Road To Mysore

There has been so much which has happenned since I arrived from India last Friday night. It's too much to write about in detail so I'm going to do a quick and dirty.

Saturday

I woke up early in the morning around 3AM, hung out and sent back to sleep at 9AM. I got up around 11:30PM, had lunch and then headed to my brother's house in Orange, California. I went back to sleep again around 3PM and woke up at 5PM. My whole body was really messed up and I was feeling really sick that dance. I don't recall what I did the rest of the day. I do remember going to Whole Foods to get some food supplies for the next few days.

Sunday

I woke up early but couldn't get myself to practice early. When I did get to practice, it was short but acceptable considering my physical condition. Later that afternoon I drove to LA to see a few apartment...two to be exact. The first one was decent but the second one was not acceptable. I'm too lazy and impatient to see anything else so I sent an application for the first apartment. I rested and didn't do much the rest of the day.

Monday

I drove to Encinitas/Carlsbad to practice with Tim Miller and to see some of my friends there. Practice was good considering my body is still going through chaos. It was nice to see Kiran, Holly, Andrew, Allison and Etay. I also met Tiffany briefly...Julie friend. Unfortunately I didn't see Julie. She was not feeling well. I hope she's feeling better now. I then had breakfast with Kiran and Holly in their favorite breakfast place. I then hung out with Andrew and his wife Jessica before I headed back to Orange. I got a call from my landlord saying that my application was approved. I told him I would since and move in on Tuesday.

Tuesday

I drove to Long Beach to practice with Vincent. My practice was better but my body was still not there. We then had breakfast at our favorite place...Mimi's. I love the freshly bake bread and muffins there. It was nice to see Vincent again even if it was only last Friday when I last saw him. I know I won't see him for a while since I was heading back to LA that afternoon and was preparing for a road trip.

After breakfast I headed to my storage unit and pulled out whatever would fit in my car. I then headed to my new studio/single apartment to sign my lease and move it. I can tell my landlord seemed like a pleasant person. He was more than happy have me in his apartment since I scored high on my credit rating. I spent the rest of the day unpacking and pulling more stuff out of storage.

Wednesday

I finally got to practice back in the Silverlake shala. It was nice to see James and the shala. He did a little renovation and it looks great. He also up some great pictures of Guruji doing a Surya Namaskara A on the front wall. I had a great practice and a short chat with James. It was nice to see my old shala mates but I also noticed a lot of new faces. I then continued to pull out stuff out of storage and unpacked the rest of the day.

Thursday

I woke up around 6AM and decided to practice at home. I needed prepare for my long road trip to Portland, Oregon and Seattle. Yeah, I must be crazy because I just arrived and I'm going on the road again. I have about two weeks before I start work again...August 16 to be exact...so what the hell. I've been wanting to visit my friend Ann (formally from Mountain View) and Nina in Portland. I also found that Amanda was in Portland too. I've also been wanting to see Seattle and visit Papa Frank and Mama Rebecca...maybe they will officially adopt me...ha ha ha.

I left LA around 10AM and was hoping to hit the border of Oregon before 9PM. The drive went relatively well until I hit Redding, California. I was pulled over for driving 83 mph...ridiculous. I haven't gotten a ticket in 10 years and I'm pulled over for going with the flow of traffic. I'm not happy about the whole ticket thing. I should end now before I go balistic again.

I went as far as Medford, Oregon that night and crashed at Nina and Olaf's place. Ann told Olaf that I was driving through Medford so Olaf invited me to crash there. It was nice to see them.

Friday

We woke up at around 7AM and then I got the chance to practice with Nina and Olaf. It great practicing and hanging out with them. I knew Olaf in Mysore and occasionally saw Nina but I never really met her. They both made me feel at home. It was fun practicing with them. Olaf made us freshly bake bread which was amazing. After breakfast, I showed them the DVD of Guruji's 91st birthday celebration.

I left Medford around noon and headed my way to Portland. I've been paranoid since getting my speeding ticket so I was driving like a grandmother. I finally made it to Ann's place at around 6PM. The rest of the night I hungout with Ann, Einar, Amanda and Amanda's friend Jenny. It was a long day so I just crashed when we got home around midnight.

I'm really excited about being in Portland and in this area in general. I have never been here and I'm really curious with the Oregon/Washington area. Could this area be part of my future? That is the questions I've been asking myself since I left LA last Thursday...we'll see.

I’m only midway on this road trip but I’ve done so much already I could easily head back south but this journey is not yet over. Last night I drove into Seattle and stayed with Frank and Rebecca (also known as Frabecca). It is such a small world because on the same evening, Julie from Bend, Oregon was driving up to Seattle. We both stayed with Frabecca.

