Playing in the Woods, Mountain Lions, and Braised Chicken

Training for my MovNat certs has been exhilarating in a lot of ways. Unfortunately, it means I have been totally swamped between preparing for them, preparing for the workshops I'm leading in Boulder later this week, and actual training, which means this is the only blog post for today. Sorry. I'll try to get something more substantial up on Wednesday.

Just some highlights of what I've been up to:

• We spent the entire day outdoors, exploring parks and trails and looking or movement opportunities. It was exhausting, but rewarding nonetheless.
• Due to my circumstances, which I'll explain later, I didn't have a lunch to bring, so the group graciously stopped at a grocery store for me to buy some food. Having not been in a conventional grocery store for a very, very, very long time, I was totally lost and confused and ended up buying a huge jug of water in desperation which I then had to carry around the trails. I also had a freak out at the self-checkout lane and ran in a panic to a cashier. Not one of my proudest moments.
• Also due to my circumstances, I got to hike to the park where we were meeting, which was only 3 miles away. However, it was 3 miles through a nature preserve, blocked off at both ends with a series of gates, one of which was topped with barbed wire I got to climb over. Oh yeah, and I saw a mountain lion track. Beautiful, liberating, slightly scary way to start the day.
• I'm apparently turning into a cook. I made dinner for my amazing hosts: braised whole chicken on a bed of brussell sprouts drowned in Blue Moon pale ale, with a side of fried matchstick butternut squash and black radish fries. Yes, it was that good, and more amazingly, my own recipe. I distinctly remember crying a bit after one particularly delicious bite.
• California is a pretty cool state. I'd even go so far as to say LA is a pretty cool city, though I'm in Monrovia, which is awesome.
• I got to reconnect with my half-sister, which has been great. One positive thing that resulted from having too much on my plate and failing to plan better for lodgings. The other positive thing was that I met the most amazing couple and got to stay at their house in the foothills and listen to epic stories of rock climbing legend.
• I do miss Boulder, so I guess it has already become my Home.
• I got accepted into Naropa's Ecopsychology program. I'm gonna get my Masters!

Now I will go to bed, because I still have one more day of natural movement training. I can't wait to share it with all of you!