The Wine

When Jason and I got engaged our friend Mike, who we refer to as "Mike's Pick's" for his wine picking ability and wine knowledge, gave us a bottle of wine from 2005 (the year we got together) and instructed us to hold on to until 2015 when we had our 10 year date-a-versary.  For the past 7 years, we have carted this bottle of wine with us through several moves, across the country and back and back again.  And finally, the time has come to open it!

Last night for our 10 year date-a-verary we opened the wine and drank it. The whole bottle.

We thought it was good, but we also couldn't  tell if it was corked or not.  We think it was a relatively nice bottle of wine, but our limited wine knowledge left us wondering "is this good?" ,"is it bad?", "Is it corked?", "what kind of wine is this?", "am I tasking minerals and berries or rotten vines?".

Regardless of whether we knew if we liked the wine or not, we had a great time with this bottle for sentimental reasons. Not to mention how nice it feels not to have to worry about babying that bottle anymore. We're free!

We open it. Wonder, "is it corked?"

Those silver markers last a while...

Wine label 

Taste

Taste

Looking back...

I discovered this thing where I can look at the old pictures from my blog. They are saved all together in an invisible file in the sky somewhere and what fun it is to look back at them and reminisce. Here are a few of my favorites:

Practicing yoga at 6:30 am in our little Hillsborough house. Viktor joins.

Hula hooping in our Hillsborough yard with my hoop from Jason. What ever happened to my hula hoop?

Strawberry picking in Hillsborough. Skipping down the aisle. 

Hammock water happy place

Alex! Boat!

My favorite meal ever...20$ Whole Foods salad

Passed out in Bryce's jeep after a day at Carolina Beach with Jessica and Bryce...circa 2011?
Was it too many Miller Lites or too many Britt's Donuts?

Another lake goodie. I like the look on my face to Jason in this picture.
Love and Funniness. 

Reading a story to kids at camp the day Viktor came to CFS. 

Book club! Man, I miss those ladies.

Edie pooping at the South Dakota KOA campground "pet walk", which was actually more of a dirty field.

Campfire chillin' with Marissa at the New River Gorge this past September.

The New River. I do love to sit on rocks by the water.

This guy. 

Books on books on books on books

It's that time of year again! Time for the 2015 tournament of books presented by The Morning News. Each year, 16 of the year's best books are selected (somewhat arbitrarily and not without bias) to go head to head in a March Madness style bracket. Jason and I have tried to read as many of these books over the past few years and participate to the best of our ability, which usually ends up with me reading 1 or 2 books and Jason reading 7-10 of them. Even if I don't get to all of the tournament books by March, it's a great list of recommendations for the coming year to slowly plow through.

Yeah, I'm a slow reader.

Remember when I was reading The Goldfinch (a contender from the 2014 tournament of books) back in September and October and November and December? Well, I finally finished it! I mean, it's almost 800 pages long. It was great, and then I moped around for a while mourning the loss of this book which had been through so much with me (like, literally from NC to OR).

Now I'm reading this

It's from this year's tournament list and it's a great little book. And, by "little" I actually mean small, concise, cute, and very manageable. It's handheld, like a little clutch, and only 176 pages long. That's quite refreshing after the 800-page spans of The Goldfinch. Don't be fooled though by its size; this book is deep.
Not only is Dept. of Speculation small and deep, but it's confidence inspiring. I started it yesterday and I'll be done by tomorrow! A great start to my tournament season reading.

On to the next one...

Teacher Training Anniversary

Today is the official 1 year anniversary of the first day of my Bikram Yoga Teacher Training.  I lived, studied, and practiced in the LAX Radisson (which, hilariously, is now closed down!) with 315 crazy Bikram yogis (pictured below) for 9 weeks:

315 "would be Bikram Yoga teachers", as they called us

I can't believe it's been a year. I've taught 188 classes since November 20 when I taught my first. I've learned so much! The 9 week stay at teacher training was only the beginning. The life of an actual teaching teacher is the true training. Working with so many amazing teachers and students is the true training. Maintaining and growing in my practice is the true training. The training is a lifelong training, wherein we are all constantly learning and growing. We "continuously keep kicking".

