Retreat Countdown: 1 more day!!!

In the famous words of Kermit, "Yaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!"

I get little butterflies in my stomach each time I think about leaving.  Nervousness, slightly anxious, and I hate leaving Troy behind for so long without any contact.  Work, well, not so much.  :)

I finally got the results back on my MRI.  I was fortunate (or all the Reiki all those loving people did on my knee for me) the injury is not permanent and was not a torn miniscus.  I injured something under my knee cap and it should heal in time.  My boss gave me a hard time for not remembering the name of what is injured.  What does it matter if I remember what the name is?  It is injured.  It will heal.  My remembering the name doesn't change anything.  :)

The doctor said that I can sit Burmese style, just taking note to stretch my knee out if it begins to hurt.  He also advised me when standing to roll over and push up using my hands and leg muscles to reduce strain on my knee cap and to preclude any further injury.  He also advised me to lose weight.  Imagine that!  Did you know, however, that for every 1 pound you are overweight, you add 7 pounds of pressure to your knee cap?  I did the math of how much I'm overweight and I must admit it was quite sobering calculation.  Hopefully I will be able to use the technique I learn during the course to be more in tune with my body.  Then I can be more alert to the signal my body sends when I've had enough to eat.  I also expect after 10 days of vegetarian food with no sugar or caffiene, it would be a darn shame to come back and return to my old habits. 

I have refined my packing list to things I can pack today and things I will have to wait until Wednesday morning.  Since I can pack the majority of my things today, it will reduce packing time Wednesday morning.  My goal is to leave Orlando NLT 9 AM.  It's a four hour drive and straight shot up I-95.  Adding bathroom breaks ('because I usually need a few) I'm expecting to arrive at the center around 2 PM.  Registration is from 2-5 PM, so that should give me plenty of spare time in case I end up caught up in traffic along the way.  I'm expecting traffic to be light since I'm traveling during a week morning.

Bills are paid.  Money is in the bank.  I have to run out at lunch today to get cash out of the ATM, try to find a spare battery for my camcorder, and get some of this great lotion I love from Dollar Tree.  They have it for, obviously, $1.  In other fine retail stores, you would pay at least $2.50 for it!

I have increased my morning sitting time to 40 minutes. We had a great meditation this past Saturday night (as we always do) and I found I could sit in a chair and have much less back ache. This is not because I am leaning against the chair back, because I am not. Perhaps the chair gives me more support which reduces strain on my spine. Will be interesting to experiment with sitting positions and if the meditative experience is different for one position versus another.

Troy and I are enjoying the last of our time together.  We are laughing a lot.  I guess those are memories to help get us through the 10 days.  I'm asking Troy and Steven to write me a note every night about their day so I don't miss out on anything while I'm gone.