ronni

In My Yoga Life

Me Doing Mermaid Pose
I haven’t posted much about yoga lately. One might think I haven’t been doing much. You’d be sort of right. When it’s very cold outside (like now, it’s a balmy 12F), I have no interest in leaving my bed, let alone my house. But there are some days I have things to do, so I dress in layers and do it.

Have I mentioned that I hate winter?

Teacher training ramped back up in January with my therapeutics apprenticeship with Gabriel Halpern. Gabriel’s an interesting teacher and he has an interesting style that I’m not used to seeing in the yoga world. He’s definitely of the “tough love” school, but the main underlying thing there is the love. There is also chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

We had two days of orientation, where we went through all the different poses we’d be working on with our students.

Yoga Teacher Training: Customized Yoga Apprenticeship Orientation
gabriel uses jaylen to demonstrate a pose to us
Yoga Teacher Training: Customized Yoga Apprenticeship Orientation
graham dances with mr. skeleton
After the hips and knees orientation, where we practiced on each other, my hips were so open that I was able to comfortably get into Padmasana (Lotus Pose) for the first time since I was a little girl.

Lotus!
On January 17, I met my person and she is wonderful. I get to work with her every Thursday, showing her poses and making sure she feels OK. During the week, I keep in touch with her by sending her information and poses and dharma stuff.

In January, I also started my workshop management position. My first workshop was a doozy! It was a detox. I had to cut up fruit, heat up oil and put it into cups, make tea, tape the floor and set up mats inside each taped rectangle, greet people, and then actually attend the workshop. WHICH WAS AMAZING.

The first time I did a detox was in the fall of 2010. It was fun but hard! There were definitely points where I fell into Child’s Pose. I just couldn’t do everything. But this last time? I told people that I’m either getting stronger or the detoxes are getting easier. I doubt that Amber is making it easier. I think I’ve just gotten stronger.

In the middle of January, I taught my thesis workshop. I called it Your Yoga, and it was about being creative in your own yoga practice. I had five attendees, and I played music, led an asana practice (with a segment for the students to do their own thing–being creative!) and we talked about yoga. Most of the students were beginners, so it was fun to tell them about what yoga IS and how it can relate to their lives and change their lives.

Tonight, I head out to work and attend the Shatki Gong Healing given by The Starnes Sisters. I went to one in the fall and LOVED it. Also, I love their fashion sense. It’s fabulous.

I still have non-contact stuff to do for teacher training. I’ve got to write up my thesis, do my book reviews, teach one more private lesson (free–any takers?), do a write up about the private lessons, and decide on a final exam. I also need to attend more workshops and special events–but being a workshop manager makes that quite easy for me. πŸ™‚

So, that’s my yoga life for now. ‘Til next time!

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Sunday Stealing (15)

The Meme From Suburbia

I know I’m quite a few days late. I’m catching up on articles in my Google Reader and saw this today and couldn’t resist.

Oh Hi
I think I look sorta scary here. :O
*evil laugh*
1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was a new mom. Aidan was just turning one month old. So I was probably rocking him to sleep or something.

2. By this time next year, I …

…will be a certified yoga teacher, a year older, and the mother of an 11 year old! I will have gone to Disney World ten times and will probably be preparing to head out for #11.

3. Do you think the United States will elect a female President in your lifetime? Do you think this would be a good thing?

I sure would like to see it. Truthfully, I thought that would happen before ANYONE of color got into office so….

4. Which fictional, TV show character you would shag anytime?

The Doctor from Doctor Who I think. But only certain incarnations. Or Maybe Captain Jack Harkness. But of course, only if I weren’t already married. πŸ™‚

John Barrowman and Me
I mean HELLO!

5. Who is your greatest enemy?

I am. I get in my own way ALL THE TIME.

6. Tell me about your most recent trip of more than 100 miles?

I went to Cleveland, to visit my mommy for Christmas. πŸ™‚

7. Which do you use more often, the dictionary or the thesaurus?

Dictionary. I love dictionaries.

8. Do you have a nickname? What is it?

My nickname is Ronni. My real name is Ronica.

9. What are you dreading at the moment?

Eh, nothing really.

