DARE I

Last week I ran into the owner of the dream yoga studio, the studio that is in the best location filled with wonderful and amazing people. It's the same place where my teacher training meets and it's such a beautiful little studio. Any way, the owner (lets call her A) tells me that I come highly recommended and that any time I want to teach at her studio, the doors are always open.

OK. Stop. Pick face up off floor. What?

Yesterday I met with A's manager to talk about scheduling classes (notice plural) and I start May 12th. I will be teaching a general Samatva yoga class twice a week at 7:00AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's an all levels class meaning I'll modify for beginners. I went ahead and set the class up this way because I don't know what kind of students to expect at seven in the morning. I figure I'll just go with the flow and feel of the class and not try to have every second of the class planned. They are just as excited to have me there as I am to teach there and I will be promoting myself at the May 1st Pesao Art Walk. Sort of advertisement for the class.

I will also be teaching at a studio out near Lake Hefner one night a week at 6:30 Thursdays. I'm not sure when this class starts. I'm meeting with that manager next week to finalize the details. I'm not as excited about this one because it's a new studio and kind of a trek for me to get to, but I'm going in with an open mind and open heart.

So, that's it. That's the stuff I wasn't ready to write about. It's big and wow and a little scary. But, finally, it turns out that I am really going to be a yoga teacher. For Real. I feel full (might have something to do with the chocolate sandwich I consumed for lunch).

JUST STUFF

I have plenty of things I could blog about, but some of it I'm not ready to put down in print just yet. Things pertaining to yoga teaching are starting to roll, but I want to wait until some things are set in before actually talking about it. I am ready for Spring and all the new things that are headed my way this time around. One of those things is the return of camping season.

It's been three years since I've been camping. Longer for Chris. And now that he has weekends off again, we are ready to get back into the camp groove. To help us get motivated, we set the new tent up in the backyard on Saturday (because we are children). This is the tent we wanted to buy three years ago, but couldn't afford. It's the first Hobitat 4 model and since REI has a new model, our tent was on clearance. Like major, Oh-My-God clearance. So now we have the tent. We have the will and the desire. We just need the time. Preferably a time when it's not doing one of the following: tornado, storms, fire, pestilence...you get the idea.

AMBUSH

Yesterday, I left work early so I could get the yard mowed before we turned into that house on the block. You know the house I'm talking about. Any way, Chris finally had the balls to ride his scooter to work and knowing his scooter was no longer blocking the lawn mower gave me a smidge of motivation.

Not only did I get the front yard mowed, but the back yard is done too. I don't weed-eat. If it needs doing, I leave it to some one else. I got the yard cleaned up and mower put away and ran inside to shower (sneezing fit started about half way through the back yard). Colored my hair and was dressed all before Chris headed home from work. So, I did what any budding photographer would do. I lay in wait on our side walk for him to come home and ambush him like paparazzi.

The bottom picture is better viewed here.

RANDOM FINDS OF THE WEEKEND

There's this little shop next to a Pho place in a rundown shopping strip on 23rd street. Inside this little shop there is a little old Chinese lady that makes her own tofu. She will also fry the tofu for you in two minutes and it comes in three different blends: plain, black mushroom, and lemon grass. She handed me a sack full of cubed fried black mushroom tofu and it was like getting a bag of street food. Perfect on a cool or cold day. In love.

A new ice-cream place just opened up on our side of town called Pink Swirls, where they serve live culture frozen yogurt and sushi (together at last). They have eight fruity flavors of non-fat frozen yogurt to choose from with a bazillion toppings. My favorite thing about this place is the huge variety of chopped fruits that can be added to your yogurt. They even had longan berries. Did not get a chance to try the sushi, though it looked good. We were there for dessert. But I can clearly picture summer evenings where we ride the scooters over for sushi and frozen yogurt.

Now I just need a one-stop grocery store and drinkable tap water.

PILLOW TALK

I bought a new pillow while we were at IKEA on Saturday. They have their pillows categorized by how you sleep (side, back, upside down...you get the point). I hesitated over one that was for side and back sleepers because it was $20 (the Gosa Hassel). But Chris convinced me to go ahead and get it. I put it in a pillow case as soon as we got home. And when I finally laid down to go to sleep, I remember thinking that I really should roll over onto my side. But I never did. I didn't move the entire night. Plus, I didn't wake up with neck pain.

I was telling Robin about the new pillow on Monday and how amazed I was with the effect it has had on my sleep. Robin then asked "why is it we always do this?". She said she's just as guilty about hanging on to crappy lumpy pillows. And then I thought, you know, she's right.

