Chicago - It's like Fall or something

I didn't get much sleep my first night in Chicago. Good thing I slept on the plane. I was awoken by the pitter patter of little feet accompanied by the plastic crinkle of pull-ups rapidly approaching my door followed by a giggle and the same sounds in reverse...a few times. Beth was kind enough not to unleash Ellen on me until 9 o'clock. After what must have been a late breakfast for Beth, Arjuna and the kids of delicious pancakes made lovingly by Arjuna (with vegetarian eggs), he dropped me off at the NAMA conference.

The conference was great. I attended some good talks, met some potential vendors, bought too many books and had them signed. It was really cool to look around the bookstore and see the names of many of my professors. I'm really glad I attended, but I was exhausted when it was over. Saturday night, Beth and Arjuna took me out to an amazing vegetarian dinner at Green Zebra. On Sunday, I had to get up earlier than I cared to in order to make it to the conference on time. That evening, I walked to Whole Foods with Arjuna and the kids where we put together a dinner of sushi, soup, sticky rice with mango and indian style potatoes. Beth and Arjuna made mini apple pies with fresh whipped cream for dessert with apples they had picked at an orchard. Yum. It was a family night. If I don't end up having a family of my own, it's nice to feel like I can drop in and be a part of theirs.

I slept in this morning (Monday) - my first day of vacation on this trip. When I woke up, I returned all the phone calls I missed last week at Esalen. I had lunch with Ellen, and went to Kate's gymnastics class. I got to spend a lot of quality time with them playing games and gave them each a massage. Tomorrow, I'm off to Rhode Island to meet my niece, Maya!