The last seven weeks flew by. I wasn't even aware that this evening was the end of the current yoga session. I should start writing the schedules down. The next session is from April 25 to June 12. I need to send in my registration.

At the start of this evening's class, Lisa informed us that most of the more advanced things we've been doing - the handstands, headstands and arm balances - haven't even been attempted in other instructors' beginner classes.

When the class started doing headstands, Lisa told me that it would be better if I didn't attempt a headstand until I've worked out some of my shoulder issues (too many years spent slouching). I had a strange reaction to that. I suddenly felt kind of sad and defeated. I had gone into yoga with no goals - I just wanted to see what it was, and found that I enjoyed it. But there I was, faced with the fact that, for the time being, there are asanas I just won't be able to do, like headstands or the Uttanasana. A limit had been set.

Instead, Lisa had me do headstands assisted with the chair. I had no problems with that. I then realized that there are some asanas that I am very good at. A lot of my fellow students couldn't do some of the leg twists that I find easy - like the Baddha Konasana.

My legs are in better shape than my shoulders. That's the way it is for now. By the end of class, I was feeling much better, and eager for the next session.

Very few of us have our own, exclusive physician. It continues to amaze me how many people out there apparently think they do.

There's nothing wrong with calling your doctor's office at 10:00 in the morning and seeing if there's an appointment available at 2:00 that afternoon. You should understand, however, that the chances are slim that there would be - especially if your doctor works in a clinic at a county hospital.

If your doctor's next appointment is three weeks from now, it isn't because the scheduler picked that date at random - it's because there are other patients scheduled during those three weeks.

If your doctor's office has left you a voicemail, understand that your doctor's office calls dozens of people a day. In fact there is probably more than one person calling dozens of people a day. So, when you call back, it would be helpful to have more information than "Somebody called me last week, so I'm calling back."

If you call to schedule an appointment, and the scheduler gives you a time and a date, but you decide you need time to think about it before scheduling your appointment - and you call back a week later, don't be too upset if someone else has scheduled that time and date.

If you have a fairly common name, like Susan Green or Ahn Nguyen or Abdul Mohammad, it would probably be a good idea to know your hospital account number, or have it handy, when you call your doctor's office.

It continues to amaze me even more how many clinics think that every one of their patients have their own, exclusive physician - at other clinics.

"We faxed a referral to you a half hour ago, but I don't see the patient on your schedule. Didn't you get the fax?" (I am not making these up.)

It's an electronica morning as I listen to Domased on Magnatune.

I started typing the Church Council minutes last night, but got distracted by an interesting show on The Discovery Channel about Holland's massive engineering projects to hold back the North Sea. (Most of The Netherlands is reclaimed land, you see, and about a third of the country is below sea level.)

The show talked about the early efforts, using windmills as pumps. Then it talked about the three modern projects: the Afsluitdijk (Closure Dike), the 30+ kilometer long dike, north of Zuyder Zee, north of Amsterdam (which I didn't get to see when I was there), the Deltawerken (Delta Works) in the southwest region of Zeeland, and Maaslandkering, the flood gates protecting Rotterdam (which, I learned, the country started building a few months after I was there).

Magda and Michiel took me to see The Delta Works. Oddly, the show last night never called it The Delta Works. What I didn't know when I was there, but learned last night, was that this network of southern dikes is not designed to keep water out, but rather to stop the rush of flood water during storms in the North Sea. Normally, the tides flow in and out through holes in the dikes. During a major storm, over sixty doors, each weighing (I think they said) as much as ten boxcars, slam shut.

The show also presented a bleak picture of global warming. If anybody doubts that global warming is real, they apparently need to talk with some Dutch engineers. In 2002, the dams of Delta Works needed to be shut ten more times than anyone had ever estimated, and the North Sea storms are happening more and more frequently - a direct result of climate changes.

Maaslandkering is part of Delta Works, but presented the challenge that it's on the waterway that leads to Rotterdam, the busiest port in the world. Ships pass through that waterway every six minutes, so putting a dam across it wouldn't work. So engineers built the world's largest flood control gate - and since it's self-activated, it's also the world's largest robot - to protect the world's busiest port.

It was fascinating stuff to me.

I rode up to QFC with Phillip this morning. We left the apartment late, so I went right from the elevator to the hallway out. As I passed Extaz Espresso, I saw the 60 bus pulling away. I said to the German(?) guy at Extaz that I just missed my bus, so I might as well have a latte. He was concerned that I was going to be late for work. I assured him that I wouldn't be. He asked me how my workout went (assuming that, because the hallway also leads to Gold Gym). I corrected him.

