Putting the Yoga back in yogagrrl

First let me say that traveling with my Droid Eris was AMAZING. I used apps like OpenTable and Foursquare to find great places to eat and – in the case of Foursquare – frequently got great tips from locals and/or other visitors. I also updated Facebook with my photos as we went and there’s practically a vacation blow-by-blow on my twitterfeed. While it made my husband a little crazy, it was super helpful to have Googlemaps tied into that Foursquare app to make sure we were moving in the right direction. Google on the phone helped us track down good music and food and figure out which tourist stops to avoid. It was made of awesome and win. Don’t worry, though – the phone hasn’t COMPLETELY replaced the Spouse.

Before we left, I did some internet research on yoga studios that would be close to where we were staying. I found about four that sounded like they’d be a good fit for my needs and one of them had a pretty sweet intro deal. Being on budget and in a new city, yoga deals are important. I can go on about this ad nauseam but I think yoga is an oddly interpersonal form of exercise, one that can be shaped entirely by your teacher/instructor and your reaction to him/her. Just because you don’t care for a particular teacher or class doesn’t mean the studio won’t be a good or even great fit for you – it just means you haven’t had a chance to find out yet. For this reason, having a deal on classes or even free classes for new students is an incredibly valuable resource for studios – it gives you a chance to sell how awesome you are.

For those reasons, I made my first stop at Urban Yoga Spa. 1. Love their site. Clear, concise and no pictures of hot bods to make you feel self-conscious about showing up. Especially love that you can turn the music off, as it’s my least favorite thing about the site. 2. No woo woo. When you read the class descriptions, you get a sense that it’s going to be a thorough, energetic and relaxing experience. No chanting required. 3. Even though I was just in town for a visit, they gave me the unlimited yoga for a week for $25 deal. I wasn’t sure they would since I’m not local but it was a sweet deal and it’s what decided me on their studio for the week.

I am not generally a fan of hot yoga. Rather, I like hot yoga up to a certain temperature. My ideal max temp is about 85 degrees (Forrest-style) and Urban Yoga Spa is a little hotter – 90-105 degrees. I have mentioned before that I sweat like a center for the Detroit Lions; it’s hot enough there that I started sweating the minute I walked into the rooms. That said, I didn’t find the temps at UYS to be unbearable. Don’t get me wrong, it was HOT but not to the point that I felt uncomfortable, light-headed or any of the other stuff you don’t want to have happen. In addition, the rooms were clean and avoided that whole ‘stank’ that can sometimes happen with a hot yoga place. One studio is full of mirrors and the other doesn’t have any – in case that matters to you.

First class was 90 minute Hot Hatha. I didn’t wear my glasses, what with the sweat, and I think the teacher was maybe Amber? I don’t remember if she introduced herself or not. As I frequently forget that when I teach, I’m not casting any stones. It was a solid 90 minute class.

• Things I loved: Clear and concise verbal cues, modifications starting slow and getting harder, encouragement to take breaks, encouragement to ENJOY the class and laugh/smile, logically formatted classes so that no one was trying to do headstand at the end of class when their arms are cashed, SUPPORTED BACKBENDS. Omg, y’all I was SO HAPPY about that. Wheel is a pet peeve of mine, especially in mixed-level classes.

• Things I didn’t love: Savasana was weird. As if it was supposed to be an unguided on-your-own relaxation, except that as soon as the instructor was out of the room people started packing up and leaving. Not sure about you, but it’s hard for me to stay focused when 15 people are packing up their stuff and leaving because it’s pretty much impossible for that to happen quietly. As far as negatives go, this one ain’t that big.

Second class: Hot Hatha Hour with Bret (if I remember correctly). Very similar in structure and content to the 90 minute Hatha class. Same great directions, same unwillingness to take the class so seriously. The class was a bit pared down to fit the hour but still a nice, thorough workout. I remember the savasana being a little more directed or maybe it was just that everyone didn’t pack up as soon as the class was over. Loved it.

Third class: Power Vinyasa Hour with Drew.

