what year is it?

Am I back in college?

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic this afternoon, because of my irrational excitement about Björk's having a new album out, and on top of it internet radio is playing the Smiths (I swear it's not a retro station). I've also got a big pile of school-work hanging over my head, since the summer semester has just started - it seems to have started without me. There wasn't any break between the spring and summer semesters, and I just can't seem to keep up the work pace without nice long breaks in between.

But anxiety about school-work makes me feel young as well - some sort of memory deep in the neurons. It makes me want to blow off the afternoon's work, scour the thrift shops and find some great t-shirts to modify. Warm weather is back and I feel a strong urge for some Wardrobe Refashion-ing to spruce up my closet.

I think my yoga class is also making me feel young and springy. I'd been out of the yoga routine since Christmas-time, and even before that, though I was going regularly, I suspected that the flow class I'd been attending might not have been the best for my body and its various over-age-30 aches and pains. But recently I found out about a wonderful teacher who is right in my neighborhood. She is quite talented, and specializes in bone and joint problems, and she's so close that I can even walk to class! She's fabulous, and after five weeks of classes, I feel an old yoga mojo surging in my body that I haven't felt in at least five years. Is it muscle memory?

Or maybe it's food-related: Once I was in a workshop put on by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association called "Grow your own salad bar," about growing greens in your garden, and the workshop leader said something about the way people brighten up and become more energized after eating a big plate of freshly-picked greens. At the time I was dubious, and thought he was being kind of woo-woo, but I'm starting to wonder if that's part of my feeling of physical youthfulness. Our garden is practically exploding with lettuces, and I'm eating a big salad about once a day to try to keep up with the supply.


the lettuce of youth?

Could lettuce be what's making me feel so spry? It couldn't be the Smiths...

I'll depart with a picture of the fabulous market bag that bugheart brought me last weekend... it's been my constant companion since then.