This past Tuesday I started an acting class and it was so much fun. It was down-town and the teacher told me it would be better to take public transit than to drive because of parking. Well several things happened with my journey in the Montreal transit system.
First, this was the first time in years (8 years minimum) since I took bus and metro in Montreal. Usually I drive everywhere I need to go. So there was some changes, mostly with the method of payment. There is a new card called an OPUS pass. Well, my wife had one and told me to just put some money on it and away I go on the metro. I went to the teller and she said that the card is expired. How can a card you need to charge up be expired? She said it expired last year and to just throw it away. She can sell me a new OPUS card for $6, plus whatever amount of money I want to put on it. But a one-way pass is $3. So I just bought a one-way pass and off I went. The metro seemed to have gotten dirtier in the past couple of years. Mostly graffiti and old news papers flying around. On the plus side was an automated voice that stated the name of each up coming station.
On my way back home I could not get over how many people had earphones on that were connected to cellphones. Nearly everybody was either listening to music or playing games or reading on their mobile devices. Ok, when I was in school, we all had a Walkman (remember those?) or cd players. But hardly anybody was sitting still just 'being.' It was interesting to look around at everyone and see the trouble they have to just disconnect and BE. Luckily for me I forgot my earphones at home and could not listen to music on my journey. Especially on the bus, people without earphones would continually look at their cellphones from time to time.
Yes, at times I have trouble disconnecting as well. But not to the point of obsession. I do not have a data plan on my phone, so if there is no free Wi-Fi well, my phone is just a phone! There are games and music on it, but I am not constantly on it and I do not have time or patience for a game. It really feels good to just be sitting there, or better yet, go for a walk without the distraction. I love going for a walk with my phone in my pocket and no earphones on. Just letting my mind be free to wander, to look around and truly see the sights around me, to consciously take a deep breath and feel the freshness of the air and most importantly, hear any oncoming traffic as I cross a street!
The last realisation I had was how bad out of shape I am in! Oh man! Time to turn up the dial on my workouts! The travelling was fun, just too late for me. Being the father of two girls, I am home early and in bed even earlier. So when the class is over and I travel back home, 10:30 at night feels like 2am for me. But that is not the out of shape part. The out of shape part came the next day when both my legs were sore! My calves were hurting going up and down a flight of stairs! Even sitting on the toilet was hard to do. I decided to make my workouts better and modify less. So instead of stepping up from down-dog position to bent barback, I started jumping up. Instead of 3-count push-ups on the knees, I started 3-count push-ups no knees unless absolutely necessary.
As for the acting class now, that was a blast! I had so much fun and I cannot wait for Tuesday's now. It really got me out of my comfort zone. There was even a point when the teacher called upon me to present first. That was hard for me. But I got up there, did my thing and it was great! This was only the first class! Going from a shy guy to a more confident guy seems like a fun journey! What changes and revelations will next class bring!
No comments:
Post a Comment