David Bruehl

I decided to watch the new Harold and Kumar last night instead of blogging, so this post covers today and yesterday.

Yesterday didn’t consist of too much; I had two appointments in the evening so Kimmy and I took advantage of the break and had a lunch date. If you live in Norman, I highly recommend Sweet Basil Thai restaurant. We eat there regularly. They are excellent- great food, atmosphere and service. It’s very fancy but comfortable and has some great vegetarian options. 

I’ve realized of late how disorganized I’ve let myself become. I’m by no means lazy, I work very hard. However, focused conscious work on the proper things would yield me greater results than what I’m getting now. I’m doing a little “me work” right now to prioritize everything I’m juggling, everything I’m trying to get accomplished so things don’t fall through the cracks. Blogging is actually a part of all that. I believe in the concept of reflection, and I think it allows one to get more out of life. 

Yoga has been excellent. A couple weeks ago, I was having some issues with my left hip-flexor, just giving me a little pain, like it was slightly strained. It’s reduced itself gradually and I’ve been taking care of it. I still get a slight strained feeling in it, but it’s definitely reduced, and I’ve made some changes to correct my posture at work. I have been notorious for leaning into that leg with the hip widened out to use my foot pedal while tattooing. I lost the pedal and just use a switch now. It’s a lot more comfortable and wasn’t really much of an adjustment to my work style. In addition to that, though, I’ve been trying to stretch the muscle, essentially doing the opposite of what creates the pain. While in shavasana in class this morning I got a flash of an idea to do king pigeon pose with my chest pushed out a bit, head back, arms behind my torso, which essentially puts the majority of the stretch in my lower body in to the front of the hip of the back leg. After class I tried the posture and it worked fabulously to stretch exactly where I wanted it to. I remember thinking that I felt just about perfect as I was leaving. I later looked online and found bow pose and half frog pose which I’m going to work a little with too to see if I get any better results. I also did a shoulder stand preparation with my legs up the wall, which served to work my muscles all along my ribcage. It feels like my whole body’s talking to me. It’s good, though; that’s how we change.

I had yet another no-show today. It was a pretty small tattoo, though, so no sweat. I took the extra time to work on drawings. There’s always that. My tattoo this evening was the second session of a lower arm tattoo incorporating a tattoo of Hawaii on a guy’s arm. We’re doing some tropical flowers with smaller flowers in the background. I’ve been establishing the initial grey wash for the background so it can heal while we do the foreground flowers and eventually put some muted tones in the background. I’m happy with the depth of the piece so far. 

Yesterday’s piece was a lower arm piece of two ships- one sailing, one sinking with the quote “loose lips sink ships.” I’ve done an upper arm piece on this client and we’re work towards full sleeve on this arm.