From the House of Kebab to the Top of Woodland

I will keep this post short. Last night was the only night I got some rest (6 hours sleep). It has been a fairly active week. I have been able to connect with old friends in Nashville and overseas. Technology can be such a blessing. One of my closest friends, Jun, is in the country (Chicago) for the next two weeks. It would be nice to take a road trip and see him and Bibs, who is now living there with his family. I am not sure I can spare the time though.

Tonight, Carey and I met Zouhair for dinner. We had a scrumptious Turkish meal, courtesy of Zouhair. He will be our host for the Morocco segment of our upcoming trip. This portion of the trip will be limited to the Sufi brothers (Carey, Doug, Caleb and I). The rest of the gang will be left to frolic in the sun, on the Costa del Sol. We will be meeting dervishes from the Qadiri Order for Zikr and spend some time exploring the country and the culture.

After dinner, we headed to Belinda's home for her wonderful birthday celebration. I had the pleasure of spending some with Shawn, who I have not seen in awhile. We were able to do some catching up. I am happy to see that he is doing very well for himself. Belinda had a great group of friends at her gathering. There was live music with everything from the violin, guitar, flute, accordion... A few people sang, but I enjoyed Belinda's singing the most. I didn't realize she had such a great voice. Happy Birthday Belinda!!

Well, I need to get some rest... Tomorrow will be a long and busy day. I am looking forward to the weekend. There are couple of things to plan for and take care of in the next few days... April Fools party at the French House and a silent retreat with my Sufi family and Atum in the Appalachian mountains within the next few weeks.

Belinda & Lonny

Dinner Party, Brunch and a Movie

Friday night this week was a time for rest. I had three different invitations to go out, but the week was so stressful and busy, I really needed to recharge. Saturday, I spent the day getting a few things done around the house. Caleb and I also got together to workout. That night, I headed to Michael's for a very nice party. Robert and Alvero were there. Michael prepared the most amazing desserts and hor'derves. The company was good and it was an absolutely enjoyable evening. Sunday, I was a little late for brunch with Habiba, Sofia, Muhammad Jamal, Jamila, Selena, Carey, Kaz and Nathan. After brunch, a few of us went to Kaz's new place. His new home is only a couple of blocks from my house. At that point, I needed to get some rest. We went to my place and I took a long nap while Carey and Selena went shopping. I was totally knocked out. I slept really good, but woke up just in time for dinner. Carey, Selena, Jessica and I went to my favorite Chinese restaurant, China Cottage. We had a yummy meal and then went to watch Ultraviolet at Carmike Cinema in Rivergate. It is now the end of the day and I am ready to get a good nights sleep. Jessica is hanging out with me tonight. I just gave her my special night time toddy of Chamomile and GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid). Now we are ready for...

From Qumana to the Full Moon

I am trying out a new application called Qumana. It is a pretty neat blogging tool. Lately, I have thought about moving my site to one of the more flexible blogging engines that I would have to host on my server. I am probably going to hold off for the moment. Blogger has its limitations, but it has worked well so far.

Today has been an amazing day. I woke up feeling so connected to life and so grateful to be here. Since it was early, I was tempted to go for a walk and enjoy the morning air. My appetite ruled and I decided to cook a big breakfast instead. I made some garlic fried rice, 3 fried eggs and a veggie patty prepared Asian style. Aside from the veggie patty (which is a substitute for the usual dried fish or pork), this is a typical Philippine breakfast. And yes, it was really good!

My day at work was fairly ordinary: a few meetings, a presentation to the clinic managers and a couple of staff issues. Nicole, my dear friend and administrative assistant, has been out with the flu. This has kept me busier than usual, but she needs her rest. I am lucky to work in a place where almost everyone is driven and dedicated.

After a long day at work, Caleb and I met for our workout. Today, we worked our lower body and triceps. It was another good workout. My metabolism is running at top speed at this point and I feel great! Aside from my big breakfast, I had: 2 protein bars, a protein shake, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, 2 bananas, an apple, a tuna sandwich, and a bag of chips. We also met Carey and Yayoy for Mexican food and I ate chips and salsa, and a big shrimp dish with rice and guacamole salad. The night is not yet over, I will probably have one more meal before I go to bed. Its sound like a whole lot of food and it is, but this is the only way I am going to gain from all this working out.

