New Patterns and Old Condos in Everyday Ramblings

This is a picture I took a few days ago of an ivy-covered wall of this wonderful Spanish style condo building built into the hill about two blocks from here. The tramline runs silently above it. I like the pattern and colors here. I met a few of the folks that live there at the neighborhood pizza party a few weeks back.

They are expensive condos and there are just a few of them. I once saw a woman who lives here with an exuberant young mixed breed dog with some Dalmatian blood, load her trash bag in the trunk of her Range Rover and drive around the block to the trash receptacles.

I am feeling lazy today but not that lazy. She looks tired and harried sometimes when I see her walking her dog. I slept 10 hours last night. I had been reading about the new science on how the brain renews itself through sleep (The glymphatic system (or glymphatic clearance pathway) is a functional waste clearance pathway for the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) and thought what the heck, why don’t I learn by doing… :)

The cats agreed to participate in the experiment and we got all warm and toasty in one big pile on the bed. We did wake up when there was a mysterious fireworks display over the river but blessedly it was a short one.

Speaking of expensive condos. One of my new students, who I picked up subbing the morning classes, invited me to hers to talk about teaching a weekly class in the common area there. It is about a 14-minute walk from here, very close to the Farmer’s Market and a bank machine.

She is lovely. About 5 years older than me but we are almost exactly the same size. She is a Unitarian and a very active member of my church and writes and does flower arranging and walks a lot. She belonged to the church in Seattle with the minister that married me back in 1975. The stories of our lives intersect at many points.

She is retired now and her husband has a kind of treatable leukemia and is in the process of early chemo so is still active and feeling good. She has an interior design background, which is where we differ quite a bit as my design style is mix n’ match Ikea and cardboard box.

Her condo is gorgeous!!! Original art and all that and the tones are soothing and comfortable.

We had a nice time. And I got to see all the common areas of the first ever condo development downtown. The building went up in 1968. The roof of the parking structure, which is the outdoor common area, is failing so there will be quite a bit of construction there in the next few years. It is a very secure building.

These folks will be able to pay full freight, the going rate for my class. That senior certificate I earned last year is going to pay off. And I just show up with my mat, teach and leave and will be home in 15 minutes instead of the hour it takes me to get to and from the studio. Yippee.

If the condo association goes for it I’ll start in December.

Although these last weeks have been intense and exhausting they have done a great deal to solidify my post retirement career as a yoga teacher and I am thrilled about that. This time has also amped up my engagement with the practices as I have been immersed in the teachings and focusing on bringing fresh perspectives and a diversity of movement to my students.

Now I am looking forward to a little more balanced day. The next two months are going to be quite busy at work for me and then there is my poetry project…

It will be such a joy to have time to write.

Last updated October 25, 2015