My body is all out of whack... I woke up yesterday feeling like a dried up corn husk and dreading the fact that I had to get up and go out in that cold Chicago air to make it to the offices of my hosts. I have to say my impression of Chicago is not such a positive one. That place is frigid and frigid is only a good word when used to describe a refrigerator. Frigid. Frigid. Frigid. My lips were sucked dry of their moisture, my cuticles were going to fall off, my eyes were wondering what happened to their tears and my hamstrings wondered if I was going to keep us here forever. My hips, however, as always when I am closer to the east coast than the west, were much more open. I worked most of the morning and my host took me on a walk from the Chicago River somewhere to Michigan Avenue to see Millenium Park, to the State Building to stand in the middle and spin in circles (like some typical tourist), across the Daily something or other patio where the wind blew like we were in a typhoon and finally back to the office where we wrapped things up and Tiffany joined us after checking out of the W Lakeshore (which, by the way, is actually the least well kept up W I've ever stayed in).

Our hosts gave us the afternoon off to shop. I'm not much of a shopper when I figure I can visit the Nordies down the street when I get home anyway. Not to mention that I don't think either of us had the desire to walk around in the frigid cold city. Instead, we broke out the yoga mat in the conference room and decided to mess around. Our original goal was to get me up from a backbend and get Tiffany up in Urdhva Mukha Paschimottanasana. We ended up messing around with handstands, knocking the walls around which I'm sure made all the uber-geek guys in the other room wonder what the hell was happening between the shaking walls and the giggles and then exclamations of pain as either one of us did stupid ass things -- like Tiffany dropping me on my head from a backbend (at least I've finally experienced it) or Tiffany trying to do a handspring something or other in the space of 10 feet. So we spent an hour or so messing around and then gave a demonstration of uniquely poorly demonstrated yoga poses to our host... including Dwi Pada on my part into Tittibhasana, parsva bakasana, Tiffany's vrrkchasana which was pulled off beautifully by the way along with grabbing her ankles in a backbend... I'm sure, in the end, he just thinks between our yoga in the hotel lobby and our yoga in the conference room that we are a couple of California Princess Freaks.

Finally on the airplane we listened to the music of The Bandages and waited anxiously for the lights of Balboa Park to pass under our plane and lead us to the runway and back to real weather. I've never been so happy to get off a plane and feel the warm Southern California air on my arms. I immediately felt the moisture coming back to my lips, my cuticles, my eyes....

The bummer is that my body and my time clock is completely screwed up. I got up this morning to see the kids and craved more time in bed. Into my work clothes, into the office, however, I came... conference calls literally all day though I'm hoping to perhaps skip out of here for maybe an 45 minute practice today... I need a practice or next week is going to really kill me from a stamina point of view.

I thought a lot last night as I was trying to fall asleep about business, playing the game, not playing the game. I guess I do view the whole business world as somewhat of game. I'm in a meeting with my boss, I gotta figure out his angle, play his game. I'm in a meeting with a vendor, I gotta figure out their angle, play their game. I'm in a meeting with a client, I gotta figure out their angle, play their game. It's all about relationships... it's all about figuring out how to interact with the multitude of people you come across in the game of life and life includes business, yoga, family and, oftentimes, some cross over of the two. I am fortunate. I can fit in in just about any situation and this ability gives me the extra benefit of being able to make people feel comfortable in their own environments but I always feel like I just ran a marathon and it takes me forever to process it. Before I practiced yoga, I used to take all this much more personally.... now I find that I'm much more capable of removing myself from the experience. It isn't me and it doesn't really make me anymore like it might have before.