So I got the bitching out of my system and now with approx 7 days left, I have once again swung back to “I don’t wanna go back to America yet!”  I’m sitting here on my veranda at 8:20 in the morning and I have already eaten breakfast and finished a bucket of laundry.  I am wrapped up in drinking my second cup of tea, wearing my sandals, 2 pairs of sox, 2 pairs of pants, 4 shirts and my fingerless gloves that I bought off of one of the nuns (she knits gloves and hats) and listening to the chanting all around me in preparation for their exams on the 18^th and I don’t wanna leave!  It’s perfectly lovely out today.  It’s a sunny 48F outside and in, of course.  Hahahahhaha.  I couldn’t care less.  I’m going to go for my walk and then go try to eradicate some viruses off of the new nunnery computer that were put there by some monastic angel that has no clue what a computer virus is.  How can you get mad at them?  It’s not their job to know of such worldly things!

 My return to long-distance running…..

While doing my regular walking here, I’ve noticed that oh so familiar feeling returning to me.  I have the undeniable urge to run again.  Even have dreams about it.  My exactly 2-year hiatus from my sneakers gave me insight into my physical and emotional needs for running.  I just meditate better when I run, plain and simple.  I won’t be going for those 18 to 26-mile jaunts anymore because I realize the point of it wasn’t for some dumb award at the end of a race telling me what a good runner I was.  I am supposed to be running for myself because that’s what I love most and it’s how I give birth to my next me.  My hella-sciatica will be kept in check with regular yoga, now that I have a good grasp of it and why it really does work so well.  I have gained great knowledge from friends that are holistic practitioners and I paid attention!  In 11 days I brave the Day After Christmas sales so that I can start running around the reservoir by my parent’s house and watching the buffalo roam ASAP.  I wonder if maybe those foot/bike paths were finished while I’ve been away.  And please, don’t anyone go panicking and trying to talk me out of it.  I realize that when I quit running two years ago, I was kind of a crippled mess and I said it would be my last time, but I can’t say no.  I’ve had a 16-year love/hate relationship with my right leg (especially since the great Diamond Head knee blow out of ’97) and I’m determined to get it right this time.  And if I have trouble I’ll slow down….I swear! 

 A BIG THANK YOU TO STEVE BAUMGARTNER!!!!!!!!!

Sopris West’s ever reliable and sweet Steve B (not to be confused with Steve C in the   Design department) picked up my down comforter and pillows from the dry cleaners last week.  Guh.  Yeah, I know I’m a bit of a loon but the dry cleaners were the last thing on my mind when I left Longmont.  They’d been there since the day I moved from the horse farm into town….February?  If he keeps them I wouldn’t hold it against him.  They’re super nice and he’d be getting quite a nice set for the $50 it took him to get them out of hock.  Who do you know selling a king-size down comforter with matching pillows for 50 bucks?  Oh well.  They’re just things.  He DID of course offer to send them to me…..I’m 50/50 on it right now.  I’d have him send them to Patrick but Patrick’s got kitties and a girlfriend to keep him warm so I’m not too worried about him.  We shall see. 

 CJ!  Find Steve a girlfriend already!  

 The Weather

 In case anyone out there has reading comprehension issues, it’s cooling off here.  I was remiss in bringing two pair of long underwear so I wash the top and bottoms on alternating days.  It’s been dropping about 1/3 of a degree per day and when the sun shines it only tops out at 55 or so by 2 pm.  This morning it was 47 in my room when I woke up.  There were 5 solid days of clouds and rain then back to sunshine yesterday and today.  The humidity has also been on the rise, now hovering around 59% give or take.  When the sun shines, there is a mad rush to the showers.  Everyone here savors her hot showers, with the cloudy weather upon us.  I’ve been abusing my water kettle these past few days for bucket showers and laundry.  I silently thank Lobsang Chodon every time.  I get the feeling I won’t be jonesing to go camping anytime soon, and then again I might go on retreat this coming summer in the mountains of the great North West.  Never know.

 NUNS!

On the nun front, I’m starting to get serious flack for leaving and I want to cave to it.  The girls frown when they hear I’m leaving and when I mention my intentions to return in July of 2009, they point out that July 2008 is much closer and I should try for that instead.  If I knew I had the money to keep Sallie Mae quiet, I’d be back in a flash.  BUT I have some HUGE projects to sink into upon my return to America and many nuns are counting on me SO my time for selfishness has come to an end.   

 I desperately want to pack Rinchen, Ganden and Lobsang in my bag and bring them home with me so that I have someone to talk to when I’m back in the land of high-strung, competitive women.  I know that I will cringe the first time I am confronted by a big, strong, perfectly put together, in-your-face business woman.  I will also feel compassion for her that she feels she needs to be that way so others consider her “successful” in life.  I used to be her.  I know.   

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