picture day

I traded days at the spa today so that I could go do some pictures for a business in Hillsboro Village. I was done by 10:30, so I decided to go to a Nashville landmark that I've always wanted to try out-The Pancake Pantry. Their pancakes were good, but I think it should be called Heavenly Hashbrowns!  They were the bomb. Then I picked up a couple of books at the main library downtown. What a beautiful building! And I was so sleepy from my huge heavy breakfast, I decided to come home and take a nap on this perfect-for-napping stormy afternoon. Now I am on to downloading the pictures from this morning and then later tonight going out to Vandy to work at a chair massage event. Whew! Busy day, but good.

two reminders

Yesterday, I received not one, but two reminders of just how precious this life is and how very blessed I am.

Driving to Vanderbilt hospital to do a massage for a man who had cancer, I came very close to having a horrible car wreck. There was an SUV two cars ahead of me that suddenly swerved, then flipped and then started to skid into the car in front of me. I had a concrete barrier beside me and nowhere to go, so I just held on tightly to the wheel. Somehow the car in front of me missed the upside down vehicle and I followed closely behind him, coming within inches of the wrecked truck. I looked in my rear-view to see about 5 cars pulling over to help, so I did not try to get off the road to help. I'm sure I could not have been much help, shaking as badly as I was. Somehow I managed to get down to Vandy, park and calm myself down so that I could work on this man with cancer.

He'd had Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (I think) and then some kind of stem cell treatment that had completely messed up his whole digestive tract. He had not been allowed to eat or drink anything, not even water, for 22 days! I cannot even imagine how horrible that would be. His mother told me how much he longs for just a sip of water.

On the way home, part of me was extremely sad.  I think it bought up feelings about my dad and how I had not been able to be there or to help him in any way when he was slipping away with bone cancer. I never really got to say goodbye. We thought he was getting a little better and I had a flight scheduled, but then he passed away. And part of me was sad for this man I'd just worked on who would be so happy just to have a cool drink of water or a bit of food.

And the rest of me was incredibly grateful for this life I have, filled with so many friends and family, a good job, good health, the ability to do so many things that I enjoy doing like dancing, biking, hiking and photography and on top of all that a warm, safe, lovely home, clothes, a car, plenty of food...how incredibly blessed I am! I don't want to take one moment of this gift for granted. I know I'm not promised one moment beyond the one I inhabit right now. And I don't want to take all the wonderful people and things in it for granted, because they are not promised to me tomorrow either. (And you know what? I'm glad I'm not wasting any of the precious moments of this year watching TV...I know I made a good choice in that regard for sure!) Going to bed counting my blessings. :-)

busy weekend

Well, it's been quite the busy weekend! Friday night I went to TPAC to see the Nashville Ballet perform A Midsummer Night's Dream. it was wonderful. I was mesmerized by their grace. The Saturday went to Cedars of Lebanon for the last day of Dance Escape. Did the workshops during the day and then the dance last night. It was great to see all of the dancers I hadn't seen since last year. Some come from as far away as Canada. It was a blast. Now today after chores, I'm going out to Vandy to do a massage for a cancer patient. I've never worked with him before, but looking forward to the opportunity. And possibly I'll get in a walk on the latter part of this beautiful day. The storms have washed the air clean and the sky is sparkling blue. It would be a shame to let that go to waste by being inside all day!

working out

I worked out today when I got off of work. I had been trying to do it before work, but this week after just seem to be better. I guess it doesn't matter when, as long as you do it...right!? So, I did a mile on the treadmill, 2 on the bike and 2 on the elliptical. (about 50 minutes) and then did squats and stretching. I'm not sure if I'll be able to walk tomorrow, but I felt good while I was doing it. At some point during the workout, I realized how good and strong I felt. You know, like "I am woman hear me roar" kind of strong. As if I could conquer the world. Is that what they mean be the runner's high? I don't think I've ever felt that before, but I could see why it could be addicting. I need to remember that feeling when I don't want to exercise. Need to remember how good it feels and all the wonderful things it's doing for me. By the way...does my butt look smaller to you? LOL I threw out the scale, so I'm not sure how I will measure progress. Guess I just have to wait for the clothes to start falling off me to know for sure. I'll keep you updated.

computer virus

Wow...it only takes one bug to make you realize just how very much we rely on computers. All the computers at work were taken out by some bug in the Macafee update. It was horrible. We couldn't do anything. We couldn't check people in or out, make appointments, ring up sales, type documents, find anyone's phone numbers. In short, we were totally useless! At least our hands still worked so we could give massages, but we weren't sure who we were supposed to be massaging because we couldn't see their appointments. Oh well, we got through. But it does make some of those doomsday movies and predictions seem a little more plausible after you experience what the lack of technology can do to a business for just a few short hours! Scary to say the least!!! Better post this while I can, huh?

scales

I have a good friend who is a personal trainer and I was talking with him about exercising, losing weight, getting fit, etc... He said that I needed to throw out my scale! I, of course, told him it was the first thing I do every morning. "How does it make you feel?" he asked. Well, if I've lost weight-good, if I stayed the same-ok, and if I gained-bad. I could tell if it was going to be a good or bad day from that two second encounter with a weigh-in device. How silly is that, to let you mood and outlook for the day be determined by some numbers on a scale!? The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. He is the expert after all. So, this weekend I went through my closet and changed over my clothes for the season, weeded out 4 bags of stuff to take to Goodwill and threw the scale in the bags for good measure. Yikes! We'll see if I survive sans scales. :-)

Greenway Project

The other day, I was on the internet looking for places to hike and/or bike in and around Nashville. I came across the website for the greenways in Nashville. Two weekends ago, I took a short walk at one end of the Shelby Bottoms Greenway, so I was a little familiar with them. But I was frustrated with the site, because it really didn't give you much information about the sites, other than a map. So I thought, wouldn't it be fun to go to all the greenways and write up descriptions with pictures so that people would have a better idea of what they were like.

Today was my first visit. I started with Shelby Bottoms since I was a bit familiar with it and chose to ride my bike instead of walk. And I could not have picked a more perfect day for a bike ride if I had tried. It was 65 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze and bright blue skies. Absolutely gorgeous. We did about 10 miles which was the complete loop, plus a little extra. I thought maybe I would post the log here, but I can't do what I'd like with pictures, so I will create a site to write and post the greenway project notes for anyone who is interested. I will tell you, if you are looking for a place to bike, walk or skate, Shelby Bottoms is a great pick!

Ok, off to do a little stretching and then bed. I should sleep well tonight!