I felt like I needed permission from more then just Chris to buy this pillow. A pillow! Like twenty bucks was too much to spend for a good nights sleep. That is just f*#&ed up. Sleep, the most important thing we do for ourselves is not worth $20. And the biggest, most annoying thing about this is it's taken me thirty three years to figure it out. I am telling every one of you. Go buy yourself a new pillow!

WHY DAYLIGHT SAVINGS IS STUPID

A few years ago I purchased a new alarm clock. A lot of time and effort went into the purchase of the alarm clock. It had to be just the right size and digital so that I wouldn't have to use my brain whenever I rolled over and checked the clock to be sure I still had a few more hours left to sleep. The digital number had to be a soft blue light (not red) and it had to be easily programmed. One of the main selling features of the clock I ended up with was that I would never have to set it. If the power went out, it would re-set itself and move forward or back for Daylight savings time.

[If you haven't noticed, I'm slightly obsessed with time. I realize that this is an attachment and attachments cause suffering. I was told this really great story once about a monk picking up Swami Sivananda from the airport. She was starting to panic because the Swami was running late for a speaking engagement. But through a series of events causing the first speaker to be late, Swami Sivananda (who was never worried) was right on time. Moral: Don't stress about being late until you are actually late. And I don't...any more.]

Congress passed the Energy Policy Act in 2005 that extended daylight savings time, moving it from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March (retarded). My alarm clock was built before congress passed the Energy Policy Act. Now, when the time change happens, I have to change the clock manually. But then the clock changes itself again on the real Daylight Savings time.

Sunday I woke up at 8:30 AM thinking that I had really slept in (for me) and then felt the need to rush around before meeting my mom in Stroud at 1:00. Except, except. It really wasn't 8:30. It was 7:30. AM. SUNDAY. Now do you understand why Daylight Savings Time is stupid?

Please erase this song from memory

I love all kinds of music. Chris's super power is his useless knowledge of all the battles ships from SciFi stuff, but my super power is knowledge of all show tunes. I can hear a song and tell you which musical it came from and most likely know all the words. I tend to know the words to the most random songs too. Some times is scares my husband. There are a few songs out there that I CAN. NOT. STAND. Here's three of them.

Jingle Bells by Barbara Streisand

The Boys of Summer by Don Henley

Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice

BLINK. BLINK.

What? Huh? What's that? I have a what? I have a blog? Oh...I have a blog! Apparently I only have a blog when I have something to complain about. And up until this very moment (other then my stomach being slightly achy - I think it might be gas) I had nothing to really complain about.

But then the boss walked in to tell me that she submitted the paperwork that would close the lab January first of 2010. I really don't have any complaint here. Well...except for the whole no job part of it. I knew this was coming and I'm planning. My CV is done and ready to be mutilated by Chris. I've looked around at other labs and I know who I plan on sending my CV to. I'll be fine. Sad, but fine. Changing something already good is scary. That's all.

But other than that, that's about it. The planets must have been in some kind of funky alignment last week. Everyone I've talked to had the same week that I did last week. One of those gnashing of teeth kind of weeks. But now. Now. The sun is out (yeah, still a bit cold), kitchen cabinets have been cleared and cleaned, bathroom scrubbed and de-cluttered, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down is playing on the pod and so far I've set nothing on fire in the lab. This may turn out to be OK.

Zombies!

I'm declaring Friday's to be Plinky Friday. Today's Plinky question is what will you do when the zombies come? Well...what would you do?

I'd like to think I'd be super prepared for zombies. I know I can outrun them (they are always so slow in those movies). But most likely, in reality, I'd end up a zombie. Because every one knows that nothing ever works out as planned or expected.

BAD ATTITUDE

I don't know what my problem is lately, but I got a serious case of bitch. I'm tired and cranky and little things are getting on my nerves. Today, I was so irritated and cranky I went into the bathroom and burst into tears. I know some of this is probably hormonal. But knowing that makes me even more pissed off because I hate that excuse "oh...she's just hormonal". Grrrrrrrrr.

I don't "get hormonal". I usually have a pretty decent grip on those kinds of things. I'm a mind over matter kind of gal. I'm just in a funk that I can't figure out how to get of. I need help. And snow does not help. Not giving myself time for my personal yoga practice does not help. Not giving myself time for myself period does not help. I know all the things that aren't helping. Now if I could just figure out the things that would help, I wouldn't have to write this entry.

It's possible I'm better off in isolation for the time being. I am not good to be around. I feel like I need some kind of "beware of bitch" sign taped to my forehead.

FOUR MORE DAYS

That's right people. Four more days until Mrs. Swan leaves for Thailand for two whole months. TWO. MONTHS. Do you know what I'm going to do during that time? The possibilities are endless.

