Month: May 2010

Happy Things in List Form (Pictures)

· Doctor Who was pretty darn sweet this week. Excited about next week’s episode! These two-parters are fun, but they’re also not. I’m so impatient. I’m also eager for the series five soundtrack to be available. I’ve been loving the music.

· Only 16 days til Aidan is here! I have a lot of prep to do. I can’t wait to have him here!!! πŸ™‚

· I had a pretty good week, despite some bouts of random crankiness. I had a photo shoot, I got to hang out with Jen H., I went to a tequila dinner, and a kirtan. Yoga classes were great, and I got many, many hugs.

· Hugs are awesome. The other day, I asked Adam if he’d be able to believe that growing up, my family was not touchy-feeley. He was pretty surprised, because my mommy is huggy now. I don’t remember being hugged a lot. My mom kissed me before bed every night, but the only time I remember hugging anyone was when my mother forced me to hug my sister if we were fighting (kiss and make up!). I didn’t start getting hugged a BUNCH until I got much older, and really didn’t happen until I started going to college and going to church. Church people hug a lot. But they aren’t the only ones. Yogis and yoginis hug a lot, too. And I’m thinking that Chicagoans like to hug in general. Authors, too.

· Helena has been super affectionate. She’s not a lap kitty, but she sat on my lap for two hours the other night. Mostly, she’ll lie on my legs and purr, purr, purr. When I come out of the bedroom in the morning, she runs up to me to greet me! And I read in an email from Catster that when cats give you long blinks, it’s like they’re blowing kisses. Guess who gets loads of long blinks from Helena? Oh, and she says “what’s up” to me a lot, too. I could go on.

Beautiful Helena

· I’m helping a friend plan a Disney World trip. I can’t go this year, but I can live vicariously through her. She knows who she is. πŸ™‚

· Hair Rules. Love this stuff. I’m finding a lot of products that work wonderfully with my hair. My curls are pretty tight (my hair is actually longer than it’s been in a while), but they’re defined. This product helps define the curls even more.

· Adam made a simple dinner the other night of spaghetti noodles, parmesan cheese, and snow peas. OMG SO YUMMY. There are a few vegetables I cannot stand, broccoli and cauliflower being among them. But y’all. I will eat the crap out of some snow peas, spinach, and bean sprouts. Can’t get enough of them.

· Adam and I had been getting turkey in the packages for a long time. The other day, we actually went to the deli. I’D FORGOTTEN HOW GOOD TURKEY FROM THE DELI IS. So much better than the pre-packaged stuff! If you thought I couldn’t get enough of turkey sandwiches before, it’s even worse now. Not as bad as my spaghetti thing, but it’s the one thing I crave when I am in triangle pose in yoga class.

· I got to spend time with lots of people this week.

· Weather is warm! Yay!

· No one believes it when I tell them I’m 35. They all think I’m in college or in my early 20s. This RULES, people.

· I’ve been finding specially-made yoga clothing on the cheap. My studio has a $20 rack and the merch changes on it quite a bit. I take advantage, because those tops with the built in bras? And the moisture wicking stuff? A GODSEND for me. The stuff made by Zobha is so comfortable. I love it. But it’s typically very expensive. $58 for a tank, for example. Let the record show that I have never paid $58 for any piece of yoga clothing. I get it all on the cheap. Yoga pants at aeropostale have been on clearance for $12.99 for a while, and I’ve been stocking up.

· I’ve been finding great music! And and and… I won a $50 gift card to iTunes! Plus, emusic.com gave me ten free songs this month just because. That site is where I find some obscure and cool stuff. It’s great for new age and meditation stuff. Electronica, too. World fusion. Oh yes. Music. πŸ™‚

· Lilacs are growing like crazy all over the neighborhood!! They smell so good. I love lilacs.

Lilacs

· More Pictures!

Me, Meiya, Shika
Me with my friends Meiya and Shika at the Tequila Dinner. Good drinks, better food. Lots of laughs and fun. It was a good night.

A Photo Shoot A Photo Shoot
A Photo Shoot A Photo Shoot
Photo Shoot!

There is a lot to be happy about, even when I just feel like being cranky. Heehee. Night!

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Feeling Kinda Zen…. (Pictures, Long)

Woo Hoo!
O hai! I’m on my way to Schaumburg! Look how excited I am!!!

