Nice Day

I made the most of the holiday I think. I did Nia, the dance class at the Y that I love most of all. Then I drove two towns over to drop the legs of an old 1920s table off at Michael's house. (And it's not just any table; it's the table once belonging to Michael's great grandmother when she a new bride in this new bustling country. I will maybe also say it's not just any Michael but my own Michael, my own final child, a child no longer alas alas.)Here he is with Old Dave a few years back:Anyway I had refinished the table legs for him and was carrying them up his driveway to leave on his back porch. It's a pretty tight fit with his car right there as you can see.........And somehow my back pocket got caught on the faucet and SHOT a world of water all down the inside of my pants.That was pretty funny, if damp. I don't have a picture of my pants but here at the top is a picture of the table legs where you may or may not be able to see the drops of water.They got wet too.Then ... it was back to my house to collect these two guys so we could have lunch together and they could carry a big seven-foot long buffet from the cellar and put it in the back of the Red Dragon here. Machias is one the left, striking a pose for fun. Gamaral is just looking grave and intelligent the way he always does.That done, they played touch football out front, with three other boys and I went upstairs to write.The clouds had come in by then but I was happy because I knew we were going to our girl Annie's house for dinner as soon as I finished dropping the buffet off at her sister' Carrie's place. It was for Carrie's sake that we hoisted that coffin of a buffet.Annie fed us well - she always does. David left at 7:00 to play tennis and watch Monday Night Football with his pals but I stayed until almost 10:00.So there it is, a day like many another day, with not much work and many small pleasures.Glad to have had it I was. Glad enough too, I guess, to be returning to work today, rainy day or not.

Lazy Time of Year

It’s hard to take time off from writing a blog.Sure, you’re your own boss with a blog but I myself feel so uneasy when I don’t have something lined up to post at dawn of the next day. I feel like I’ve gone to bed without saying my prayers or something.Still, it was nice over the last 48 hours to vow to take a little time away; also to have made a small mini-rule about just NOT GOING to that gym that pulls me towards it like some irresistible kind catnip, whether I want to be drawn there or not. It’s the Nia and the Hip Hop Cardio, and mostly the Zumba that I love. To move like that! To music! With others!This week so far I have mostly just done a little fake swimming, with this little guy.

I went to sit shiva with a family recently bereaved.I sent three thank you notes and mailed two gifts.I bought curtains in a room long crying out for curtains and then became so obsessed with the fact that they’re five inches too short that I went BACK to the store, bought a fifth curtain to cannibalize for its extra yardage, and spent two hours yesterday measuring and sewing, getting ready to perform that grafting operation, which I couldn’t undertake today because I somehow found myself out of common pins and only a fool sews without first pinning.Over this past weekend as the guest of some good friends on Cape Cod I did a lot of eating, basking, reading, eating and more eating. I’m trying that Tim Ferris diet (which deserves its own post and will doubtless get it soon enough as I begin to turn into a black bean, having eaten so many of them.)And this Next weekend I hope to be going out this wee bobbing cork of a dinghy I bought a few years ago in spite of family’s derisive laughter. It’s got this little sewing machine of a motor but you can go right out all by yourself in the middle of a body of water and look up at the sky and think "Take ME Now"! It’s the same feeling I while flat on my back and bobbing on a raft. The boat’s motor is so quiet that the last time I went out in it I think I maybe tied it up with the engine still running. Anyway recharging the battery took forever but hey: live and learn.Right this second and also over the past 48 hours I've been teaching myself about eye makeup. I don’t think I’m gettin’ away with it exactly. I may have to file it under Looks You’re Probably Too Old For but it’s been fun playing with it and isn’t that what summer is for?August now. Hate to think the long days might be ending, but they aren’t really doing that yet. Not yet, anyway. Not today.

DanceMorphosis

No more Nautilus for me, or Aerobics either. For sure no more of the private hell of  Step Aerobics.Depending on what day of the week it is you’ll find me either clenching my abdominals or dancing . At the Y. With a roomful of other people, including a 90-year-old who can do  a better imitation of a soft pretzel than anyone else I know.Often I do  Zumba, which is  fast-paced Latin dancing mostly: Meringue, Mambo, Salsa, with Dances of Many Other Times and Places thrown in. I also take a Hip Hop class each week and another class with a lot of Bollywood, which is actually a lot more like Hip Hop than you might imagine. (In fact click the link below to see some adorable Bollywood dancers:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aumLcSU3-g]But what I really really really love these days is the dance technique called Nia which you could say is what you get when roomfuls of  otherwise normal adults take leave of their senses entirely . Go in past the naked-lady James Bond silhouettes  to the clip of me sitting in a dance studio and speaking German! The actual movements start about a minute into the video but don’t I look awesome ? Thanks to my new regimen at the Y I'm now multilingual - AND I have no tummy at all![youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQNPZdXtc0k&feature=related]