10. Do you worry that others will judge you from reading some of your answers?

Nope. If they judge me, it’s their thing, not mine.

11. If you find an outfit you love, but the size on the label is larger than you want, do you buy the outfit? Why or why not?

I’ll buy it if it fits and looks awesome.

12. Even the biggest slackers are anal-retentive about something? What are you anal-retentive about?

My music files! I have to have them properly tagged so they look nice in my iTunes! I’ll spend hours getting them right.

13. Out of all the books you read as a child, which one had the biggest influence on how you are today?

Ohh, great question. I think Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You (But Only If You Let It), Amy and Laura, Little House in the Big Woods, and By The Shores of Silver Lake all had huge impacts on me. And Ramona and Her Mother as well. Plus tons and tons more. (I read a lot when I was little. HECK what do I mean “when I was little”? I still read a lot!)

14. Which Golden Girl would you want to spend a night on the town with?

Oh my God. This is so hard. See, I can see Blanche ditching me for some guy. Sophia is feisty, but I don’t know if I could handle her level of feistiness. Rose would get on my nerves, as much as I love her. So I think it would have to be Dorothy.

15. What is the one product you would never buy in its generic form even if the generic is half the price?

Granola bars. The generic ones always macaroons in them and I don’t like that.

16. How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa?

Who said I ever stopped? πŸ™‚

17. What is the one smell that turns your stomach without fail?

Spoiled anything.

18. If someone holds out a carton of milk to you and asks you to sniff it to see if its spoiled, do you?

Yes. I’m the only one who can tell in my house.

19. You have a completely free day and $2000.00, What are you doing?

Probably transferring the $2000 to my savings account and playing on the computer or reading all day. Or booking a Disney trip. Ha.

20. What is the most used item in your home?

The computers. Hands down. Followed closely by the couch.

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More of That

Flower

I scroll through my Live Journal and Facebook posts and I see people doing a lot of what they love to do. I get so caught up refreshing tumblr, or staring at Facebook, or sleeping. The Internet sucks me in and the next thing I know, another day has gone by. I get so caught up in silly things that I forget to do the things that bring me really deep joy. Except reading–I ALWAYS remember to read.

I need more of these things in my life:

1. Drinking hot tea and drinking cocoa.
2. Writing.
3. Spinach. I want and need to consume more spinach. Mmm spinach.
4. Taking pictures. LOTS of pictures.
5. Dancing.

What joyful things do you wish you had more of in your life?

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Blue Monday? Nah, I Don’t Think So.

Snowy Day in Chicago

So, according to various sources, Blue Monday falls on … well, today. January 21, 2013. The holiday bills are coming due. People are typically starting to break their New Year’s resolutions. The weather is miserable and there’s really nothing to look forward to for months. The holidays are pretty much packed away.

Someone like me, who is prone to melancholy, especially this time of year, can see it for sure. But I don’t think it’s always the case for me. For example, last year, I didn’t post about being sad. I posted about theatre. And I don’t think it will be that depressing for me this year either. For one, I don’t have any holiday bills. I paid for everything with cash. The weather is miserable (the high is supposed to be a whopping 14F today) but I don’t have to go anywhere. The work I have to do can be done from under a warm electric blanket. I didn’t make any resolutions so I don’t have to feel bad about breaking them. I have a Disney World trip to look forward to (35 days!!!), and I have a lot to be thankful for.

1. My Gratitude Buddy Wanda. She emailed me this idea that we send each other three things every day that we’re grateful for. They can be small or big things, but they’re things that we’re happy to have in our lives. She’s much better at keeping up with it than I am, but every time she sends me one, I remember to send mine back to her. I’m grateful that it’s often hard to decide WHICH three things to put.

2. Friends who automatically think of me when they want to plan trips to Disney World. I love helping my friends plan Disney trips almost as much as I love planning my own. πŸ™‚

3. The kirtan I got to manage and attend Saturday night. OH MY GOD. Rich Logan is a force. The kirtan was packed–I had never seen Moksha so packed for a kirtan before. The songs and chants are still running through my head and my spirit. It was amazing. I cannot WAIT for his next one.