Thank you, Bikram. You might be a nut, but you are a yoga genius too. Thank you.

"You are not proving how good you are. You are giving them something. You have to be compassionate. Then, you put nails in their ass" -Bikram (9/17/13)

9 year date-aversary! (yesterday)

A 9 box grid to represent 9 years of love and fun. And this isn't even the half of it!

It's hard to believe I've been in cahoots with this guy for 9 whole years (since 2005). June 2nd marks the day of our first "date". We were supposed to take Edie to the dog park. It rained, so we got some beers, confessed each other our love, and we've been ride or die ever since.  Next year, we'll get to drink what I think will be an amazing bottle of wine that was wedding-gifted to us. It was meant to be aged to perfection by the time we hit our 10 year anniversary of being together.  So much has happened, we've done a million things, and here's to doing a million more!

This bottle has been with us since we got married. It made it to OR and now must make it back to NC so we can drink it next June 2nd! 2015, baby.

My System

In addition to taking 2 Bikram classes a day and attending posture clinics and lectures, I also have to memorize the dialogue for the 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises that is "Bikram yoga".


It's 47 pages long.

Currently, I'm on posture #16 (cobra pose) on page 32. I'd say I'm doing pretty well thanks to my little system which is not very scientific at all.

It goes like this:

Read it
Say it
Write it
Say it
Write it again
Say it
Type it
Say it
Say it
Say it

We must all look like a bunch of crazy people going around muttering to ourselves.

I want my MTV!

Remember how awesome MTV used to be? I remember getting home after school and pumping The Grind while eating saltine crackers.



Or staying up late at sleepovers to watch The Real World (the awesome ones) and planning how you were going to live in gorgeous loft apartments with all of your friends.


Or watching Beavis and Butthead when your parents weren't looking.



Or learning the ropes of 90's hip hop from Yo! MTV Raps.


Or laughing your knickers off at the inappropriate sketches of The State.


Or how about just watching music videos? I mean, wasn't that the point of MTV?


So, here's my question: Has MTV fallen drastically in its programming quality since the 90s or did I just grow up? Will the adolescents of today look back with fond nostalgia at Teen Mom and Jersey Shore?

Probably.

Must take more pictures

I just realized that my life is slipping away a day at a time and that I am not properly documenting for Facebook, blog, albums, frames and the refrigerator. I must get better at this. I will do it. Annoyingly so, if I have to.

Blogiversary!

Happy Congratulations to me and to you!

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my official beginning of blogging. When I started, I had a goal of writing as much as possible but with as little frivolity as possible (or, well...my idea of frivolity at least). In a year, I have blogged you with approximately 280 posts, some have sparkled and others have bombed, but despite the fumbles of my dipping my toes into a new world, I'd say it's been a good year. In honor of the occasion, I have reviewed the past year of entries and will now present you with a top ten of my favorite moments in the year of Santosha's primary nascence:

10. Containment-Contentment. Clever Purse Pun? Auto Correct Nightmare? Freudian Slip? Stupid Error? The idea intentional mistake fascinates me. Also, a blanket apology for past and future errors.

9. Oh what a tangled web we weave... Still my favorite trick.

8. Vomit Hand: A true poem about what happened to me Trying my hand at poetry was fun.

7. Oh! Why hello there, dear friend I'm loving this approach in practice and looking back now, I can see how it has affected me

6. All too easily we forget... Made me realize that things do happen.

5. A Fa(s)t Day Another great realization.

4. On competition... Competition isn't all bad. I think.

3. My Secret Baby Barometer A true conversation piece and button pusher. And still quite true I might add, although meant to be satirical.

2. the new hot I still can't get over this album!

And... (DRUMROLL>>>>>>>>>) the # 1 blog entry of the first year of Santosha was

Santosha Not particularly well written, but it truly details my connection to exploring Santosha and gave my blog it's name.

And now, onward into another year. Wish me luck!

