Originally published at Corey J Feldman. Please leave any comments there.

My wonderful wife and Yoga teacher will be holding monthly workshops for the remanded of the year. I have not had a chance to update her website; I know shocking considering how I have maintained my own website as of late. Though technically this is three posts in as many weeks!

She is truly a wonderful teacher so if you have any interest, drop her line at melissa@melissafeldman.com to reserve a spot. I am re-posting her email with all of the details below.
__________________________________________________________

Hello, everybody! Hope you had a wonderful summer.

I know I previously sent out this email at a time when you may have been in and out of town and/or not yet thinking about fall yet, so I wanted to remind you of my exciting workshops coming up! So here is the schedule again. Please let me know if you have questions.

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Dear past, present, and future yogis,

I am very happy to announce my new workshop schedule!

Starting in September I will be offering one workshop each month but I will hold that workshop twice – once on a Saturday and once on a Sunday, and on different weekends. This is in effort to accommodate preferences of which day of the weekend you are available to attend, any travels you may have planned, and I am also aiming to avoid holidays.

Here are the topics and dates for 2009:

MEDITATION & BREATH
Sunday, September 13
and
Saturday, September 26

BALANCE
Sunday, October 18
and
Saturday, October 24

HIPS & TWISTS
Saturday, November 7
and
Sunday, November 15

CORE
Saturday, December 12
and
Sunday, December 6

PLEASE NOTE:
All workshops will be held at my house, 12299 Greenleaf Avenue, Potomac, MD 20854.

All workshops will be held in the morning, roughly 9am-12pm, but I will firm up the time for each individual workshop as the date approaches.

You do not need any experience to take part in these workshops; While some intermediate-advanced poses/techniques may be presented, so are the very basics. Workshops are for dissecting our practice and taking time to talk about and understand what we are doing and why. Everyone finds their own edge and works at their own pace.

Space is limited, so please register early!

The fee for each workshop is $50 per person.

TO REGISTER:
1. Please send me an email that you want to come to a particular workshop – don’t forget to indicate the topic AND date. This will temporarily reserve your space.
2. Then, send me a check for the appropriate amount. (My address is listed above.)
3. Once your payment has been received, I will send you a confirmation email and there are no refunds.

Please forward this information to any friends or family who may be interested in and benefit from these teachings.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I look forward to seeing you!

Namaste,
Melissa

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. Please leave any comments there.

I was tagged and completed one of those “25 random things about me” and true to #25 I decided to repost to my blog.

1. Someday I will finish and publish a novel.

2. I have finished many shorts stories over the years and have never attempted to have any of them published.

3. I have an irrational fear of birds.

4. That said very few things in this world truly frighten me. I have driven a buck twenty bumper to bumper on a tortuous road, gone bungee jumping, cliff diving, skydiving and countless other youthful indiscretions.

5. And that said I have been terrified on a couple of occasions. The first was a month before Josh was born and we were driving to Holly Cross to do a tour of the maternity ward. We were stopped in traffic on 495 near magical kingdom AKA the Mormon Temple. Melissa stated screaming as a SVU plowed into us at highway speeds. The accident put her into early labor and it was hours before they were able to stop the labor and give us any assurance that she and the baby would be OK. The second time in recent memory was when I held my son for the first time.

6. Even though I am pro-science and highly critical of religious dogma, I am surprisingly religious. I have never doubted in G-d, only humanity’s ability to understand.

7. Most of my life I preferred to read what Academics call literature and now I prefer speculative fiction. I can even admit to truly loving some urban/dark fantasy that could just as easily be housed in the romance isle.

8. I am a terrible insomniac and Lunesta has changed my life.

9. I have been contemplating giving up meat on moral grounds but am not sure I have the will power to make it happen.

10. I’m a Mac, and a PC and a LINUX

11. As a kid I used to take things apart to to figure out how they worked, I still do.

12. I used to build PCs before it was considered easy.

12. I am very mechanically inclined but have never changed my own oil, mostly because I don’t like getting dirty.

13. I love to garden. I know that sounds contradictory but I don’t mind dirt dirt. It is the greasy and/or sticky things I don’t love.

14. I have studied Christianity more in depth than Judaism.

15. I hated being Jewish as a child but happily identify with Judaism as an adult.

16. My favorite game is Gin provided I am playing with my wife. She is a knocker!

17. My mind works best when I am multitasking.

18. I can listen to an audio book or watch TV while reading and follow both. I know this makes me a little odd but I was a multitasker before modern communication necessitated it.

19. My wife never ceases to amaze me.

20. On any given day Lifeguarding was my favorite job. Bar-tending was the most fun, and Teaching the most rewarding.

21. Even though I don’t LOVE it I am very good at HR an assume I will keep doing it forever unless I do #1 more than once and really really really well.

22. I am terrible with names.

23. Having a child (soon to be children) has changed my life in unbelievable and indescribable ways.

24. Yes I do get asked about the other Corey Feldman all to often and how funny is it that my best friend’s name is Tony Orlando.

25. Most of my life I have shared easily but with few. With Social media (blogging, facebook, twitter) I now share with many but no longer with ease.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. Please leave any comments there.

