What is making me happy

1. I’m about to cut two hours of commute out of every workday. I get to wake up when it’s not dark. I’ll have time to WORK OUT before I leave for my job and a whole extra hour after work. I’m giddy with the potential in those two hours.

2. Books. I’m almost done with my 55 books I’m willing to talk about (my best estimate is that I’ve read about 100 books so far this year total) and I’ve found some that I thoroughly enjoyed and have recommended to others.

3. Yoga! I’ve got fun new yoga stuff around the corner.

4. Guitar! My class is almost over and I’ve learned A TON. I also picked up the free tabs app from Amazon the other day so I’ve got guitar notes for some of my all time favorite songs.

5. Google Plus. With the change away from Reader’s share function and the addition of business pages, I’ve got a lot more activity in my stream that is exactly the kind of stuff I want to read.

6. @ellenbarkin on twitter

7. The Walking Dead continues to kick ass, but I’m practically jumping OUT OF MY SKIN about tonight’s Sons of Anarchy.

8. Last night’s Castle was as Castle ever is – cheeky, clever fun. I can’t wait until I start my new job so that I can watch all of prime time TV during, you know, PRIME TIME.

9. Homeland is epic. Not only are Damien Lewis and Claire Danes amazing, the writing is tight and the storytelling is intense. I am loving this show.

10. Fairy tale TV. I was a huge fan of Grimm’s and Hans Christian Andersen growing up so both Grimm and Once Upon a Time are hitting all the right notes, albeit in very different ways. I found myself *looking forward* to OUaT this week. That hasn’t happened with a network show in a while.

End of the week roundup

The inside upstairs paint projects are DONE. That includes touch ups where we changed lighting fixtures. There’s a guy outside right now hanging a gutter on the back of the house because they old owners didn’t have one. Gutters are the last home improvement for (at a minimum) the next year, if not more.

In terms of current home improvements, I painted the front deck post and have started painting the front deck bench. The benches were a gift from my in-laws for our wedding. When they’re pushed together and the backs are flattened, they become a picnic table. Very cool, but also makes restaining a challenge. I’m going to do it in two parts.

All that remains is the railing on the back deck and the back deck bench. I’m very happy at the prospect of being DONE for a while.

In related news, I got an 83 on my exam which I’m pretty happy about. First exams suck because you’re never quite sure what the test is going to look like. I’m excited about class time in July.

With any luck, our plans today will include a trip to Frisco for BBQ and maybe seeing The Proposal.

Nobody cares

That I’m officially done with school for the semester, but I am. My joke of a paper (more like a 5 page book report) is finished and now I just have to turn it in.

I also have to get the oil changed in my car, pick up some paint supplies, prime the bathroom, paint the bathroom, (hopefully) get the online billpay for our new bank set up, wire money to the new bank, close the old bank account, cancel satellite and internet services, throw away/donate food items, sweep the house, bag up and put out the trash, collect the windchimes, sort and pack all the things that have to be packed in my car, and lower and tie on the canoe.

Probably there are some things I’m forgetting. Like teach yoga tomorrow.

I woke up this morning a little sleep-drunk, so I’m headed to bed now. You don’t ever really catch up on sleep so I’m going to try and stave off the deprivation, at least. I also uploaded some (but not all) of the holiday music.

KD, I haven’t forgotten about you

My micro test is done.

I’m going to yoga at 11:00, then to fax some mortgage paperwork, and THEN I am getting my mic to do a podcast/mp3. I’ll have one within the next 48 hours. I’m actually kind of looking forward to doing it. If it turns out all right, maybe I’ll post some short yoga sessions here.

Plus, packing!

My life is chock full of excitement, I’ll tell you.

Supernatural

I love that this show is introducing a new generation to classic rock. “Agents Angus and Young.”

At least, I *think* it’s introducing a new generation. I mean, if I was in high school or college, I’d totally be watching this show. Two hot guys and monster hunting? What’s not to love? Also, it’s funny. (“Rehymenated.” OMGHILARIOUS)

My goal for this move is to reduce my clothing by like HALF. I’d like to have enough clothes for 2 weeks, with the exception of special occasions and sweaters. After all, I’m moving to Colorado. I’m not getting rid of ANY sweaters that fit. I have more t-shirts than I could possibly need, so how come I feel like I should keep them all? Possibly because I hate doing laundry.

