Restorative Yoga Friday, May 18

Register NOW for Friday’s Restorative Yoga class from 6-7:30 PM! I’ll be leading a Restorative Yoga class Friday, May 18 at The Yoga Space in Ann Arbor. The fee is $20 and it’s necessary to let me know if you’re coming (payment and registration required). This class will be similar to the restorative class I led a month or so ago, with stations around the room with yogis moving from one station to the next. This sort of “circuit” of different stations was popular with the students who attended. This class filled in February and Friday’s class is half full. Class size is very limited to a dozen people so register NOW if you’re interested.

Restorative Yoga, Friday April 13

Register TODAY for tomorrow’s Restorative Yoga class from 6-7:30 PM! I’ll be leading a Restorative Yoga class Friday, April 13 at The Yoga Space in Ann Arbor. The fee is $20 and it’s necessary to let me know if you’re coming (payment and registration required). This class will be similar to the restorative class I led a month or so ago, with stations around the room with yogis moving from one station to the next. This sort of “circuit” of different stations was popular with the students who attended. This class filled in February. Class size is very limited to a dozen people so register NOW if you’re interested.

Free Yoga Friday, Saturday and Sunday at The Yoga Space

The last Friday of the month there’s a free yoga class at The Yoga Space from 6 - 7 PM. This month is no exception! Come join the group.

If Friday doesn’t work for you, the most recent batch of teachers going up for assessment is having a practice class on Saturday, March 31 from 1-2:30 PM. Free to you and good for the budding teachers to practice.

April 1 is the first Sunday of the month and the studio will be open from 10 AM until noon for open practice. Come join me for a nice quiet morning of yoga!

Give me a call if you need directions or more info. The address of The Yoga Space is 180 Little Lake Drive.

Photos at Sweetwater’s

The Ann Arbor Women Artists partners with Ann Arbor businesses to provide art for their walls. One of the artists in the current eight week show removed her pieces early so I volunteered to fill the vacant space. Until the end of the month, there are eleven of my photos at Sweetwater’s on Washington Street in downtown Ann Arbor. I’ll be part of a show in the fall, too, and will (hopefully) have some new work up then.

Hitchhike Point

About this time last year I was preparing for my first 5K. Using RunKeeper.com I plotted routes, checked my pedometer to the calculated mileage on RunKeeper, and got accustom to walking more than three miles. There was often a point in my walk I called the “hitchhike point”. It’s that point where I was plum tuckered out and really wanted to stick my thumb out for a ride home.

Today, for the first time this season, I walked that same route from last year and to my surprise, the hitchhike point never came. I was tired, sure, and hot, especially on an 83 degree sunny day, but I never wanted to hitch a ride.

This is day 20 out of the last 21 I’ve walked. My goal for the month of March was to walk every day at least a mile, preferably outside. Last year’s goal was 40 miles per month and I think I made that goal only once. I’m on track to hit 40 this month with just under 33 with today’s outing.

Fluxus

Wednesday night I went to the University of Michigan Museum of Art for the Fluxus event. The performance was interesting, funny, weird and like nothing I’d ever been to.

The evening began with the “Well-Healed Miscreants” distributing the programs that had been folded into paper airplanes. They were flying all over the Helmut Stern Auditorium. On the program were 28 pieces. Some lasted under a minute, others several minutes.

Ben Patterson started off the evening with “A Dozen for Carmen”. Each of the Well-Healed Miscreants walked from the back of the auditorium with a rose in their teeth, depositing them one by one in a blender that was half full of water. Patterson blended the water and roses, poured a wine glass full, and then, in one feel swoop, drank the whole thing.

Apparently the Fluxus movement began in the 1960’s and this performance art came out of the music world. Many of the pieces incorporated sound. “Nivea Cream Piece” consisted of four people approaching the a table with a jar of Nivea Cream, putting it on their hands, massaging it into their hands and each others’ in front of the microphone.

“Apples” was a piece with four people eating apples in front of the micorphone. “Lottery Ticket” was a piece with a single man sitting at a table with a microphone attached underneath using a nickel to scratch off lottery ticket after lottery ticket. “Wall Piece for Yoko Ono” included audience participation. A couple of the performers placing Post-It notes with targets drawn on them all over the auditorium walls. Then they asked us to all get out of our seats, find a target and, on the count of three, tap our heads to the target. The collective sound was quite a bit louder than I expected. Striking!!

My favorite piece was “Cow Pong” where all the Well-Healed Miscreants lined the stage, each holding a cow bell and ping pong ball. They each bounced the ping pong balls on the side of the cow bell until it fell off. Seven of them dropped out quite quickly. The three hung in there for a while longer. Finally it was just two players making an interesting combined rythym until one fell out and the other finished the piece by letting the ping pong ball come to rest on his bell.

Restorative Yoga FULL!

Registrations for tomorrow’s Restorative workshop make the class full. The next opportunity to attend is April 13 … and then again on May 18.

Restorative Yoga Coming on February 17!

Register now for the February 17 class from 6-7:30 PM! I’ll be leading a Restorative Yoga class Friday, February 17 at The Yoga Space in Ann Arbor. The fee is $20 and it’s helpful if you pre-register. This class will be similar to the restorative class I led last fall and summer with stations around the room with yogis moving from one station to the next. This sort of “circuit” of different stations was popular with the students who attended. Class size is very limited to a dozen people so register soon if you’re interested.

Home

It took Delta a couple of tries to get Flight 680 from Quito to Atlanta and in the end, we arrived safely and very tired (mucho cansada). It’s taken me a couple of days to catch up on my sleep, go through the mail, and feel grounded on US soil. My stomach still isn’t quite right, although it’s getting better. It feels good to be home, to be welcomed home, and to have a fresh appreciation of my country and my great life.

Thanks to all of you who shared my journey and for such a warm welcome back.

2 febrero – Guayasamin Museum in Quito

Many of the guidebooks recommend the Guayasamin Museum. Oswaldo Guayasamin was a famous Ecuadorian artist. The museum includes quite a number of his paintings as well as some of his sketches. He has a distinctive style and I’d seen some of his work on posters around town previous to my visit. There is also a collection of pre-Columbian art, including some really beautiful bowls.

It was nice to sit in the gallery and look at art today. I hadn’t been in this particular part of town and the route home took me through a little piece of Parque Metropolitano. I managed the bus most of the way there (took a taxi the last bit since I didn’t know where it was) and got the bus all the way back to the Swiss Hotel.

I still feel the elevation. The walk from the bus stop is all uphill and although I feel like I’m expending lots of energy, when I check my velocity it’s barely registering!