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Time for an update
Just because it's chronologically first--on Friday I skipped TKD and went to Victor Hugo to pay our respects, pick up books at half-price and say goodbye to Blue the cat. Well, we found some books, and Blue spurned our affection and love as usual, so in that we were content. But the bitterness in that place was a real turnoff nonetheless. They had this weird display of a typewriter with a sheet of paper in it formatted in a typewriter-like font, and it talked about basically how neat typewriters were. And then it said "As befits the modern preference for style over substance, this page was not typed, but formatted on a computer." Really now... what? And what's up with the bitterness? One way of outputting text is nifty and a monument to human ingenuity, but the next has gone too far and is some kind of cheat? I can understand nostalgia, but if you're going to get all moralistic about one particular level of technology, well... how can you? How can you pick which level to uphold above all others? There's something about that store that severely disturbs me now... so their closing has become doubly sad, because it's one thing to lose something you love, and something else entirely to stop loving something. Both are happening now, but the second more than the first.
Next, the reason I didn't post about my life Thursday or Friday. Last week, right when we were about to call a lawyer, we found someone who wanted to take the apartment. We celebrated, but were not about to breathe easy or tell anyone until a lease was signed, so I spent Thursday and Friday just waiting (in a terrible mood, for various reasons). To keep a short story short, the landlords completely botched the deal with her and she backed out. We have a letter from her basically saying that it was all their fault and she totally wanted the apartment until they freaked her out (which I haven't read, nor do I want to; but I know enough to know it's prime-grade lawyer fodder). To add to the mess, the actual work on the apartment's kitchen still isn't quite done, and although they say it's getting done today, the landlords have stalled on our request for a written statement that it will be done by May 1. Fuckers.
So, tomorrow HLM is calling Ed, the lawyer we know and like from the condo-buying days. He's an expert in local residential law and can guide us through the process of breaking the lease. It's probably not worth it to actually sue to get our deposit back, though it might be worth threatening... and yes, we realize that our timing on this is ridiculous since we almost certainly could still find someone for May 15 or June 1 at this point. But HLM is tired of having his day interrupted by apartment business all the time, and neither of us wants to deal with the landlords anymore. At any rate, I would request please no commenting on this unless you, too, are a lawyer with expertise in residential law. This is one of the nastier situations I've been involved in in my adult life, with mistakes having been made on all sides. The sooner it can end, by any means, the better, at this point.
Right after I got the news on the woman backing out (Saturday morning, a fine setup for the weekend), I headed off to a double TKD class, went into sparring already tired from the 11:00 class, and got injured by a punk-ass green belt who doesn't understand that "light sparring" means "don't kick hard enough to hurt people." She hurt my lower shin muscles, but it's almost like an ankle injury because that's where the motion is limited. I dropped like a rock and sat out the rest of the class, then limped home at a ridiculous fraction of my normal pace and spent the afternoon on the couch. Mercifully, it stopped hurting after a couple of hours and today I can walk almost normally as long as I go slowly. I don't think![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bluechromis and jg26 could even tell, when they stopped by to put a motorcycle in my garage--which is good for some reason... uh, because otherwise they might have seen weakness and mugged me? Ha. I dunno. I'm just glad to be walking semi-normally again, and also glad that tomorrow is my rest day. Oddly, the ankle seemed to downright thrive on carrying weights around today (though I still skipped squats out of general caution), but resting it can't be a bad idea.
The cool news is that my dad continues to sound better and better. He called today, and told me his new lady friend's name is Karen. She has a little cabin up near Glacier National Park, and Dad's helping her to care for her mother, who has Alzheimer's. I worry slightly that he's getting himself into another situation where he fancies himself the hero/victim and demands a lot of gratitude, but then maybe he has learned better, after all.... and the news that he's cooking--bread, pizza, and so forth--is downright wonderful given his history of giving himself malnutrition-type diseases. For the first time I could start to feel some actual hope for him having a future.
As for those truths-in-the-world, I've been getting more out of my Yoga Journal subscription lately than I have for a while. Much of what it usually says sounds like mushy claptrap to me, admittedly, but... I do believe in applying the same principles to things large and things small, and I believe in balance, and I wish I were ultra-flexible. So every now and then what yoga writers have to say can cut through my mind like heat. There's one quote, from last month, I want to make into a separate post. This month there was an article on ahimsa (nonviolence), which is one of the eight basic principles of yoga-the-philosophy.
Although we may practice diligently to... end suffering by following the doctrine of ahimsa, there are times we get discouraged as we look around and see the omnipresence of violence. We find ourselves wondering, "Is ahimsa really possible? Can we really end suffering in this world? What can we actually do?"
The Jains [a particular extremist yogic group] teach that what we should do is simply the best we can. In their terms, we should work in each moment to maximize reverence and minimize violence. That means we go along day by day, mindfully watching, calmly acknowledging the world the way it is, and releasing attachment to the fruits of our labors. We breathe. We practice. We walk as carefully on the earth as we can, given our perspective and level of awareness. And that's it. That's all.
