This morning started out horrible... The Husband went surfing, I packed all my stuff, he drove in the driveway at 8:05, my flight was at 9:30... in the car on the way to the airport I decided I needed to tell him how I felt about the "late notice" gift last night... the one he bought at 6pm and gave to me before we went to bed.. it felt like an afterthought and I didn't feel good about it. THe conversation turned horrible... we ended up in a big fight. I got out of the car at the curb, he unloaded my stuff, I said goodbye to The Daughter and as he drove away I realized OH SHIT my yoga mat is in the car still!!!!! I frantically called his cell phone... no answer... he clearly didn't have it with him... by the time he got home, I was near boarding time.... I was bummed... I almost broke into tears, not necessarily over the yoga mat but just the day's events and the stress of emotion.

In the end The Husband drove my mat all the way to Irvine (a good 45 minutes to an hour for those you not from here) so that a friend who is coming up for the same conference could bring it with him... I'm sure this man's wife thought "mhmm... yea... okay... the husband is driving up a yoga mat all the way up here.....

I was, however, so vested in the idea of practicing this afternoon on Mother's Day that I stopped at Whole Foods on my way to the hotel and bought the $17 Gaiam mat.... I found the perfect place to practice, in a sunny spot on the pool deck (enclosed), it was the perfect heat, perfect humidity... the mat however was so slippery that I literally slipped all the way off it in the first downward dog. I got a towel.. that was worse. Determined I tried whatever I could.... only I flailed and had trouble with the mat and gave up. I really wanted to do some backbending so I sprung up in to a backbend, my hands slipped out on the mat and my head hit the textured concrete that I moved my head off to the side to avoid impact and totally cranked my neck and hurt myself.

Who said the mat wasn't important?

My mat got here... it's 9:30 and the sun is just going down. I have to get up at like 4:45 in order to make practice in Seattle.... the rest of the people I know are downstairs having a lot of alcohol... they said I was "too good" that I came upstairs to go to bed instead of doing the conference circuit...

I'm really excited... I decided I am going to try really hard to "enjoy" this conference and not be drunk through half of it so Wednesday night I booked myself a 9th row seat to Cirque Du Soleil... I can't WAIT.... I'm a little nervous 'cause I've never done something like this alone... but I'm excited nonetheless.