With the exception of a headache, I feel pretty good today. I went to a new yoga class today, Mindful Vinyasa, and it was really amazing. It’s getting to the point where my body craves yoga practice, and if I skip one for any reason, I feel all knotted. AND, apparently, I have bad dreams! Last night/this morning, I dreamed that I went to class and went to unroll my mat and it was all ripped apart! Eeek?!

Fortunately, the are 57 classes that I can always make up if I have to miss. πŸ™‚

I’ve been practicing yoga in this classroom/studio setting for more than a month now, and already, I’m stronger in some ways. Weak in others, but that’s the beauty of yoga. We’re all different. Everyone has their own practice, and it’s OK not to be perfect all the time. Such a refreshing view to have (and a hard one to learn in this competitive society). So, I plan to continue practicing and learning and growing. Plus, I meet the most incredible people there. Even if we only touch lives for a brief moment, it’s a gorgeous moment.

I went to the library today. Got out a bunch of awesome ones, but before I read those, I’m going to finish Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti. I had the pleasure of meeting her Wednesday evening at Anderson’s Bookshop in Downer’s Grove. (I just have to say, that if I ever move from the Chicago area, I will miss Anderson’s a great deal.)

Anyway, getting to Downer’s Grove SUCKED. I swear, it’s rush hour ALL the time in Chicago. Still, once we got there, I got to spend hours in a bookstore and eat yummy pizza in a cool-looking pizza place, so that was cool. And meeting Susane was such a treat! She’s hilarious and so much fun! I love how candid she is. Here are some pix from that night:

Susane Colasanti and Me
Me and Susane. Isn’t she so pretty?? Pictures don’t do this woman justice, just sayin’.

Susane loves her some cupcakes, so when someone brought her some, she was totally thrilled:

Susane Colasanti

AND then Susane shared them with us!!!

Cupcakes!
They were red velvet and totally yummy!

This week was busy. Not that I can remember WHY, but it was. Yesterday, we headed out to Schaumburg so Adam could do an Author Event. It was interesting. The Schaumburg Township District Library, though? OMG. Amazing and awesome. Five star. I didn’t know libraries had a rating system but apparently they do (and Columbus Metropolitan is a five-star library too, but I’m not surprised by that at ALL). This library. People. It’s crazy. Bright and welcoming. Board games and computers and books and books and books. NEW books! And the best part is that they let Chicago library card holders borrow books as visitors. πŸ™‚ It’s like Heaven on Earth for me. I wish it was next door to me. I took out books last week when we were there for a different Author Event type deal that Adam was filling in for, and returned them yesterday. Today, we went to one of the Chicago branch libraries, which is five million times more pleasant than going downtown to Harold Washington, where I rarely feel welcome at all.

So… how awesome was Betty White on SNL last weekend? I hadn’t watched SNL in years, but I made an exception for this. She was hilarious! I was also very excited to see the return of some of my favorite SNL Ladies, Molly Shannon and Maya Rudolph especially.

Flowers are blooming like crazy all over the neighborhood:

Flower In the Neighborhood Flower In the Neighborhood
Flower In the Neighborhood Flower In the Neighborhood

And this is on the ground on the way to the yoga studio. I don’t know.

Um...

Hmm, what else?

· Adam and I have been trying to eat better, thanks to watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. This result of this is that there are snow peas in the house almost all the time. And BEAN SPROUTS! And clementines! I try to eat something raw every day, even if it’s just a little bit. Less processed, more real please!

· In 25 days, Aidan will be here for the summer! Woohoo!

· Still enjoying the new Doctor, even though some of the episodes are a great big cup of wtf.

· I am sooo behind on emails, game requests, etc. I’ll get to them. Eventually.

· I’ve been going through and editing the categories/tags on my old entries. Unfortunately, I thought (wrongly) that the updated entries would simply update on LJ. Oh no, the cross-poster cross posted the entries AGAIN. So I have doubles of a lot of my LJ entries from before 2010. It’s a PITA to go and individually delete thousands of LJ entries, so they are just going to be some doubles in the archives.

· Adam and I can’t take Aidan to Disney World this year, so of course I’m getting all kinds of emails from Disney Destinations with all these fantastic deals! They’re driving me crazy. If only I could get a huge, crazy windfall….

· Excited about … well never mind. Adam interrupted me to tell me something and I forgot. :O

That’s all for now. About to watch some Molly Shannon and chill out. ‘Til next time! πŸ™‚

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