Live from Austin!

I did one of those online religion questionnaires. I’m not going to reproduce the whole list of what it suggested for me; the interesting part is it rated Buddhism above Secular Humanism. (Specifically, Therevada Buddhism.)

Intellectually, that’s spot on, but the problem I always have is observance. Somehow I seem to be unable to sustain a practice of regular meditation. And without at least that, I don’t see that I could honestly describe myself as a Buddhist.

On the plus side, I managed to keep exercising through until the Christmas vacation; and now that the new year has started and my back has settled down a bit, I’m back to exercising daily, at least during the week. (It didn’t happen this weekend, for various timing reasons.)

Most people manage to keep going to church or otherwise practicing religion, but fail to exercise. I suppose I should consider myself lucky that my problem is the other way around.

[Updated and moved to my work site.]

We can’t remember whose idea it was. At one point I had suggested to sara that we could get married in Vegas, but for some strange reason she didn’t go for it. Nevertheless, the idea of visiting Vegas had appealed, and we had talked about it on and off for a couple of years. Then in the fall of 2003, my mother started pestering me as to what we were planning for Christmas. While we were talking about vacations, I asked sara if she had any ideas for Christmas, and she jokingly said that maybe we should go to Vegas for Christmas and solve two problems at once.

The idea stayed a joke for a week or two, until I was nagged further by my mother and told that I was leaving everything too late. At that point I told her that we were hoping to go to Las Vegas for Christmas, just to shut her up. Having said it, I decided out of curiosity to see if it was a sensible idea. It turned out that it was; and better still, it was a cheap idea.

Las Vegas hotel rates are higher at weekends, and suddenly double or quadruple on the 26th as everyone flies in to spend the week between Christmas and the New Year there. By traveling down on the 21st and back on the 26th, we managed to get a good deal. That, in turn, meant that we could afford to stay in a luxurious hotel, rather than the usual Holiday Inn grade motel…

After an evening of reading up on hotels, we picked Mandalay Bay. It’s the newest of the big casino hotels, located at the far south end of The Strip. The theme is “tropical beach”, and as well as an artificial beach with wave machine the hotel also has an aquarium and shark tank. Best of all, every room has a large, deep bath for soaking in. It’s not quite an in-room hot tub, but add some bath foam and it’s a very close simulation at less than half the price. Just the thing after a long day exploring.

We left our Christmas presents under the tree at home, so we come up with a special gift for ourselves in Las Vegas: we book a day at the hotel spa on the 25th.

Mandalay Bay spa is focused on a relaxing experience, rather than exercise per se; it’s all about reflexology, aromatherapy, massage, yoga, and so on. I’ve booked a back, shoulder and neck massage, but first I need to take a shower and soak in the hot pool to loosen up my muscles.

sara heads for the female side, I head for the male side. The locker room gives me a few moments of angst. A simple robe is provided, along with some rubber sandals and as many towels as might prove necessary. Everyone seems to wander around in the robe, and spend their time in the pools naked. I have no problem with nudity, but I do have residual nervousness about straight guys wandering around locker rooms.

I get over it, and spend a quarter hour soaking in hot, bubbling water. Next I try the steam room. It’s very dark and very hot; the steam is laced with eucalyptus, which clears out my breathing beautifully. At noon it’s time for my massage, which is provided by an old German guy called Wolfgang. After that I’m so relaxed I have trouble concentrating on tasks like standing up and walking, and he asks if I’m all right. Oh, yes, I’m more than that.

Spring water, fruit juice and fresh fruit are supplied in the spa, along with healthy high-fiber muffins. My body may be a temple, but unfortunately it’s a temple to the sacred bean, so I decide I’ll need to leave the spa to find lunch and coffee. Not a problem, as I can return later in the day.

I get dressed and emerge—at the exact moment sara emerges from the women’s locker room. We look at each other in amazement. We’re so in sync, sometimes it amazes even us.

The casino is the busiest we’ve seen it. It seems that everyone arrives on the 25th or 26th, and stays for the week between Christmas and New Year; that’s why the room rates jump on the 26th. There’s a huge queue of Asian people waiting to get in to the Noodle Bar. We go to an Italian café in Mandalay Place, the up-market mall area which stretches between Mandalay Bay and the Luxor.

After a relaxed lunch, we head back to our room for a while. I have never felt so completely relaxed in my life. I listen to the iPod for a while, and sara takes a nap. I head back to the spa in the late afternoon for a little more steam and soaking.

Channel surfing leads us to another Mormon documentary. This one is about Mormon missionaries in Europe. I imagine they must have a pretty hard time of it, selling the idea that the USA is the chosen land of the true people of Israel.

Anyway… not a conventional Christmas, but probably the most relaxing and enjoyable Christmas Day I’ve ever experienced.

I feel like a New Year’s Resolution might be a good thing, but I can’t think what it should be. I don’t usually bother with one, but I have been known to give up Lent for sex.

At the risk of seeming conceited, I suppose I’m mostly satisfied with my own behavior. Or rather, I don’t feel guilty about anything that I rationally feel I should feel guilty about. Any conservative Christian could give me a laundry list of suggestions, of course.

Today’s day of the day is Tuesday.

Tuesday has always had a strange fascination with me; coming, as it does, immediately after Monday, one can still feel the throes of monday-ness still clinging to it, as we are dragged headlong into Wednesday. It thus fills an awkward gap, and prevents our having to adjust our calenders by 52 days every new year.

In some respects, Tuesday is very Thursday-esque, in that it is not Friday enough to be convincingly relaxing and Sunday-like. However, its close-to-central position within the week can only be seen as a contributary factor in its success.