Hello friends - I miss all of you already and I haven't even been gone a whole day.  It's hard to step away from you life for a week - especially for me.  Especially after the weekend I had...  Anyway, I am here and happy to be here - I think...  It was a three hour drive from home, but the drive was nice & peaceful.  Not much traffic and NY state is beautiful.  I called my husband to tell him that and he reminded me that I must have traveled up 84 hundreds of times with him...  tells you how aware I am on a day to day basis.  The Taconic Parkway (hope I have that right) is really pretty - tree lined highway, definitely my pace.  I arrived on campus right around 7 p.m. and they greet you right in the parking lot.  Everyone is soooo friendly.  Lots of young people work here I guess for the summer - wish I would have known about this place 15 years ago.  After registration I hurried up to the dining hall and enjoyed a most delicious vegan feast - the food is fresh, mostly organic and local - awesome.  While I was eating I happened to look up and exchanged smiles with Steve Ross - very cool.  He looks much shorter in person, but I couldn't miss that happy grin.  I later found out that there are only 16 people in our class so I am really excited to learn and grow from this week.  We had orientation around 8 p.m. which was a standard typical orientation and I met a new friend who said to call him "Tex" b/c he is from Texas.  So, anyone who has read "Eat, Pray, Love" will laugh to themselves.  Ahhhh, enjoying a "meditation" tea in the Omega cafe and a vegan cookie - then off to bed in my little hut.  Love & Peace - Jenn

I promised one of my student's today that I would finish this story.  So, after a great but very long day at Hershey Park here I am finishing up my Swenson story.  I wonder if he will ever read this?  Maybe if he googles himself (like most people do every now and again), he will... I digress.  (What if he thinks I'm crazy???  I digress again.)

Focus, focus...  So, where did I leave off?  Oh, yes backbending.  Backbending came to me pretty easy.  I feel strong in bridge & wheel.  Open in camel & bow.  I want & crave more when I wet my palate with a nice locust or up dog.  I'm sure you get the point.  So, what threw me off was the fact that the class before David's was specifically backbending.  It was a sequencing class and I was a little tired, but really wasn't paying enough attention to my body to realize that at the moment.  So, there I was pushing my tired 35 year old ass through some pretty advanced postures.  At the time I felt good until we got to the drop backs.  Drop backs are interesting because I believe it's more of a fear thing that most people need to overcome.  I understand that, but never experienced it in backbending... until I felt my upper body crunch literally into my cervical spine while practicing.  I couldn't help but think that maybe I really hurt myself, but what I actually think I did was pull a muscle in my neck and my spine had just had enough.   I had to back off.  This was hard to do and luckily this was towards the end of the class so I really didn't have to back off of much.  But I was aggravated.  Here I was with this great opportunity to learn & explore in a very safe environment with a master teacher and I was letting fear & an achy neck get the best of me.  Soon we settled in Savasana and I could not for the frickin life of me clear my thoughts.  I was obsessing about my neck.  Then I had this great thought - go ask the teacher about it - after all, I was the STUDENT!  Ohhhhh, the excitement.  I had a problem, a concern and I had someone there I could ask to help me out.  That someone just happened to be David frickin Swenson!!!!  After savasansa many of the students must have had the same idea b/c he was literally surrounded by students.  So, I waited.  After all, I had no where to go b/c I was waiting for the Anna Forrest demo anyway.  I sat my tired ass down on my mat & waited taking in the sights.  About 20 minutes later I had my opportunity.  I think I may have actually hopped over or maybe I just flew, because I literally don't remember my feet touching the ground.  I was so excited.  He was sitting down on the floor and I crouched down next to him.  The first thing I said was something like this... "Hi - my name is Jennifer and I just wanted to thank you for the great class".  He thanked me.  Then, it happened...  I began my gushing.  It went something like this... "I use your practice manual and I am inspired by you almost everyday so it really is such an honor to be here practicing with you".  He just smiled and thanked me again.  At this point I think I must have been a little scary.  But, did that stop me?  Nahhhh - I just kept rambling.  Next I told him about my neck discomfort during the drop back.  He told me to show him.  I got up and did what I was told.  He stood up next to me and adjusted my neck which instantly changed the entire posture.  I no longer felt any crunching and actually felt better.  It was pretty cool.  But the dork inside just couldn't stop.  I had no control and then it happened.  It went something like this....  "Mr. Swenson - would you mind having your picture taken with me?"  I literally forced the guy to sit in a picture with me - which I guess I will have to post.  I think it may have actually been his son or his nephew b/c the guy that took the picture looked  like him...  After writing this all down I am now kind of thinking that maybe it wasn't as much of a big deal as I made it out to be.  Maybe I was such a dork after all.  People must react that way to him all of the time, right?  Hey, as long as he doesn't remember me when I go to the teacher training in September, right?  Right! 

And on that last thought I will say goodnight.