Virginia/DC/Maryland

As many of you know, I am spending my summer in the east with Kathryn Tabone, Deepal Doshi, and Toby Mulford. We are all part of the Traveling Players Ensemble, a group that works with middle and high schooler to rehearse and perform Moliere and Shakespeare in the great outdoors. Today's high temperature reached 89º, with the humidity at 55%. Well, you can guess how that made me feel--TERRIFIC!

My DAI ensemble knows what I hard time I have in cold weather, and for me even Blue Lake is cold. My bones and joints ache, my feet never warm up, and it's always a guess as to how many layers I need to put on before setting off from home. Here, although it's hot and will only get hotter, I am loving it! I don't hurt, and that means I can exercise without excessive planning, and without that pesky pain.

I have been jogging or riding my friend Devora's stationary bike every other morning for 40 minutes. I have also been getting in my Joe-style push-ups, as well as sit-ups, leg-lifts, and tricep dips. After three weeks I have begun to do a yoga routine, based on two cds I have essentially memorized. My goal is to alternate the yoga with tai chi. I do all of these workouts before getting to the bus stop at 8:05am. Being a morning person, this is not hard. It's best for me if I do all of these workouts in the morning, because by evening my focus is more scattered, I have chores to attend to, and I am fairly beat.

Lucky for me my gig here is active. Kathryn and I are working together--yea!--and we are putting our Sganarelle group through some high-energy Dell'Arte curriculum. There is daily practice every morning, which can range from 20 minutes to an hour. They have been skipping, polar-bearing, Spiderman-ing, leg-lifting, undulating, walking in the space, doing push-ups, spiraling, you name it. We have also brought out other Dell'Arte games, such as the one we did with Ronlin in which there are two balls, a line of folk keeping a rhythm with their hands and legs, and two outside positions that form a triangle with the line. Remember this one? It's such a a terrific game for all sorts of reasons: ensemble development, articulation, accuracy, stamina, rhythm, speed, care for ones fellows. Anyway, we as counselors/directors take part in all of the games and practices, so we receive all of the myriad benefits the kids are receiving.

I have been trying to get a better handle on what I eat, and to that end I was told about a website called www.loseit.com. Ostensibly for those trying to lose weight (and it seems like a good tool for that), I have been using it to clock what it is I am actually putting in my mouth, to note any deficits, any excesses, and to track my exercise. For those who like such organizational, minutiae-based tools, it's a good one. If that kind of stuff drives you nuts, best to skip it.

My main issue seems to be sleep. I hadn't had a good night sleep since the first night I arrived, and that was only because of the catatonia from travel and end-of-the-year fatigue. Finally last night I put my head at a different end of the bed. Somehow that helped, and I slept well for 5 and 1/2 hours. Fingers crossed for tonight...