yoga, books, movies, tv & too many crime procedurals – not necesarily in that order
I picked up some Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro polish at work today just because I wanted a color similar to Over The Taupe. Steel Grey is closer to You Don’t Know Jacques, but that’s not important. What’s important is THE BRUSH. I’ve NEVER used anything better for opposite-hand painting. The color went on practically effortlessly and I can honestly say I’ve never had better results doing my own manicure. Given the sheer amount of cardboard I deal with at work, I’m not holding my breath for the 10 day bottle promise but I’m okay with redoing my nails more often when it’s this easy. I’m picking up more colors STAT.
This is seriously great. Not only does he drop the f-bomb (of which I am particularly fond) but he also calls out a major yoga ‘player’ for being who he is. That’s not to say that being who you are is a BAD thing, but when I meet yoga teachers who never swear or seem TOO nice it always makes me wonder. Because I love yoga, I love teaching yoga and I cuss. I occasionally have negative thoughts and am frequently not a nice person. But I’m A PERSON. I’m not your guru, I’m here to help you become your own guru. In the immortal words of Maggie Mayhem, “Put on a pair of skates. Be your OWN hero.”
No one is perfect and that’s why I’m a bit iffy on the whole ‘guru’ thing. For years in the yoga community, if you didn’t have a guru you weren’t considered “legit.” Yoga was like an apprenticeship. If you were like me in the blue-collar sticks, good luck finding your guru. It’s one of the things that I thinks makes the Yoga Alliance great (and terrible) that schools have cropped up all over so people can get training if they want it. Unfortunately, if you want ANY training with some big name attached to it be prepared to shell out upwards of $3,000.
I was very lucky in that I had a great local teacher and found a phenomenal studio in the metro Detroit area (only a couple of hours commute) where I could complete teacher training. My experience is that those schools aren’t faring so well in the current economy and it’s a shame because they provided AFFORDABLE and THOROUGH training – both things that factored largest in my search for further education. Rising Sun Yoga helped me become a great teacher without indoctrinating me to any one ‘true’ way to do yoga or teach a yoga class. My education was heavy on anatomy and physiology with a solid grounding in other yoga practices (chanting, mantra, pranayama, philosophy). I left feeling PREPARED and I didn’t have to fly across country or spend thousands of dollars to do it.
My training was great and I love teaching but it’s made it harder for me to take classes. I’m reluctant to go to local classes because enough people know that I teach that it might be weird. I’ve also been in classes where I heard teachers say things that were just flat-out physiologically incorrect or where they don’t offer modifications for people who may need a break or not be ready for the practice. While I would LOVE to not notice those things, it’s difficult – especially as I like to do modifications during my own practice. When I do my own thing, it can throw off the teacher or other students and while I’m not going to sacrifice my body, I’m sensitive to the fact that it can be wicked uncomfortable to have someone not going with the flow.
It’s because of those things that I’ve always placed a lot of emphasis – A LOT – on my students working at their own pace and providing all sorts of modifications (easier as well as harder) all the time. I’m a big believer in Choose-Your-Own Yoga.
This is all a long way of getting to the fact that I’m NOT teaching 5 days a week, like I used to. I miss it and I miss the regimen that helped to keep me on board with my own practice. It’s been a while since I’ve done a regular 5-day-a-week hourlong practice but I’m trying to get back on the horse. While a rigid routine (Bikram, Ashtanga) might be helpful, I get bored. I like to be able to adjust to whatever feels right in the moment. In keeping with that, I’ve added barefoot running to my routine as well as some Pilates. I picked up an at-home rubber-bandlike reformer at work and I’m kind of stoked about breaking it out today.
Yoga isn’t about perfection or even the pursuit of perfection: it’s about trying to be BETTER. Nothing more, nothing less.
I was going to make this chicken recipe last night but our plans change and so I made it tonight, with The Spinach recipe and a couple of bags of SteamFresh roast potatoes with green beans.
1. The chicken was awesome and (in keeping with RealSimple tradition) very easy and DELICIOUS. The boys were very happy.
2. I dig those fucking SteamFresh things. I’ve probably eaten more vegetables in the last year because of those bags than I have in the last five years.
3. That might be a slight exaggeration but probably not by much, unless you’re counting vegetables on pizza.
4. I didn’t use the olive oil called for in the breading recipe because I use pre-minced garlic that has a smidge of olive oil in it. Turns out the olive oil was totally not missed.
5. Beer is AMAZING.
I’m also apparently having some blog issues with regard to commenting. I thought it was maybe the theme, so I changed the theme and then ran into a whole other bunch of problems so I’ve resorted to IntenseDebate as a temporary solution. I do like that you can use your twitter login to comment so I’m hoping it works out until I have time to poke at the bugs going on here.
Spouse and I are both set up on XboxLive (yay for prepaid cards on sale) so I’m looking forward to LOTS more BandHero.
In unrelated and totally lame news, I bought a scarf today that matches my rainboots. I’m embracing my lame. I’m also considering dying my hair a pinkish blonde, just for the hell of it. That would also, incidentally, match my rainboots although that’s not my main motivation.