• Things I loved: Dude. If I had my own place, this is how teachers would teach. Drew – like the previous two instructors – had GREAT verbal cues, kept it light and encouraged smiling and taking it as easy or hard as you wanted/needed. Same practical class structure and super helpful adjustments.

• Things I didn’t love: Nothing. Really great class.

By this time I was wearing out my yoga clothes where wearing out = sweating ALL THE WAY THROUGH THEM. I had to take a day off to wash and let dry my yoga pants, as I’d brought less of them than shirts for some reason. Clearly wasn’t expecting to want a full week of hot yoga.

Foursquare told me that Restorative on Friday was a great class but that I should get there early. Getting there early was DEFINITELY a good tip.

Restorative with Jennifer:

• Things I loved: It was a nice solid stretching class, low key, relaxing.

• Things I didn’t love: The verbal cues were a little… odd. Several times I had to look up to figure out exactly what we were doing – and this stood out only because I hadn’t had to do that in any of the prior classes. Because of that, I’d say maybe not the best class for a beginner. Also, a little woo woo. I don’t mind woo woo, when I’m in the mood for it/the class is billed as such. Other than that, when I’m not EXPECTING yoga philosophy I generally don’t love it. *shrug* Your mileage may vary.

Studio in general:

• I loved that they had very reasonable water/mat rental/towel rental prices. Totally forgot to bring water with me to the first class. Whoops.

• I loved that I saw people of all sizes, shapes and ages in every single class. You can tell from the instruction in the individual classes that everyone is encouraging of making yoga accessible to EVERYBODY. That’s my biggest thing and it was fantastic.

• Everyone was very friendly. The person who was working the desk at my first class made a point of talking to me when she saw me in a different class that we were both attending. It was a really nice welcoming atmosphere.

• Music! There was music in each class, a kind of nondescript and low key new-agey thing that was totally non-intrusive.

• Chanting – there really wasn’t any some optional Oms at the end of a couple of the classes and I totally appreciated how the instructors were VERY CLEAR that they were optional. Also done in a matter-of-fact and non-woo woo sort of way so as to be generally appealing. Well done.
• They have donation classes on the weekend. I love that. Yoga accessibility is really important if we want to help people improve their health and well-being. It sounds corny but I believe it to be true. I love when studios not only say it, they back it up. If you’re not convinced you want to try a week of yoga there, definitely hit a donation class. You won’t regret it.

Honestly the only thing I didn’t love was the heat and that – along with any aforementioned nits – is  MY PERSONAL experience. There are people who love the super hot classes, I’m just not one of them. There are people who love woo woo, when I’m not expecting it I’m not one of them. I actually enjoy a good Om or two but I’m not much for chanting in classes so this stuff suited me fine. I’m a sucker for great direction and safe classes – both of those things were in spades here.

If it tells you anything, I recommended this place to no less than three locals while I was in town.

Post-vacation ennui

With so many things to blog about, where do I start?

How about this: I’m watching I Hate Valentine’s Day and I think maybe the only thing Nia Vardalos has changed since My Big Fat Greek Wedding is her eyebrows. Alas, it’s not a change for the good. I find these eyebrows or the makeup or something about it to be weirdly distracting.

Books! I finally finished Finch. While I enjoyed the story I loathed the fragments. I will not reread it and I won’t be looking for more of VanderMeer’s work. Also finished The Year of the Flood, Atwood’s latest and I really enjoyed it. In fact, it made me want to reread Oryx and Crake (again) and then YotF right behind it. I didn’t though – I read Silver Borne, the latest Mercy novel from Patricia Briggs. Pretty happy with the whole novel but I think I put more details on my 2010 reading list page.

I’m also in the middle of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Not sure if I just hadn’t heard anything about it but I was expecting something really different. Thus far, engaging protag and interesting story.

