The trip to the V last weekend

Nov. 8th, 2006

As most of you know by reading my bulletin, I went to the V last weekend. I arrived in Charleston on Friday night. On Saturday, I went to the V to buy one day passes for myself and Sandra (Rockbox). We planned to go take two classes at the V on Sunday.

In the meantime, I did some sightseeing and then left Charleston at 6:00 PM to travel to Columbia to pick up Sandra . She was attending the 10th annual Firm Believers exercise weekend trip. I got there around 8:00 PM. Little did I imagine that many people that attended the event wanted to meet me.

Well, I got there and was soon surrounded by most of the members who attended the event.

Here is a picture of the Firm Believers and I.

I had a great time meeting everyone. I especially enjoyed meeting Leigh and she looked great. Leigh was just one of the sweetest Firmies I have had the pleasure of meeting and she gave me three hugs.

Sandra and I then drove back to Charleston. She had arranged to fly back to Montreal, Canada from the Charleston Airport so I was able to also take her to the Airport before I left to return home. It was really great finally meeting Sandra in person. She is one of my closest online Firmie friends.

On Sunday, we arrived at the V for our first class. To our delight, our instructor was my old time legendary fitness idol, Susan Harris herself. Wow, her class was so hard but so much fun. We took a Functional Strength class with her. After the class, we introduced ourselves and took pictures with her. She has such a great personality and I thought she was so down to Earth. She was floored that someone would travel from Florida and Montreal just to meet and work out with her. Well, she still looks as great as when she filmed the very first Firm exercise video tape back in 1986. Here is what she looked like then:

Here is a picture of Susan and I now. Please excuse our flushed faces as she had just gotten done teaching her exercise class and I had just gotten done being her student:

We noticed that Jenn Carmen was also there. As you know, she is another one of my fitness idols. So Sandra and I took pictures with her. Here is a picture of Jenn Carmen on the cover of her 2003 exercise video tape:

Here is a picture of Jenn Carmen, Sandra and I. I think she still looks great.

Here is another picture of Jenn Carmen and myself:

We went back to the V later on that same day and did Jivamukti Style Yoga. Jivamukti is one of the nine internationally recognized styles of Hatha Yoga, and is based on 5 Tenets:

1.Scripture Exploration of the foundational texts of yoga

2. Bhakti Cultivation of devotion and humility

3. Ahimsa Peaceful lifestyle that emphasizes the integration of ethical vegetarianism

4. Nada Yoga Deep listening, chanting, elevated music

5. Meditation Connecting to inner stillness and understanding the mechanics of the mind

The instructor for this class was Andrea Boyd . She is a certified Jivamukti Yoga teacher It was an amazing class that leaves everyone feeling energized, renewed and at sync with the environment.

Here is a great picture of Sandra and Andrea. They are posing in front of the alter used during this class:

Well the exercise part of my trip was fabulous and today I am experiencing major doms. I will write another blog about the Paranormal part of this trip soon.