I am INORDINATELY excited to find out that other people hate noise-canceling earbuds. I LIKE being able to hear ambient noise. It’s the kind of thing that keeps me from being mugged or hit by cars. While there are definitely times when it’s good to block everything out, I’ve found I can do that by using my attention span/imagination which makes it unnecessary to render myself nearly deaf. Yay brains!
Something I’m not excited about: finding a dentist. I haven’t been to the dentist since we moved to Colorado and I’m working up one hell of a cavity on one of my right molars. I hate the dentist. HATE.
Best news of the week: Colorado FINALLY got around to sending me state certification as an EMT-B (I’ve had national certification since the fall). That means I can finally look for a medical job!
Supernatural was back this week and although I’m only halfway through the ep, I’m stoked. I missed the massive amounts of sarcasm and creepy/scary (not to mention hawt). Mercy is on a par with the sarcasm but balances it out with more humor (and laugh out loud, at that). This weekend’s movie lineup includes: Jennifer’s Body, Sorority Row, The Informant, Tenure, The Princess and the Frog and Where the Wild Things Are. Yes, we are random. I may also do a Yg + Spouse recap of Twilight/New Moon because we cracked me up.
I’ve been reading Finch but I’m not gonna lie, the CONSTANT use of. Fragments. Is Really. Annoying. Probably it’s supposed to convey. Speech pattern. Or tone. Mostly. It makes me want to throw. My fucking Kindle across the room. So I keep putting it down. Listening to Oryx and Crake on my ride home from work each day and it just reminds me how much I love Margaret Atwood. The listen is a refresh before I start In The Year of the Flood (ALSO very excited about).
That pretty much sums up all the immediate stuff. I’m going to do a yoga post before the weekend is out (shocking, I know) but for now I’m going back to my chocolate chip cookies and delicious Coors Light. Shut up, I like it. I don’t critique YOUR beer.
I keep recommending this movie to people and the overall reason is “It’s a fun movie.” It is. A fun, upbeat and positive film that always leaves me feeling good after I watch it.
It’s more than that, though. It’s a movie about girls. But not just girls – almost every girl I know. I didn’t grow up in a small town, let alone a small town in Texas. I never played roller derby. I am not the girl in this movie.
On the other hand, every girl I know is the girl in this movie. We’re all awkward and uncertain and have odd relationships with our families. Growing up, we’re not sure where we’re going or why (amongst the MANY things that are unclear in wretched adolescence). But we find a thing – everyone (not just girls) – and that’s the thing that changes us. It’s something we’re good at – school, sport, music, gaming, hobby – and it gives us confidence and provides inspiration and makes us feel like we belong in our skin and our opinions MEAN something. It’s the confidence that propels us into that next place – regardless of uncertainty and fear and the certain knowledge that we aren’t perfect – with a sense that we’ll be OKAY.
Pretty much everything about this movie resonated with me. The family interplay and all the intricacy of navigating it, the relationships with friends (new and old and how that all works out), that sense of wonder when you find something NEW and how it feels to be growing into yourself. I don’t think those feelings go away but this is the first film I’ve ever seen that CELEBRATES them. I left the theater with a huge smile on my face and that’s happened every time I’ve watched the DVD too.
1. I wear size 27 jeans. I discovered this while trying some on at a store in the outlet mall (which normally charges enough for their jeans that I wouldn’t even walk PAST the place) along with the PERFECT skinny jeans. Until today I believed flattering skinny jeans were akin to Bigfoot, Moby Dick and the Easter Bunny – oft spoken of but rarely seen. Now I’m a believer. Buying these jeans made me think of Petrona, who once said something about finding the right fit making the expenditure less relevant. These were 50% off but still more than I’d like to pay for denim. On the other hand, ATTRACTIVE SKINNY JEANS to go with my AWESOME PIRATE BOOTS.
2. The Sony earbuds currently on sale at Target kick ass. That is, if you don’t like the noise-canceling flavor which I don’t because I like to hear a motherfucker sneak up on me. So yeah. Inexpensive but NOT cheap. Great sound, great looking, long enough cord that the Zune can sit on my treadmill or in my cargo pants pocket and not cause any drag. PERFECT.
3. Foursquare is surprisingly interesting. I’m intrigued by what others find relevant in terms of creating a venue or leaving a tip. I am STOKED about using this in Seattle.
4. I miss my Doc Martens. I saw some of the not-fake-but-not-real zip up the side variety and it made me want some lace ups. Alas there seem to be none in this area.
5. Email on the phone is made of win, especially when you get to use the coupon that got EMAILED to you without PRINTING IT. LOVE.
6. I really, really, really want this health care bill to pass and be overwith. Because honestly, the reform CANNOT be worse than the current system. Absolutely cannot. And as the BBC pointed out: the Tea Party movement believes that making insurance companies ACTUALLY PAY for sick people is UNAMERICAN. All emphasis theirs, not mine. Ironically.
7. My Twilight drinking game is kind of spectacular.
8. I’m starting the Serious Wardrobe Culling this week.
9. The Tudors sheds more like on torture methodology than I ever needed depicted.
10. Spring, according to retail, must occur only in the first two weeks of February as I searched HIGH AND LOW today for a raincoat and found NOTHING. WTF.
