Eat, Pray, Luau

I've been spending my weekdays hanging out with a 6 month old and a 7 month old. I have a couple of friends who live in the same apartment community and each have puppies: Duggie, a 6 month old golden retriever, and Milly, a 7 month old dachsund/beagle. Duggie and Milly spend the day play-fighting, requiring very little from me. I'm basically that guy who walks them when they need to go for potty breaks.

Between potty breaks, I surf the web, listen to NPR, lay out at the uber-posh pool with the neighbors (all actors, who don't seem to be working on anything at that moment), or lately, reading "Eat, Pray, Love". After Duggie and Milly himbo-sit me, I hang with their owners, Chandler and Monica. I spend so much time there that Chandler invites me to the community events every other week (i.e. Pizza parties, fashion shows, wine and cheese nights). This week: full on luau with fire dancers and everything!

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Eat, Pray, Love" seems like an odd choice for a 27 year old guy. It was recommended to me by a couple of (girl) friends but not knowing much about it, I disregarded it because it sounded like a baby shower at the pink house on the corner of Estrogen Avenue and Lilith Fair Lane. Well, I'm at Monica's the other day and I see a stack of books, at the top of that stack, staring me in the face: Eat, Pray, Love. I figured I'd skim through the first page just so that I am sure it's not for me, but before I realized it I was a third of the way through the book.

I have to admit, I am REALLY enjoying it. It's split up into 3 sections:

1. Eat

2. Pray

3. Love.

The author goes to Italy for four months to try to remember how to experience pleasure, by eating her way through Rome (-- um... yum! Sign me up). Then, India for another four months in search of God, meditating her way to divinity. Thirdly (the part I'm about to finish), in order to find balance in her life, she spends yet another 4 months with a medicine man/artist in Bali.

The book found me at just the right time, I have nothing but free time these days, which I am so incredibly thankful for, so I have time now to think about stuff like spirituality, work/life balance, happiness, love. Not knowing anything about the book, it seems like I was already on my own Eat, Pray, Love journey. Well, certainly the 'Eat' and the 'Pray' aspects. I'm cooking a lot these days, last week I learned how to make Mexican rice and refried beans. I am adding meditation and yoga to the mix, which will help on the spirituality front (or, so I've read). I don't think I'm capable of throwing mysef at 'Love' just yet though. Balance: si. Love: never really been one of my strong points. But I'm hoping that with 'Eat' and 'Pray', comes Love. Or maybe I'll just attack it later, so for now, I'm funna Eat, Pray, Luau.