How you roll with the punches

posted by Melissa

Note the intense tai chi concentration

Amy and I went to our first tai chi class today.  Amy mentioned it in her last post, "Where Legends are Born."  We took a lovely, chatty drive out to Bothell in King county.  It's about 25 minutes or so from Capitol Hill...just enough time to catch up and process life as we know it.  As we walked into Third Place Books, I felt nervous.  I was nervous to meet new people, I was nervous to be the newbie, I was nervous to ask people if they were the tai chi crew.  I suppose we looked lost enough that they found us, or maybe Amy asked, I can't remember.

We proceeded to head downstairs, in this mall-like building that houses the book store.  Turned out someone else had dibs to use the space that the tai chi people usually use for their practice, so we "rolled with the punches" and moved to another space, a more public space.  At fist it was hard for me to engage in the slow warm up exercises, while people were walking by heading to the ballet school down the hall or upstairs to join in the a capella festivities that outed us from the enclosed private space.  Slowly, very slowly I was able to let go a bit of my inner monologue.

"I wonder what the Chinese people walking by are thinking of all of us whiteys doing tai chi?"  

"I think that lady looked at my belly, does she think I am pregnant?  Great, after all this yoga people still flipping think I look pregnant."  

"Remember to breathe.  I am thirsty.  I had too much coffee.  I want more coffee.  Remember to breathe.  Relax my shoulders.  Wonder where those people are going?  Remember to breathe.  Shit, pay attention, Melissa."

I was finally able to free myself from my own worst critic when we paired up into a listening exercise.  I so wanted to run across the room and pair myself with Amy, but

Welcome to March: Where Legends are Born

Posted by Amy Baranski

This month was totally my doing. I know zilch about martial arts, but I'm ready to karate chop my way (if not with a ballet like grace)and break this month in half.

Seattle seems to offer several good options for those serious students interested in Tai Chi. I'm finding that many of them require a longer term commitment and more tuition than I'm willing to give at the moment.

Melissa thankfully found a free Tai Chi class at Third Place Books on Saturdays. I want to go this weekend - anyone care to join? Also, today I'm making a call to Seattle Kung Fu Club to see if a beginner can drop in on a few classes.

In the meantime I intend to watch martial arts films ad nauseam with Melissa for the remaining 28 days of March. Starting with Tai Chi Master.




xo - Amy

drenched in pixels

posted by Melissa


Amy and I had an impromptu meeting yesterday, it started because of the need to celebrate a tiny technical victory that I achieved.  The picture you see to your right, with us holding our hand drawn (and one print out) tai chi signs, was always showing up too big and overlapping the box it belongs in, or it was too small and hard to see.  After hours, seriously, I finally remember how we did it before and figured it out.  For some unknown reason, you can only get it the right size by saving the photo to a picasa web album, and then copying the link and pasting it into Blogger.  So, if may of you bloggers are reading this, there is your tip for the day.  I just saved you 2 hours!

Not the sky we woke up to.

We had set our alarms for a very early hour since we both had busy days and pre dawn seemed to be the only time we had available.   Our plan was to head to Volunteer Park and take it in front of a beautiful sculpture there, overlooking the Sound and the Space Needle...very Seattle.  Well, in very Seattle fashion...it was pouring rain.  There would be to blue skies with crisp white clouds, and certainly no view.  And while we could weather that, I think it would have given us  a problem for our tai chi sign idea.  So, we once again, made the most out of my apartment.  We moved a little furniture and voila, a makeshift photo shoot set.  That and getting one of my kids up out of bed to take the picture and we were in business.

After the photo session and the hours spent fitting pixels into an accepted form, I am really liking how the blog looks.  I like how the background changes every month to suit what our new challenge is.  I missed the veggies for a minute, but now I am settling in to the warm yellow, with black and white photos.
What do you think?


And some thoughts on tai chi.  At the end of our meeting, Amy and I set up an instructional you tube video on our TV.  We found a tutorial for the first three movements of the tai chi form.  I have practiced tai chi in the past.  Me, Jamie and our friend Steve took tai chi lessons in an old church in Baltimore city when I was pregnant with Lily.  It all came flooding back to me.  Not that I can remember each step, but the feeling of doing it, the form, and some of the movement, I feel like I already have a basic understanding, a foundation for this month.

In fact, Jamie and I still have an inside joke from that class.  One of our instructors was from India and we loved when he was our teacher because we adored his accent.  Our favorite line was when he would remind us to imagine there was a string going from the heavens that would pull you up from the top of your head "all the way down to your pinky toe."  Oh, the pinky toe...the peenky toe.  So cute.  It always makes us smile.

We followed the instructional video as best we could, with kids popping in and out and whining at me for something or another, Lily in pre-rage about something not being fair.  The video was hard to follow, it was backwards and he changed outfits a lot.  I think we definitely need to find a class.  But for now, I will keep searching online and maybe find a video at the Public Library.

Well, now I am off to get the kids to school, rush to yoga, and hopefully make it to a job interview that I don't even know if want.  I just find it so darn hard to not come across like I want them to hire me.  I need to channel my inner George Costanza. (update, post interview....it was a really sweet place, with super sweet people, and now maybe I do want it.  If only I knew if I could get into this nursing school program.)

-Melissa