2013 – The Year of Alien Invasion

As I sit here in my downtown Seattle apartment, watching the revelers in NYC celebrating the incoming New Year, it is difficult to not become nostalgic about the year that was, and wonder what is to be in 2014.  In retrospect, I am not sure that I can top 2013 for a lot of reasons, for it seems that aliens inhabited my body for 2013.

Aliens must have entered my body because I look back at 2013 and can’t believe what was jammed into a mere 365 days.

“Get busy living, or get busy dying” – Red

In January of 2013, I decided that I was sick of feeling like shit and feeling heavy.  I was about 205 pounds, ate healthy during meals, but ate excessive crap including Cheetos, Cheez-Its, Reese’s peanut butter cups, starburst, soda, mint chip ice cream and basically anything I damn well pleased.  My body mass index was about 35%, which means that I was 70 pounds of fat and 135 pounds of muscle and bone.  I cut all the crap, including soda, from my diet, continued to eat healthy during regular meals, and ate fruit in between.  I then went to 70 ninety minute hot yoga classes in 75 days.  The end result was 195 pounds and a body mass index of about 18-20%.  This means that I lost 40 pounds of fat and put on 20 pounds of lean muscle, at age 44.  More importantly, I felt great.

“If you think you can’t, you are probably right” – Henry Ford

In February of 2013 I picked up roller hockey again and still play once a week, and will begin to referee games this coming session.  It was my first roller hockey game in 11 years.

In March of 2013, I flew to the Dominican Republic for 10 days to vacation with my parents and also to celebrate my Father’s 63^rd birthday and their 45^th wedding anniversary.  My Aunt Carole and Uncle Don were there as well.  While I was sad that I didn’t have a personal travelling companion, it was an amazing trip, replete with cigars and all the virgin pina coladas I could stomach.  I am blessed to have parents that are only 63 years old while I just turned 45.  It helps that they are the best.  It is a trip that I will cherish more than any other.

In March of 2013 I resurrected my volleyball career and played in 4 different leagues throughout 2013.  It was the first time I had played competitive volleyball in 12 years.

In March I ran the St. Patrick’s day footrace, 4 or so miles.  Was in horrible pain for a week but had incredibly fond memories of running with my Uncle Don right down to the beer tent after the run.  It was my first footrace in 20 years.  I also had my head shaved for cancer research at an Irish Pub in downtown Seattle.

In May of 2013 I resurrected my ice hockey career, and still play, once a week.  It was my first ice hockey game in 9 years.

In 2013, I continued to practice the piano for as much as my schedule would allow.  Hanon is now my best friend with Czerny a close second.  Practice, practice, practice.

From January to April 2013, I was enrolled in the Executive MBA program at Washington State University, and endeavor that began in January 2012.  I completed this program, with a 4.0 average and graduated in May 2013 with my Father, Mother and Brother in attendance in Pullman along with 15 or so of the finest individuals that I have ever met in my life, my classmates, and in particular the people that travelled together on the China trip.  You all know who you are.  I was never more fulfilled than walking to get my diploma with my family in attendance.  School always came easy to me and for my entire educational life I never really had to put forth any type of effort to pass.  I didn’t put forth much of an effort in high school, and little to no effort in my undergraduate studies.  It took me 6 ½ years and 4 different schools to get a degree in Finance, mostly because I was running around with a rather severe undiagnosed drinking problem.  For the graduate degree, I worked for it, 30 hours a week for 18 months straight, and turned in a 103 page thesis on a reinvention of the aluminum baseball bat.  I intend to eventually bring this product to market.  This degree was accomplished while working between 60 and 80 hours a week as a corporate Controller and COO.

In May of 2013, just before my official graduation from WSU, I enrolled in yoga teacher training.  At the time I had no idea why I did this.  It was a 6 month intensive program that would require me to practice and learn yoga for 10 hours a week and simultaneously upkeep my regular practice.

In June of 2013, I flew to Minneapolis, rented a car and drove through the Midwest.  In 9 days, I attended 8 baseball games in 7 different stadiums in 7 different cities.  The highlights of this trip are outlined in detail on this blog, but in short:

·         I got a speeding ticket in Southwest Minnesota whereupon hearing about the nature of my trip, the state trooper ended up calling his friend who played third base for the Omaha Royals.  (The officer was an ex minor leaguer).  The player for the Omaha Royals left me a free ticket at will call with a seat right behind home plate.  I thanked him in person when he was in the batter’s box.

·         I got to meet and spend quality time with a friend in St Paul who took me to a place where they shared the experience, strength and hope of lives touched by the grace of God.  I am grateful that we got to meet in person.  In between I saw the Twins beat the Mariners, twice.

·         Sitting in the front row at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, I told the young newlyweds next to me that I had never gotten a baseball at a pro baseball game despite attending close to 200 games in my life.  They said they were at their first game, on their honeymoon, and would love to get a ball.  I said that if I got one, I would give it to them.  In the first inning they got up to get a drink and Ryan Doumit of the Twins hit a foul ball right to me.  I gave it to them when they returned.  Have a happy life together, and congratulations.  I also ate pork ribs in KC, in the ghetto.

·         In St Louis, I ate alligator at a bar outside of Busch Stadium and at the stadium had a couple stare at me for 20 minutes until the husband finally asked me if I was Jim Harbaugh, coach of the San Fran 49ers.  They said I had a stern jaw because I was chewing a pretzel aggressively.  Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks hit a grand slam in a D-Backs route.  The game was rain delayed 2 hours.  I also went up in the arch.

