10/10/10

A day of 10/10/10 happens once every thousand years. It was a pleasant Sunday just like any other, but then a day just like it won't happen ever again.

My friend Shayna told me about a "diary project" by Irene (Zee) Zahava that would collect the entries of many Ithacans, and make a collage of sorts to see what typical Ithacans did on 10/10/10. I may be late in entering, and I can't resist letting my writings be known through my blog posts...

10/10/10 was a day of hanging out with three awesome friends Colwyn, Shayna, and Stephen. In the morning I woke up rather early for myself on a Sunday to go to Yoga Club (9 am, I know, I am lame). Yoga club was formed by my three awesome friends to practice Ashtanga Yoga. As a person new to Yoga, I am still learning how to control and live with my body and breath, and to deal with my very limited flexibility. Today was the first day I joined Yoga Club since they moved to a larger space at Jillian's Corners in the Commons. I am very glad to have this awesome Yoga club to go to and share a practice with friends. Although my legs were sore from hiking the day before, I enjoyed the stretching and breathing and the meditation at the very end.

After a challenging yoga practice, we went for lunch at an "Asian fusion" restaurant in the Commons. The restaurant serves Thai, Japanese, and Korean, and then bubble tea (which I claim to be Taiwanese). Ravenous from our workout we delighted in devouring our food, and then after our hunger had eased we exchanged gossip and philosophy and childhood stories and even thoughts on PMS. Shayna and I had green tea bubble tea, and we both agreed that it is the best dessert and drink rolled into one.

We hung out outside in the Commons after lunch, had coffee and drinks while chatting about all things under the sun. We watched cute little kids run around in the open space, and Colwyn and I longed for the days when we could run around and scream without feeling weird about it. So as we were leaving for our next destination, we put our yoga mats on our heads, and did some light running around, being silly. We discovered Stephen could hold his Yoga mat an amazingly long time on his head while walking.

After a good bake in the sun, we headed to the public library next since Shayna wanted to tell us about the diary project, and I wanted to find travel guides for upcoming trips to DC and Toronto. We sat in the library, Shayna writing about her day so far, me excitedly reading about my Toronto trip that is more than a month away, and Colwyn and Stephen drawing pictures.

We split ways after our quiet time in the library, Shayna had to head home and take care of pets, and I had to go to the garden to take care of my vegetables. My garden was in disarray due to 2 weeks of neglect, but I was pleased that the plants were still alive despite the cold weather of the weeks past.

Colwyn and Stephen invited me to have juice at Colwyn's place after my short gardening excursion. And with Colwyn's fancy juicer, we made a wonderful carrot, beet, apple, orange and ginger juice, which was spicy and refreshing and just the thing our thirsty bodies needed after our morning Yoga practice.

During our conversation about cabbages and kings and Colwyn's dvd collection, the vegan Stephen asked me if I loved animals. I, the shameless meat eater, pondered the question, and asked "I don't know what it means to love animals." How do we humans who take so much from the earth, find a balance we think is right? How do I, who is a foodie, who loves the taste of meat, become more responsible for what I eat and put in my body? These were very hard questions, and our discussion lightly grazed the surface of my troubles, gently stirring what I have been pondering for quite some time.

I went home for a light dinner, and later again joined Shayna and Colwyn for a warm evening of chatter and tea, surrounded by pets. Our chatter drifted from gossip to relationships to dating to Spanish... and sleepily we concluded the evening of 10/10/10 with me driving home at midnight, happy to have had the company of interesting friends throughout the day.