Our flights were uneventful. Against what must be the largest number of odds, on each flight I was seated next to someone who was going to be visiting our new hometown in the near future. I really loathe seating process of Southwest. Frankly I don’t see anything wrong with being able to check and and get my seat assignment early, INCLUDING a spot next to my spouse, rather than depending on the kindness of strangers allowing me to sit next to him. Add unnecessary seat-partner anxiety to all the least fun parts of air travel (cattle call loading and unloading) with a dose of ‘whoever gets there first, wins’ and yeah, it’s not my most enjoyable travel. I was also not enamored of the Southwest/Kevin Smith debacle, where they were dicks and he was unjustly thrown off a flight. Those things mean I’m not sure we’ll be flying Southwest again.

Seattle was lovely as are my long-distance friends. Probably I’ll upload some pictures soon and then get on with the whole yoga post.

The road so far…

HA! SPN reference!


Our flight was uneventful – good, because thanks to the incredibly slow airport security we made it to the gate with only 3 minutes to spare. That meant not sitting together but I ended up sandwiched between a very nice man and his son.


Per usual on the plane, my kindle was an icebreaker. After some gadget talk, I discovered the young guy was a local (Denver area) U student who’s going to finish his final degree credits at Spouse’s campus. What are the odds?!


On the plane I FINALLY finished Finch. Good book, wicked annoying writing style. Starting The Year of the Flood. Also not purchasing books for a while as I have at least 20 unread on the kindle.


We arrived to warmth and sun- not a bad start, even if it doesn’t hold. Spent most of the afternoon at Pike’s Market and are looking forward to a return for breakfast. AMAZING beer and sushi at the Tap House Grill last night after getting our first dose of PNW rain (mostly a drizzle, done by the time we finished dinner.


The Sheraton is a nice hotel we wouldn’t stay at on our own dime, especially because despite ridiculous price tag they STILL charge $10 A DAY for WiFi access in the room. WTF. Thankfully phone browser remembers passwords. What did I EVER do without my Eris!? Best travel tool, evar.


Most entertaining moment of trip so far- having to explain to Spouse “hipster”. It’s like being in a foreign country…

Sunday, Monday, some day

Due to my work schedule, Saturdays are my  Sunday which makes Sunday my Monday. It’s discombobulating because despite KNOWING which day it is, I tend to act based on what day it feels like. So I make calls that I’d normally make Monday or try to run errands that I can’t run until everyone else’s Monday.

In order to stave off cutting my hair again, I’ve recolored it (again). Back to a nice shade of auburn which should settle me for a while.

In TV news, last night was I Love You, Man which still cracks me up. It’s funny in no small part because I think the social activities that have traditionally allowed social interaction have shifted over the years, making it harder to find companionship. The idea of “dating” friends is funny but mostly because it’s true. How do you make new friends these days?

We’re pretty excited about our travel plans. Less so about having to pay the government this year. I generally dread tax season and this year was a double-bonus of suck. Feh.

In 2 months, though we’ll be headed back to Michigan for a visit! It’ll be nice to see some old friends and the family.

Tomorrow’s excitement includes laundry, going to the bank, getting dog supplies together for the sitter, making up spare beds, packing clothes and generally wrapping up loose ends.

Reason #6,342 I’m a dork

I love reading other blogs about what people (who aren’t paid to) are reading/watching/listening to but I often forget to blog about those kinds of things myself.

We watched Sorority Row last night while I worked on our taxes and what was hilarious about it was that our friend J hasn’t seen Scream. Definite bonus points for creative death and dismemberment.

I’ve been on a kick lately – I rewatched The Little Mermaid a couple of weeks ago and then put the soundtrack on my Zune. I remember being at Danielle’s house and singing along with the movie (I swear we knew the whole film by heart) more times than I should ever admit to. We also spent an absurd amount of time watching The New Mickey Mouse Club. Yes, I know.

The music is great – better than the film, really. According to the film, in order to win your man you should seem vacuous and behave somewhat dangerously. Go team GIRLS. Also, Disney gutted the very best parts of the HCA story – the parts that made it REALLY compelling – but whatever. I have two places in my heart – one for the pretty and fun Disney version and the other for Hans Christian Andersen’s truly awesome tale.