4. The new music I have been discovering and the old music I have been rediscovering. Like the song 7 by Prince. I bought the maxi-single to that years ago. Anyone remember maxi-singles? But yeah. That song is so good.

5. My yoga teacher training is all paid off! Now I just need to finish up my non-contact stuff and my apprenticeship so I can get my certification. Only a few months to go!

So… I’m going to go burrow under the warm electric blanket (turned up on high) and let the space heater blow on me until I get warm. I’m wearing cozy sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt, but it’s one of those days where the bitterness just seeps through all the cracks. I have a new book to read, some cats to cuddle, and hot things to drink.

And that’s all for now folks. Til next time!

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Raw and Real

WARNING: Venting Ahead. Proceed at your own risk!!

I Am Not Amused

I am typically pretty positive on my blog. I *try* to be a positive person. Aadil Palkhivala says to “look for the gold” so that I won’t be focusing on the dirt around me. It was the MAIN thing I took from the workshop I had with him in September of last year, and it’s how I’ve been trying to live my life since then.

It’s not easy. I am, by nature, pessimistic and negative. I think it has to do with the fact that I grew up in innercity Cleveland, land of cynicism and angst. I’d say something cheesy like “I saw a rainbow last night” and someone would say “OMG STFU.” Everything I liked was grounds to be made fun of. and I was so wishy washy. I didn’t want to be made fun of so I’d pretend to like the things they did. Or I’d hide the stuff I really liked. (I didn’t hide my love for New Kids on the Block and I caught hell for it. To this day, the fact that fandoms exist for everything and there are theoretically safe spaces for me to go and explore things I’m interested in still kind of blows my mind.) So, I had to act more cynical and bitter than I really felt, and eventually a lot of it just became a part of ME. Medication helps with that, though, and yoga. And Aadil’s advice of looking for the gold. Also, setting boundaries and keeping myself distanced from people who are super negative helps as well.

But sometimes, despite all that, I just have to be mad. I just have to be raw, I just have to be real. I’ve kept this blog so sweet the past few years…and I’m ready for it to be more ME, you know?

It doesn’t mean it’s going to turn into a rant dump or anything like that. But I am going to stop hiding all the not-so-sweet-and-pretty things all the time.

Anyway.

Y’all. This week has gotten on my last nerve! I guess it started Saturday, when I was taking down my holiday decorations (which already had me in an off mood), and Aidan was insistently asking me a question about the theory of evolution (don’t even ask). I was so focused on answering him that I ended up dropping one of my Mickey Mouse ornaments.

Mickey ornament casualty. :(

As you can see, it shattered. πŸ™ It’s not that big of a loss I suppose–I mean, I have a whole set. Two more reds, two more greens, and one more silver. And at least it wasn’t my banana ornament, right?

Then Sunday, Aidan flew back to Ohio. Thank God he was in a good mood or else it would have been terrible. HIS mood always determines my mood and if he cries, it’s all over for me. But the fact is that well, he’s in Ohio now and not here with me and that sucks.

I started playing LEGO Harry Potter on the Wii Monday. I was doing awesomely until I got to the Riddle’s Diary section in Year 2. It’s a damned timed puzzle and I’m just not coordinated enough with the remotes to solve the puzzle before the strength potion runs out. After hours of trying, I just turned the game off. It took everything in me to not throw the remote at the screen and burst into tears. I know, what am I, 8 years old instead of 38 years old? Pathetic.

Either I need Adam to do the second player for me so I can get the timing right, or I’ll need Aidan to beat that level for me when he comes back next month. OR I can waste more hours trying, except I have a butt load of you know, GROWN UP stuff to do instead. Like preparing my thesis workshop which is next Saturday. Or preparing for my two-day therapeutic yoga orientation which starts this evening. An apprenticeship I am simultaneously looking forward to and also wanting to just be over and done with. I’ve noticed that anytime I jump into something with that kind of apprehension (teacher training*cough) it ends up being an amazing experience. So I’m sure this will be the same. Still nervous, though.

