lessons

    It was great fun to spend the past two weekends with our friends in Jackson. Sometimes I really wish we lived nearer to them. And then we have days here when we really love living in a small town. I guess it all comes down to people.     Hubby worked most of Saturday and had one more yard to do on Sunday, but the day began with an early storm, so he suggested we go do our shopping (which had been on the schedule for after he finished). I learned two lessons:         1) NEVER go to Wal-Mart or Sam's after Sunday morning church services end;         2) Original plans are often best.     I have a tendency toward panic attacks in some crowded situations. Not all. For example, I could be on a crowded bus in Mexico, no problem. Perhaps it is just when there is movement around me, or when *I* need to be moving and can't?? I don't know. I just know it happens most frequently in WM when there are lots of people shopping.     Sweet hubby doesn't understand, but is sympathetic, as usual. And honestly, he was right when he observed that it didn't really seem that crowded to him. So, I don't know what was going on yesterday, I just got the groceries as fast as possible, did my best to avoid congested aisles and got the heck out of there. In Sam's, where we actually went first, I saw a continual flow of people coming into the store as I waited at the entrance while hubby to parked the truck. I told him I didn't want to shop, just get the water and leave. Fortunately it is at the front of the store AND near the bathrooms, ironically. So I guess I was already 'primed' when we went next door to WM.     Which brings me to lesson 2. If we hadn't changed our plan -- and in fact, he probably could have done the mowing in the morning -- we would not only have missed the church crowd (violating their "Sabbath"*), but we would have eaten at the Chinese buffet instead of having Sunday brunch at O'Charley's. What I ordered did not agree with me, and I had to order something else. Of course, hubby remarked he would have eaten too much at the buffet, so for him it worked out well even though his eggs were burned. Okay, not burned, but way overdone!     This morning I finally got 'on the mat' and learned another lesson: my arms are too short for my body. More importantly, yoga is very hard on my wrists.     Two weeks ago I started weekly yoga lessons at the community college across the street (missed the first class because I went on the wrong day). I have also been recording Namaste Yoga off the FitTV channel, though I haven't watched but one of them thoroughly. I will copy them to VHS, removing the commercial breaks, and then, I think, to DVD. On Sunday, I picked up two DVDs at Ross Dress for Less: Crunch - The Perfect Yoga Workout: The Joy of Yoga & Fat-Burning Yoga with Sara Ivanhoe and Baron Baptiste's Journey into Power: Power Vinyasa Yoga, Level 1     I have watched them both and really like the presentors and the routines. They sure do make it look easy! However, when I tried to work along today, I discovered it all looks much easier than it is. Like I said, my arms are too short for some of the hand placements. My leg muscles are way too tight for my heels to reach the floor in, for example, Downward Facing Dog. BUT, even though I couldn't do the whole thing -- once my hands gave out, I fast-forwarded to the poses that didn't involved placing weight on the hands -- I did feel good when I was done.     Now I'm taping off the Namaste episodes (and wearing my HandEze gloves). Some of the routine have NO poses placing weight on the hands! I will try one of those tomorrow. I also draggged out my mid-eastern dance videos. I thought I only had one, Goddess Workout with Dolphina, but I also have her Introduction to Belly Dance. I'm thinking that doing a yoga routine three mornings a week (only two until my class ends in three more weeks though) and dance two days a week will make up for not getting the exercise I used to walking around on campus and at work in the library.     I've joined both the Swallowtail KAls, but haven't yet gotten back to my own knitting of it. The short toe socks are still distracting me (as is catching up on reading the list of blogs in my Favorites folder). The Yellow-Pink-Orange ball of Sockotta I am using now is self-striping, where the blue-purple-green colorway just pooled. When I started the second sock with the YPO, I didn't move to the correct place in the color sequence. So, of course, now I have to make another two socks, each matching the color sequence of the two already completed. Being gone so long yesterday, and reading blogs so much, I only finished one of them. I'm about ready to cast on for the fourth sock in the YPO colorway as soon as I finish this post. Then perhaps later today I will get to the Swallowtail... I heard from the seller yesterday by email, and my Misti Alpaca is on it's way. Maybe I can finish this shawl and be ready to start another when it arrives. Cyn *I know true Sabbath is Saturday, and that Christians don't observe it like Jews, but many Christians DO erroneously call Sunday the Sabbath, and most believe at least to some extent that it is wrong to work on Sunday. To my mind, there is something just a little inconsistent and contradictory if you are shopping (or eating out) on Sunday and you believe it is sinful work on Sunday. YMMV