An afternoon of “the circus arts”

Ruti and I discovered the Detroit Fly House when we saw some photos from a friend and colleague of mine doing aerial yoga, that is, yoga poses on trapeze, aerial silks, and on that suspended round ring that is apparently called an aerial hoop or lyra. We were quite intrigued, and the inspired and wonderful Ruti arranged a class for us. While not all of the photos taken were the most flattering the world has ever seen, we had a wonderful time on the trapeze and the fabrics yesterday!

We started on the trapeze, and did some crunches there to get the blood flowing. Then we got to climb the fabrics, which took me back to my days of climbing the rope to the ceiling in gym class…

We then did some poses on the trapeze, which made me realize that I do have a slight fear of heights, but actually feels quite secure once you are twisted around it in some way and not just standing.

 

After that we did a few more poses on the fabrics, and another series on the trapeze, and called it a day. I was almost unable to use a fork due to extreme fatigue of my arm muscles, and today my hip flexors are approximately 1000 times shorter than they were yesterday, but it was totally worth it.  

Happy New Year y Bienvenida a Miami

Apologies for the brief blog hiatus; I’ve had a slower start to this new year than ever before, and am kind of enjoying it. Details below…

I rung in the new year in a decidedly more relaxed fashion this year than in previous years, by watching movies with the dog and going to bed early. It was great; there was no disappointing party, no crabbiness when I got tired, and no giant let-down at midnight when the magical ponies (or whatever I thought was supposed to make midnight on New Year’s Eve so amazing) failed to materialized. Walter and I looked approximately like this when midnight passed:

Early the next morning, I boarded a flight to visit Laura in Miami. We went to the beach, saw the sights around South Beach, and visited the Everglades. I also got to spend more time with her lovely fiancee and their endearing dog. It was a fantastic trip, and a wonderful way to get the new year started right.

 The view of the Bay of Biscayne outside their condo.

 

Trooper

 Laura and I (below) at the beach (above)

 Art Deco beauties in South Beach

 Everglades flora and fauna: ferns (above), pelicans and alligators (below), and vultures (bottom)

Since returning home, I’ve started a new block of my psychiatry rotation, scheduled one of the two parts of the board exam for later this year, and planned out a draft of my M4 schedule. 2012 looks awfully promising, and I’m not yet convinced that the low key new year wasn’t the key to this awesome set-up… Happy 2012 everyone!