We all have our perceptions of self; things that we see as defining us. Me, I like to think of myself as observant. We moved into our new place about 6 months ago. For the first 3 months I would drive and/or walk by the house pictured below with a general sense of unease. I had a feeling that something was wrong with this house but I could never quite put my finger on it. Now, I didn’t give it a significant amount of attention, which considering the fact I found it slightly disturbing, is probably not unusual. What really bothered me was how long it took me to notice. How quickly did you see it, comment or email, unless of course this is your house, then please note – I think it is a perfectly lovely house.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. Please leave any comments there.

Yesterday we took Joshua on a quick day trip to the Baltimore Harbor.  From our house it is a about a 45 minute trip, an hour if you miss the exit to 95.  The gods of weather smiled kindly on us.  When we first arrived it was beautiful and sunny so we took Joshua out on his first paddle boat ride.  We had to fudge his age by 6 months, but he’s a big kid and managed to pass for two.  We ended up picking a gianormous dragon shaped paddle boat.  Next time we are going for smaller and/or electric.  We all had a blast but Melissa and I were exhausted by the time we done.  After working up an appetite we decide to grab some lunch a Cheesecake Factory.   In general I am not a big fan of chain restaurants, but typically Cheesecake is pretty passable.  Not so much this time.  It wasn’t particularly bad, but wasn’t good either.  Service was fine, Cheesecake rarely fails in that area, but wait times were very long which is never fun with a toddler.  Back to the weather gods, it poured while we ate, by the time we finished it was dry and cool enough for a leisurely strolled to the kids museum, Port Discovery. 

Port Discovery was a blast.  Honestly Joshua was a little too young for most of the exhibits, but there was still plenty for him to do.  He loved to water works and the wooden train.  The place is pretty impressive; I am looking forward to going back when he is a little older.  Apparently our good weather karma continued as it poured while were in the Museum but once again cleared up for our walk back to the car and drive home.   Photos are on my Flickr & facebook pages, along with our Saturday hike at Great Falls. 

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. Please leave any comments there.

Update – paperback is out and linked

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. Please leave any comments there.

Had a wonderful weekend.  I didn’t do any writing, but you know what, that is OK.  I don’t think I spent more then 15 minutes at my computer all weekend.  Not to say I embraced a luddite way of life, I had my trusty iPhone, even made a couple Joshua related blog post straight from the Jesus phone.   I did not think about work until I hit the gym this morning – work related reading material in hand.  While the pregnant 4pm Friday before a holiday weekend phone call did indeed come, I had left at 2 and no one bothered my cell.  What I did do this weekend was spent quality time with my wife and son.  We read, gardened, shopped, hung photos on previously barren walls, played with Joshua, rode the CJ Park train and went for walks.  Actually Melissa walked and pushed the jogging stroller and I strapped on the roller blades and entertained Joshua with my wheeling around.  It was a wonderful weekend filled with family, love and joy.  It was a beautiful reminder of why I get up every morning; battle the demons (traffic, work and personal) happily and without reservation. 

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. Please leave any comments there.

Does anyone in the DC area know where I can reliably get some high quality freshly roasted coffee beans?  Potomac/Bethesda/Rockville would be ideal; I will venture into DC in necessary.  Most of the boutique coffee shops I have been hitting seem to be hit and miss in terms of quality and freshness.  I would appreciate any suggestions, feel free to comment or email corey@coreyjf.com    

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. Please leave any comments there.

Real Life

Saturday was gardening day.   Took a trip to Lowe’s and the Potomac Gardening Center and came away with lots of plants, flowers, herbs and vegetables.  I never thought I would get into gardening but I found it relaxing, rejuvenating and was filled with a sense of accomplishment.  I think I did a pretty good job and I am really looking forward to the veggies and herbs coming up.  I have a few pictures on Flicker if you want to check out the fruits of my labor.   Saturday evening, I helped my brother load up a U-haul to help with their impending move.  Between the gardening and the packing I was expecting to be pretty sore but I am actually feeling OK. 

Sunday morning Melissa taught a Yoga class so I babysat* Joshua.  Anyways, we drove to downtown Bethesda, walked around and grabbed some breakfast.   We ate in the courtyard in front of Barnes & Nobles and it was good bonding time.  Joshua went wild for all of the dogs on show.  He really loves animals. 

Joshua is now officially a toddler, I wish we caught it on video…  He has been cruising and walking with push toys since he was 7 months but refused to take a step without a toy, hand or piece of furniture for assistance.  That is until yesterday.   Well a couple weeks ago he started to take a few “unassisted” steps. Basically he had to already be walking with a decent amount of forward momentum, and we would have to pull our hand away.  We would take a few steps and sit down or dive into the couch.  Yesterday was different; I actually got him to take about 19 steps from a standing position.  It was pretty amazing to actually get to be there for such a huge first.    

Fiction

I got some writing done this weekend and even had a little break through on one of my projects.**  My protagonist has a mentor whose motivation for helping I have never quite been able to pin down.  Basically I had him call her on it.  Hey – why are you helping me…  I am not planning on keeping any of it, or at least not most of it.  It was more an exercise in understanding.  Biggest thing I realized, she is lying and my protag is too damn trusting – going to have to toughen him up. 

*Although I don’t think babysitting is the appropriate term when it’s your kid. 

**Maybe I would get one done if I actually worked on them one at a time.

Originally published at Corey J Feldman. Please leave any comments there.

Kidville is coming to Rockville.  My sister in-law and fellow blogger just posted some exciting news on the ways to entertain, education, exercise and socialize your child front.  I briefly looked through some of the classes, they do look fun.  To bad they don’t seem to offer any weekend programs; I would love to do something like this with Joshua.