Spouse is having a positive experience with the folks who live out there. I dig that and I’m jealous that I’m missing out.

Tonight I taught a yoga class where we never left the floor. I like those classes because people are always surprised at how much work you can do without standing up. Everyone also used props (straps, blocks, and blankets) so that always makes me really happy. Trying things in new ways stretches your brain, too.

I’ve got a Micro midterm on Tuesday and a girl’s Bachelorette weekend beginning tomorrow at 5. I’ve also got to make a brief out-of-town detour to check the location where I’ll be doing a yoga series. I also have to decide if I’m going to use music or not.

I’m going to finish Supernatural and go to bed without folding my clothes. Because I can.

Not much yoga

I teach a class tonight before the holiday weekend and then not again until NEXT Wednesday. The gym is having an issue with sorting out their fall schedule which means I get a longer than usual accidental vacation.

My 1990 mix has been pretty popular in class but, unless there are a couple of specific students there who haven’t heard it, we’re going to be doing Hip Hop Yoga tonight.

Microbiology is pretty much exactly what I expected it would be – not fun. I’m also taking The American Presidency, which should be pretty interesting.

With regards to the move, we are having lots and lots and LOTS of conversations about what in hell we’re going to do with our house. I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head around how a $100,000 house in Michigan costs $200,000 in Colorado. It’s mildly horrifying to me. Okay, it’s more than mildly horrifying. We’re giving serious consideration to buying land and building but there are ALSO no apartments to rent (to speak of). So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.

Packing has not yet commenced. There are a lot of decisions hinging on this weekend’s trip and I don’t want to get so far ahead of ourselves that we end up backpedaling.

Currently I’m on hold with the U’s financial aid department. I think University financial aid offices, when they aren’t run properly, are like the third circle of hell. No one really knows how to answer your question, but they THINK they do and then you end up getting transferred three times, disconnected, and then finally some old lady in the back room just tells you to come to the office and she’ll get you straightened out. It’s kind of shocking to me that this shit isn’t all online yet.

For example, I came in on Monday and filled out necessary paperwork. They can’t locate the paperwork now. But if it was online, I guaran-fucking-tee that the shit would be processed already. Unfortunately, everyone at THIS university likes to NOT apply logic to their processes. They’d rather do it backwards and then be able to whine and complain about OMG we had to see EIGHT BAJILLION students and handle OMGSOMANY problems, but we did it, even though we were understaffed and undereducated and just generally SWAMPED.

I’m like, DUDE. The students are PAYING YOUR CHECK. You should be making this stuff as easy on EVERYONE as possible. WTF? It’s as though they all lack basic reasoning skills.

It’s just one more thing in an INCREDIBLY LONG list that makes me glad to leave this godsforsaken place.

And thanks to that annoying bit of runaround, I have to do EXACTLY what I THOUGHT I’d have to do on Monday (which no one could tell me) so I’m going to get myself French Toast Sticks as a reward. Because I deserve it.

My break is already almost over.

Classes resume next week, so this week I’m trying to cram as much fiction into my life as possible. I’m looking forward to being back at the Bandwagon Book Club meetings and to get caught up for September I’ve got to read A Thousand Splendid Suns. I’m hoping there’s a copy at the U.

1990 mix night seemed to go pretty well. I’m not sure if everyone enjoyed the music as much as I did but no one told me they hated it. That’s a double-plus bonus.

I got some sad news yesterday. The studio where I did my teacher training, Rising Sun Yoga, is closing. It’s really too bad as Jim and Roger were great teachers and were obviously instrumental in my becoming the teacher I am today. Whenever someone gives me a compliment about a class or my teaching, I give a silent thanks to those guys.

One of the things I liked best about the studio, the reason I chose them, is because they used a Hatha approach. By Hatha, I mean the traditional ‘forceful path’ – asana and breath practice but not married to any One True Way – in addition to the other limbs of yoga (see above). Jim asked that when we came to training, we let go of our previous teaching (even if there was a particular style we liked more than others) and try to come to the training open to everything. As a result, I developed a strong base in the anatomy and physiology of yoga, correct anatomical form in asana, grounding in philosophy, and experience elocuting a class (which is harder than it sounds). He encouraged us to work from that base of knowledge and then embrace and integrate the aspects of other styles that we liked and enjoyed. That openness is what drew me to the school and it made me a better instructor. I’m sorry that they won’t be developing more teachers.