This morning we headed to David G’s shala to practice. The room was packed and hot. The energy was great and I had a good practice. Neti and his wife were there too. I’m meeting them for lunch in a couple of hours.

My stay in Portland was a lot of fun. I spent most of the time hanging out with Anne, Amanda and Nina. On Saturday afternoon, Anne, Einar and I did a short hike. I haven’t done a lot of hiking lately and I didn’t realize how much I miss it. It was a nice trail because we were hiking along a creek and there was shade and trees all over. It was around 4:30PM and hot but trees protected us. Maybe one day I could do a longer hike in the area. I noticed that Portland and the surrounding area are very conducive to hiking.

Later that night, we watched an Ethnic Tribal Dance Show. It was mostly belly dancing and other ethnic dances (Spanish, Gypsy, Russian and a little Bollywood). The belly dancers were pretty amazing and fun to watch. It was a fun evening but Anne, Einar, Nina and I left an hour before it ended. We both had a 5AM wake-up call for practice.

Okay, I started this blog entry 10 hours ago but it’s far from finished…too many details, too busy, not enough time. It’s almost midnight and I just want to finish it. So here’s a short outline of what I wanted to say:

• Portland was a blast. I enjoyed practicing with Anne and she showed me some cool back bending stuff. I even dropped back on my own. Next time I’ll do it more gracefully. It was good though.

• We drove to Eugene, Oregon last Sunday and spent the afternoon with Kevin and Sara (Kevin from the Kev’s Inn). It was nice to reconnect with them.

• Had a nice lunch with Eric and Melissa (also know as Neti). It was fun hanging out with them. I haven’t seen them since the blogger party during Guruji’s 2005 San Francisco tour. They’re planning their first Mysore trip early next year…I’m excited for them but also jealous because I won’t make it back until August 2007.

• Arrived in Vancouver 4 hours ago and had dinner with Rod and Sharon. I’m crashing in their living room at the moment. Going to get a quick tour of Vancouver tomorrow and then at around 5PM I need to make my way back to Seattle.

From LA to Vancouver is approximately 1,400 miles. I left last Thursday at around 10AM and finally got here at around 8PM today. From here, its another 1,400 miles back to LA…unbelievable, somebody wake me up. I’ve dreamed of this road trip about 4 or 5 years ago. I’ve finally made it happened. I know it’s a cliché but “Life is a journey” and this is one hell of a journey. I’m loving every moment…woohoo!!!

Quote of the Day

I've met so many of my ashtanga friends on this trip and one of them told me this when I thank him, "Don't mention it. There are so few of us, we need to stick together." I never thought about it that way.

I’m back in the “real world”. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I’m feeling disoriented, spacey (not sure if that’s a word but it is now), out of place and lost. I shouldn’t be surprised because this is the 3rd time I’ve gone through this. I should be a pro at this by now but nothing really prepares you for getting adjusted back in the Western World. Why is it so much easier for me to get adjusted in Mysore? I’m up and running within two to three days. Here, I’m constantly dragging my butt unwillingly…life sucks. My apartment is a mess…tons of things to organize and a few more boxes to unpack. This feeling didn’t hit me until I got back from my Northwestern road trip (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and back).

I started work Wednesday last week…painful. The first day is always a wasted day. They gave my computer to someone else. When I arrived, I didn’t have one to work with. That’s the thing about being an independent contractor…your always at the bottom of the barrel…oh well. I spent the first few hours using someone else’s computer. When I finally got my computer, I spent most of the days tweaking the settings and remembering how to use these damn softwares. I didn’t get much done that day.

Everyday has been pretty much the same since then. I wake up at around 5:15AM but don’t get out of bed until past 6AM. I don’t think its jetlag anymore but my body can’t seem to get out of bed earlier. I get to the shala a little past 7AM and start practice around 7:15AM. Practice has been good but slightly scaled back. I have a full day ahead of me and if I don’t scale back I’ll either fall asleep on my desk or have to drink coffee…no coffee for now. I still have vivid memories of my headaches right after I stopped drinking at the end of the last tax season. Practice normally ends at around 9AM and I get home around 9:15AM. I leave the house around 10:15AM and get to work before 11AM. Ideally, I want to start practice around 6AM and get to work around 10AM but that hasn’t happened yet.

I’m trying to ease my way back to work. I’m averaging about 4 to 5 hours of billable time a day. Hopefully by the end of the week I can bring it up to 6 or 7. Getting back to work has been difficult and painful. Physically I’m here but who knows where the rest of me is. My brain is working in slow motion at the moment. I’m trying to brush out the rust. It’s taking longer than anticipated. Life is moving in slow motion in general.

