Yes friends, it’s true-- I started out 2013 by attending my first-ever yoga classes! And while there have been quite a few poses (or should I say “contortions”) that my 50-year-old Tinman body has refused to perform, I’ve luckily not been the only newbie in class. We have a wonderful instructor who not only guides us through the physical exercises, but the spiritual aspects and meditation as well. I can now understand why people get so completely addicted to yoga…I think I’m getting hooked on it too!
Winter in Chicago has been unusually dry—we’ve only had 1” of snow so far this season, so that can only mean one thing: massive blizzards in February! Well, I’m poised with my orange plastic snow shovel—bring it on!
To break up the winter doldrums, my mom snagged tickets for the family to go see the hottest musical playing in downtown Chicago right now, The Book of Mormon. It was created by the same guys who wrote South Park for cable TV. So, needless to say, BOM was every bit as outrageous and daring of social conventions as that show, but it was also quite funny, heartwarming, and entertaining.
The story is about 2 eager-to-please newly-graduated Mormon missionaries who get sent from lily-white Salt Lake City to a mission in the far reaches of Uganda. The script and most song lyrics are definitely rated “R” and The Book of Mormon will likely never grace a high school gymnasium or church basement production in years to come, but it’s a highly entertaining show for adults, so if you happen to get the chance to see it in Chicago or New York, you’ll have a great time!
Here’s the cute number that opens the show (that I’ve been humming for days now!):
In other news this month, Millie celebrated her 8th birthday with a trip to our local Petsmart to pick out some new toys and to charm the checkout clerk to give her a handful of free Milkbones (the clerk obliged).
And, some even better news—my mom’s new chemo treatments are showing good improvements, so we’re now hoping to do a short trip to somewhere warm and sunny in the next month or two.
With all the time at home this winter, I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching and life planning. Maybe this is a normal thing for 50-somethings to go through? Or maybe it’s indicative of my life the past decade: other than my RV travels, my home and work life have been pretty much on auto-pilot —comfortable, predictable, and frankly…pretty darn boring. So, I’m resolving to change that in 2013. I want my next 10 years (if I’m lucky enough to get them), to be about new life experiences, focusing my time and talents on things I’m truly passionate about, and striving to contribute more than I consume. Does that sound like a familiar refrain of a blogger on the cusp of transitioning to a full-time RVing lifestyle? Well, yep, that’s now me. It should, indeed, be an interesting year!