In unrelated news, I got a comment on yesterday’s post about the Detroit Institute of Arts from someone at the DIA. Apparently my experience was what they were trying to achieve, so kudos to the DIA! Mission accomplished.

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I don’t eat potato chips

As a general rule, I just don’t care for them. There are a few exceptions.

1. Ruffles with French Onion dip. I will not eat Ruffles or any other plain chip plain ever. Nor will I eat other dip.
2. Salt and Vinegar potato chips, because HELLO vinegar.
3. Munchos. They are super salty, super crispy, and guaranteed to take three years off of your life per single-serving bag. But they are WICKED delicious.

Even with these exceptions, I’d say I eat a handful of potato chips maybe every other month. There are other things I like to snack on instead but every once in a while I get a craving.

Frex, last night after teaching class, I wanted Gatorade and Munchos. I pretty much always want Gatorade (duh) but I didn’t have Munchos at home so I stopped at 7-11. I got a 99 cent bag of chips and came home to study/watch TV (more watch TV than study *cough*).

I ate the whole bag. In and of itself that’s not unusual. It’s not a big bag and it was pretty much my dinner (That, the Gatorade and two S’mores. No, I am not a paragon of health. I’ve learned to live with my limitations.). No big. I finally went to bed at about midnight and kind of tossed and turned until about 12:30.

It turns out my digestive system has developed a resistance to Munchos.

It was not physically pleasant.  In fact, it was kind of like I got light headed, nauseous, and then a cold sweat broke out on my ENTIRE BODY AT ONCE. Were I not reasonably confident of my cardiovascular health, I might have thought I was dying. As an added bonus, it smelled nothing like roses – unless you perhaps ferment your roses in rotten garbage. I got so freaked out by the color that I had to google it and make sure my intestines weren’t shriveling up or failing.

Luckily this all transpired (in bouts) for only a half an hour and I was back in bed at 1 am.

I was up at 6am to finish studying for my 11am exam (which went well). I’m just disappointed that one of the few chips I like is off the books now.

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I spoke too soon

Yesterday I went outside to show Carly the empty bunny nest and who was looking up at me but three little bunnies. I’m not sure who was more surprised, me or them. One by one they scampered to the back of the garden but I’m pretty sure they came back to the nest to sleep. So Piper is still on Bunny Watch.

I have been gushing about how awesome Ariel Tweto was on Wipeout because she was hilarious and upbeat and had a great sense of humor. And then she commented on my Ariel is Great entry! Crazy intarwebz!

I’m on a break before my anatomy practical and I’m very proud of myself for not wasting all my time on the internet yesterday. Hopefully it will pay off.

My class this morning was good, even though I was a bit discombobulated. I’m also finalizing my schedule with the Township so that my students will have some other options.

I was thinking I’d go out for a mid-finals celebratory beer tonight but I’m tired enough that I may just pass out. I can’t believe it’s only 1:30 in the afternoon!

Spouse is safely in Colorado and said the drive was spectacular. Potentially more details later. It’s so weird sleeping in a bed without him (though Piper tried to keep me company). It’ll be nice when he’s home.

Thanks to the wonders of Tivo

I’m watching Shear Genius from last week. I adore Charlie because he is such an enormous shit-talker. They’re showing a LOT of that on this episode which makes me nervous that they’re going to send him home this week. On the other hand, he is the catalyst for ALL drama. How cute was Daniel running down the who-hates-whom in the house? (And singing to the dog!)

Burn Notice is staying on its game and I LOVE Fiona more and more with every episode. The look on her face when Sam was getting wailed on = priceless. Psych maintains its hilarity, though I can’t be the only one who doesn’t care for the ‘lil Shawn and Gus’ cartoons. The Closer continues to keep their characters growing and making mistakes. Brenda had a humdinger this week and I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop around that. Also, Gabriel was a moron for suggesting his ex be the one to transfer but it was a completely believable douchebag move.

Project Runway got it right on the top 3 last week. I’d disagree about the actual winner (While I appreciated the super jock wear, I liked the separates better. The one they chose was actually my least favorite out of the three) and I felt bad about the criticism they gave the loser. It was kind of bullshit to call her out for being ‘stuck in the past’ when 2/3 of the designers did a retro look.

[Shear Genius note: OMG, Daniel's dog is the CUTEST EVAR.]