Because of this, I rented The Princess and the Frog. I’ve got to say that I like it a lot. I wasn’t really tempted to see Mulan at all (possibly because I thought Pocahontas was TERRIBLE) so Disney is possibly trying to win me back. Or doesn’t care about me at all and will keep churning out their crap because it makes them metric asstons of cold, hard cash. Anyhow, the music in the movie is pretty great as well and for the first time EVER, I’m tempted to check out the “inspired by the movie” cd I saw in the store.

Tonight’s dinner was homemade Green Chili Chorizo in Queso Fundido and it was fantastic. We’re watching Best in Show – a film that despite a hundred viewings NEVER fails to crack me up.

Funny for completely DIFFERENT reasons (and no less entertaining) XXX, which is also on. We’re flipping back and forth because we have the attention spans of labrador retrievers.

The Crap Celebrity Edition

I love Heidi Klum. I would normally not go out on that particular limb, but the fact that she comes from a naked family AND TALKS ABOUT IT is amazing. My parents, also not hippies, had no shame about their bodies and it’s nice to know that I’m not the only freakshow out there.

Dear Russell Crowe, Please learn the meaning of “metaphor” before talking about it. You’ll sound less dumb, I promise. For example, Gladiator wasn’t a “metaphor for death, and possibly vengeance.” It was a movie that was LITERALLY ABOUT VENGEANCE AND DEATH. Your mole freaks me out sometimes, you seem a little crazy, but I usually like your movies. Quit TALKING about them and trying to RUIN it for me. Love, Yg

Anna Paquin comes out as bisexual in defense of GLBT rights and CRASHES the website. LOVE HER. We should all be for equality anyhow but I’m sick of hearing straights (AND GAYS) claim that bisexuality doesn’t exist. It’s especially great that she’s in a committed relationship with someone because being engaged/married/committed doesn’t mean you’re LESS bisexual, it just means you’ve chosen to have a relationship with the luckiest person EVAR.

Sherlock Holmes. You have no idea how close this entry came to being called “No shit, Sherlock.” I loved it. Funniest fight scenes ever, while still being great fight scenes. Possibly the best role Jude Law has ever played. Irene Adler still kicks the most ass. All that and they managed to honor the tradition of Holmes not filling you in until the end of the book without making the film suck. I REALLY want to see Iron Man 2.

We rented Precious and Sorority Row. I’m not sure which we should watch first, though we probably won’t play Shane’s (awesome) drinking game. I maintain the only thing WRONG with his drinking game is that people haven’t reached the level of cynicism and/or pessimism about child abuse as they have with international natural disasters. Therefore Haiti Telethon drinking game = funny with a side of going to hell, Precious drinking game = OUCH, OUCH, THE FLAMES THEY BURN.

Jennifer’s Body was pretty fantastic. I love that it’s a girl movie – like Whip It but if your best friend wanted to kill/torture you instead of covering for you at the Oink Joint. Amanda Seyfried is GREAT.

The Princess and the Frog is growing on me. I love the soundtrack and I’ve watched the movie twice. It will probably never have the nostalgia of The Little Mermaid for me (I can probably recite the film BY HEART despite it being my favorite AND most hated Disney film) but it’s really good.

My rant about The Little Mermaid can take on its own entry. Seriously.

Surrogates was SURPRISINGLY good. I’m always willing to give Bruce a little leeway since I’m his number one fan (in a non-creepy, NON-MISERY, not even sending fan-tweets kind of way) but it managed to be a seriously decent murder mystery/action flick with some social commentary. Possibly my favorite kind of film.

I’m WAY over hearing about the sex lives of Tiger Woods and Jesse James. I think it’s a terrible thing to have attained enough fame to lose your privacy and have all of the details of your private life to become public fodder. If you like reading about the destruction of someone’s personal life, I’d argue that you’re not all that happy with your OWN life. Find something besides other people’s self-destruction to make you feel better.

In celebration of our Zombie Lord, we’ll be watching Sorority Row and eating steak and twice baked potatoes. I’m also going to make Deviled Eggs (which may seem appropriate – heh) for the Spouse even though I can’t stand them.

I may never use OPI again

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.