supercheesegirl

Tonight I went to a vinyasa flow class at StaSu Yoga! So exciting!

There was some kind of big traffic pile up on the highway, so I had to take the backroads to get there, and even the back roads were crowded with cars overflowing from the highway. Still, I got there in about 25 minutes. The studio wasn't hard to find. It's a really nice space--there's a nice-sized lobby, with comfy chairs and merch, and ample bathrooms with cubbies for your stuff. The yoga space is through a set of double doors. They keep a hot room, which I didn't realize going in, but it was really great. The yoga space is roomy but not huge; there's a mirrored wall, good lighting, and a good sound system (embedded in the ceiling, not just a boom box). They obviously put a lot of thought into the decor.

The class itself was really great. I've been needing this for a while now. 60+ minutes of serious vinyasa flow! I can't remember the last time I had a good vinyasa class--probably over a year now, since my membership ran out at my old gym. Stacey, the teacher and one of the studio's owners, really kept us moving. I'd almost forgotten how good that felt. My thighs weren't really up to it--I obviously haven't been doing my squats, since I couldn't hold chair pose or some of the other thigh-intensive things. But otherwise, I held my own in the class. Stacey as a teacher was pretty good--there were some poses that it didn't seem like she described well enough, so that even in a room full of seemingly experienced yoga-doers, everybody kind of scrambled for a second to figure out what we were doing. Mostly, though, she was great, and she did good adjustments, and structured the class well. I would definitely go back to her.

Afterwards, Stacey asked me if this was the sort of yoga I do, and I told her yes, I really liked the class. Then she said I have a beautiful practice. That made me smile.

And the first class was free! Definitely planning to go back there. Notes for next time: bring a towel, wear the short pants, and pull up hair in a bun (not a ponytail).

I'm concerned, though, because this is a Thursday night class, and dance class is usually on Thursday nights. I was looking forward to tap and african and especially indian dance. But vinyasa is so much closer to my heart. And this is the only 60-minute vinyasa flow class they have during the week--there's a 75-minute class on Tuesdays, but it starts at 6:00 and I just don't know if I can get there that early. I might try, though. A 75-minute vinyasa class might just be a good substitute for a Tuesday morning jog once it gets colder outside.

Overall, today I just feel really happy. I got some good writing work done this morning. I'm really happy with all the new poems that have been coming out in the past few months. I'm working on typing them all up now, and with every one I am just pleased and surprised at what I'd written. I have no idea if any of them will ultimately turn out to be publishable, but I'm really enjoying just being entertained by my own poems. I don't know if I ever felt like that before--I've felt good after writing, and satisfied with a poem, and proud of a poem, but just entertained and glad? I don't know. It makes me happy, anyway.

My friends just came over to watch Heroes! They ate the food I made and they liked it. I had made applesauce and hummus and chai, and I had got nice bakery bread to dip in the hummus and nice chips and salsa. The applesauce turned out particularly well--I wish I remembered what kind of apples I bought. I don't think the hummus was as good as the last time I made it--too much tahini--but Julius commented on how nice it was to finally find someone who made hummus with enough tahini. :) They also admired all my books. I like it when people eat my food and admire my books.

I went to the podiatrist this morning and she didn't do anything that will make me limp! So exciting!

( On Heroes )

In other news, the Evil Superfresh that is the closest grocery store to my house is now a PathMark. Not sure yet if the PathMark is evil or not. On one hand, it's shinier, and in some ways is organized better, and seems to be a bit cheaper. On the other hand, the bread aisle is very poorly set up--too narrow! Everyone buys bread, you need a wide aisle for it so people have room to stand there and look at the bread! And no other store I know puts the bread in the same aisle as the baking supplies! WTF?? Also, the checkout situation is still horrific. I was ready to try slitting my wrists with a corn chip (sharpest thing in my basket). But maybe PathMark will improve the checkout situation in time.

Last night after work, the roads were clear of snow, so I decided to go to Walmart. I discovered that the Walmart near my house is not nearly as good as the Walmart near my parents' house. It was... perplexing. I had a long list of stuff to get (in general, not just at Walmart), and it was odd which things they had and which they didn't. Like, I couldn't find a dushpan and brush. I found a *mini* dustpan and brush set, which was so small it would be no good at all if someone, say, broke a glass, and a large set with a long handle like I used to have to use when I worked at Boston Market, but no just regular-size dustpan and brush! They didn't have the bookshelves that my parents recently purchased at their Walmart--they had no cheap bookshelves at all. They had garlic salt but not oregano. I was slightly confused the entire time I was there, and I got very few of the items on my list. Of everything I did buy, nothing was particularly needful and all of it could have been purchased some other time. It wasn't a useless trip, but it wasn't particularly productive either.

