Saturday, November 29, 2008

Shedding

I am going through my worldly possessions and trying to minimize them, pack them into boxes, and safely store them while my apartment is renovated. It is good I have this weekend for this purpose, with no obligations, classes to teach, people to meet. Because I have a lot of those possessions! I could swear they crawl out at night, engage in orgies, get pregnant and then procreate. Especially books, clothes and shoes. I found at least three doubled books. Which means I forgot that I already bought the book, bought it again, and never read nevertheless (three times!).

I feel stressed out because of the convergence of the obligations. Packing the stuff is most urgent, because the renovations will start next week. On the other hand, I can't help but to worry that my immunology classes will start in the beginning of January, and I haven't even started working on my syllabus and lectures. Not even mentioning everything that needs to be at work. At the times like that my most strong inclination is just to stop doing anything and curl into a ball under the covers. Too bad it is not quite possible.

I am trying not to watch TV. but but the news still leaks into my brain. A family on a meditation trip gets killed in Mumbai. With the scores of others. The reality is so ugly sometimes. :(

Monday, November 24, 2008

Why did I ever give up caffeine?!

Sunday I had a strong practice, which was followed by a very intense class that I taught. This resulted in the most pathetic practice today. I was so tired that I did not even pretend to attempt my half-ass jumpbacks, skipped dropbacks, assisted backbends and went into savasana after a shoulderstand. In savasana I fell asleep for the first time in ages. I thought I slept well at night, so there is no good excuse for such a folly. Maybe my body is assuming a hybernation mode? Even now, at 6:30 pm I am longingly looking toward my bed. There is so much to do, but no energy and motivation. I guess I will just crush, at least I might get a half-decent practice tomorrow.

Good night, everyone!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Not a bad week, after all.

First, I got the job! I lost the hope already,but yesterday there was an offer in my e-mail. Whew.

Second, we had a lab outing to the movies yesterday. We watched the "Twilight". Two of us liked it, two didn't. We went to see a 10 am showing, and the theater was full of moms. So funny kids are at school, and the 30 to 50 year-old moms flock to the movies to see a film their teenage daughters are raving about. I did like it - beautiful people, the "Muse" in the soundrack, steaming-hot romance, danger, and friendship - what else can I ask for?

Third, my apartment is going to be renovated in the first week of December. Long time overdue, the walls will be painted, carpet removed and floor finished. For me it means that I need to deal with my voluminous posessions. There are too many of them, and I hope this will force me to go over them with a fine brush and get rid of the majority of them. I can feel already the lightness of being that will bring it, but meanwhile I am dreading the ordeal. I have such a hard time parting with my books and electronics.

The last even of this week was not so good. I had a little heartbreak. Orson Scott Cart was one of my all time favorite authors. I decided to check on him as a person, assuming he should be at least as smart as his characters. Smart he can be, but he is also a rabid conservative, with bitter assays featuring such names as a"fraudmeister Al Gore", hypocrite Obama, and so on. He also considers President Bush to be a smart person and is extrimeley bitter about the liberal bias of the media. Everybody, of course, has a right to their opinion, but for some reason I felt really disappointed. There was nothing in his books that made me cringe, but there was very little in his essays that didn't. For a moment I had a crazy idea that his is playing Demosthenes, the way Valentine did in the "Ender's game", but it does not seem to be the case. Oh, well.

I hope everyone has a beautiful Saturday!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

I had enough of this week already

OK, the conference is over, but all the missed work came down crashing on my head. I skipped shala today because my body was exhausted. Hopefully I will make it to practice tomorrow.

The Convention center, where the meeting was held, is an interesting place because of its location. Brand new, very modern and imposing, it is surrounded by run-down buildings:

It also has some interesting "house decorations":



All objects were real - chairs, tennis rackets, bikes. There were also guitars and kayaks. Crazy!

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday. I just need to survive it, and then I will spend Saturday in bed. Doing nothing.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Brain candy indulgence continues.

New week, time to start new life again. Practice was decent today. David remembered to fold the legs first in Supta K, which made the pose not just easier, but even enjoyable. Kind of. My legs are sore from over-walking this weekend. I was doing 18-22K steps each day, thanks to the Society for Neuroscience conference, which is quite an unusual level of activity for me. I like it, though. I can feel muscles I did not know existed. I forced Tova to give me a massage on Saturday morning instead of her practice with June, so I feel physically good, while morally guilty.

So after I finished listening to the "Twilight" series (the teenage romance novel with vampires and werewolves) I found myself in need of a new brain candy. Especially because I was waking to and from the Convention Center - 11 blocks from my home - and needed something to occupy my mind. After a brief hesitation I downloaded a second book by the same author (Stephanie Meyer), "the Host", which sounded even sillier than the first one. It was about aliens who occupied the Earth by the means of parasitic attachment to the human brains. And surprise, surprise - I liked it, too! It reminded me a lot of Orson Scott Card's "Xenocide", but on a somewhat deeper psychological level. I even cried a little on a couple of occasions, but this does not say much, because I tend to do that quite often while reading books or watching movies.

Time to read a manual for a new kit for brain cell isolation. God help me.

Happy Monday!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I am back

Why is Palin still in the news? I was under impression that the election was over and it was time for her quietly disappear into obscurity.

Anyway, I am kinda back. Still way too busy, but stress has less urgent nature. PMS is raging, though. Yesterday David could not fold me into SK and I nearly cried. I know that this is nothing, the method "bind hands first, ankles second" never worked for me, but still. I just can't wait until I am able to get into the pose by myself. It is just humiliating at the moment. My dwi pada is progressing, actually. I can get my right foot behind the left, but at this moment my left leg goes flying. Not enough power in the neck to hold them without help of the arms. No matter, the day will come.

My dad is better. He is a real fighter. After losing his wife, having 2 strokes, impared right side and speech, he still has an amazing will to live. I wish I inherited the strength of character from him, not just bad temper and flat feet.

I think my interview went well. Not counting the fact that my flash drive was not recognized by their laptop and I had to explain everything on my fingers. The interesting part is that when I came home, I discovered that it had 3 newly acquired viruses on it. So that laptop refused to show my presentation, but gave me viruses! Tsk, tsk. Not very nice. Anyway, I could not answer a couple of questions from a guy, who was probably a zoologist, and wanted to know the differences between vertebrate and invertebrate immunity. I think I answered the other questions OK, they did not seem to be difficult. We'll see. It is not like I need this job to pay my rent. I will not be too upset if I do not get it.

This weeked the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience starts, and I will get to see Elaina again. :) These meetings are crazy, but lots of fun at the same time. Time to see lots of friends, classmates, former colleagues and new people, too. The best part - it is here in DC this year. I do not have any energy left to travel.

Missed you all. Need to go end see how you all were.
Mwah!


Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Thank you, Lord!

And let this day to be the beginning of intelligent, educated, and simply sane governing of America.

Speaking of educated. I have not been around lately, because I was ... studying. Not sure why I do this to myself, I thought that the days of taking the exams were so over. Anyway, I applied for a part-time job teaching immunology in one of the local universities. Good news - I got an interview! Bad news - it will consist of me giving a lecture for 20 min, followed by their questions to test my knowledge of immunology. The baddnes of this news is that I am, honestly speaking, no expert in immunology. I know something here and there, but my knowledge is so fragmented that I do not quite know what I do not know. So I am studying, and feeling stressed out. No time to read you, to time to write. Need to study, so that my public humiliation will be less humiliating. I am not asking for much. :)

On the other hand, Obama won, and I am happy!

 

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