Shhhh...Don't Tell

Apparently, the boy band is back.  And, don't tell a soul, but I am loving this little ditty.



It's horribly great and reminds me of being 8 and in love with the original boy band below:

Just a regular Wednesday night

With this guy





And this guy

It just doesn't seem right

Today I spent from 9 to 1:30 administering  a standardized Math test to a group of 3rd graders.  We took a 20 minute break for lunch, but other than that we tested for over 4 hours.  I was ready to jump out of the window.  I know if my attention span had long since run out, then the poor 8 year olds taking this test must have been fried.


It just doesn't seem right.

An engaged sister!!!

The Deets

As our move to Oregon draws nearer, I am beginning to realize that what seemed like a daunting task is slowly becoming more and more manageable.  This time a year ago, I had just found out about being accepted to the University of Oregon.  We owned a house (and a bunch of other junk), had two secure jobs, friends and families firmly rooted here, and not to mention we had never even been to the Northwest...how could we even dream of moving there when so many things had us so tethered here?

Fast-forward to now.  Our house has sold, we've gotten rid of a ton of our cumbersome stuff, we've put in our notices of resignation, friends and families will miss us but understand, we've got a down payment on a moving company contract, and fairly solidified plans to sojourn across the country on July 31.

I am reminded of a moment this past October in Portland, as we coffeed with an old friend from Carboro, Rafael.  He made the east-west coast move about 6 years ago, and as we prodded him with our questions and fears about making such a huge move he simply said "You just do it.  You do the deets" (deets, being details, for those of you who don't speak Rafael).  And never has any advice stuck more than that. 

We could live our whole lives never moving forward for fear of the intricacies and details that we would face along the path.  When you have to do something, you don't fear it.  You just do it.  You deal with it and you make it work.  Then it happens.  When you encounter bumps along the way, you handle them.  You do what you have to do and rather than butting heads with your resistance, you embrace the challenge and move forward. Thus is the journey, and doing the deets is all a part of it.

A Demonstration is Coming

One of the interesting things about Bikram yoga is that there is a competitive aspect to it.  It is something that causes me a bit of guilt in my practice because in my understanding, yoga should not be competitive.  This lack of competition is one of the things that initially drew me to yoga.  I'd spent so many years of my life competing in the theatre world.  I was so sick of it all: competing for parts, competing for attention, competing to be heard in a room full of charismatic people.  Finding an arena of my life in which I did not have to compete was such a relief, and ultimately my yoga practice served as a safe haven in which I could truly be myself without having to think about whether or not I was better than someone else at thing A, B, or C. Yoga was a place where I could deeply concentrate on myself, and to do that I did have have to compete.
However, Bikram would say otherwise.  He would say that for thousands of years, yogis in India competed with one another in their postures.  He would also tell you that if you ever hope to get better in your practice, you must compete with yourself.  And, why does it matter whether or not one excels in his or her practice?  Well, with deeper opening and discovery in the asanas (postures) comes deeper opening and discovery in the mind and self. Competition is also a basic human instinct that motivates and inspires us to excel in this way. Because of this, every year Bikram yogis all of the world compete in the Yoga Asana Championship and someone somewhere is crowned champion. Here are this years USA National Champions:

I guess this whole competition thing is getting to be a big deal in the Bikram community because Bikram Yoga Durham is holding a mock "competition" in a few weeks.  They are calling it a "demonstration" because no one will actually be judging per se, unless you count watching and comparing as judging.  It will be conducted the same way a real competition would be; for example...

Well, you don't think I would explain all of this to you with a punchline, do you?  Here's the punchline, friends:  I will be participating in the yoga demonstration.

I'm a little nervous.  Not only because people will be watching me and silently judging me, but also because I will most likely have to reactivate some competitive part of my being to participate.  This, no doubt, will be like unleashing a starving beast that has been shackled deep within the dark dungeons of my ego.  Once unchained, who knows what will happen?

The Latest in Entertainment

Freeze Dried Fruits




Bram Stoker's Dracula

Back to it!

Back to school today after a three week long intersession break.  It's hard going back, but hey, I just had 3 weeks off so I can't really complain.  I also got to thinking about the fact that this will be my last intersession break.  There is only one 9-week quarter left in my teaching career (as of now) and after that, on to bigger and better things!