A Fa(s)t day

Yesterday morning Jason showed me an article in the March issue of Runner's World entitled "A Thin Line"(Peter Sagal). It's all about a guy who used to be fat when he was a boy; he runs now and isn't fat anymore. But, his past heftiness plays tricks on his mind, and even though he's an amazing runner, he lives in fear while chasing numbers on the scale. He's constantly asking himself "Am I fat"?

This struck something in both Jason and I, as we both used to be fat kids growing up. Not obese fat, but chubby and blubbery. Fat enough that people made fun of us, and at age 9-13 that matters most. I can still remember a young Brad Edgerton shouting "Freeeeeeee Willy", as I skulked my way into 6th grade Language Arts class (Brad, if your listening, I forgive you, although I still secretly hope that you turned out to be slightly fat in your late 20's). I can remember another time that I had to carry something to school for a project and I put it in a Bruegger's Bagels bag (those bags were awesome for carrying stuff) and another 6th grade meanie asks "What happened to all the bagels? You ate them!!" So. Clever.

If you're made fun of at an early enough age, it gives you a strong determination to change your life, usually to be cool, to be liked, to be beautiful. Being made fun of gave me the strength to become what I wanted to be, but it still left tiny scars and, like Sagal, I will always wonder.

I mulled all of these thoughts over on my long run yesterday. I had a particularly fast run yesterday, and I kept asking myself: Am I fa(s)t? I was thinking about the struggle between feeling like you are fat, running, feeling awesome, trying to be normal, eating, feeling fat, feeling apathetic, feeling determined, running, eating, feeling fat again. As Sagal says "The memory of feeling fat never subsides-even after you become fit. It's about the terror of what we might become if we allow ourselves to let go".

The biggest difference between Sagal and I is that even though I know a part of me is running from my past self, for the most part I want to run in to be in the present. To be happy. To feel good. To find inner contentment.

* Check it out: Sagal, P. (2011, March). A Thin Line. Runner's World. pp. 46-47

Happy New Year!

This year in news...

Talking and hand gestures



Smiles


Wine


Fire

ink

There was a Ray Bradbury book that I read in middle school called The Illustrated Man. It was one of my favorite books at the time. It was a collection of short stories- each of which represented a tattoo on the illustrated man, a man who was covered from head to toe in tattoos. I can't really explain why I loved this book so much. But, now as I have gone back and thought about it and googled it, I'm remembering that all of the stories had something to do with the psychological struggle of people and their survival in a world where technology has propelled us into a place we might not be ready to handle. And even now, this is something that fascinates me.

I think about The Illustrated Man often, when I think about my tattoos. Now, I know for some of the older folks out there, tattoos are somehow socially unacceptable and a symbol of heathenism. But I like to think about tattoos as a way of artistically representing the chapters of my life.

Tattoos. Mementos of things that have meant something to us. The ways that we can illustrate our lives.
And as we all know, the best books are those with illustrations.

A few things that we did today...

So, I ate this








Then we enjoyed the sun and the 66 degree weather and I waited on the NYC marathon registration page for 2 hours as hundreds of millions of billions of people clicked 'submit' at the exact same time






We took a walk
























Viktor's not too bright




And tonight... Some clues

Wine
Boots
Wine
Italian food
Wine
Cuddle

Again, Happy Anniversary to all and to all a good night!

An old familiar place

Yesterday, Jason and I had a few minutes to spare in Durham. Why not go for a little walk in the Gardens? I used to go here as a child, and I'll say, it's crazy how much larger it all seemed back then. I remember feeling as though it took hours to walk from one side of the Gardens to another, when in actuality we did it in about 30 minutes. I also remember feeling as though certain parts were my little secret places, and really, these places were not secret at all. They are very prominent, and even have signs. As a teenager, we used to sneak in the back at night and do the things that teenagers do. And now, as a 28er, I think some picnics might be in order.


Contemplative me.


My friends, sunning.


Not little anymore...

coming up for air

Sometimes when life becomes utterly ridiculous, it is important to do things that will make you stop and remember that you are a person. You are real. And in the grand scheme of things, there is nothing too important about what you are doing or who you are. Life is only life. We are only us. Keeping this in perspective is important.

Do things to remind yourself that you are human. Or, just ask someone to slap you across the face- that might do the trick too.