The first thing I'm doing is tackling the kitchen. I'm going to pull everything out of the cabinets and toss and clean. Oh...I'm so excited about this, I almost started on the project early. But I reigned myself in and settled with cleaning out the 'fridge. After the kitchen, I'm moving to the bathroom. The tossing and trashing! I am giddy.

We may even be able to have people over without me cringing on the inside of what they may possibly be thinking about the cave we are living in. We might even go through all the trouble of having a garage sale. Yeah...I know right? I hate putting together garage sales. But it may actually be worth it.

I am telling you the possibilities are endless! I am going to shower with the bathroom door open and walk around the house naked! NAKED! Hahahahahahaha! We are just four days away.

YEARLY TORTURE

I just had my yearly woman's health exam. Blood pressure was perfect. Urine and blood samples perfect. Weight, 5 lbs less then last year (say what!?!). All and all general health perfect.

The bad news is my doctor is retiring in August. I'm starting to feel a sense of abandonment. I don't love my doctor (not like my boss). I mean...can't really form any attachment since I only see her once a year. She's on the opposite side of the city from me. She tends to be a bit brisk. But she's nice and quick and thorough.

So now, not only do I have to find a new job, I also have to find a new doctor. Crap! It was probably a good thing they checked the blood pressure before I got this news.

ME, ME, ME

Things I did for me this weekend:

Give myself a pedicure.
I had sad feet with months (and months) old polish on the nails, polish that had been slapped on in haste due to open-toed shoes. These are the feet my students have been looking at in yoga class (cringe). Best discovery was using raw sugar and olive oil as a foot scrub. Marvelous!

Cut my hair.
As in, yeah, I cut my own hair. Not something I would ever recommend, but when you're desperate...you are desperate. And despite getting a little carried away blindly chopping away at the neckline, the hair looks good. Don't worry. Zelda, I will be in next month for a real haircut. Promise.

Bought a new backpack.
Do you know how hard it is to find a backpack that will carry my laptop and my fifty pound yoga mat? Do you?!? Down right asking for the moon. None of my favorite brands had anything suitable (close, but no cigar). But I went into Eddie Bauer (to actually look at something else) when Chris was all "hey! look at this ugly green backpack". Thankfully, they had one in blue so I didn't get stuck with an ugly green or orange one. When the pack is all loaded, it's heavy, but the yoga mat rests on the seat of the scooter and takes some of the weight off. Scooter ride was much easier and I didn't look like Quasi Modo when I took off the bag.

OUR ANNIVERSARY

Yesterday was our eleventh anniversary. We didn't really plan to do any thing special, just the normal dinner and stuff. But we spent the day tooling around the city doing touristy like things. I think what made the day really nice was that we didn't focus on getting errands done. We took the day at our leisure. We went to a flea market and out for cupcakes and I took pictures.

IT SELLS ITSELF

I am always tempted to buy something from the infomercials. Chris never lets me. Mom bought all the granddogs Peticures. I've had it for months, but I'm afraid to use it. Those dogs in the infomercials are TV dogs. Of course they are going to lay there like they are getting a foot massage. My dog...well, lets just say he's not a TV dog and it may require one person to hold the dog down and another to use the device on is paws. I haven't convinced Chris to try it yet.

The FURminator is probably next on the list. I really believe in this product. Though I am also very charmed by the ShamWow guy and that food chopper thing he's been promoting lately. The ShamWow guy reminds me of William Defoe. I bet they're related.

DAD TURNS 70

Today is my dad's 70th birthday. It's also my sister's birthday (Happy Birthday sis!), but this story is about my dad. There was a time when the thought of my mother leaving dad and leaving me with him drove me to live a summer with my brother and his family. Dad and I didn't always see eye to eye. But, over the years, I've learned to accept and love my dad for who he is and find the humor in his cantankerous ways. And after this last election, I've never been more proud to call him dad.

My dad is a union man and strong democrat. Both parents took me with them to the polls every time there was something to be voted on. Dad came to the capitol with his union to protest the Right to Work bill. But, despite all this, I wasn't sure how Dad would vote in the election. Dad comes from a small town in the south and though he's never taught or shown any racist behavior, I know he was raised in an environment full of it. So I was concerned and in the months and weeks before the election, we didn't talk about politics.

After the election, I finally mustard the nerve to ask my dad who he voted for. He was surprised by my question and said that he voted for Obama "of course". I've never been more proud of my goofy dad than I was in the moment. And today, the Peanut Man turns 70.

BRAMBLES

So...I got a teaching bite. I've been called about teaching at a studio on the north side of the city. What's the problem you ask? The class she really wants me to take over is a Monday evening class. I already have a Monday evening class. Granted, I'm teaching that class for free and the new class would actually pay. But I feel some sort of obligation to my students ('cause I'm crazy). My other option is to start a 7 AM class there on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As much as I'd love to teach a morning class, I know from all the years of morning classes at the Y that it's really hard to get people to come to those classes. And the way this studio works, I'd have to have at least 5 students to make it worth my while financially.