Last intersession ever.  Let's recap:
-Put a pretty big dent in my 60 day Bikram Yoga challenge and probably established myself as a "Bikram rat" at Bikram Yoga Durham (Day 23!!)
-Managed to not run and not go crazy
-Drank a lot of coffee
-Finished several books (Lightening Rods, Bastard Out of Carolina, The Snow Child)
-Started a few books (The Pale King, The Tiger's Wife, Dracula)
-Started and finished Seasons 1 and 2 of The Vampire Diaries
-Practiced on the slack-line a few times despite my raging allergies
-Saw some good friends and family
-Got in some good QT with the pups
-Saw Harrisonburg and Charlottesburg, VA
-Saw my birth town of Lynchburg, VA and many small eerie towns stuck in the 1960s along route 501 between Lynchburg and Roxboro (like...woah.)

You are what you eat

It's an age old, almost cliche, saying but it is true. And never has it been more true than when practicing a lot of Bikram Yoga. With the daily loss of so much sweat and toxins, somehow the body has become a superhuman cleansing machine. But with great power come great responsibility. As the brains in control of what goes into the machine, we have the power to maintain a healthy well oiled machine or a run down previous model.

Thursday after practicing the advanced series of Bikram Yoga (a 2.5 hour 84 posture yoga marathon) I decided to treat my self to some tater tots. Yum, right? Well, yesterday in class as I was doing my thing, sweating as usual, I began to smell tater tots! I was sweating and my sweat smelled like tater tots! This has happened to me other times before as well. Times I've made poor food choices (bacon, fried chicken, giant sub), I almost almost inevitably sweat to the smell of that food. Strange, right? Well, not really when you think about what the body is doing as it sweats. Sweating is meant to cool and cleanse the body. The sweat is cleaning out the junk. If you eat junk, you've got more junk to clean out.

On a side note, not only is Bikram Yoga taking over my life and my blog, it is now in my dreams. Last night I dreamed that I went to school after yoga class in my yoga clothes. This might not be a huge deal if I had been practicing regular yoga, but my Bikram clothes always look something like this:



So, it'd be like wearing a bathing suit to school. I then I had to run through all of these classrooms searching for my clothes. I can't remember what happened after that.

Day 22!

Virginia is for Lovers!

Currently, Jason and I are partaking in a little 2 night B and B living social deal which we purchased a few months ago. We are living it up in Harrisonburg, Virginia (home of James Madison University) right in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley.

Yesterday, we arrived and quenched our road trip thirst with some cool pints at a local bar. We then checked into our little B and B, cleverly or maybe not so cleverly named "By the Side of the Road". And it is, by the side of the road, that is. Our room is quaint and comfy and featured a "champagne getting" which was a bottle of sparkling wine in a mini fridge waiting for us upon our arrival. Works for me!

Today, after Jason did a little trail running exploration and I sat indoors and drank coffee silently scorning him and all people enjoying the outdoors in spite of the pollen, we'll be tripping down to Charlottesville (that's the closest Bikram Yoga Studio) so I can continue on in my 60 day challenge. I'm excited to try a new studio. It's always nice to see how others do it, and to enjoy a different style of teaching. Doing the same 26 postures every day can get a little monotonous and any room for variety is welcome. Jason also informs me that Charlottesville is the hometown of Dave Matthews. Maybe we will see him. Maybe even he will be my Bikram instructor. See you soon, Dave.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Breathe.

It's day 15 of my 60 day Bikram yoga challenge. I still feel great, and now that I've made it over the initial "oh my god i have to do this every single day for the next two months" first quarter hump I am ready to set some goals. My first goal is to just focus on my breathing for the next week. If you've ever been to Bikram yoga, you know a large portion of the class is spent looking at yourself in the mirror. This can be a little dicey and it's like kryptonite for those of us who tend to be a little self obsessed (and who isn't, really?). One could spend a lot of time judging oneself in the mirror, comparing and competing with others in the room. All this looking and assessing has a tendency to draw ones focus away from the task at hand: breathing, being in the posture. I want to try to work on this aspect of my practice. I know the postures, I feel good about them, and as long as I am hydrated and well rested, there's no reason why I should need to focus on anything else at this point.

In. Out. In. Out. Just Breathe.

My New Secret Weapon

We won!

With our combined minimal knowledge of basketball, Jason's smarts, my sixth sense, and after not watching a single tournament game...




Our bracket won us 90$!!!

Worst Place on Earth? Quite Possibly.

Today, a normal girl on her spring break just tried to buy a delicious sandwich and was nearly rear-ended and backed into at the same time over a parking spot.  Then upon navigating a battlefield of Priuses, bike guys, and over dressed Dookie girls,  she was almost run over on her way into the store.  Later, inside the store, said girl was cut in front of and "accidentally" jabbed with keys while ordering her sandwich.  It was a Whole lotta trouble for some Foods, if you ask me.

It was real, ya'll.  Real real.

My Husband: Ultra Marathon Man