Say something sad, Nelson

This weekend the consulting firm I work for held our annual meeting in Palm Springs.  Some of you may be tempted to write Palm Springs off as a sort of Florida for the West Coast:  an AARP haven, tricky golf carts, and trolls.   

You'd be right.

AND it's so much more.  

Dude, it's on the cusp of Joshua Tree, so there's that, and we stayed at the Parker.  Or, Le Parker Meridian , I should say.  The place where only a week earlier Lindsay Lohan was violating the terms of her parole and rooms were being trashed in the name of Coachella-style rock & roll.  All this is to say, if you have to do work on a weekend, do it at the Parker.  Heck, you might end up on a reality TV show.

I really don't feel like recounting the last few days so here's my abridged version:

I had fun.  Oddly, I am tired.

Thursday night:  Hung out w/ Christine, Leslie and my friend Leslie at The Movie Colony hotel. Rad.  If in PS and unwilling to spend $300 a night for a trendier, bigger version (which, unless it's being paid for, why would you?), go to the Movie Colony.  Reasonably priced (especially when splitting the bill), impeccable service, and chill.  

Friday:  Headed over to the Parker where Leslie sat poolside all day, mesmerized by the six LA housewives waxing spiritual on how you can feel good about spending several hundred on a shirt since Eckhart Tolle's new book covers just this sort of thing when he tells you to "live in the now."  I'm pretty sure that's not what he meant, but you know, I could be wrong.  (I'm not.)  Anyway, I worked all day.  Got some great ideas from our sessions, played some fun games, yada yada yada.  We had our big dinner Friday night, where most of us drank too much and danced, fists pumping, to ummm Bon Jovi.  (I would not do this sober.)

Saturday:   Finished our meetings.  Debated.  Then four of us (Leslie, Christine, Renee's Christine, and I) hiked Ryan Mountain in Joshua Tree.  The best.  Apparently I missed beer pong, which I'm certain I would have dominated, but the hike made up for it.  

Sunday:  Drove back *early*, taught, met Joslyn and her new boyfriend at RFD for lunch, went shopping, saw them off, then went to Sachie's to work on Anusara teacher training stuff until almost 1 a.m.  I am not even close to finishing my notebook (I colored in Palm Springs for godsakes), but I'm plugging away.   

In fact, it's calling right now.  Outtie.

P.S. Angela:  I paid $4.07 for gas here today.  $64 later... 

the slider

Leslie's flying in tomorrow and we're heading out to Palm Springs. She's coming with me for my company's annual meeting. Suckaaa! Then Joslyn and her boyfriend are coming in and staying here and on Sunday we'll all be one big happy family.

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I'm totally trying to finish my quiz and all my freaking poses and the coloring. Jesus I'm overwhelmed. Which is why the short post.

Raskolnikov

My blogsite has been messed up for a while since, well, I messed it up. At first my fingers were itchin', but then I got used to the silence in my head. Actually, the same noise existed - who am I kidding?

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Last weekend Jenny came to town and we headed to Palm Springs. Mostly we slept and talked and since I'm partial to both, I had fun.

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I'm teaching a lot lately b/c I've been subbing plus I picked up another class at Equinox that I'm really excited about. It's called Recharge and Renew and the idea is to balance energizing postures with deeply restorative poses. It'll be great - there'll just be one pose, headstand, for the first 50 minutes, then savasana for the remaining 10. Just kidding. But that *would* be a good idea.

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As I type this American Idol is on in the background. This is the first time I've watched it. Here's what I like about it -- you can look like anything and be on it. And then I just changed the channel to QVC (I was flippin' through, I swear) and the hosts are hawkin 19.95 sunglasses. They're all:
Her: ...And the silicone pads help the glasses to sit up on the nasal passage to ensure great flow of breath.
Him: And they look like they'd be expensive, but they're not.
I wonder what the hosts are like at a party. I mean, they have to make stuff up about every product they sell. Like how do you do that?
Now I flipped the channel to some Mexican rappers. Judging by the size of their audience, they're popular. Shoot. I think they're Puerto Rican. Honest mistake. Omg I can't stop watching them.
Okay just did. Now I'm on a Mexican movie of the week. The channel must be our southern brethren's answer to Lifetime. This dude with a really stubby moustache is feeding a pretend baby and crying. Remember the guy who played George Costanza's dad on Seinfeld? Well he looks like a Latino version of him. Dude his moustache is totally jacked up. Now the fake baby is crying. A lot. Uh oh. Someone's stealing presents from the Christmas tree. And by presents I mean a fake baby. I just heard "Santa Clause" in English.
Madonna video: Dude is that what yoga 5xs a day does to you? I need to become a recording superstar.

Okay, riveting as my television play by play has been, I'm done. I'm also done with the banana trail mix from Trader Joe's which is ridiculously yum.

35

Tried to post yesterday but Blogger was not cooperating. Went to Palm Springs. More later.

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I'm having trouble posting the picture of the swifties as I'd promised. In its place I've thrown in a picture of April and Lance stretching before the 1.5 mile hike we took.
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Took Kristin's class today which I sorely needed and really loved. Then we went to Jack n Jills because I sorely needed and really love their English Breakfast Tea Latte w/ soy. Mmmm. It's been close to 5 billion years since we've hung out and it was sooo good to chill w/ her. She reminded me of something really cool and I thought I'd share since lots of people have like, problems and shit: It's hard to believe that we deserve more love than our parents gave us. I hope I got that right. It's a good thing to consider since a lot of people think that they only deserve that which they know.

