Month: April 2012

Two Good Days

/ happy, life, pictures, yoga, yoga teacher training

Random Tuesday Night

This week is already awesome. I mean, Aidan is here so how can it be bad anyway, right? 😀

Yesterday started off with a great phone call from a client, then a trip out to Oakbrook for some shopping. Aidan tried out the really fancy $3000 massage chair that has zero gravity, scans your body to properly determine the massage, and it is AWESOME. Aidan asked why the Easter Bunny didn’t bring him one of THOSE.

Aidan Trying Out The Fancy Massage Chair at Brookstone

I’m pretty sure that Brookstone is the real life version of SkyMall.

We also had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory where Adam managed to find something that was kosher enough for Passover. I had chicken romano, like I always get, and my favorite dessert, the lemoncello.

Yum!!!!

Frankly, Cheesecake Factory isn’t my favorite place to eat. The portions are way too large, even the lunch sized ones. But that dessert. Gah gah gah.

Yoga teacher training was good today. I was kind of dreading it because as you know, I’ve been feeling really tired and listless. But it was good! I got my front seat again, and I got to teach with my favorite partner again. Today we did a lot of standing forward folds, including my favorite, Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Forward Fold). Y’all. I think this is my favorite standing pose EVER. Even more than Warrior I or II, and DEFINITELY more than Side Angle or Triangle.


Source: yogajournal.com via Ronni on Pinterest

Doesn’t it look heavenly? I can’t get my head all the way to the floor. I have to use a block. But if I keep practicing, one day my head WILL touch the floor. Touching your head to the floor drains all the worries and stress out of you and gives it to the earth. It’s true. I feel a hundred pounds lighter when I come out of the pose. Awesome.

Tomorrow I will take it easy. I have to start studying hardcore–big quiz on Tuesday. I have a lecture tomorrow, but it’s not until the evening. Should be good.

I need a massage so badly. It’s time to go ahead and schedule one for next week. Maybe a pedicure as well for good measure–as long as the weather warms up nicely enough for me to wear the flip flops home. The cold is certainly not giving up easily. We’ll get a day in the 60s but then we have to pay for it with a day like today, when the high didn’t get out of the 40s. I’m really OVER that cold bite in the air. I’m ready for mild temps. It LOOKS like Spring outside, but it still feels like November. Bah.

So. Not sure if you remember I got an Erin Condren Life Planner recently. I have to tell you one thing. IT IS SO WORTH THE COST. I use it every single day, and I take it everywhere. It’s been so helpful. AND the 2012 ones are on sale now. If you’re looking to try one out, now’s a good time to do so. I definitely plan on getting one for 2013. Wonderful investment. 🙂

And now, I leave you with this cuteness.

My Pretty Girl

OK then. ‘Til next time.

8 Comments

Still Tired

/ life, pictures, ronni, sick

Hi
yeah, this picture is from the same night as this entry. u mad?

Bleah. I am still tired. I wonder if it’s the change of seasons. Or something. I remember feeling this same way right after Thanksgiving. I don’t know, but I don’t like it. I want my energy back.

I’ve also not been feeling very well. My stomach’s been sensitive the past few days, and my appetite’s not been so good. My cravings have been off (did I tell you that one night I turned down sushi? I KNOW RIGHT??), I’ve had some nausea, and I’ve been extra thirsty, so I’ve been drinking a lot of water and juice. It’s weird. Although, Wednesday night, Cassidy and I both had bottomless pits for stomachs. We ate a ton for dinner, then we ate dessert from the bakery on the corner, and not even an hour later, we were both seriously hungry for another dinner. We managed to hold out ’til we were in the movie theater, but it was hard! Ever since then, though, my appetite’s been weird. I’m avoiding anything too rich.

The pain that I had in my right side last April is back, so that means going back to my Omeprezole regimen until I feel better again.

Despite not feeling 100%, I have a lot of reasons to be happy. 🙂 Adam’s family visited last week, I got some more hours in at VSA, I got to see The Hunger Games again, and Friday, Aidan arrived!!

Aidan and Meta Knight

He’s been getting a LOT of use out of my iPad. As I expected he would.

Other random stuff:

– After we got Aidan on Friday, we ate Home Run Inn for lunch. Their pizza reminds me of the pizza at Pizzafari at Animal Kingdom at Disney World. It’s pretty good for a chain. Probably because it’s a local chain rather than national, huh?

– It rained in our kitchen today. It did it a couple of weeks ago, and all I could think was “Oh no, it’s like Yaxley’s office!” Fortunately, we know the solution and we’re friendly with our neighbor upstairs, so we got it resolved without a mess.

