Driving to yoga and on the way home tacos

I don't make a big deal out of holidays or birthdays. But I love rituals. Maybe they're rituals or perhaps just well worn habits. Like Sunday mornings in Austin. I leave the house at 10am to drive 30 min. to my favorite yoga class. A 30 min. drive is rare these days. Not like in our previous hometown where everything was too far away. Here's it's pretty great, so much is nearby. On the way down I tune in to NPR's Selected Shorts. I've only recently become a fan as I've realized the work is often funnier and more interesting than I'd imagined. Just the other day, they were reading from, "Pieces for The Left Hand" by J. Robert Lennon. When I ordered it from Amazon, it actually came from overseas. Can't understand why it's not published in the U.S. yet. The book is a collection of 100 short anecdotes, set in a small American town. Great tone of voice. Direct, moving, fresh, and sometimes hilariously funny in an off kilter way.

10:30 Hatha Yoga with Angela D at yoga yoga westgate. A producer living in Austin last year turned me on to her. She's voluptuous, rather than the standard ballet thin, and really knows her stuff. She talks throughout the entire class, which not all teachers do, nor do you want them to. She's astounding in how useful and pertinent her information is. And on top of that, she's truly, spontaneously funny. I love how hard she gets me to work in a way that's not about working too hard. It's about being comfortable whenever you are, yet conscious. I'm just one of her many fans.

Next stop is Maria's Taco Express to pick up some breakfast tacos for myself and the boys back home. Maria's is one of my very favorite Austin haunts. Shabby chic for sure, Austin style. Spoons hang from ceiling, the Virgin Mother's propped in the corner, and there's this delightful early pic of Willie Nelson that I adore. Sunday mornings it's bustling with every kind of person there is, for the great food and the gospel music outside. Hippies abound, but so do frat boys, and well just every body type and fashion you can imagine. Waiting for my To Go order, I try to stand out of the way, just glorying in the Austin populace. Great tacos. Great aesthetics. Great crowd.