After the meal at Fiesta Azteca, we went to Coco's. Carey wanted my help with some lighting decisions for the studio. After looking at the current setup we decided to meet at Home Depot early tomorrow morning. We were suppose to do a full moon meditation, but it was too cold out. I was really looking forward to this and will most likely do one indoors before slipping off into dreamland tonight.

Selena Sunday

Another awesome day in Nashvegas. Selena and I did the Asian thing and pigged out on Vietnamese at Miss Saigon. Next to the restaurant was a huge Asian grocery store where we went after our lunch. We walked down every isle. Thankfully, we were stuffed or we both would have walked out of there with lots of food. We then went to Hustler and The World's Largest Adult Bookstore to do a little shopping. We didn't find what we were looking for, but it was fun.

After our crazy quest into the erotica, we met up with Caleb at the Y. Selena did a bunch of laps around the track, while Caleb and I embarked on the second part of our new workout program. We are both pretty excited about our progress, even in the short time we've been doing this. My only dilemma is holding myself back, I tend to overtrain. I have been going to the gym or doing something active almost everyday. I am trying to be mindful on doing low impact exercises on my off days to allow my body time to recuperate. My metabolism, which is already very fast, is totally revved up. I am having to eat every 1 to 2 hours (6 to 8 meals per day). I am sleeping even less, which is not much at all, but feel totally fine. At this point, I am OK with less sleep because there is never enough time in the day. It would be nice to get a full 8 hours at least once a week, but that is a luxury that is rare for me.

At dinner, it was apparent that Selena did not get enough Indochinese food when she ordered Pad Thai at PM Cafe. I, on the other hand, had Sushi. Yum!! Carey came to meet us there and as usual Patty was a gracious host.

After the meal, we stopped by Coco's to hang out for a bit. I got to see Irene and check out how Carey is progressing with the recording studio. I have to say, I am very proud of him. He has done so well lately. I am also looking forward to finishing a project we started a couple of years ago. Even though its been a while since either of us have been in our creative element, we are both a little older and hopefully a bit wiser and I think this will have a positive impact on our work.

We ended the night at my house, had some Ice Cream and played on the Internet for a bit. Selena practiced some on the piano and we both both played a few tunes and sang along. It was a great way to end the day.

New Blog & Other Stuff

It has been a really nice evening. The weather has been amazing! I just got in from walking and a late dinner. My body feels tight from yesterdays workout. I recalibrated my scale so that I can take note of my progress over the next few months. Tonight, I weighed in at 145 lbs. and about 14% body fat. My immediate goal is to hit 150 within 3 months while keeping my body fat constant or preferably less. This will not be easy, but I think it is a reasonable challenge. Caleb suggested taking some before and after photos, but I don't think I am up for the before pictures.

Earlier this week, I started a shared blog for this years trip to Spain. Everybody going will be made an author for the blog. It will be nice to collaborate and have a shared site for all our experiences and photos on the trip.

Netzach, Hod & Malkuth

I just got in from another long day. Work has been busy as usual. After work, I met up with Caleb to do a grueling 1 & ½ hour workout at the gym. We are trying this new exercise program my brother Jack sent. So far so good! We have increased both the weight and the number of reps since last week. It was not bad considering I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before. I am sure I will be in pain tomorrow. I am trying to keep my food consumption up so that I have enough calories to support growth. Loosing weight has always been easy for me, so I can do that after I have made the necessary progress.

Another goal I am working on is creativity. After the gym, I had dinner with Nur, Linda and Caleb. We saw a few other people out. Jessica was with a newly established “Tuesday Night Bar Hopping in East Nashville” group. Not a good idea after the gym. They are probably still out and having a blast, but not the thing for me tonight. The rest of us had a quiet night, talking about a wide range of things. As usual, almost everyone had their laptops. I was working on getting Acid Pro running on my system. It has been a while since I have played with loops and I would like to spend more time working on music and writing. I feel that I have over developed my analytical side over the past few years, so this will set the stage for some balance. There is also something special about being in touch with the more imaginative aspects of ones psyche.

Congratulations Tony!

Tony, my nephew and godson (3rd from left), just won the Gold for sparring and the Silver for form at the Florida State Taekwondo Championships. Everyone in the family is very proud of him. Congratulations Tony!! Keep it up!