If you see a whole thing - it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives... But up close a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. - Ursula K. LeGuin

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Fine and Mellow

It is Day Four of my official spring break and the Unravelling course. Today I didn’t take any pictures. Instead I went to both a tai chi and a yoga class. In between I worked on my grant.

I learned something really cool in tai chi. It is a two-person exercise and I think I’ll need to teach it to b so I have someone to practice with.

Working on the grant actually felt good today. I’m resolved to going slow and letting it happen. I am really enjoying Scrivener. It may be the new software winner for me (although I’m writing this post on MacJournal hoping to realize its merits). Scrivener is very versatile. It has all of the regular features I use in a word processor plus some really cool organizational tricks. I particularly like how it can break up and regroup text so you can focus in on a section at a time. It also exports very nicely to other systems so you can share your work (something that is crucial in academia). I also appreciate the 30-day trial that only counts the days you actually use the software. I highly recommend giving it a spin, if you are a Mac user.

Yoga was a lot of fun. After the great tai chi class, I wasn’t feeling another class and since I was getting good work done on the grant I was very tempted to forgo it entirely. However it was my favorite teacher and I hate to miss her classes. I went and was not disappointed. We worked on a lot of chest-opening and deep breathing exercises and I even managed to do a 90 degree, pre-handstand with a partner (the handstand-ready postures freak me out a bit and I’m a very long way off from ever doing an actual handstand). By the time I picked b up from work I was in a very fine and mellow place.

The highlight of my day, however, was getting an off-the-cuff call from Angel. He is having a fabulous time in Florida on his spring break. He has managed to stay out of trouble, enjoy time with his friends, and stay (mostly) within budget. He sounded so happy and pleased with himself that it just made my day.

Tomorrow b and I are off to visit Pumpkin for the weekend. She is very excited that we are coming and we are thrilled to spend some time with her and BB (who is flying in from his own spring break). Maybe I’ll take some pictures.

5 comments:

Annie said...

I'm happy you're having a wonderful, relaxing, renewing time. Just reading this, a little bit of your sense of peace is rubbing off on me. Thanks!

Drax said...

Scrivener: Okay, biting, will report. This weekend: Enjoy, Mighty One.

Julie said...

I'm glad things are going well, especially with Angel and Pumpkin. Ahhh...spring break! I wish I could do that now. A good phone call can make a mom's day. I hope you had fun with Pumpkin, too.

ruth pennebaker said...

Damn. You're making me realize what a moron I am to skip yoga today. Now it's too late to find peace of mind.

Anonymous said...

you have a b? MEE TOO! :D are you a grant writer? i was actually looking into doing grant writing as volunteer work but didn't really get far beyond browsing through volunteermatch.org. hehee.