BAD ATM, BAD!

The sky was a beautiful deep indigo and vast above the tree tops in the distance. The stars... so many stars... shone and twinkled brightly and the longer we looked the more we observed a cluster of them begin to take specific shape. A very specific shape. The body, the bow, the tail all clearly defined. "I've never seen stars define the subject so exactly" I told the person to my left (the only other witness to this natural spectacle). Sagittarius. The archer. Mutable and Fiery. Sitting poised and ready to strike an arrow of knowledge and adventure into the sky and reverie into our hearts.

Just then a helicopter flew across the sky and released a fiery object over a building in the distance. The object descended in what seemed like slow motion and exploded upon contact. We then saw many other such objects begin their descent and started to panic. 'here we go running around' i thought to myself as I watched people mildlessly scatter (where did they all come from?), my instincts dictated we run further into the forest while my consort ran right to the middle of the clearing. Stupid indeed, as we got picked up by an unfriendly cabby who drove us away in what was most likely a hijacking.

There is a strange bitterness in my mouth after eating. Even now, after my morning bagel I can taste it. At first I thought it was a 3-day tunafish salad sandwich I ate yesterday and hoped I won't get sick, but then, at night, it happened again after eating several squares of pineapple white chocolate and now again. What is this?

A young woman wearing a tropical print mini skirt and white cami, was not getting what she wanted out of the ATM. "This is a bad ATM", she said, "a very bad ATM".

Laughing all the way to the Bank (of the river)

When Palma invited me to come out to a workshop titled 'laugh & grow rich' my first response was 'will they try to MAKE me laugh?' because no one is worse at doing things on command than I ("dance, monkey, DANCE!!"). So when I signed up a couple of days later I did it for the experience. The adventure of trying something so off my activity grid will be interesting no matter what.

East West Yoga near Union Square is a clean and inviting space and having taken off our shoes we waited by the door for our guide to set up the room. He peeked his head out and invited us in where approximately ten mats were arranged in a circle, each with a towel and cushion. Laraaji NadAnanda, an amicable ex-comedian turned holistic guide, shared with us his journey of discovering and customizing laughter as a tool for grounding oneself in one's own body and we proceeded to take part in several exercises focusing on vibrating the pituitary, heart, and spleen.

As far as wholistic medicine goes, the positive effect of vibrations on organs that are responsible for production of hormones and red blood cells makes sense and if something as simple as deliberate laughter can help in stimulating them, heck, why not. [insert me laughing wild for no particular reason here]

The best part of the day, however, was a visit to East West's bookshop next door (Cat Yoga) where I purchased a portable wooden utensil set (no more using & discarding plastic forks from takeout) followed by a walk to Chelsea Piers where a rave party raged on the water to which we were not admitted for lack of tickets. We looked out over the crowd, letting the beat reverberate through us and reflecting on how tame and non-bouncy the audience appeared to be under the circumstances and after observing the beautiful sunset, we bounced back toward the meat packing district for a fine dinner al-fresco.

Note to all: goat milk cheese with marmalade of cherries & apples is a joy everyone should partake in at least once before dying.