I had acupuncture on Monday and that was OK. I didn’t do anything Tuesday but get my ass kicked by that game. OH I almost forgot. I got to be super, super, super annoyed by Disney! I KNOW RIGHT? But the balance was coming due for our February Disney World trip and I just wanted to pay it. Online, it said “If your billing address is different from what we have on file, Disney will reject your payment! HEEHEEE!” So I called and the line was busy. I left a message but I missed the callback. Fortunately, they left ME a message and told me that my account was notated and an online payment would be fine. So I did that and got the confirmation that all was well. But I was already so frustrated that I couldn’t even be happy that Disney was signed, sealed, and delivered and now all that’s left is the waiting. I tried to go ahead and make the rest of our dining reservations and also add the ones we already had to the My Disney online thingy. BUT THEIR SITE WAS NOT ACTING RIGHT. Server kept getting overloaded, site kept crashing. THEN I checked further details on one reservation and at the bottom, in big block letters were the words:

YOUR RESERVATION HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

What the fresh, everlasting hell??? I did NOT cancel anything so what was going on? So we finally called and got it all straightened out and also got my other reservations made. See, as much as I used to love the phone when I was a teenager, I really don’t like it now. I’d much rather do it online and not have to talk to anyone. I don’t even like ordering food on the phone.

On Wednesday I saw my doctor and that was OK. She’s really a great doctor. Wonderful bedside manner, friendly, and warm. Gives the impression that she really cares about her patients. I’ve been seeing her since 2008; followed her through three different offices. Now she has her own practice.

At the doctor, I got blood drawn and got a flu shot. My blood sugar plummeted and my bladder filled to bursting (I needed to drink a lot of water to get my veins popping for the blood draw.) The traffic had built up and the lights were being obnoxious and I had to PEE. That is NO FUN. To have to pee like that and to be stuck? THEN we finally got to a Target (where I needed to shop anyway) and the restroom was CLOSED. I just threw my hands up. But then I went back and the maintenance guy waved me in, so I guess he was just waiting for the poopy people in there to get out before he went in to clean. So even though I had to smell those random poopy people, I didn’t care. I just had to peeeeee.

We had a tasty dinner at Arturo’s, then I came home and went to bed pretty much right away. I spent basically all day yesterday sleeping, all night sleeping, and could crawl back into bed right now. But I won’t because I need to clean my room. I still haven’t unpacked from my trip to see Mommy over Christmas.

I am frustrated because I’m so tired of being cold. I lost my Foursquare mayorships at BOTH Moksha Yoga Studios because I’m so tired of going outside and feeling like the cold is stabbing me like knives. It’s NOT EVEN THAT COLD. It’s 49F outside right now but the mere thought of going out there makes me want to crawl back into bed because I know it’s going to be miserable for me. If I don’t have to go anywhere, I don’t. I stay home and huddle under the electric blanket or throw, trying to keep warm.

But I know that things aren’t terrible for me. My mind knows this, logically. I mean, I’m whining because I’m having trouble on a level in a Wii game for God’s sake. And the week wasn’t all bad. I got Aidan a little Valentine’s Day surprise which I think he’ll like. Arturo’s was SO good and they put fresh avocado on my tostado which is nice because I was craving fresh avocado. I got to eat at Pops, which is something that takes the sting out of taking Aidan to the airport, as that’s our treat when we do have to take him. The lady at the ticketing counter let Adam go with Aidan and me to the gate which rarely happens anymore. And as I said, Aidan was in a good mood when he got on the plane.

I got really cool new socks and arm warmers, and I’m expecting some AMAZING leggings in the mail. I also got a check today. I just caught up with an old yogi friend and we’re going to have brunch on Monday. Adam put gas in the car so I can drive up to the other Moksha Yoga later this evening for orientation which PRAISES BE TO BABY JESUS will include a yoga practice. I got two new pairs of boots for under $60 total and they were delivered today. And I’ll get to see some teacher trainee classmates who I haven’t seen in more than a month.

*Sigh* Now I feel better. My meds have finally kicked in, and I’m feeling more mellow overall.

Sometimes, a girl just has to vent. A girl also has to keep up with her medication or she’ll be a hot mess otherwise. Oh well. C’est la vie.

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