Monday morning, time to get things done! First off Sida, Gary and I hit the gym. The last two days I’d been running in their neighborhood in the evenings to fight off the hot days, but walking into that air conditioned gym felt good! The gym proved as another example to how Sida’s open and friendly personality effected her own and other’s lives; all of the receptionists were excited to see her and to meet me. They let me in for free and gave us extra towels and had genuine smiles on their faces as Sida made them laugh; it was clear that Sida was one of the people who made their jobs not so mundane and in fact enjoyable.
Sida headed into an aerobics class and I hit the elliptical. There is this kind of camaraderie between gym folk that I really love. This especially happens when you become a regular at a gym and I always feel energized in gyms. After Sida’s class was over she and I joined Gary for a Tai Chi class. I’d never done Tai Chi before and wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting into. Gary had explained it a bit to me the night before, and I had watched others do it while I was practicing Yoga in Thailand but from the outside it looked out of my reach.
We started the class in a chair, sort of stretching sort of finding our space in the room. One other guy (who clearly was a professional dancer) and I were the youngest in the room while the majority of the others were well over 60. Perhaps my skepticism or perhaps some resistance in me held me back from getting at whatever this practice was. I went through the motions but I wasn’t feeling it. As we put away the chair and began to attempt harnessing the power within via an imaginary ball--I attempted to go inside and find something about this movement that could get me out of my head and into my body…but it wasn’t working.
In the room some people were clearly their just for the slow easy movements that their aging bodies needed, others like the male ballerina were searching to deepen their body knowledge, and then there were a few like Gary who clearly seemed to have lost themselves in actual Tai Chi. As I observed this I envied the calm patience with which Gary seemed to make his movements. Although I have found similar peace through doing Yoga the movement is often dynamic and invigorating to my physical body…and it is through the physical body exhaustion that I have found Yoga to be so peaceful.
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| Looking very tai chi, Sida with my Favorite sculture on the Ringling Museum Grounds |
Non-the-less, I did leave the class with a curiosity I never before had for Tai Chi and who knows if the practice may come back at some point in my future. Sida and I showered at the gym and got dressed to go to the museum. Where we were headed was not just any museum but one of my favorite museums in the world; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Arts. http://www.ringling.org/
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| The blue Modanna, so beautiful i think |
This a place that people need to see. I had been about four other times in my life but I was very excited to be going back. There is just something magical about the 66 acres of property and the beautiful buildings that the Ringling Museum in made up of. John Ringling was one of the original kings of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus (The circus in which my family had attended multiple years in a row for my birthday). John and his wife Mabel were entrepreneurs, investors, and collectors who took circus success and made a fortune out of it.
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| The magnificent sculpture courtyard...now this would be a cool place for a dance party |
With this money they bought the waterfront property in Sarasota and bagan to build both a home and art museum to house their many collections. The house itself, built in 1926, cost 1.5 million—which at the time was nearly unheard of. But as a well traveled couple they had acquired a taste for Venetian buildings and so they designed a mansion to fit their taste.
Despite having some troubled times when it comes to upkeep in the past, the Ringling museum remains a magnificent beauty. The grounds alone and the architecture are enough beauty to capture you, but inside the house and museum lives a fascinating story about the couple who lived there and created the place.
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| Ringling was one of the most sucessful circus dudes...Sda didn't hesitate to get into her own clown suit |
Sida and I took our time wandering around and taking in the sights both outside and in. We even took a tour in which the guide had excellent knowledge and I was as intrigued by her stories as the artwork on the walls.
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| We had some fun acting silly |
After the museum we did a bit of shopping and then headed home to pick up Gary. Then we headed to a Mexican Restaurant—May 3rd it wasn’t quite Cinco de Mayo yet, but Sida had heard this place had a specific menu just for organic/veggie types so we were keen to check it out. http://www.mipueblomexican.com/en/organic.html
The Restaurant is called Mi Pueblo; the menu was pretty vast and the vibe in the restaurant good besides the low lighting and too loud music. The food was excellent and portions huge, we all walked away with doggie bags and went to bed full and happy. It was a great day from start to finish.
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