gift.

i worked in my yard, weeding, transplanting, pruning. got into something that irritated my arms, though.

i sealed my metal roof where it leaked! yea for me!

i washed my car.

i had lunch with my friend spike gillespie on friday. i'm working on writing a 3,000 word essay on grief for an anthology spike is putting together. got the first draft done this week.

i sent an email to friends, offering my NLP skills for free. another email offering agave plants.

on saturday, i went to ikea. it's 22 miles away, in round rock. i got a few things, but some things i saw in their catalog were not in stock. i got a number i can call before making the trip next time. it's a huge store and can be exhausting.

i didn't get as much done as i had envisioned at the start of the week, but there's always next weekend. there's always yard work, and inside, i need to work on my bathroom and study. maybe even the dreaded utility room!

my home feels so much better, and so does my energy!


reading: the disobedience of the daughter of the sun, by martin prechtel, and NLP: the new technology of achievement, edited by steve andreas.

listening to: sufi traveler by mercan dede

watching: the children of men.

eating and drinking: unsweetened carob almonds, tuna salad with grapes and walnuts, hibiscus mint tea with stevia