My New Planner

You might not know it, but there is an entire subculture of Type A, planner people out there. They have instagrams, youtube videos, blogs, even entire websites dedicated to talking about their planners, how they use them, which planners are best, how to color code and catalog their lives and their kids lives.  These people use craft tape, stickers, and multi-colored expensive pens to somehow cajole themselves into having more organized, focused, and subsequently peaceful lives. Well, I am of the opinion that most Type A people enjoy their Type-A-ness to the point that they probably don't actually need expensive planners. Maybe they just really get off on going all Type-A on their planning. The people who really need the planners are those of us on the other side of the spectrum. Those of us who buy planners and then let them sit on the table for a year. Those of us who set goals and forget about them. Those of us who might even pride ourselves on our non-planny-ness. We need a little Type-A in our lives.

So, for this reason I decided to purchase a Day Designer. Google it. They are all the rage with the Type-A planner people; so much that they sell out in a few hours after their release each season. They do two releases each year: December and May. Personally, I like the idea of a May release because by May most New Year's resolutions and plans and have been forgotten and people need a new planner to get them back on track.  What I love about the Day Designer is that it breaks down goal setting to a specific process that makes one feel accountable. The Day Designer also has a place for To-Do Lists, Meal Planning, and Daily Gratitudes!   I have vowed to actually use my Day Designer to track my goals for the next year, write stuff down, track our budget, and bring a little of that Type-A focus to my life.

Spring Break in Asheville

Last weekend, Jason and I took a little trip to Asheville for Spring Break. I found a cute little "Treefort Cottage" on AirBnB for us to stay in, which boasted itself as a premier "glamping"* option.  We had a great little weekend hanging out, drinking beer, drinking coffee, hiking, catching up with friends, and rooting for the Heels from a chain sports bar with 12,000 TVs.

Our Little Treehouse for "glamping"

View from firepit

Jason contemplates a wild turkey

Enjoying the surroundings

The old "over the shoulder" selfie

Sweet Little Cottage

Cheers from Wedge, Brewery

Yummy food and yummy beer from Wicked Weed

One of my favorite activities-fire and beer! I really love to zone out and stare at the fire...

Good Morning from our big bed in a tiny Treehouse Cottage. 

Cortado and a book- another favorte activity

Jason on Black Balsam Knob

Ah, so pretty

Waterfalls at Graveyard Fields Loop Trail

Sierra Nevada Brewery, NC style! This place is a MUST!
Here we are with Derek and kids. This place is only 5 minutes from their house.

*A footnote on "glamping"- it's glamour + camping = glamping, and it's a great way to combine some of the great things about camping like fires and outside with some of the great things about staying in a hotel like a bed and warmth.  I'm still not sure though if it's just a way to get you to spend tons of money for a granny bed and a port-a-potty.  We did love our little tree house though...

I Can Make Pretzels

And that is all.

Juice Cleanse

I've really been into juice lately, so I decided to try a 2-day juice cleanse. The benefits seemed reasonable: giving the digestive system a break, zapping your body with extra vitamins and minerals, detoxing the liver, and being a little more mindful about consumption for a couple of days.

So I got my juice from my favorite juicery here in in Oregon: 

 12 juices, 6 per day...no big deal, right?

Wrong.

Things started out fine:

I was enjoying the juices that I had chosen, taking selfies, and feeling like a real champ. Then, around 4:00 things changed. My head began to hurt and my vision was blurring. All I could think about was all the amazing foods that I wanted to eat: cheeseburgers, Chinese food, egg sandwiches, burritos, and coffee. 

Then, my mind began to play tricks on me. I saw turkey sandwiches dangling from trees and kettle chips scattered all over the ground. I even thought about trying the dog food. Was this shoddy willpower on my part or the symptoms of malnutrition setting in?

I decided to drown my doubts with another juice and a little internet googling sesh. This resulted in me falling down a rabbit hole of articles about juice cleanses. What I found was that juice cleanses may or may not be good for you. Juice may or may not detox your system. Juice may or may not flood your system with an overload of sugar without enough fiber to digest it, causing your body to produce too much insulin and send it into diabetic shock.

