In One Day, vol 3

• Yoga with a new instructor who actually said, "What you're trying to do is squat, using only the tips of your toes and then placing your hands on the floor in front of you, slowly put your weight on your elbows until you lift yourself off the floor." To which I thought, "No, that is definitely not what I'm trying to do."
• Breakfast at a small cafe with French accents and an actual fire burning in the fireplace . . . in Houston!
• Shopping for shoes and bras . . . not my favorite adventures but in the list of "has to be done some time"
• Cleaning my apartment . . . the kind of cleaning where you actually lift things and wipe, sweep, vacuum, etc., the kind where my new bagless vacuum cleaner now looks like an old bagless and only dear friends would be allowed to see how very dirty my place was, the kind that took 3 HOURS
• Helping a friend pack to move and hearing wonderful stories behind stuff we were packing
• Attending a Vietnamese wedding reception with a friend who is an instructor to the brother of the groom and therefore merited the invitation along with 300 or more other folks who enjoyed 9 (!) courses of Asian foods from one of the premiere restaurants in the city . . . all while seated with more Anglo friends of the bride (a seating mistake that proved fun) and hearing the following types of music performed by various artists (all excellent) -- pop English, pop Vietnamese, country Vietnamese, jazz, opera, rock and roll. The event took 4 1/2 hours and every minute made me smile, laugh, think, or say a word of thanks that my culture didn't require that much from me on my wedding day (two ceremonies, three changes of clothes at the reception, a video made at each table with the couple as the "stars" thanking the guests for coming, receiving numerous gift plaques, dancing, and smiling . . . always smiling).