lost weight? 4/8/06

I should have written this entry yesterday. I am in San Francisco, attending meetings that are held conjunction with AAS in San Francisco. I made a mad escape out of school Friday and hit 75 onto 635. There was a big backup (for no reason) at so called High Five, but I made it to DFW in time for good use for complimentary American Airlines club pass. With this preparation on Thursday and yesterday's traveling, I haven't made it to the gym after Wednesday. Yesterday at my last Board meeting, Susan, the force of ATJ, said I had lost weight. In fact, I haven't. But she said I have slimmer face. I should have written the entry yesterday this much. However Comfort Inn, that I am staying in downtown San Francisco, loaned me a faulty Ethernet cable and until I gave up and got another one around 2:30am, I was not able to get on the Internet. Comfort Inn is about a mile away from the conference site, Marriott hotel. I guess I have to call that the exercise of the day carrying all my bags. I should be back in Dallas around midnight tonight.

shopping for yoga mat 4/6/06

Serious readers may recall I did a lot of shopping for yoga stuff a couple of years ago. I read yoga magazines, too, so I was quite familiar with several brands. I used to shop Gaiam.com often to find deals. I showed Donnie a few yoga poses during the spring break after the hike and he seems to have liked downward facing dog for calf stretch. It is a good thing that he doesn't think yoga is a woman thing and thinks it is actually useful for him. I shopped around for a yoga mat for him and got to see what they have to offer recently. Because one of my clients, Hanayagi, is an Amazon associate, I went through them. I hope he likes the mat and gets to try some more yoga.

I need yoga retreat or just Red Bull and good music to dance? 4/5/06

People say it is already April and we only have to teach 6 more Tuesday and Thursday classes, but to me, the semester is not going away fast enough. I taught ESL three semesters a year between 2001-2005 and during my four years at UNM between 1995-1999, I always taught summer classes. Little break I had between 1999-2001, I was always taking care of my small business year long. That is true after I started to teach TVI. Three weeks between spring and summer, summer and fall and four weeks between fall and spring semesters are not enough break for me. Especially after last summer... I had to go down to Mexico to update my Bookmarks (some serious reader might recall) because I had so much to do if I placed myself in a regular situation. That is about a year ago. Enriqueta tells me her last class at TVI is the 19th. And of course, after June last year, everything came down crazy. I moved to Dallas and even didn't get to breathe in the fall break. I was taking care of official Texas business, like car registration and drivers license and so forth. When I get to do a long phone conversation with my best friend Omoto sensei, he tells me and gives me advice on things, but he said that I really need to take a good break from all this. And I agree. Things start to look distorted uncessarily. So that is sort of why I haven't planned anything serious, anything academic for the summer. In fact, I only have very rough ideas about what I do during the summer. I could use a good yoga retreat kind of thing. Wake up early and walk the mountain with the dog, do yoga and meditation, swim and do weight training, take a nap, walk with the dog again and maybe another set of yoga in the evening. I feel like I could spend a week like this. There are such yoga retreat, but there are a couple of problems. They probably don't take dogs. And they cost a bundle! On top of that, I pay $40 a month for the gym anyway.

For today, I had a can of Red Bull and that made me do a few minutes of dance session. Music and dancing always change my mood. I think I am ready to hit another teaching day.

Emerald Nuts 4/4/06

I got a little card about Vendor fair a while ago, but since I don't really have a buying power of any sort, I didn't pay any attention, until... Rosemary grabbed me showing all the goodies she got for free (while munching on free popcorn). So I rushed myself to the Student Center and got myself and Taguchi sensei a packet of things. One stuff I got was Emerals Nuts. They had a (possibly a promotional size of) 4.5 oz (possibly the new line of) Glazed Walnuts. I picked up Original for myself and Apple Cinnamon for Taguchi sensei. (I hope she will like it.) This little handsome plastic container has 4 1/2 servings and each serving contains 140 calories. I have been kind of sleepy today, so I could have wolfed down the whole thing, but I had to stop myself. A lady at the booth was saying she is making some salad today and this will go perfectly. A-ha! I am going to wait until I make spinach salad that my next door neighbor gave me a recipe from a Tennessee magazine. The nuts taste wonderful, but they are sweet and I know nuts contain a lot of fat.

beautiful spring day 4/3/06

Summer time started yesterday and I got the first taste of what is like going to work in the morning and coming back after the gym. The morning was still dark when I started my day, but I couldn't believe how long the day stayed in the evening. I thought I was quite tired and I dragged myself to the gym and maybe just sit in the steam bath. I did all the leg exercises and four ab exercises plus the ball that I no longer have in the log. I walked with the dog, missing almost half of my novela. The temperature at night was perfect! The day is only going to get longer for close to three months! Unbelievable! There is a reason why my name in Spanish is Maria del Sol.

shopping from Juniors 4/2/06

We barely started summer time here in the US, but I already feel the start of a long summer in Texas. I realize the weather is going to be like this until November. (URGH) It is difficult enough to dress like a college professor in this weather, but on the relaxed look for weekends and the coming summer break, I realized I needed more shorts. So far wherever I go, everything I see is capri length. That is a blessing for shorty like me, but the weather really calls for shorts. 4.5 inch inseam, size 10 shorts I got from Wal-Mart last year, felt like falling off on me with the cell phone holster (which just broke). Since legs are the only body parts that I receive complements, I guess, I decided 4.2 inch inseam is not revealing enough. Even Levi's shorts are too long for my taste. So I went to Juniors and found out that size 13 shorts are perfect for me. This actually qualifies as Large. After deciding on getting two Glo shorts (sounds rather embarrassing), I decided I would need skimpy tops, too. If you want skimpy clothes, you go to Juniors. The problem is the clothes cost exceedingly expensive considering the amount of fabrics they use. The good news is Juniors has skimpy clothes all year long and I was able to find some XL (size 15) tops for clearance for $3.99. Because of Sears card discount, I also picked up a sweater that goes only around half-way on my body for $9.99. I must be seeing enough those clothes on students to make me feel that I could get one for myself. That should be good for chilly air-conditioning in Texas. After hanging out in Juniors once in a while for the Dallas store, I noticed more than half the time, customers are not exactly juniors (teens), but young Hispanic Moms. Since I found out that I can fit in size 13, maybe I will start looking in that huge rack for jeans. Most of them are expensive, even in clearance, but maybe the length is OK on me. I will check it out next time, well, when would I need jeans...