Mad Men and Generation Kill were both brilliant this week. With Generation Kill, you find yourself laughing at things you probably shouldn’t be laughing at which is, I’d imagine, the point. Mad Men is just gorgeous – beautiful to look at and so tightly scripted that you could bounce a quarter off Don’s ass. Loves it.

I was totally annoyed that Wipeout had a ‘best of’ this week. It hasn’t even been on very long – I would have thought they could plan better.

Flipping Out reunion happens this week and I kind of can’t wait to see what happens.

Spouse will be doing some important stuff this week and I’ve got big exams, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be blogging.

Oh, who am I kidding? I use this to procrastinate. So if it’s copious amounts of blogspam, you’ll know why.

[Edited to add: HOLY CRAP! They finally sent Nekisa home! I can't say I'm surprised and I'm also glad that I won't have to hear any more of her excuses. Charlie will have to focus all his anger on Dee.]

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Golf was hot. And slow.

Seriously? THREE HOURS for 9 holes. I wanted to shoot myself. I am a hot sweaty mess.

On the other hand, I had the best round of golf I’ve played all summer. BY TEN STROKES. For those of you who don’t golf, that’s a vast improvement. Even though you don’t care. Turns out that Wii Golf is good for something! It’s possible that today’s round is keeping Spouse’s LPGA dream for me alive. He would someday like to be a kept man and is mostly convinced the LPGA is the way to do it.

We golfed with some really nice guys, so despite the horrendous backup on the course we at least had good company. Not so much beer though.

Someone had the fantastic idea of ruining Lemon-Lime Gatorade by putting STRAWBERRY in it. Except instead of coloring it pink – as you would expect a strawberry beverage to look – it still looks like Lemon-Lime. I did not discover this terrible desecration of my favorite beverage until TOO LATE.

Lemon-Lime Gatorade is the only Gatorade I will drink, so why? Why ruin a perfectly good thing?

Today is the last day of WoYoPracMo. I’m pretty happy that I managed to post every day (and totally made enough posts to count for every day). Alas, the majority of my posts were not-so-yoga-related. I’m totally shocked that I’ve gotten more than a thousand hits this month. I found a lot of blogs I like reading (links to the left) and watched too much reality TV. I managed a couple new playlists for classes and also got them loaded on imeem (which was more of a challenge than I expected). I’m doing quite well in Anatomy and Physiology as well, so I guess my time management and Procrastinatory Posting haven’t been as awful as they could have.

Thanks to everyone who’s stopped by to read!

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I shouldn’t have joined a golf league.

I did it because Spouse enjoys golf, doesn’t really have any other hobbies he spends much time on, and it’s something we can do together.

I should have chosen something we can do together in the SPRINGTIME.

On my top 20 list of Fun Things To Do, you will never ever find Spend 2.5-3 hours Hitting a Tiny Ball Around a Very Long Course in 85 degree heat with 50% humidity. Now I wake up every Thursday and think, “CRAP. I have to GOLF today.”

I like golf, I’m just a seriously fair weather golfer. As in, the weather must be sunny to overcast with temperatures between 67-75 degrees.

Last night during (and after) yoga, I got to talk about body mechanics in detail with a couple of students. That doesn’t happen incredibly often, mostly because I think there are few students who are as much A&P geek as I am. The body is an awesome machine and I love learning (and teaching) about how it works. One student was a dancer for many years and is used to ‘turning out’ in standing positions. She also has the same problem that I do with my elbows- extra flexibility. One of the most interesting things (for me) about yoga is that the more flexibility you have, the more difficult practice becomes. In many ways you have to retrain your body to use different (or better) muscle groups to accomplish the same work or find an appropriate stretch.

I’ve got lots of lecture and lab today and then (joy!) golf.

Let that be a lesson to you, miss!

Right. So that’ll teach me to take a “sedative or hypnotic” and then… sit on the couch. I’m now REwatching Eureka (because I don’t remember any of it) and drinking a smoothie.

Today’s smoothie:

13 baby carrots, spoonful of flax seed, spoonful of wheat bran, large spoonful of plain low-fat yogurt, handful of almonds, handful of dried cranberries, 1/2 cup (?) of mixed melon that was in the fridge, 1 cup + of the smoothie frozen fruit mix (pineapple, strawberry, mango), 8oz orange juice (no pulp!), and maybe 1/4 c of skim milk, 1/8 of a block of tofu. It turned out superdelicious.