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Yesterday Ruth came in, which was also super cool and kinda weird to have someone who's so Austin to me, here in my new hometown. The desert is pure magic. Even though we got to Palm Springs at night, the desert still held the unmistakable feeling of expansion and mystery. It's kinda funny b/c Ruth is going to a meditation workshop which is being held at the same hotel as this Harley Davidson convention or gathering or something ridiculously loud.

Oh and sucks it b/c I lost my eyeglasses when they dropped out of my car at her hotel. This is probably just the kick I need to get lasik since I refuse to wear contacts.

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Why did I get up at 8 on a Saturday? I've been craving sleep forever now and I finally have the chance to sleep in (no gardeners outside or trucks backing up *repeatedly*) and here I am, awake. I heard a story once about some exhibit at a fair where they took thousands of fleas and put them in big bowls with lids. The fleas would jump up and of course hit the lid. So after a while they took the lid off and the fleas would still only jump up as far as the lid was there. Except occasionally there was one that would figure out that there wasn't a limit anymore and jump out.

I guess that story is supposed to be about potential and probably not so much about sleeping in, but I'm trying to say that I feel like one of the fleas who jump as high as the lid and all I wants is my sleeeeeeeepppp!

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Ruth flies in today and then out to palm springs. yea! (Incidentally, growing up, I was taught that yea is pronounced yay, but since it seems like people mistake yea for yeah, I suppose I'll have to just start using yay.)

The desert and dessert

I just got back from a mini-holiday to Palm Springs / Joshua Tree and I know how to vacation like I know organic chemistry. Which is to say, I don't. Mistake number one: I brought my Blackberry. And used it. A lot. Doh. Mistake number two: I booked my return flight so early that I had to get up at four a.m. to catch it. Needless to say I didn't. Upside is that missing my flight allowed me to go to Whole Foods for some Kombucha and also to Zen Zoo for some Rooster tea - both of which delight me greatly.
I love the desert! I can't believe I'm saying that b/c for a really long time anything that didn't look like a bunch of Evergreens between glacier peaks was unimpressive. Even my first few trips to Big Bend were fun, but paled to the Northwest. I've been to Joshua Tree before, yet this time I discovered what millions already know -- that the desert is not only its own standard of beauty, but it's peaceful and healing.
Renee came w/ me for part of my trip. I pretty much lied to her to get her to hike w/ me. (Renee: "It says here this hike is 'moderately-strenuous'. What does that mean?" Me: "Don't worry, Nay, they rate those for the lowest common denominator. Basically it's considered strenuous to like my 80-yr-old grandma who can't move w/out her walker." Renee: "Are you sure?" Me: "Yeah of course. Dude I totally know these things yo.") Famous last words. Who knew that the people who rate the hikes at Joshua Tree are pretty spot on? After the hike I salvaged what was left of our friendship by lulling her into the hot springs. The soothing waters washed away the residual muscle pain and, fortunately, any bitterness Renee held towards me for draggin' her up the mountain.
Oh and during my three day westward journey the company for whom I work merged w/ our competitor. I don't know exactly how it will affect me, but significant change is imminent. I could spend time worrying about it, but really I don't want to. It's too much effort and I'm still trying to recover from going on vacation. Plus if anything I've learned that resistance to change is futile so there's nothing gained in being negative.
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SXSW is around the corner! Thank you D for getting my $130 wristband. You can't buy these things on the Internet, and several THOUSAND people (Durham and Alo among them) waited in line at Waterloo today for the precious jewelry. One-hundred-and-thirty bucks? What the... ??? Sadly, the fact that they're limiting the number of bands they sell to 4000 till the opening day when they'll re-assess means that they've likely oversold badges. In the sxsw hierarchy, badges always trump wristbands, (just like queens always trump pawns unless of course your pawn becomes a queen but really I have no business mixing metaphors), which means that another year will likely go by in which I begrudge the Badgies, publicly snubbing their snobbiness while secretly coveting their shiny laminated necklaces.
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A friend of mine, Colin Borchert, had a poem published in this month's Adbusters. I would tell you what page it's on but since Adbusters doesn't number their pages and I can't be bothered to count 'em, I won't be telling you what page it's on after all. But check it anyway. It's lovely and very clever.
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In the desert I felt inspired to really simplify my home. To that end, tonight I bought an apple corer. I eat a lot of apples. I love them -- especially Braeburn. Fujis are good too but Braeburns are just a little more tart and usually firmer. I wasn't even hungry but I just had to core an apple using my new device. Also, now that I have a ride I can easily go to the Whole Foods on the other side of town which carries fresh Honey Peanut Butter! Will power is the only thing stopping me from eating apples and HPB (which incidentally is also an acronym for one of my customers at work) all day long. But back to simplifying. Apple corers seem like slippery slope devices -- the kind of instruments that lead to egg-separators, then to olive pitters, and eventually I'm buying walnut crackers and lemon zesters. Bad news.