Yoga Gone Bad - last year

For months now I've been slow and sluggish to get out of bed. I've been working too hard, working late hours, needing a vacation and feeling slightly burned out. A few weeks ago something happened to put a bounce in my step and things started to turn around for me. I got my drive and ambition back once more in full swing. I was ready to take on the world, one project at a time. So, that's exactly what I started doing.

I began taking better care of myself. I cooked for myself, (actually made a real breakfast one day even though I blew a fuse in the kitchen) I cleaned my place top to bottom, I started filming and editing videos again, (not for the public - just for a small audience, so don't ask) I began to write again, to really dive into my work, and even start working out again. A few days ago I decided to try my Yoga again. I popped my not-often-used Yoga DVD into my xBox player and sat in front of my TV one morning before work.

For the rest of that day I had more energy than I've had in quite some time. I couldn't figure out what it was that had done it for me until I was about to leave work that day. I mentioned something about how I hadn't gotten through my whole Yoga DVD to a friend of mine and suddenly realized that this newly found energy must have come from that source! I made up my mind right then to wake up eary each day, no matter what, and do SOME Yoga before work or before going out for the day. And so, for the next several days, I did.

This morning my alarm went off at 6:00am, and as usual I hit the snooze button, allowing me to sleep in until 6:10. Then, I hit the snooze button again, checked my emails on my phone as usual (nothing there today, unusual for me), and got up about 6:15. I trudged down the ladder to my living room, turned on the xBox, grabbed a bottle of water, and took my usual seat on the floor. Happy and excited to start the day, I started to get into the Yoga with a smile on my face and a reviving energy I very much needed after working such late hours the night before and only getting 5 hours of sleep.

About two minutes into the DVD, the damn thing froze up. Try as I might, I couldn't get it to play. It froze at the same spot each time I took it out and tried to buff it with a soft cloth. I tried every trick in the book that I'd ever heard of (and usually the toothpaste one works!) but nothing could get me past the breathing section of the DVD. It was broken. :(

After a moment of pouting and carrying on (I really enjoyed that DVD) I got up and discovered that I didn't have any time left to fidget with it. I had spent a full 13 minutes trying to get it to work out of the desperation of exhaustion. I slid into my uniform and went out to my car.

I thought of you today.
I thought of you yesterday.
I think of you always.

There she was, my shiny little red convertible. It was too cold to drive without the top on, especially this morning, but I loved my car. Sure, it's not the Miata I used to have, but this car has been through a lot with me already and I love it dearly. I know every ding and dimple in its candy apple surface. Something caught my eye though, and I looked twice. On the passenger side of my front bumper was 8 inches of a fresh, deep, 1/2 inch wide scratch. The surface underneath showed through, solid black. The red paint was peeling off like soap scum from a shower door. Livid, I surveyed the rest of my car and didn't find any further damage. I only found the four bald tires and broken antenna I knew were there. (Yes, someone broke off my radio antenna back in November while I was at work and I've not had the funds yet to replace it.)

Since then, I've gotten stuck in traffic, almost made late for work, remembered that I forgot to feed the cat, discovered my entrance to the parking garage was blocked off and so had to park on the street, had unruly officers refuse to do as I requested, and snapped at one of them for it, refused phone calls, complained formally through emails, discovered the process for court proceedings when an Officer is subpoenad to appear and realized that I left my lunch AND my wallet at home.

Then - all of a sudden, my work phone went off. Thinking it was another email or phone call from someone I didn't feel like talking to at the moment, I ignored it. Suddenly something inside me made me jump. I reached for the phone, looked at it, and discovered a message from thousands of miles away.

Suddenly my day wasn't so bad.