Meditations on my cat and yoga and Brighton and other stuff

Why do you think it is that my cat feels this vital need to wake me up ten minutes before my alarm goes off?  Sure he only climbs onto my chest so he can continue sleeping away, but that wakes me up and hardly seems fair.

He also really takes issue with the fact that I close the living room door when I do yoga.  This is somehow the greatest insult against feline kind ever.  If he can’t headbutt the door open he’ll sit in the foyer and howl pitifully.  This does not help the meditation portion of my daily yoga session.

What does Oliver have against yoga, anyhow?

And, yes, I have been continuing on with the yoga.  I had a really good practice yesterday doing the dvd that was focussed on the heart chakra.  I was able, for the first time ever, to complete some kriyas that had really been giving me trouble, and even though none of it was perfect it was still better than ever before and left me with a very good feeling afterwards.

Last Monday, in case you forgot, was my birthday.  Since Jeremy made it home from all the volcanic craziness (never has living on an island seemed more inconvenient) we held on to our original plans and spent the day in Brighton.  We had delicious brunch at a place called Mange Tout that had the best eggs Benedict I’ve had in the UK so far, and then we bought a lot of music and poked around in a lot of shops. 

I also bought a new lunch box.  Mine is green and white and today it is sitting in the staff fridge full of tuna noodle casserole and peas.  Try to contain your envy.  I know it will be hard because I make a delicious tuna noodle, but you will manage.  Just breathe deeply and remind yourself that you too can make tuna noodle, it’s easy, don’t stress.

Life is calming down a little bit now.  I’m back to working normal hours now that my office move is mostly complete.  So no more Saturdays in the office or extra hours in the evening.  That’s nice.  It also means that if I want to sleep until 6 (I know, I’m crazy!) I can do just that and still have time for yoga in the evening.  And I even have time to get my haircut and go to the post office again.  Imagine it!

And maybe, just maybe this will also translate into more time for writing, fingers crossed.

things

Jeremy made it home in time for my birthday

my office move is almost done

Yay

Volcano! Not starring Tommy Lee Jones or Anne Heche

Or even Gabby Hoffman or John Corbett.

So there’s this volcano that erupted in Iceland and the giant cloud of volcanic ash that has been kicked into the atmosphere has grounded flights throughout much of Europe and all of the UK.  This would not be a big deal for me and mine if only Jeremy wasn’t in Sweden right now.  He’s supposed to be flying home from Copenhagen tonight (yes I know Copenhagen is not in Sweden, it’s in Denmark and it is VERY near the part of Sweden where he often has to go for work).  His flight has, unsurprisingly, been cancelled and now we are trying to find him a way home (and by we I actually mean that I am sitting on hold with BA to see if they can help, I am not feeling especially optimistic).

AND 20 minutes later,  BA can get him on a flight on Monday.  So now I’m back on hold to try and book it.  Ugh.

Happy Birthday me (yes I know I’m being a selfish cow and that there is flooding and craziness happening in Iceland right now and other more pressing travel needs throughout Europe, but MONDAY IS MY BIRTHDAY AND WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE GOING TO BRIGHTON AND THIS MAKES ME ANGRY!).

Stupid volcano.

At least my staff gave me some very nice presents this morning.  A really good knitting book was even included. Presents make everything a little bit nicer.

Somebody else’s birthday

I already know a lot of people who were born on 14 April.  All of them awesome.  This bodes well for my friend Dana as yesterday she gave birth to her first child in Chicago.  She had a little boy who has been named Rory.  I haven’t seen pictures yet, but both his parents are lookers so I expect nothing less from him.

More birthday related items

As usual, around my birthday I’ve gotten a bit antsy about life.  As in what I’m doing with mine and things that have remained unfinished or just undone in general.

It should be obvious that the first draft of my midwestern gothic epic remains unfinished.  It is a sad and shameful fact that I have not even opened the file on my computer in months.  It’s not that I’ve forgotten about it, I haven’t, I’ve been thinking about it a lot if you must know, I just haven’t been actively working on it.

The other day I made a list of all the things I want to write about.  It was a combination of vague (eg Family/ shared histories / what makes us who we are) and ultra-specific (eg Novel about expat experience structured around Foreigner songs (do not steal this idea, I will pursue legal action if you do, I am totally not kidding)) but it was a good exercise to get my brain in gear.

I also made a list of things to do this week.  Like, clean off the dining room table (started, it’s a pretty epic task though, Hercules would ask to go back to the stables), write 3 pages of anything (this counts as 1 right?) and no TV, except Mad Men and Glee when it starts up again.  I’ve already broken the no TV rule, but only for BBC morning news and the Daily Show, so that’s not too terrible.  But as a result of this decision I’ve been thinking about how much of my active brain I fill up with meaningless crap.  Specifically crap about celebrity and tv shows and stupid time wasting things.  So I’m going to try limiting my exposure to this sort of stuff.  I’m going to spend less time reading about Hollyoaks plotlines of the future, and the dissolving marriage of Sandra Bullock and more time actively working on making my own life and the lives of those around me better.

I’m not going cold turkey or anything (you’ll have to pry Mad Men from my cold dead fingers! Same goes for episodes of ANTM on Youtube, even if this cycle DOES sort of suck, oh and that new show by the creators of The Wire, I’m gonna watch a lot of that (It’s got Bunk, and Omar and John Goodman!)) but I am going to cut back, I’m going to see where my brain takes me when it isn’t spending so much time looking at things that don’t really matter.  I’m pretty sure I used to be smarter and more creative.  I’d like to bring that back into my life again.

I know I said this last year, but this is the year.  I’m going to finish this stupid first draft, maybe even a second if I can get my brain in gear.  It’s important, I need to remember that.

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On Monday, Jeremy and I are going to Brighton.  Normally I do this birthday trip on my own, it’ll be nice to have company though.  We’re going to eat cupcakes and look at the sea and go to used bookstores and hopefully find me a new messenger bag.  My Pantone bag is near death after 2 years of dedicated use and service.  Maybe we’ll drink some wine too, it will be my birthday after all.  You only turn 33 once, it ought to be celebrated.

On Sunday, if it doesn’t rain, we’ll be having a birthday picnic on Peckham Rye Common.  If it does rain, we’ll go to the pub, I’ll bring Scrabble.  Either way it should be a fun time.

Sheee-it this is practically 2 pages, I’ll still just count it as one though.

A Friendly Reminder

I don’t know if you were aware of this, but my birthday is coming up.  True fact!

As of April 19th I will be 33 whole entire years old.  Hard to believe, huh?  I know, I know, the arthritis and 60 hour work weeks make me seem incredibly young, who’d believe I was a day over 25?  But it’s true, I am!  Amazing!

Anyhow, I wanted to give you plenty of warning so you would have time to find me an awesome birthday present.  I am so thoughtful!

Here are some things I like (just in case you’re having a hard time finding me the most perfect present ever):

• Old typewriters
• Cookies
• Fun necklaces
• Things with birds on them
• Books
• Candy
• Days off of work
• The sea
• Detroit
• Chicago
• London
• Monkeys
• Creepy animal figurines (I already have a devil squirrel, he could probably use a friend)
• Kittens! (If you got me one I would probably name it Bunk, Omar, McNulty or Cheese.  Oh, or Kima or Snoop if it was a girl.  Or Fido or Innit which has nothing to do with The Wire, I just think those would be funnynames for a kitten)
• Barcelona
• Cake

So there you are.  That’s a really good reference list for christmas too.  And for just because presents too.  Don’t worry if you get it to me a little late.  I’m very understanding whenever there are presents involved.