I felt like shit. And these articles weren't helping. By 9:00 that night I was forcing down my last juice and ready to call it a day, literally and figuratively. Why do this to myself? Maybe I would feel better after the day 1 one toxin hangover (this is what pro-juice cleanse people call the shitty feeling that you feel, but I think it's just hunger), maybe I have no will power, maybe I need a lesson in self-determination. Or maybe I'm just really smart and know that my body needs balance. Juice cleanse, I quit.

So, here's what I learned from my 2-day 1-day juice cleanse:

1) Juice is good, but food is better
2) Trying to restrict something from your diet (like food) is stupid and psychologically unhealthy
3) You're not exactly cleansing, if you feel like total shit while you're doing it
4) Too much juice is just as bad as too much of anything else
5) Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (thanks to Michael Pollan for this one)

Another Great Coast Hike

This Coast hike thing needs to become a regular activity because it's super fun, very beautiful, and feels damn good to get out of Eugene.  Yesterday, Jason and I headed to Florence which is about an hour west of Eugene. The day started out cold and foggy, but by the time we started hiking it was about 55 degrees and sunny.  Here are the pictures from our awesome hike. We hiked about six miles roundtrip, out and back starting from Washburn State Park (where we usually take the dogs) and ended up by the Heceta Head Lighthouse before we turned back. It was nice mix of beach, trail, rocks, landmark, and climbing. We even dipped our feet in the ocean, but it was freezing. 

A page out of Bill Sullivan's book on great coastal hikes

Hobbit Beach

Jason climbing up the side of a sandy cliff thing

Later, we saw the "No Climbing" sign

At the top of the trail almost to Heceta Head Lighthouse. I love this view up the coastline.

Posin' by my favorite view

Is it a selfie if there's two of us? Is it an usie?

Jason is a tree

Very beautiful, rolling part of the trail 

And, of course, I had to stop for a little lifting lotus (Utthitta Padmasana) at my favorite spot

Camel Pose (Ustrasana)
Sometimes I see something and get inspired to make a cool yoga pose picture upon it.
This stump called out to me "Do camel on me", so I did.

Fun on the Coast

One of my favorite things to do in Oregon is to day trip to the coast. It is a very different type of coast than that of NC. There is no swimming, no people, and no Britt's donuts.  No anything really... but it's always a good time nonetheless. 

Like many places in Oregon, it is a hodgepodge of climates, terrains, and natural features. It's kind of like you're in the middle of the desert... with an evergreen forest...next to the ocean... on another planet.

The nature, quiet, and proximity to the ocean is always revitalizing.  Here are some pictures from our little day hike on the Tahkenitch Creek Trail near the Oregon Dunes (I think that's what it's called...I'm just going to always call it the Takahootchie Trail because that just sounds better to me).

Jason making his way up a little hill

Crossing a creek. The water was cold!

To the top

King of the dune mountain

Now my turn

So many shells on the beach. This one looks like a butterfly.

Lots of driftwood too. Jason has a moment on this log.

Getting in touch with his inner Pisces

Getting in touch with my inner Cancerian Crab. I'm remembering lately just how much I love the ocean. 

Balancing Stick on a stick

Looking to the South

A throne of driftwood

Standing Separate Leg Stretching pose on a bridge, because why not?

Not pictured: A really cool sand dollar that Jason found and possibly the best breakfast burrito that I've ever had

Blogging about my blog, learning about life

A nice reminder of what an awesome ESL teacher I was

It's the calm before the storm, I feel. Starting March 31st I will be insanely busy for a 10 week stint. Between teaching a course at UO, supervising student teachers, working part time as an assistant researcher, and teaching yoga who knows when I will have time to even think about how much time I don't have. Aye!

But for now, I'm feeling a brief calm and instead of using my time wisely to prepare for my class, I'm finding myself re-reading old blog entires which in it's own way is very useful for reflection and self-growth. That's the cool thing about having been blogging (relatively) consistently since January 2010.  That's 5 years! A lot has happened in the past five years and it's kinda neat to relive it all through my blog. Some things I read are embarrassing, some hilarious, and some even heart-breaking. 

