We all float on….

Hello to my blog stalkers! I’m so glad you’re here! Knowing that people are reading, and maybe even getting inspired by what I’m doing, gives me a sorely needed charge.

I had a bit of a rough night last night, and I had trouble waking up this morning and getting going. I was starting to feel like I’ve set myself up for failure, that there’s no way I can possibly accomplish 31 whole days of challenges, if I am already so wiped out after 72 measly hours. Guy had to talk me down a little, remind me that I’m not a robot, and that change is hard. He suggested that I’ll feel differently in a couple of weeks, which wasn’t the biggest boost for today, but it’s good to bear in mind that this is a finite project with an end, and when it’s over all I’ll have is a feeling of accomplishment.

Fortunately, today felt easier than previous days, perhaps because I didn’t have to do any other “life” things, like run errands, and one of my tasks was dance class, which is really a reward. At the end of the day, I no longer feel the desperation I did at the beginning. This too shall pass.

Daily Challenges

Stretching	✓
1SE	✓
Intimate Time	✓
Cooking	Today’s Menu: I didn’t really eat breakfast today, just wasn’t hungry; for lunch, we had tuna sandwiches; after dance class, we supped on spaghetti noodles with leftover chicken, Alfredo sauce, and broccoli.
Reading (Poetry)	“Self-Portrait with Weeping Woman” by Deborah Paredez is a dense little sonnet about the woes of women who have been stomped on by the world. It’s more like the poetry I grew up reading – classic Greek allusions, complex syntax, lavish language – but with more modern themes and a feminine/matriarchal lens. It’s heavy and loaded and emotionally charged.
Reading (Fiction)	I’m almost ready to set Uncommon Type aside, because I’m just not connecting with these stories the way I’d like. “Our Town Today with Hank Fiset” was a very short piece written in newspaper columns, lamenting the death of the printed paper. It began with an “if my mentor were alive today, he’d die all over again” kind of vignette, and ended with a mockery of autocorrect, which was annoying and also didn’t make sense to me—why would a journalist have to use their phone to type? Doesn’t he know that laptop and desktop computers also publish to digital platforms? I’ll have to soul-search about whether I want to keep going with this, or start a new book tomorrow.
Reading (Nonfiction)	In the world I’ll be writing about in November, water plays an important role, so I made an effort to learn more about methods of water purification. It turns out that I already knew a lot of it, because I grew up listening to my dad talk about his work at the water treatment plant, but that linked me to the history of water sanitation, which was more fascinating than I expected. Stepwells in particular are amazing to look at, and generally mind-blowing—just look at my featured image!*
Music	After about fifteen minutes of adjusting my end pin and another ten minutes of tuning, I practiced the cello for the first time in about eight years. It wasn’t pretty. I’ve been playing ukulele for a few years now, and it’s ruined me for cello. For one, there are frets on a uke and none on a cello—this means you have to be entirely accurate to play your intended note on a cello (which I wasn’t) but the uke is more forgiving. The way you hold your hand and fingers is different, also—on a uke, the pads of your fingers are used more often, while a cello wants you to use fingertips. It was a brutal 25 minutes (I set the timer per the Pomodoro method.)
Postcard Poem	This is from a set of postcards I’ve had for as long as I can remember: My poem was inspired by an Imgur post I saw, where an artist took photos of animals, and reduced the resolution of each down to a number of pixels roughly equal to the number of that animal remaining on the planet. It’s visually striking, and I’ve been thinking about it all day.
Trash Pickup	Howie hates going on trash walks because they are slow and boring: I did find a small treasure of sorts—it’s a little rusty, but it can definitely be rehabbed:

Today’s Challenges

As mentioned, my other to-do item was to attend dance class tonight. My goal for the month is to dance three times a week, and technically this is only the second time this week, because Monday was September 30, but I am at the mercy of the calendar here! Also classes are only offered at certain times on certain days, so I am limited by what is available, and I want to spread the days out a bit over the week. All of this to say, I know it’s only two but I’m counting it as three!

The class I went to was different from other classes in a couple of key ways. First, I have never taken a class from the instructor who taught tonight, and it’s always interesting to learn from a new person, to see how their approach diverges. Different instructors play different music and lead the warmup with individual emphasis, which sets a distinct tone for the class and colors my experience of the entire class. Second, this is a new class format, and instead of having a theme or focus, it was completely open-ended. A lack of rules or guidelines is usually tough for me, because I get overwhelmed by possibility (Guy calls it “analysis paralysis.”)

I danced to a song that I’ve danced to several times (“Bang Bang” by Asaf Avidan), something that resonates deeply with my body. It felt really good tonight, and the class itself was full of laughs and stunning dancing. I left with a big smile on my face and a delightfully positive energy. I came home to eat dinner with Guy and finish off the day’s challenges, and I’ll be going to bed with a totally different attitude than I awoke this morning. Thank the stars (again!) for my Divine family.

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*Featured image of Chand Baori stepwell, India, by Arpita Roy08 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21112007

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