Being yourself

triathlon training week 1

its time i did a triathlon. it's so me -- jack of all trades. it's also what my dear friend shannon is doing. this isn't the first time she has inspired me into doing something. albeit, this time, we are doing it a whole continent apart. having read her blog i decided that it's time i put together my various barely-athletic abilities together and see what comes of it. so, in a style true to me, i picked out a 13 week triathlon training plan, edited it to death in excel and printed it out to paste onto my office desk. week 1 is done and i didn't skip a single day! i am more than delighted. on friday, i was pooped to say the least. i was dead from all the training and school. i actually slept in the afternoon on saturday (i can never sleep mid-day). i am recovered today and ready to embark on week 2.

my highlight of the week: sharing a swim lane with a cute 83 year old lady! what more can i ask for in terms of inspiration?!

an experiment in communication

i was fortunate enough to grow up speaking 4 languages and even more fortunate to have learnt 2 more through my schooling. research has shown that speaking multiple languages helps brain development. i believe that it has a positive impact on the personality. i feel priviledged in this regard but i haven't done much with my fortune since i moved to the US. so, it's time for an experiment in communication -- an attempt to use as many of the languages i know, learn a new one and to explore communication without language. vamshi is my partner in crime. we will be dedicating a day each to a language and then have 3 days for other experiments in communication. on one day, we will not speak at all. yes, that's right, no talking, nada, zip, nothing! sounds of silence will hum in the air! for those that know me, you may as well bury me alive. on another day, we will speak without looking at each other. we chose so to help us focus on our usage of voice during communication. finally, we will spend one day speaking 2 different languages at given point in time, i.e. the responder in a conversation must choose a language different from that chosen by the initiator of a conversation.

last week was the first time we did this. it was revealing in many ways --

- i could stay silent for a whole day, until v pushed me to speak!. it made me quiet and observant. i also found that i "thought" less that day. 

- speaking without looking at the other person was simply frustrating. i had the strange feeling of being cheated all the time. i felt like i had a half-baked deal. for me, looking is just so integral to talking.

- the question came up as to what we should do when we are amidst other people. as expected, we concluded to speak the language they spoke in. it will sometimes break our experiment for that day; but hey, its an experiment not a law and breaking it is an experience too!

- i love trying to learn a new language. it provides an interaction challenge that i really enjoy. it also provides for some great humor.

this is week 2 and we are yet to begin the experiment for the week. i wait with bated breath and in some ways have only that. i don't get to speak tomorrow ...

yoga like i have never done it

i pride myself for being a long time yoga practitioner. granted that my practice hasn't always been consistent but it has been long withstanding - wouldn't you say that 26 years is a long time? i started when i was 6, thanks to the school that i went to. no matter when and how i go away from yoga, i always return. my current return has been humbling. i am now doing yoga with katerina wen. katerina is intense, to say the least. her classes are supposed to be 1.5 hours long but they run over and the one i am going to this week is 2 hours long. those are by far some of the longest yoga sessions in the yoga industry. then, there is the way in which she does ashtang yoga. not only does every pose flow from the previous one, it flows so that you do a whole set of poses on one side of the body and then do them all on the other side, without ever realizing that you switched sides. as my friend melinda describes, the flow is so natural, it is like doing martial arts. finally, there is the wickedly intense nature of the poses. twists, balances, bends, all come together in katerinas unique style to make this one of the most challenging yoga class i have ever done. the picture with this posting is one of the poses i am getting better at. one of these days, i am hoping i will have my body suspended like katerina's is.

this week, katerina is out and her teacher andrey lappa is filling in. this wasn't planned but is being offered for the dedicated group of students that follow katerina around and wouldn't want to miss a single class. i am lucky to be able to go and excited for it!

here but not here

It's been forever since I wrote on the blog. I have had lots to reflect on but no time to do it. We moved and have been getting oriented in the new home. Speaking of reflecting, let me first chime in on this move. I searched and searched and searched for a place on the eastside of Seattle. No home made me happy. Many came close but none fit the bill. As the days passed, I resigned to one of them. However, the water in my stomach just didn't settle. Then, one day, I flipped, somersaulted, a complete 360 degrees and decided that it was time to live in Seattle. The reasons are not important. What is though, is that it came in a flash and when it did, it made complete sense. We searched for homes over the internet one evening and settled for a short list of 5 homes to look at the next day. We saw only 2, the second one being the one we are in now. It seems ironic that weeks of search had yielded options that never felt right. And, then, in 24 hours we found the perfect option.

After the first walk through our current home, we just knew it was the one. It just felt right. And, that is the key learning for me. When it comes to big decisions, it isn't mind-wrecking analysis that yields answers. Instead, it needs to feel right and when the perfect option appears, our thin-slicing brain (Blink, anyone?) knows it!