Also today – run the dog, review the new Yoga Journal, study anat and phys, vacuum/sweep AGAIN, and teach yoga tonight. I’ve also got to print some advertising and look for additional places to teach.

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A day, with bullet points

• I did not have a smoothie today because I had to teach yoga this morning. Breakfast was a Nature Valley Oats n Honey granola bar and Gatorade. Breakfast of Champions!
• I SUCK at Wii Fit Slalom. So much so that I had to immediately do it again twice. There was improvement, but it is still embarrassing.
• I ROCK at Wii Sports Boxing. Also, Wii Sports boxing is BAD ASS.
• I also took my anatomy and physiology exam. I am optimistic.
• I did well on my lab practical.
• I did not cut open a cow heart because it was already cut open. And ENORMOUS. Like as big as my head.
• That was to make you think my life is not all about Wii Sports.
• I’ve gotten the best bowling and golf scores of my life on Wii. I am going to HATE the golf course on Thursday.
• I swiffered up almost an ENTIRE DOG of Piper hair. I didn’t even think that was possible. I need to shave this dog or something.
• WIPE OUT is on TONIGHT!
• So is Flipping Out! And Eureka!
• Holy crap, I need to get a life that does not revolve around video games and television.
• My friend Shane gave me a book about why the ultra conservative Christian Right is the best thing for the Republican party. He said something like, “I know it might make your head explode but I think you should read it.”
• I’m not sure why he thinks I have time for this book because HELLO anatomy and physiology, plus teaching yoga, plus TELEVISION. WTF? Where am I supposed to find free time?
• I think we’re having dinner out. And then coming home to watch TV. Because we are ALL LAME.
• It makes me feel better that I’m not the only lame one.

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Why am I posting instead of studying?

Because I am a WORLD CLASS PROCRASTINATOR. If I got extra credit points for the amount of time spent procrastinating, I’d ace every class. Alas, that is not how the education system works (thankfully).

Hello to anyone stopping by via dooce! There were a LOT of you yesterday but maybe not so many today.

I think the WordPress comment system is weird. It’s probably because I’m used to Livejournal, where everything threads together and you can tell when someone has commented on something in particular, but it took me a SILLY amount of time to figure out that in WordPress I have to go to the dashboard and look at “my comments.” It’s not an incredibly practical way to foster blog communication but I suppose it is what it is. Doesn’t seem to stop people from posting (or commenting) on WordPress blogs (thankfully).

My 80s mix went BRILLIANTLY last night. As predicted, just about everyone in the room cracked a huge smile when Final Countdown came on. LOVE IT.

In another fit of procrastination yesterday, I broke out the Wii and Wii Fit. I have to tell you, they are AWESOME. Wii golf is so much better than regular golf! Plus there’s bowling and tennis. My favorite Wii Sport is clearly the boxing. I totally worked up a sweat in no time. Of course I can break a sweat BREATHING, so I’m not sure that says much.

Wii Yoga is a little weird. First of all, when you start you only get access to like 4 exercises. That doesn’t make a LOT of sense to me, especially because not all of the yoga asanas are what I’d call ‘advanced.’ The difference between being on a yoga mat and the balance board is most obvious (for me) in tree pose. On your mat, there’s no one charting your center of gravity – you’re just worried about standing up (let ALONE standing still). I discovered that as soon as my gravity center was where I wanted to be, I started to wobble. Not really WOBBLE so much as the weight distribution on my foot went all wonky.

My BEEF with Wii Yoga at this point is Warrior II (Virbadrasana II). The Wii trainer has you put your knee in PRECISELY the position it SHOULD NOT BE IN. I can’t really come up with a good reason they’ve done this but it really puts extra stress on the knee joint that you shouldn’t have. They also emphasize the ‘heels should line up’ alignment idea of which I’m not a huge fan. Everyone’s hip girdle is slightly different. Some have a deeper acetabulum, the ligaments have limited flexibility (and not everyone’s ligaments are the same length), not to mention that everyone’s muscle and tendon structure is slightly different and the particular position they espouse can put pressure on the lower back as a result.

Um. Yeah. Otherwise it’s great.

*coughs* *removes yoga rantypants*

I really love it. It’s going to be fantastic for Spouse, who doesn’t really want me to ‘train’ him and doesn’t like going to classes. It is clear that we are all going to have a blast with it, especially once the beer gets involved.

Now I REALLY have to study before I teach at 9.

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