– I love Downton Abbey so much that I want to watch the first season all over again. But I keep going to episode three of the first season for some reason. Curious, that. At any rate, my iPad has Netflix. I just sign in with Adam’s account, and I can watch it in my room and not bug anyone.

– I still need to organize my playlists on the iPad. I only have a few songs on there now. I should at least have some of my favorites.

– Adam’s observing Passover–or Passover Lite more accurately. We didn’t clear out all the stuff or anything because I don’t observe. (Getting rid of all the spaghetti? Can you even imagine, though?) He’s just avoiding everything leavened. It’s been a challenge, as he craves pizza all day every day as it is, and now he can’t have it, so I can only imagine what the cravings are doing to him now. He’s been making matzoh pizzas: matzoh crackers, mozzarella cheese, and tomato sauce. Tonight we had matzoh ball soup for dinner.

– Aidan won’t let me sing along to Bekah Kelso because he says he’s trying to draw another Meta Knight and he needs to concentrate because Meta Knight is “really hard” to draw. But he’s already drawn one?

Aidan's Meta Knight

I think he just wants me to stop singing. And also play AlphaButt (a song by Kimya Dawson).

– So fine, he won. I played AlphaButt and now we’re listening to random songs from the Doctor Who soundtracks.

We watched that new Muppet movie the other night. I thought it was OK. I did tear up in a few places, but there were some things I found REALLY problematic about it and some of the messages–I am not sure I’m comfortable with Aidan internalizing them even though he won’t really even realize it right now because he’s a kid. And I don’t know if I would have noticed them as much if I’d not been forewarned, or if I wasn’t extra sensitive because of recent events… but I probably would have.

Oh well. This entry has no point, but I really felt like blogging. But now I am going to take a warm bath and relax. I have a busy week coming up (Aidan’s here, a phone call tomorrow, yoga teacher training on Tuesday and a lecture on Wednesday, and a sattvic nutrition workshop on Thursday (Aidan is SO looking forward to that–NOT!). This’ll be the first week since coming back from Disney that I haven’t been in an office at some point, so as long as nothing comes up, I get to be nothing but a student and a mommy for the next week or so.

Til next time!

4 Comments

Easter Through The Years…or Snippets of My Spiritual Journey

/ christianity, church, easter, pictures, reflection, religion, spirituality, videos

Over the years, Easter has become less and less of a big deal in my life, which is sad, because Christ’s resurrection is like THE CORNERSTONE of Christianity, right? My mom used to make a huge deal out of it. New dresses. Dyeing eggs. Church (except the year we stopped going), and big dinners that always involved ham. Don’t get me wrong. It’s still a pretty awesome holiday, but for me, it doesn’t have that same anticipation and specialness that Christmas does. And it should, and not just because of the chocolate.

Here’s a short pictorial trip down memory lane, where you can see how I celebrated Easter through the years, complete with retrotastic furniture and all.

Happy Easter, Little Ronica!
age two

Easter Basket
age three

Easter
age eight

When I was twenty, I was initiated into the Catholic Church through RCIA at the St. Thomas More Newman Center (Eee, Father Vinny is still there!). The ceremony took place during a three hour long Easter Vigil, during which I was baptized, confirmed, and had my first communion. It was pretty cool. After the ceremony we had a huge party and were given giant Easter baskets full of chocolate and a Pass The Pigs game. (We’d had too much fun playing Pass the Pigs at the RCIA retreat a few weeks earlier.)

Being Baptized
being baptized

Confirmation
being confirmed by Father Vinny

Neophyte
being a neophyte

Once I was a confirmed Catholic, I went nuts. I was a Eucharistic Minister. I was always involved in one thing or another. Student ministry. RCIA (this time as a sponsor). Volunteering. And I even worked on staff there as a part-time receptionist for a while after college. I very fond memories of that church and that community.

I am no longer a practicing Catholic, but I still find many aspects of the faith beautiful, and I still have a collection of all kinds of rosaries, including a few that I handmade. I was just thinking tonight about how I kind of wished I was at an Easter Vigil. Yes, it’s a long service, but the way my church did it? It didn’t seem that long at all. It was a beautiful, amazing service. I don’t know if I’d want to go to anywhere ele, but I kind of wish I was at Newman Center right now. I have this to keep me company though:

As I said, I drifted away from the Catholic Church and church in general. Until about 2004, when I became really involved in an evangelical community. This was Aidan’s Easter basket that year:

Aidan's Easter Basket

That Easter was pretty cool. I spent the night under the stars with a bunch of other young (or young at heart) people (I’m sure I was the oldest one there, but it was still fun) and we did a sunrise service that was amazing. I was SO HIGH from that.

