Tyler

This morning Tyler Hansborough was spotted at Open Eye Cafe by Jason. This covert snap-chat reminded of the time I not so covertly tried to snap-chat Tyler Hansborough at Open Eye Cafe last fall and he saw me. The snap was priceless! Unfortunately, I didn't screenshot it, but it looked something like this

mixed with this

Love your body photo shoot

My yoga studio did a photo shoot to promote the idea that yoga is for every body.

Everybody and every body.

I like this idea since most of the media around yoga shows extremely skinny "fit" people doing advanced postures and when it's not that it's somehow deemed not as legit or not "yoga".  I'm just as guilty as everyone else, I suppose, in thinking this. I mean, I follow these people on instagram and am even inspired by them.  But I like to also keep an open mind about what is and isnt't yoga.

Yoga means union and yoga is everything. So certainly yoga is for everybody and every body need not look the same in a yoga posture. 

Here are a few shots from our photo shoot:

Year in Review Part 3

Ah, the summer! My favorite time of year.

Our summer was marked by much freedom, friends visiting, camping trips, The Hood the Coast Relay Race, another trip to NC, floating, drinking wine, my awesome birthday, and all around general warmth and goodness. Like I said, my favorite time of year!

The yoga room

We are SO not allowed to take pictures in the yoga room, but someone broke the rules and took this, then posted it on the Facebook page. So I stole it and here it is. Hopefully, I won't get in trouble for trafficking illegal photos.

Here's where we practice twice a day:




It's a hotel ballroom converted into a hot room. About 350 people practice in there at a time. See that big orange chair on the podium? That's where Bikram stands/sits.

Another great weekend!

Week 2 of teacher training was pretty good. I'm getting into the routine and our classes have seemed much more manageable.

Friday Jason came to visit! He and Nate drove Little Car down from Eugene. So, now I have my car and this weekend I had my husband! We spent some QT together, hung with Bekah, and went to Chloe's sister's wedding reception all in a matter of about 36 hours. I'd say it was a productive weekend.

Bekah and Jason and Tacos

Reunited and it feels so good

Yoga laundry

taste the rainbow...of sweaty yoga garb

Yummy coffee in Silverlake

Wedding!

cuties

Apple Pie Ice Cream on a Coconut Almond Cookie from CoolHaus

Just a little hike to see the Hollywood sign

Twinsies

On top of the world

Getting out of Dodge

A big thanks to my soul sister Bekah for picking us up today, driving us in a car, taking us to breakfast and the beach. I feel like almost a normal person. And by "almost a normal person" I mean that it all starts over again tomorrow. Back to the Bikram bubble! (Is it any coincidence that the auto-correct tried to change "bubble" to "bible"?)

7 Beautiful Women I Just Can't Stop Looking At These Days

Beyonce! Because, well...duh!

Cat Power (aka Charlyn Marshall)
Devine singer with devine style.

Kat Dennings.
Hilarious and Hot.
And the star of her very own mediocre and slightly raunchy sitcom, 2 Broke Girls.

Aubrey Plaza.
Another hilarious brunette.
Check her out on Parks and Recreation  being snarky and awesome.

Zoe Deschanel.
She's adorkable.
She can sing.
And she has bangs every girl would kill for.

Christina Hendricks.
Or Joanie,  the saucy, indispensable secretary as you may know her from Mad Men.
Curves for days.

Oh, and myself of course!
Not in an arrogant way.
But ladies, it's important to love yourself and find beauty in you.
Especially when we're bombarded with media images of "perfect" women as I've presented above.

Not a Competition

Yesterday was the demonstration at Bikram Yoga Durham.  There was about 14 of us who got up in front of our yoga peers and demonstrated the progress of our practice.  Though it wasn't a competition exactly, it held the format of a typical Bikram competition sans scoring and judging.  Basically, this means that we had to include the 5 basic postures designated for competition and 2 postures from the advanced Bikram series.  We had to bow before and after our routine, and announce the names of each posture before we did it.  There are also weird rules about which direction you have to face when doing whatever posture.  That was hard to remember.  I went last which was extremely nerve inducing as I had to watch each of the others demonstrating, finishing, and plopping down on the floor in relief.  I had no idea how nervous I would be once I got up on the podium.  I was shaking, folks.  It's one thing getting up in front of people and speaking, or singing, or whatever.  But getting up in front of people in tiny little shorts and trying to balance?  Scary.

My Routine:

Standing Head to Knee Pose (not the full expression, I guess the camera-man missed that)




Standing Bow Pulling Pose



Bow Pulling Pose




Rabbit Pose





Stretching Pose



Bound Lotus Pose





Headstand with Lotus Pose (Again, my camera man missed the full expression of this one, but got me "gracefully" moving into it)




The group who demonstrated. This was an awesome group of people with whom to do this.  Representing a variety of levels and ages, each and every one of us have such unique practices and are on such different yogic paths.  It was very inspiring to share this experience with each of them.





What a learning experience!  My postures are not perfect, in fact I could probably go through and pick apart each one, but that is not the point.  The point was to share my progress, and demonstrate my experiences and love for the yoga.  I feel honored to have been asked to participate and I would do it again in an instant!

On the bandwagon or not?

If you haven't been living in a hole, you might have heard of a newish television series that you must watch.  Everyone is talking about it, which often makes me want to dislike something, but when Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, Six Feet Under, Breaking Bad, and Gossip Girl run out, it's time to try a little something new.  I'm game for that.  This is why I gave Downton Abbey a chance.  I've seen 3 episodes and I'm not convinced.  Here's why:

1) I don't care about any of these people.  Yes, I know I've only seen 3 episodes but isn't it the show's responsibility to make me care about these people so that I want to continue to watch?

