Day 24: lift!

What an adventure. So this is yesterday. I drove up to Anacortes with two dharma friends. It was a GORGEOUS day. So clear--you could see Olympics, you could see Cascades, you could see Mt. Baker, and there was scant pollution in the air so you could see them clear and crisp like they were RIGHT THERE! We took backroads through the Skagit Valley and saw the tulip fields in bloom. Wow. Until I saw these for myself, I was kind of like: Hey so what, red tulips, I seen 'em. But friend, 4800 tulips together is WHAT. It's very wow. It's worth seeing.

The teachings, given by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.*, were wonderful. And the people at the dharma group up there are so lovely. After the teaching, one of my friends agreed to drive Dr. Hopkins' car (which is actually his former wife's car) down to Seattle, saving him from doing it next week. (He lives in Vancouver, BC.) But since I'd picked up this friend (Mark) from the park and ride, I would need to follow him down to this particular house in Seattle where said vehicle had to be deposited. Except after the teaching we drove over to look at the dharma group's center, Tara Tibetan Buddhist Center, and Mark never showed up. (Turns out I gave him bad directions or he couldn't find it, whatever. So he takes off back to Seattle at like 12:20.) Surmising he and Dr. Hopkins had gone to lunch, Jeff and I had a relatively leisurely lunch at El Jinete, then left for Seattle at about 1:30. We'd left Mark all kind of voicemails, but they were (unbeknownst to us) on his home phone, as he does not have a cell phone. He'd driven all the way back to his house in Magnolia, and it took him 30 minutes from the time he called us from his house to drive back to the I-5 park & ride, where we met. Then we caravaned up to Lake City to deposit the car. Then mark got back in my car. At this point it is 3:42 by the clock in my car. Having already confirmed with my sister by phone (she checked the Intarweb for me) that the last Bikram class I could take in Seattle that day was at 4:00 at the Sweatbox, I was at least going to give it a damned good try getting from Lake City to the heart of Capitol Hill in about 16 minutes, in Saturday afternoon traffic (for those of you in other cities: no, that is not a joke!) THE FIRST TWENTY-THREE DAYS COULD NOT BE IN VAIN! So we drove straight there. Took the freeway even though there was a slowdown. We got there at 4:01 by my clock, which I remembered halfway there is about three minutes fast. I jumped out, grabbed my stuff, waved goodbye to my friends, (Mark took Jeff home and then back to the P&R where HIS car was, and left my car there and took the key, which was okay because I have a spare.) I got in the door with about two minutes to spare.

Why, oh why, and HOW does life get so complicated?!

Anyway, I had a very good class. I remembered to lift my chest in camel, and only spaced out one set, of Gudurasana, Eagle pose. I liked the teacher, Nina, very much. The air exchange in there is very nice--but I felt like it was almost too cool. I don't know if it was the temperature, but the class felt EASY! First time I've honestly been able to say that. And yes! The Lumi towel is grippy, wet or dry. I like it so well. I really need to get another.

Afterward, I sat outside a coffee shop in the glorious spring sun, called MSH, and as he was on his way home from golf in Redmond, he came and picked me up. (He probably would have anyway, but I point it out because it was FORTUITOUS.)

Then we had dinner at the Mandarin Chef. And had green onion pancakes. And oh yes! They were good.

*He was H.H. the Dalai Lama's interpreter for many years, translates his books into English and sort of writes with him and he's a retired professor of Tibetan Studies from the University of Virginia.