2004 was a crazy year for me in so many ways. I made a lot of new friends (most of whom I no longer really talk to except for the occasional facebook stalk or facebook game spam), I became super involved in church activities: volunteering with the teen ministry (my FAVORITE!) and the young adult ministry, doing Power Point presentations, throwing parties, putting together newsletters, and even running a life group. There was a lot going on at home as well. I get exhausted when I read those entries–I was always going going going. No wonder I’m so content to just sit and read these days.

There was the Easter in 2006 where I was treated to a double rainbow.

Double Rainbow - Easter Morning

2006 is also the year my life changed in so many major ways that to think about everything that happened to lead me to where I am today is overwhelming and crazy. And also kind of amazing. Needless to say, my spirituality took some crazy twists and turns, and right now, it’s an ever growing and ever changing and ever winding journey. Maybe one day I’ll go more in depth.

Happy Easter!

4 Comments

Tired Girl

/ aidan, life, pictures, yoga teacher training

Hi

Wow. I’m really, really tired. By the time yoga teacher training would down today, I was like “Guh guh guh.” I don’t know if it’s the weather, my hormones (probably my hormones), or just a general feeling of “blah” creeping over the city of Chicago. All I know is that it’s icky.

I’m totally tempted to just go to bed now, but I have a long day tomorrow and I don’t want to nap now and end up wide awake in the middle of the night, then fall asleep at 545am only to be awakened too early because some IDIOT is hammering outside.

(There should be a law. No one should ever be allowed to hammer before 10am. It’s just rude!)

OK, now it’s many hours later. Aidan’s dad got an iPod touch, and Aidan’s figured out how to use Facetime to call me. He’s been calling me every night to Facetime and it’s been neat. He can show me things he’s talking about and vice versa. It’s also nice to see his face. Tonight, he called while I was writing this entry, therefore giving me something to do instead of going to bed way too early.

Here’s something really cool. Aidan is on Honor Roll, and he just got his best report card EVER. He’s getting awards left and right. He said he loves school and apparently he is thriving there. I’m excited for him and I hope he continues to love school and learning as much as he does now. Unfortunately, I peaked in third grade and things went downhill from there. I hope that’s not the case with Aidan. At any rate, now I have a bonafied excuse to give him surprises and to do something special for him! 🙂

Teacher training was hard for me today. I was already moody (although getting an entire train car from Chicago to Division was pretty neat). I got to the stuido later than usual and ended up way in the back when I usually sit in the front. I don’t like sitting in the back. It makes me tired and I feel less connected. I feel like I’m lost in the shuffle. I had different teaching partners which was nice, but I did miss Christine. I was fatigued and I just could NOT get on track with the teaching practice! I know I’m new and I can’t expect to be perfect (heck, even teachers with many years of experience mess up sometimes!), but today I felt like it was especially awkward.

I know what was weird for me. Today, I actually taught a small group (OK, two people) instead of just one. I got all discombobulated because:

1.) I was teaching some poses I’d never taught before. (Although that never tripped me up quite as much as it did today.)
2.) It was WEIRD telling people to do moves and having them silently do them. I got all insecure like “Oh my God, I hope they don’t think I’m dumb. Oh God, what comes next? I can’t remember! Where are my notes? AH HELP! Oh boy, I am doing terribly at this!”

How in the world do I get over that feeling? I guess I have 12 months to figure it out.

And then there is the food. We talk a LOT about food every week, and part of the curriculum is to watch Supersize Me and Food, Inc. You know who’s thrilled about that? Adam. (Not really.) He already knows I have food issues, he already knows how hard it is to keep me fed. I’m pretty sure this journey is going to be a challenge when it comes to eating. It already is in some aspects. So the thought of dealing with *that* is making me tired.

And all the racism stuff. My head aches from everything that’s been going on. Like the Hunger Games. The number of people upset that some of the characters in the movie AND book were black is sad and disturbing (because hello, can’t they read?), but not necessarily shocking for me. Yeah, it bothers me, but honestly, I’m used to being part of a world where some people think I am less than and will do everything in their power to make sure I stay that way. The attitudes of some people, and their vehement denial about life in this country for minorities don’t surprise me, but their absolute unwillingness to open their minds just the tiniest amount so they can listen and learn instead of trying to point the finger and place blame on others really bugs me. I have a lot of things to say about it, but I think I’ll save it for another post. Not in the mood to get too deep tonight.

I know what I need. I need some sun combined with warmer temps, hugs from Aidan (coming Friday YAY!), and a massage. A good sleep (without wailing cats, loud sexing neighbors, an overactive bladder, and random people pounding with hammers to wake me up) would be nice, too (but that’s not going to happen).

At least tomorrow I will see family, eat sushi, and make some $$. Oh and it’s payday. Woohoo!

OK, bedtime.

‘Til next time.

6 Comments