I had a long day today.  Wanting to actually come home at 4 and work on the new routine for Bodyflow, I ended up team teaching with a fellow instructor, going to Panera Bread with my computer in tow, to make it back to the health club for a meeting at 8 pm.  All in all I had a great day.  Besides the fact the my day job is a snooze.  I am paid to surf the net and research ideas I am constantly stewing in my mind.   As much as I love to write and sit in front of my computer, there are times I do need to focus on other things.  Being that my social life has run dry, each time I come back from Florence I have fewer friends, so I am barricaded (it feels like) in my home.  No car in my possession (not that I want one) to drive where I please.  I am subject to being chauffeured around by my Dad, who thankfully works mostly from home.  As I have been going over back and forth in my head, I REALLY need to get a hobby or something that keeps my mind on something other than where I truly wish I was.  Florence.  I am a firm believer in living in the moment, so I am sad to say I have lost a lot of moments these past few months (for personal reasons) where my focus has deterred to things that I can't control.  Moving past that discombobulated time I missed out on, I drew my focus back to me and only Me. 

I reawakened my love for Bodyflow.  Teaching like a madwoman, and picking up as many classes as I can, because I LOVE it!  I am training online to be a TEFL teacher.  It is going well but I know I will need to study a lot for it.  I like to be hands-on with things that I am learning so being that this is my first EVER online course, I think I am doing pretty well.  Lesson planning will be a challenge in itself.  But if you know me, I love a challenge.

Tonight at the meeting, my captain, Lora, asked if there is anyone willing to write the Newsletter for all of the Group Fitness Instructors.  I had an immediate reaction to raise my hand and say, 'Lora, Yes I would like to take on that challenge'.  Yay!  Another thing to keep me busy.  Sadly, I won't be paid, but something else to get published right?   Some experience with Newsletter writing would be fabulous! 

Coming back to the fact that I am basically friend-less here in a suburb of Chicago, I stepped up and befriended another sweet, kind instructor, Sandy, who has ALWAYS gone out of her way to say 'hi' or just come and give me a hug out of the blue.  Let's do lunch, she said with a huge smile, Ok, I replied.   A new connection.  A different kind as it is not with someone I met through my blog, but alas a new friend I can look forward to hanging out with. 

I miss my friends.  The friends that actually are there when you need them.   In the meantime, Connections, I am a-making. 

a presto amici

Florence, after a rainstorm.  sigh.  San Frediano Church in the background.