After Walmart, I came home, made myself an omelette, hung pictures in the kitchen, watched Heroes, and ironed. Yes, ironed. The red curtains (that previously hung in the doorway between the living room and the office in my last apartment with Jorn) were all wrinkled, especially around the bottoms where they dragged on the floor, and I want to hang them on my bed, so I ironed them. Now I need to ask Mrs. Chancellor if she can hem them for me. They need to be a good 8-10 inches shorter if they're not going to drag on the floor. I don't really want them to drag on the floor. I also ironed the peacock tapestry, since it's been folded up in boxes for at least two, probably closer to three years. I measured the tapestry and measured the wall behind my desk, and it looks like if I hang it flush to the ceiling it'll fit perfectly. But that's a project for more than one person, definitely. One more item on the list of things I'd like my dad's help with hanging (the others are my Indiana Jones and Maxfield Parrish pictures for the living room, now that they're framed, because they're big, and also my Storypeople, because there's going to be three of those sharing a wall and my dad is good at measuring so things look good next to each other).

If you're bored with hearing about what I'm doing to my apartment all the time... well, tough. Working on the apartment has been making me happy and productive, and I like writing about things that make me happy and productive. Neither of those have been common occurrences in a long time, and I'm enjoying working hard and seeing results and enjoying myself for a change. I've been far too used to slinking around listlessly and whining. When it's all done I'll take pictures and post a tour of the place, and then everybody can see what I've been going on about. I'm just hoping I can ride the happy-productive wave through finishing the apartment and into getting back into yoga and starting to write again. I'm thinking that my trip to AWP might be happening at exactly the right time for maximizing my excitement about writing, since the apartment really is almost done and I need a peaceful, neat, comfortable home if I'm going to write.

I get no cell phone reception in my apartment. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this already, I can only use my phone in the bedroom and even then it's crackly, and there's no reception at all in the living room and hardly any in the kitchen (conversations consist of "cracklecrackle...what?...are you there?...I'm here! Can you hear me?...cracklecrackle"). Friday morning I called T-Mobile to have them look into it. I figured I might as well give them a chance to fix it if it's fixable. I was told they put in the service request and someone would contact me in 72 hours. Today's Tuesday, so that didn't happen. I called them to check on the status of my request, and apparently the only note on there is that service upgrades will be occurring in the next 120 days. Um, no way. So I had the service person put me through to the accounts person, and I asked to cancel my account. I tell them that although I still have over a year left on my contract, I'm not receiving the service I signed up for, so I should not have to pay a cancellation fee. The cancellation fee, meanwhile, is $200. Maria the accounts person says that her coverage map is showing great coverage at my address, so she says she can't waive the cancellation fee. I say that the coverage is not great, and it's not just the weather today, the problem has been going on ever since I moved in over a week ago, and I have filed my service request and gotten no satisfactory response. Maria tries to ply me with a cheaper plan and more minutes. Jean who sits next to me says she heard me say, "What good are the minutes going to do me when I can't USE MY PHONE??" Conversation continued in this manner for a few minutes. "I don't want a cheaper plan. I want a phone that works." "No, I don't WANT a land line." I continue to insist that my service be canceled and that the fee be waived. Finally I politely asked to speak to Maria's manager. Several minutes of hold music later, Maria returns to the phone. She's spoken with her supervisor, and they've agreed that in light of my long history with T-Mobile they will waive the cancellation fee. I am victorious.

Of course, this means that I currently have no cell phone. If you call me, I will not answer, and my number will do that disconnectedy thing. Take heart, for I plan on walking over to the Verizon store on my lunch. Then I will have a local number! And phone coverage that works in my apartment, and probably a snazzy new phone to go with it!

the thesis reading rocked on friday. everyone really liked my poems--even remembered lines and such when they were talking to me about it later (as in, "i loved the one about the circus, and the ending with the zebras was just great."). i read the whole saint augustine sequence, which jim said he wants to see (i have very minimal contact with jim, oddly enough, since he's the director of the program--i don't think he'd heard/read my work since my application to the program), and i'm really satisfied. and i got to go first, which helped the nervousness (david kind of wanted to go first, but he was gracious and let me go first instead). and everyone said i was so poised, and stuart said i did a terrific job, and i don't think he just said that because he was talking to my dad. also, everyone said i looked really fucking sexy, which was true. i'll post pictures soon--my dad took some with his digital camera, and i finished off a roll of film, so hopefully sometime this week.

also, the party at matt's house after the reading was great. there was fruit punch, with vodka strawberries and peaches floating in it. yay. and xina was there, i hadn't seen her in a really long time. everyone clapped when i came in. i like that. i felt a lot more like my old self, the self that was fun and popular and liked and the center of attention and pretty. i hadn't felt like her in a long time. she was really cool.

friday was definitely a good time.

so i have figured out the routine for this semester. every day, i will be able to work, work out, eat, write, shower, and have fun. there's room for all of it. if i just stick to my routine, things will get done, and things will be good, and my thesis will happen. yesterday worked really well, so that's what i'm going by. i got a lot of writing and revising done. i'm about halfway to my thesis. i just have to stay motivated.