I'm back to square one. I think at the end of the beginner basic course I'm teaching at work I'll go have a meeting with HR. Maybe if my students email HR and I tell them I can't teach with out getting paid any more, they'll do something. Doubt it, but it's worth a try. Meanwhile (back at the ranch) I'll get those business cards and start dropping them off at gyms. I've barely started and I already feel like I need a business manager.

AHHH...SUNDAY

Today is one of those rare Sunday's where I don't really have to do anything. Yeah, I still need to dust and vacuum the bedroom and prep tomorrow's dinner. But these are not pressing things and I'll get them done sometime today. So we are taking today at our leisure.

We started our morning with brunch at Ingrid's which is turning into Chris's favorite new place. We had been there for Saturday breakfast and I fell in love with the apple cinnamon French toast (apples baked into the bread). But Sunday's are a little different. They have a buffet only and no menu. I had read a review about their brunch buffet not being very vegetarian friendly and at first glance, it's not. But when Chris told them I was a vegg, they were super cool about it and made me my very own eggs benedict with out the ham and went through all the buffet items identifying the things that did and didn't have meat products in them. Best part? They have desserts...for breakfast!

After brunch, we headed over to the Plaza San Miguel Flea Market and I really wish I had taken my camera. There's not much at the market, with a lot of empty booth space. Many of the booth's cater to the Hispanic community and you can smell tamales cooking while you listen to a mariachi band. Way back in the back we discovered a large booth full of junk. There were tons of old records and just mostly miscellaneous crap. We found an old camera and while Chris was haggling the price with the shop keeper (Hispanic version of Dad) I found a side table that's perfect for our future home. Hispanic Dad fell a little in love with us and trying to get away from him was very much like trying to get away from my own Dad when he's at the flea market. But we made it out the door with our great finds.

And now we are home and I'm contemplating picking up a dust rag or just taking a nap. No rush. I've got the whole day.

MONTHLY MEAL PLANNING

Last month I used Chart Jungle to create a meal plan for the month. This worked out really well for us. We still grocery shop for the week, but now I don't have to think about what to get and our list is a bit smaller. This month I noticed that Chart Jungle also has a food inventory chart. I thought it would be an excellent idea to make a list of all the stuff we still have (in the freezer and canned on the shelf). An even better idea is to turn the food inventory chore into a drinking game.

Game rules:

Take a drink any time you come across the following: can of crushed pineapple (We had five cans, plus a can of tidbits because Chris is really an 80 year old retiree.), can of chicken noodle soup (don't ask), miscellaneous items like canned spreadable cheese or canned dolma (I understand the dolma, but the canned cheese was left by aliens), frozen salmon filets (there's a whole unopened bag in there!), bag of frozen berries (Again...did I mention Chris is really 80?).

*By now you probably need to refill that drink.

Empty glass whenever you come across something completely unrecognizable in the freezer.

It's amazing that I'm still able to type.

END OF THE 365 DAY

Today marks the end of my 365 dayproject on Flickr. WOOT! It was fun, but, Man, am I exhausted. I resisted starting this project for a number of reasons, but was goaded into it by Chris and some friends. And since they were all jumping off a cliff, I might as well jump too. A year later and some of those people dropped out, some of them (sadly) I don't talk to any more, and one of them finished. There were many days where I felt like dropping out, but I am tenacious and have a tendency to finish the things I start.

I'm actually glad that I did this project. I've never liked getting my picture taken and to take a picture of yourself every day sounded like torture. But I've learned a lot by doing the 365 day project. First off, I've learned some basic camera skills and learned how to use some of my camera settings. I've learned how to adjust for different lighting. I may have to play around with the setting a little at first, but I have a basic idea of where they need to be so things aren't over exposed. I have no great aspirations of being a great photographer or making money from this. I just want to be able to take good pictures and to have fun while doing that; it's a hobby.

I also feel that this project taught me a lot about myself. I have a visual log of how much weight I've lost over the year. But most importantly, I've learned to be OK with me, with this body I have in this moment. I took some some pretty unflattering pictures, but I took some really great ones too. This project made me discover confidence I never new I had. It also forced me to be some what creative.

It really was a worthwhile project. I love scrolling through them because they are a record of all the things that have happened in year. I did some pretty awesome things while working on the 365 day. Bought a scooter. Got a motorcycle license. Started yoga teacher training. Went on a fabulous vacation. Got to go to some really great concerts. My best friend had a baby. All of this is recorded in some way in these pictures and it's been an amazing ride. But it's time for a break and I'm relieved to finally be finished.