 I think the greatest lesson to be learned from reading old blog posts is, ironically, contentment (santosha). This idea of contentment is something that I have wrestled with for a long time, hence me naming my blog Santosha. I don't suppose this to be the end of my wrestling, but maybe now I've just been ushered into a new class of wrestling. I've got some insight based on my experiences and how I can now reflect upon what I wrote.

Most importantly, I am amazed at the shift in my happiness or contentment during my time as an ESL Teacher. I started out bright-eyed and bushy tailed, excited about my job and life and somewhere down the line I became disillusioned. I let a desire for more (more money, more education, more degrees, more life experiences, more places to say that I lived in) cloud my vision of just how truly good my situation was. If I remove those desires from the equation, all of which are materialistic or ego-driven (aside from the desire for more life experiences, of course) I can reach the conclusion that I always had everything that I ever needed. Unfortunately, it took giving up those things to realize how truly perfect they were. So, in this sense, I believe it to be impossible for a human to understand contentment unless they have once abused their own understanding of it.  Or like Joni Mitchell said "You don't know what you got till it's gone".  

But, hey, at least now I'm cured of my grass is always greener syndrome.   

Art Game

I believe it is true what they say...whoever they is...that art imitates life.

Or is it life that imitates art?

Most likely it is both. Particularly in the case of these portraits that were drawn last weekend by a bunch of yoga teachers with margaritas. 

We decided to play a game and the game was this:

1) Get a piece of paper and a writing utensil.

2) Set a timer for 30 seconds

3) Sit across from a buddy and make eye contact with them 

4) Draw the buddy while continuously making eye contact, no looking up or down or anywhere except into their eyes.

Maybe it's just because we are yoga teachers and we are gifted at truly being able to "see" others, but I think these portraits are spot on. We somehow found a way to capture certain things about the person in a very Picasso-esk way. These renderings felt deep and insightful to me. Who knew a game could so meaningfully capture and depict people in such a carefree way?

I highly recommend trying this at your next gathering. You may not transcend the universe, but you will at least get a good laugh and maybe learn something about yourself in the process.

My portrait

A collection of portraits or Truth with crayon and 8.5x11 white paper

Hawaii (Part duex and beyond!)

Little did I know that after my previous post, I would be struck down by the worst food poisoning/stomach virus/tape worm/amoeba/I don't really know what the hell it was sickness that I have experienced in a very long time. I'm talking serious nausea, dizziness, retching, stomach cramping, diarrhea, the whole nine, ya'll. It was real. It lasted about 2 and a half days and yes it did cramp my vacation style just a bit. However, between trips to the bathroom and sad naps, I did manage to do and see some pretty awesome stuff around Gennie. By Thursday I was back to 80% Blaine, at which point we road-tripped up to the north shore, did some stand-up paddle boarding, and ate some pretty delicious food.

Now, we're back. I'm 90% Blaine on the health front and yet 10% Blaine at heart because, seriously you guys, Hawaii is the best place ever and if you want to really shock the senses go to Hawaii and then go to Oregon in the winter. (like my run on sentence?)

Here's some more pictures from the trip!

Yummy acai bowl for breakfast on the beach

Beach!

So beautiful!

Chickens everywhere!

Alan Davis jumping plank near Makapuu Lighthouse

Gennie jumps off...I'm still thinking

Still thinking...

Loungin'

Jason soaking it all in

Sea kayaking

Triangle pose on Lanikai Beach

Standing bow pulling pose

Bonzai pipeline, half moon, tattoos

Huge waves at Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore

Testing out the SUP

Here we go!

It was super windy

Down the canal

So much fun! I want a SUP!

Paniolo Burger at Kahuku Grill at the North Shore

Coconut Macadamia Shrimp at Kahuku Grill...world famous

Tree Pose, a banzai tree, blue skies

Toe stand on a little table