I said goodbye to J this morning. It was his last day. He heads for New York to visit family for a couple of weeks and then heads to Mysore for a month. H covers for him for the rest of the month and then N & K will cover for the month September…Yes, Yes, Yes!!!

Road Trip Revisited

I know it’s been over a week since I got back from my road trip but I want to finish where I left off. I was in Vancouver when I posted my last entry. I crashed in Rod and Sharon’s living room. The following morning Sharon brought me to the city. I didn’t want to drive so we took the bus and the subway to the city. We walked all around downtown and all the way to Stanley Park. Sharon is definitely a proud Canadian. She kept telling me how clean and beautiful Vancouver was…and yes I agreed it’s clean and beautiful. I particularly enjoyed Stanley Park and would have wanted to explore it a little more. According to Sharon, one of the beautiful things about her city is that it has these beautiful mountain as its backdrop. Unfortunately it rained the day before and clouds were covering the mountain all morning. S insisted that I do no leave until the sky clears and I see the mountain. We walked for almost 3 hours and then headed to Rod’s office to have lunch with him. We got a quick tour of the office which has a great view of the city and then headed for lunch.

After lunch, I said goodbye to Rod and suggested to Sharon that we head back to the apartment to rest. I had a couple of hours before I hit the road again and head back to Seattle. I was also feeling the long walk in my joints. I need to do a little more hiking when I get back to LA. I took a quick nap at the apartment and was happy to see that the sky had cleared. Yes, I did get to see the Vancouver Mountains. Vancouver was an interesting city and I wish one day I could spend more time and explore. I particularly would have loved to do some more hiking…maybe one day.

Leaving Vancouver was a strange feeling. There was a sudden emotional shift. I had hit the midpoint of my journey. Although I still had a day more in Seattle and another day in Portland, it symbolically meant that I was heading home. The drive back to Seattle was not very pleasant. It was bumper to bumper traffic into the city. I drove an extra hour because of it. That night, Julie from Bend, Oregon made dinner for us.

The following morning we headed to the shala to practice with David G. I like the way the room is heated and the way the mats are an inch apart…it reminds me of Mysore and the energy feels contained. I thanked and said goodbye to David. He reminded me that I had told him the first time I met him two years ago in Mysore that I wanted to drive from LA to Seattle. He asked me if I was ready to move to Seattle. I had no answer. I’d like to visit when it’s raining everyday…maybe it won’t look as beautiful as it did.

After breakfast, Frank played hooky and gave me a tour of downtown Seattle. We walked around Pike Market and hung out and watched the “Flying Fish”. I particularly enjoyed the “Flying Fish”. The market was cool too and I could have spent the whole day walking around. I’m a sucker for souvenir T-shirts so I got one. Julie and Rebecca then met up with us at the market and we had lunch at the Matt’s at the Market…great food.

I was supposed to hit the road before 3PM but I didn’t leave until after 4PM. I was having too much fun. I could have stayed longer but then Frank and Rebecca would have thrown me out their house. The drive to Portland was painful. I got caught in the Seattle traffic.

I finally got to Portland a little past 8PM. I stayed with my friend Nina this time. I had stayed with Anne for 3 nights on my way up; I wanted to give her a break from me. When I arrived at Nina’s, I could hear her husband, Steve singing and playing the piano. He has plays the piano well and has a great voice. The Filipino in me couldn’t resist the temptation and the first thing I told Nina was, “Hey I want to sing too!!!” For those of you who don’t know, Filipinos love to sing and karaoke bars are very popular in the Philippines. Steve was a gracious host allowed me to choose the music and we belted out songs from Jesus Christ Superstar to Eagles to Elton John to Carpenters. Yes, I can be shameless. I don’t have a great voice but that has never stopped me. We sang for more than an hour. Steve had already been singing a couple of hours before I arrived so it was time for him to stop. Nina tempted me by saying I should stay one more night and we could invite Anne and Anne and do it again…very tempting but that would only give me two day to get settled in LA and get back to work.

The following morning, we practice with Anne. I had a great practice even if I was tired. I attempted to drop back on my own for the first time. It wasn’t beautiful but I did it without slamming my head on the floor. I haven’t tried it again since. After practice, Anne, Amanda, Nina and I had breakfast. I didn’t want to leave that morning but I had a long road ahead of me…1,000 miles. The drive back was depressing. I was tired and didn’t want the fun to end. I made it to Corning, CA that day and found a motel...about 450 miles from LA. By Saturday late in the afternoon I was back in LA. Oh shit!!!...back in the “real world”.