Thursday, February 12, 2009

Tomorrow. Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Kripalu for a wonderful Todd Norian yoga workshop. At least, I hope it's wonderful. I assume it will be. I have no reason to expect it won't be.

It will be four days of yoga, meditation, simple vegetarian meals (KALE!), chanting, and all around healthy activities. Not to mention it will be Blackberry free.

So I should be really -- REALLY -- looking forward to it. And I am. Mostly.

I'm also a little nervous.

This trip feels to me like a complete immersion in spiritual healthiness. For someone who, maybe, not so much, has lately been engaging in unhealthiness. What is it going to be like going cold turkey on all my coping strategies?

Also, I will show up knowing no one, having to live in a room with people I don't know, share meals with total strangers and, oh yea, try to fall asleep without aid of ... anything but exhaustion.

So, I am very excited. I will be free to get some serious grounding on. Center myself. Reconnect with what is REALLY important. (hint: it's not work.) But I'm also a little nervous. Will I be different at the end of the weekend? Or will this simply be a respite from decadence?

I am refusing to bring cellphone, blackberry or computer with me so I'll let you know next week how it all goes down.

I have hope and faith that I will be better for the experience. Om Shanti. Om Shanti. Om Shanti. Om.

Adventures in Traveling

So, as we all know, I've been travelling for business a lot more than I would like. In fact, as opposed to the "10% travel" I committed to when I got the job, it's really been more like "35%."

Which is sucky in a number of ways. I buy a pass every month for the Commuter Rail. This costs me $235. That is a hefty chunk of change. On the months where I will only be in the office less than two weeks, I'm easily losing money. Add to that the $59/month I pay for gym membership fees and the cat sitter costs and, well...

Then, of course, there's the fact that every time I get home I need a day or two to return to normal. Do some laundry. Re0rganize the beauty products (I use the term losely) and - of course - make the kitties understand that Momma Loves Them.

This isn't aided by the fact that recently I've had back-to-back trips. And that, this month, my boss (CBL) has conveniently scheduled our team's love fest for the day AFTER I get back from my yoga retreat.

Not to mention the fact that EVERY SINGLE trip I've been on has been beset by massive airline and/or weather and/or equipment delays.

And, of course, I haven't helped myself at all by insisting that Good Buddy pick me up at the airport tonight.

Because, as exhausted as all this travelling has made me, staying up all night talking with him is probably the last thing I need, right?

OK - let's scratch that. Staying up and talking with him and not fighting would have been great. Staying up with him and having intense discussions (what he calls fighting) would have been good. Staying up with him and then him leaving in the middle of the night, leaving me to stay up and pace the floor worrying, is less than good. Now, I'm equally as tired and just have nothing at all to show for it.

Of course, I hope he's okay and that everything resolves itself. But I could have just as easily stayed in Calgary and visited Banff for a taste of the infinite majesty of nature or eaten a really good Vietnamese meal. Or, heck, even hit on the cute bartender at the hotel bar again.

I guess, with travelling, you just never know...