·         In Chicago, a very hurried soccer Mom rear-ended me on Michigan Ave before I even checked into my hotel.  She said it was my fault and that I should have pulled my car into the oncoming pedestrians.  I practiced in a bikram studio down the street from my hotel.

·         I sat in the stands at Wrigley field, with the sun on my face, and watched people stack over 200 empty beer cups into a tower.  Oh, and the Cubs were playing the Pirates.  Liriano threw a two hitter.  I also went to Comiskey Park and made it out alive.  I took the subway.  Everywhere.

·         I fell in love with baseball.  Again.  For the 100^th time.

In July of 2013, I was fired from my job.

"True faith is not the expectation that everything will turn out well, but rather the certainty that things will make sense no matter how they turn out." - Vaclav

In August of 2013, I was hired at Nike for a 60 day contract.

In August of 2013, I was also bored and decided to build a yoga studio.  I put together a comprehensive market study on the yoga business in Seattle, market metrics and dynamics, competitive analysis and business plan including financial projections and chose the up and coming South Lake Union neighborhood.  God said to me, go build a yoga studio.  I listened, and now understood why I enrolled in teacher training some 4 months earlier.  I found a space to lease in 2 days.  Within a week to finance this project, 4 cosmic events happened.  I was overpaid for student loans, I settled a consulting contract with a former employer, I got a severance package from my recent firing, and Nike hired me to tide over regular income while the studio was built.  I didn’t have the money to do this in July 2013.  Nowhere near the money.

“Somewhere over the rainbow, Way up high, there's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow, Skies are blue, And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true
Someday I'll wish upon a star, And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops, Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me, Somewhere over the rainbow
Blue birds fly, Birds fly over the rainbow, Why then oh why can't I?
If happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow, Why oh why can't I?” – Harold Arlen

In September of 2013, I started a non-profit yoga practice in the Greenlake neighborhood of Seattle.  It didn’t go very well, mostly because of the poor venue (a gymnasium).

In September of 2013, I had elbow surgery on my right arm to relocate the ulnar nerve.  This is the same surgery I had on my left arm in 2012.  I missed one day of yoga.

In October of 2013 I finished yoga teacher training.  In our final practice together, we all got to teach a class to each other, together.  In dragon pose, I wept openly with happiness, and the bittersweet knowledge that most of these people, who had touched my life more deeply than they could ever imagine, would never cross my path again.  That is the nature of life.  The dragon pose picture is one of my profile pictures on Facebook.

“Just do it” – Nike ad

In October of 2013 I built the yoga studio, by my own hand, with a deep internal purpose that I was just beginning to understand.  When writers and artists are asked how they create what they create, they often say they don’t know, as if the end result was a manifestation created through them by a higher power.  This was the sum total of my experience from August through late November 2013.  I cannot begin to write the experience of building the studio because it was done in a dreamlike state where I seldom realized in the moment what I was doing.  I have attempted on many occasions to journal the process of building the studio but consistently draw blanks in my mind as to what I should write.  I just did it.

In November of 2013, I moved, and also turned 45 years old.

In December 2013 I opened Ripple Yoga.  My masterpiece.  My heart, soul and spirit, personified into its physical manifestation.

“Love and fear cannot exist in the same heart at the same time” - Anonymous

In 2013 I tore down my mental and spiritual foundation.  I actually razed it to the ground like a demolition crew takes down a dilapidated stadium.  Some of this was started in 2012, out of necessity, out of severe emotional trauma from my past.  I had to find out who I really was, and humility and acceptance were the keys.  I learned that my inner child has been quite displeased with me for most of my life. I decided to spend the rest of my days dancing in the rain with my inner child, becoming one with my true self.  Teaching, loving and learning.

Who are you?  WHY are you here?  I am a teacher.  I am here to inspire.

“Love, Service and Unity” – Dr. Bob

I attended about 200 twelve step meetings and shared the pain, suffering and horror of active addiction with anyone who would listen.  I tell them that from 2007 to 2009, I didn’t think my life was worth living, and that I tried in vain, to drink myself to death.  But I also offered the hope and beauty of recovery, and the story of a sober life well lived.  I offered my hand out to strangers, new to sobriety, served as a chairperson for 6 months at a lunch meeting downtown.  The pain of addiction will never go away, it is built into my being, forever.  I cried in that pain in 2013, often, even after almost 5 years of sobriety.  Being an addict is an illness, much like cancer as it slowly kills the inflicted, unless help is sought.  Being in addiction is a disease centered in the mind, a state of constant hopelessness and spiritual bankruptcy.  Being in active recovery is a miracle offered by finding the grace of God through humility and acceptance of the world as it is.  It is, however, a daily reprieve based on the maintenance of my spiritual condition.  If you know anyone in active addiction, pray for them, as they can only help themselves when help is sought.

“We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.  Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.  May God bless you and keep you - until then.” – Bill Wilson

I have asked the aliens to leave.  I have cleared away the clutter in my mind, created the space in my heart, filled my cup with love until it is overflowing.  Instead of letting it spill out into the streets, it is time to give it to another human being beyond the love of my friends, students and family.  I have enough for all of them, everyone that is important to me, and then some.

After living in Seattle for 9 years, I finally feel welcome here.  Sort of J

“It's raining in Baltimore, baby, but everything else is the same
There's things I remember and things I forget, I miss you I guess that I should
Three thousand five hundred miles away, But what would you change if you could?” – Adam Duritz

In God’s grace,

Your humble servant,

Gary