The article then, and this is the part that really got me, goes on to discuss four specific (and hip-opening) yoga poses, and what nonviolence, greed, and a few other things can mean in those poses, and how to avoid violence to the self in pushing too hard, forcing a stretch the body is not ready for and so forth. The small, the large, the internal, the external--but all the same principles, all the time. Very nice. Yes, there are things I like a lot about yoga sometimes.
And now... I have cleared off my desk and HLM is gone to orchestra practice. Hmm... set up the sewing machine? Draw comics? Play piano? Actually do some yoga instead of just reading about it? Hmm, decisions. I love Sunday nights. :)
Next, the reason I didn't post about my life Thursday or Friday. Last week, right when we were about to call a lawyer, we found someone who wanted to take the apartment. We celebrated, but were not about to breathe easy or tell anyone until a lease was signed, so I spent Thursday and Friday just waiting (in a terrible mood, for various reasons). To keep a short story short, the landlords completely botched the deal with her and she backed out. We have a letter from her basically saying that it was all their fault and she totally wanted the apartment until they freaked her out (which I haven't read, nor do I want to; but I know enough to know it's prime-grade lawyer fodder). To add to the mess, the actual work on the apartment's kitchen still isn't quite done, and although they say it's getting done today, the landlords have stalled on our request for a written statement that it will be done by May 1. Fuckers.
So, tomorrow HLM is calling Ed, the lawyer we know and like from the condo-buying days. He's an expert in local residential law and can guide us through the process of breaking the lease. It's probably not worth it to actually sue to get our deposit back, though it might be worth threatening... and yes, we realize that our timing on this is ridiculous since we almost certainly could still find someone for May 15 or June 1 at this point. But HLM is tired of having his day interrupted by apartment business all the time, and neither of us wants to deal with the landlords anymore. At any rate, I would request please no commenting on this unless you, too, are a lawyer with expertise in residential law. This is one of the nastier situations I've been involved in in my adult life, with mistakes having been made on all sides. The sooner it can end, by any means, the better, at this point.
Right after I got the news on the woman backing out (Saturday morning, a fine setup for the weekend), I headed off to a double TKD class, went into sparring already tired from the 11:00 class, and got injured by a punk-ass green belt who doesn't understand that "light sparring" means "don't kick hard enough to hurt people." She hurt my lower shin muscles, but it's almost like an ankle injury because that's where the motion is limited. I dropped like a rock and sat out the rest of the class, then limped home at a ridiculous fraction of my normal pace and spent the afternoon on the couch. Mercifully, it stopped hurting after a couple of hours and today I can walk almost normally as long as I go slowly. I don't think
bluechromis and jg26 could even tell, when they stopped by to put a motorcycle in my garage--which is good for some reason... uh, because otherwise they might have seen weakness and mugged me? Ha. I dunno. I'm just glad to be walking semi-normally again, and also glad that tomorrow is my rest day. Oddly, the ankle seemed to downright thrive on carrying weights around today (though I still skipped squats out of general caution), but resting it can't be a bad idea.The cool news is that my dad continues to sound better and better. He called today, and told me his new lady friend's name is Karen. She has a little cabin up near Glacier National Park, and Dad's helping her to care for her mother, who has Alzheimer's. I worry slightly that he's getting himself into another situation where he fancies himself the hero/victim and demands a lot of gratitude, but then maybe he has learned better, after all.... and the news that he's cooking--bread, pizza, and so forth--is downright wonderful given his history of giving himself malnutrition-type diseases. For the first time I could start to feel some actual hope for him having a future.
As for those truths-in-the-world, I've been getting more out of my Yoga Journal subscription lately than I have for a while. Much of what it usually says sounds like mushy claptrap to me, admittedly, but... I do believe in applying the same principles to things large and things small, and I believe in balance, and I wish I were ultra-flexible. So every now and then what yoga writers have to say can cut through my mind like heat. There's one quote, from last month, I want to make into a separate post. This month there was an article on ahimsa (nonviolence), which is one of the eight basic principles of yoga-the-philosophy.
Although we may practice diligently to... end suffering by following the doctrine of ahimsa, there are times we get discouraged as we look around and see the omnipresence of violence. We find ourselves wondering, "Is ahimsa really possible? Can we really end suffering in this world? What can we actually do?"
The Jains [a particular extremist yogic group] teach that what we should do is simply the best we can. In their terms, we should work in each moment to maximize reverence and minimize violence. That means we go along day by day, mindfully watching, calmly acknowledging the world the way it is, and releasing attachment to the fruits of our labors. We breathe. We practice. We walk as carefully on the earth as we can, given our perspective and level of awareness. And that's it. That's all.
The article then, and this is the part that really got me, goes on to discuss four specific (and hip-opening) yoga poses, and what nonviolence, greed, and a few other things can mean in those poses, and how to avoid violence to the self in pushing too hard, forcing a stretch the body is not ready for and so forth. The small, the large, the internal, the external--but all the same principles, all the time. Very nice. Yes, there are things I like a lot about yoga sometimes.
And now... I have cleared off my desk and HLM is gone to orchestra practice. Hmm... set up the sewing machine? Draw comics? Play piano? Actually do some yoga instead of just reading about it? Hmm, decisions. I love Sunday nights. :)