2)  I can't figure out who is who.  They all look the same!  Who's a servant?  Who's a richie?  They are all so white...and British!

3) What the F is Downton Abbey?  The main guy says in the first episode that he cares about Downton Abbey more than anything else.  But what is it?  It's not a farm, not a business...is it just a big ass house?  Do they all just live in the house and walk around and talk to each other?  I'm not down with that.

I'll give it a few more episodes before I make my final decision, but they better hurry up and make this thing good soon, or I'm out!

Awakening

How can you buck the system if you are "the man"?

Today I got to thinking about the world and how I want to be a part of it.  I'm not exactly sure of the answer to that question in total yet.  But what I do know is that I don't want to be "normal".  I don't want to go with the grain. I don't want to be a rule follower.  And, I most definitely do not want to be "the man".

I know, I know...systems and rules are put into place to organize people and  minimize chaos.  Well, I'm all for that.  I don't want people running around killing each other and rioting in the streets.  But I also don't want to be a drone. An empty void of a person passing the time by satiating with a myriad of worldly addictions.

You might be thinking...

How did you start thinking about this?
Are you some kind of an anarchist criminal?
What's wrong with you?

Well, I'll tell you.  It all started on my run yesterday.  I was running and feeling truly satisfied.  And wondering why it was hard for people to find satisfaction. The Stones had it right when they said "I can't get no Satisfaction".   I was thinking about satisfaction and how people (myself included) are so numb to being able to tell whether or not they are actually satisfied.  Why can't we get no?

 I think most of us are this way because society is set in a way in which humans are bombarded with distractions.  We have to distract ourselves from the banality.  This is how we become addicted.  Addicted to food.  Addicted to drugs and alcohol.  Addicted to sex.  Addicted to television.  Addicted to shopping. Addicted to exercise.  Addicted to surrounding yourself with people.  These addictions provide temporary satisfaction which we highly evolved 21st century beings have confused for real happiness, or santosha, contentment, if you will.  Our confusion and displacement of contentment allows us to float along through life, through the systems which were set up to contain us, unaware of our own oblivion.

I don't want to be a slave to the distractions anymore.

I hear people around me saying things like "We're all just finding ways to pass the time".  And maybe that is true.  Maybe we all need to find a delicate balance between our spiritual fulfillment/pursuit of contentment and our worldly distractions because we are only human.  And what about things like art, music and literature?  Couldn't these things be considered "distractions".  I don't know the answer.  But I do know that I can't ever hope to find my way to the surface for a breath of fresh air and reality if I continue to be "the man" participating in a system that condones the exertion of some kind of power over others. A system that is based upon power imbalances, control, and oppression is a system that breeds tendency towards a need for diversion and beguilement.

I want to be awake.

Cultural Sensitivity Conundrum

After a recent lawsuit put upon Durham Public Schools, cultural sensitivity and diversity are the buzz words. This is interesting because diversity has been a huge aspect of Durham for as long as I've been living here, which is all my life, folks. Yesterday, I was privy to a very "barely scraping at the surface" cultural sensitivity and diversity training which I am later to turn around and present to my fellow teachers. OK, I can do that.
The take away point from this thing was that we all need to be aware of cultural differences when working with people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds. Misconceptions and communication breakdowns are the status quo when you have teachers who get angry when students don't make eye contact with them while they're chewing them out and students who's cultural beliefs state that making eye contact with an adult is a sign of disrespect. Or students who aren't coming to school because they are at home taking care of younger brothers and sisters which to us seems like a reason to call DSS but in their culture it's just normal. These are just a couple of examples of the many misunderstandings that can and have happened.
So, we're supposed to just be aware and understanding of cultural differences That's great, but what happens when it's part of your culture to be a bigot or a racist? Am I supposed to be sensitive to that? Does it make me wrong to try to change your culture by educating you about cultural sensitivity?
How does merely being aware really change paradigms and practices? I feel like we've been aware for a very long time and things are still the same. So, what to do?

You don't even WANT to know...

Things that you should just NOT do:

1) Search your address on a registered sex offender websites to find out about all the pedophiles and rapists in your area.

2) Search for future addresses on registered sex offender websites to find out about all the pedophiles and rapists in the area.

3) Search for future addresses on local crime mappers.

4) Try to find out if your house is haunted.

5) Ask how traditional Spaghetti al Carbonara is really made.

6) Think about hotel rooms, rental cars, bowling balls, used clothing or anything else that has ever been touched by another.

Clubbin'

It must be the year of doing organized intellectual things; club memberships abound!

Today, I received the November installment of my CD of the month club! A friend organized this club over the summer- just a bunch of people who get off on making mix CDs. Love it!

I'm also in a book club, hence my reading Moby Dick (yeah, there's no way I would just decide to read that without some motivation). Mostly, we just drink wine and inevitably as more bottles are popped the conversation turns from books to annoying things our significant others do. Good stuff.


It's fun to pretend to be an adult.

yuck it up

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read." ~ Groucho Marx

Douche-bags

The term "douche-bag" is not a term that I like to use on a regular basis. It sounds vulgar and conjures disgusting images. But sometimes, a dude comes along who is just so perfectly defined by this term that I just can't help myself.
This happened to me this morning when I was cut off by one of these gentlemen. His behavior, affect, and copious amount of gel in his hair forced me to scream at the top of my lungs "Douche- Bag!!!!"

Now, I feel much better.