Hi Gram,
I had a good day today. I usually wake up around 5am. Either my alarm didn’t go off, I turned it off in my sleep, or I slept through it. In any case, I woke up and checked the time, expecting to see that I was way early and saw that it was almost 6! I hurried out of bed, threw on some clothes, and headed out the door. Despite getting a late start, I still got in a little under 4 miles, saw some tiny statues tucked into some weeds along the walk, and was back in the room in time to eat breakfast and do a couple quick parts of my normal morning routine, then head off to mobility class.

I love these mobility classes that Klaus offers. In fact, I enjoy them so much that I would consider coming back here for a few months a year just for the chance to take them. This morning, we did some shoulder and hip work that felt good – painful in a stretching kind of way, but good – and made me realize that my flexibility has improved since I got here. I’m used to being the guy that has to modify the movements to accommodate my tight muscles or miss out on them altogether. This morning, though, I was the guy still grunting like everyone else but able to do the whole range of movements while seeing others have to modify. I’m not glad that others are less flexible, but it tells me that these weren’t easy or simple movements and I should be proud that I can do them.

After class I headed back to the room and remembered that since today is Saturday, there’s no lunch for me at the gym cafe. I caught up on some of my morning routine and a little computer work, then made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and yellow bell pepper. I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love making and eating sandwiches and how much I’ve missed it here. Well, today’s sandwich continued to satisfy and delight! After cleaning my dishes and tidying the room a little, I took the songteaw north to the end of the line to walk around a bit. The end of the line is approximately where the night market is located each evening. I got there around 3pm and it looked completely different! The road was open to traffic and almost unrecognizable without the stalls and pedestrians. It’s unbelievable how they setup makeshift stalls every night, transforming the street from a commercial road to a festive carnival environment then back again a few hours later.

Anyway, I wandered through there and down some other random roads for quite some time, stopping for an iced tea to cool off at one point and sit in the shade watching passersby. As the sun started setting, I made my way back towards where the songtaew picks up. This took me through the night market, back down the street I’d seen earlier now transformed yet again. It was an almost magical experience. In short order, I found myself pressing the button to stop the truck. I timed it perfectly so he came to a stop right in front of my hotel! With that luck, I headed upstairs to contemplate what I wanted to do for dinner. I’ll be honest, I fell asleep shortly after writing this much. By the time I was ready to post it here, I don’t remember what I did for dinner or the rest of the night. There’s a good chance that I just fell asleep.