We ended up talking for quite a while about the history of the building that QFC now occupies. The barrista was quite impressed that I had moved to the Broadway neighborhood in 1984 - he didn't know that the building that is now QFC, and formerly The Broadway Market, was once a single-story Fred Meyer, with a parking lot in back. He talked as if Extaz Espresso used to be located within The Broadway Market before moving to its present location, where Uzuri used to be. I don't remember that. (Now that I type this, it occurs to me that he might have meant that he used to work at the B&O Espresso counter.) He asked me what my favorite configuration was (meaning the Fred Meyer, the Broadway Market, or the QFC). I told him that I miss the movie theater (where Gold Gym is now).

The barrista also told me that the site of the former QFC, the former Bartell Drugs, and the Taco Bell, is going to be a shopping mall with apartments or condos above. That's the first I've heard of that. But I seem to somehow get the advance notice on all the changes to those two blocks of Broadway.

Inside the bus this morning, there was an ad for a student resource center - a place where one could go for career or college counseling, financial aid information, etc. One of the services featured read: "Explore colleges on a high-speed connection." My first thought was that the internet has truly become such a part of our lives that it's no longer necessary to use the word "internet" to get your meaning across. My second thought was that a hundred years ago, that phrase would be meaningless. My third thought was that a hundred years ago, that anyone reading that phrase would think of a train.

As I write this entry, I'm listening to my first mix CD, made with the Musicmatch software that came with our Dell computer. It took me a little over a week and a half to choose the seventeen songs from my CD collection to go into this mix, which I've named Learning As I Go Along. It then took me about 20 minutes to burn about 70 minutes of music. Then I got a message informing me that I have four more burns left in our trial version. I couldn't use the "Print CD Label," either - that option's only available in the "Plus" version of Musicmatch. Oh well, few things are truly free when in comes to computers.

Here's what's on Learning As I Go Along:

1. "All Along The Watchtower" (live) - Bob Dylan
2. "Shirley" - Billy Bragg
3. "Anchorage" - Michelle Shocked
4. "Black Soul Choir" - 16 Horsepower
5. "Sixth Avenue Heartache" - Wallflowers
6. "The Best Thing" - Ivy
7. "Creep" - Radiohead
8. "Rude Boys (Back In Town)" - Michael Rose
9. "Stop That Train" - Ocean Eleven
10. "Wrong" - Everything But The Girl
11. "Rumor" - Bel Canto
12. "Africa" - Salif Keita
13. "If Anybody Gets Funked Up" - George Clinton
14. "This Is Radio Clash" - The Clash
15. "Righteous Dub" - Bush Chemists
16. "The Jezebel Spirit" - Brian Eno & David Byrne
17. "Cruel" (live) - Tori Amos

It was a "stag pew" in church this morning as John, Wayne, and I sat together, each without our significant others. Wayne told me that I am absolutely right to see my boss' assistance in my job search as a good sign. He used the logic that an employer doesn't like to expend more energy than needed to get rid of a bad employee. If my boss doesn't like me, Wayne said, and I was making an effort to leave, all she'd really have to do is ignore me and let me leave. On the other hand, if I wasn't a liked employee, my boss would have given me job transfer assistance before now.

My Squeak story - which I've titled Underneath It All - got a very good reception in Writers' Group this afternoon. I'm glad - I think it turned out well. Neither Cliff nor Nancy were there. Barbara didn't have anything to read, but talked about her recent poetry judging experience. Bernice read a recent piece about her feelings about not staying in one place very long, and her feelings about friendships. Blanche read an old piece about her misadventures during a trip to Hawaii. Don read more of his folk music biography - a part that had little to do with folk music, except that it was what he did to pay the bills when he wasn't playing music.

Yoga clothes for men are very difficult things to find. If I were a woman, I'd have a world of choices for clothes designed specifically for the requirements of asanas.

There was a pair of unisex pants - called Bodhi Pants - at Hugger Mugger that looked pretty good. They were a loose-fitting cotton pair of long pants, tapered in at the ankles (so they'd stay in place during inversions). Yesterday, I decided to buy them. They've disappeared from the Hugger Mugger catalog - no "sold out" or "no longer in stock" notice - just gone.

After some internet searching yesterday, I found a pair of men's yoga pants at Gaiam. They were organic cotton pants that I didn't like as well as the Bodhi Pants, and they were available only in blue (I would prefer black), but they were on sale - regularly $54 now $20. Besides, my choices are limited. I decided to buy them this morning, along with the men's tank top - regularly $20 now $6. Both items are sold out.

So, for the time being, I will continue to wear the scrub pants Barbara bought me for Christmas years ago, and the sleeveless exercise shirt I bought at Fred Meyer.