Summer Fun

This has been the year of no summer... at least that's what the locals are saying. I for one have enjoyed not haveing the A/C on, not sweating my nuts off, and having good hair.

This was the perfect time for a bike ride... 23 miles to be exact. Who knew I had it in me? I love this city.

allo allo!

I am sitting in humid Florida with a houseful of Brits! Well, actually Julian's mum corrected me and said, "no, we are not British, we are English".... so there you go...
I have been here since Wednesday evening & leaving tomorrow. This trip has been a blur. We ended up working at the factory a few days this week to help Julian get the office somewhat pulled back together as he had to fire yet another office manager.
You would think that in the current economic situation this country is in, that it wouldn't be hard to find good, dependable, trustworthy help. Yet the thief seems to be a recurring theme. Is it small town USA? ... or just hillbillies in general? I am not only speaking on behalf of his current situation but from my own experiences in business. There are plenty of trustworthy folks out there but it seems that the pieces of scamming, lying crap out there tend to come in droves.

As I teach this week I am going to focus the intentions on trust and truthfulness... 'cause if you're not truthful and trustworthy, it all comes out in the wash my friends.... trust me.

Solo Efforts

I spent the weekend alone again... not that this is anything new as I spend many weekends alone, but I really enjoyed this one.
Being alone is complicated. Some people love it, others hate it... there are those of us who are torn in between.
I've lived a life with someone who I was around all waking hours of the day (by my own choice) but occasionally felt smothered. I have also lived alone and dialed my fingers off looking for someone simply to have coffee with.. with no success.
I'm not exactly sure what it is... the weather, the events, hmmmm... I didn't really run any errands which as we all know can suck the life out of you. Now that I think of it, I don't think I did any errands (out & about) as I tried to complete them during the week (is that the key?).
I did beach yoga Saturday morning, then taught a class shortly thereafter. I took myself out for a wonderful lunch & coffee break and then headed home. As I parked my car I thought, "what are you doing? you were going to hang flyers this weekend?"... but that interest wained on Friday night after I thought it through. At any rate, I decided to hang one flyer at Whole Foods and on route, stopped at both a vintage clothing store and used book store that are in Evanston. I have seen these two establishments there since I moved here 2 years ago & never made the time to stop.
I found a great shirt and 5 books all for about $20. Hung my flyer, headed home.
Instead of banging on Facebook all weekend, I actually READ an entire book from cover to cover... yeah me.
I taught an amazing free community class today at Lululemon and when I arrived, I was informed that we were taking the class to the park... absolutely perfect.
I cleaned, did laundry, changed the sheets, walked the dog a few times, took a 1 hour bike ride along the lake, then drug out the grill & cooked a steak & a baked potato.
...and here I sit writing about it comtemplating a bowl of vanilla ice cream with blackberries & raspberries...

I'm not sure why but this weekend gave me a fresh outlook on life... and I like it.

too much techno

I have a blog, I'm on Facebook, and I've joined Twitter... do I really need all of this freaking technology while I'm working something like 5 jobs??? What the hell is wrong with me? I should go meditate... and twit about it.

A-B-C

..."it's easy at 1-2-3".... and now I say R-I-P???

While I have always loved Michael Jackson's music, I must admit that his ever-changing looks and behavior over the past few decades has made me say "what the hell" more than once. At the same time I have always felt sorry for him for feeling the need to continue to change his appearance over and over and over again. While my senses tell me that he was happy with success, it also tells me that it was unhappy with the same.
For some odd reason, within the past 6 months or so, I saw something about MJ and thought to myself, I wonder if he will live a full life? Will he live to be an 80 year old man?...or will he die an early death as the few icons of his statute have?.... strange... question answered.
I drank a beer and listened to my Off The Wall album the night of his death... and yes, it was an album, on vinyl, on my turntable.
I am deeply a child of the 80's & remember vividly sitting at Francesca Sabara's house watching the Worldwide Premier of Thriller....and stunned at how amazing it was for it's time.
My heart goes out to the family and I hope that they are able to be left in peace as much as humanly possible at this difficult time.
R.I.P. and thanks for the music

Yoga life

I have been teaching now for 5+ months. What have I observed? Well, taking on a part-time job is a bit more than I bargained for. Not because it's such hard work but because I find that all of the sudden, I have NO time for anything. Maybe that's just the beauty of being ADD & struggling with focusing!!! Seriously, with all of the yoga added into my life, I am WAY more calm, things just rooooolll of my back, and I am the fittest I have ever been in my life. My weight has not fluctuated in the past 5 months AT ALL... and the reality is, I don't really give a flip about the scale.
I am happier, more content, less-stressed, lighter (mentally and physically) and have a better sense of who I am.
I recently launched http://www.traveling-yoga.com/. My newest enterprise. I have a strange but good feeling about this as we just returned from the first event and got really amazing feedback. Beware, I might be traveling to you soon!!!
On a different non-yoga note, I think Radar is losing his hearing... of all the senses, his EARS... for goodness sakes, his name is RADAR!!! Bloody hell... I guess considering he's an unknown age of which I predict to be around 13-14, the little guys is not really doing that bad. He doesn't hear me call him that well but I'll be damned if he doesn't hear the front door open!
Anyway, I did 3 1/2 hours of yoga today... taught 2 classes & took one of my own. I can't really decide how my body feels about that. I guess I'll find out tomorrow!
Until then... I'm going to make a fabulous dinner for myself!
Here is a link to the pics from the first Traveling-Yoga event... enjoy and namaste...

Announcing...

The fruits of my labor....
www.traveling-yoga.com
Check it out & pass it on!

:(

I am so sorry I have been gone for so long! Unfortunately my day job that pays all my bills has gotten a little insane.
Now, the YOGA is going smashing! I just picked up another 10 week session at Crate's corp. fitness center, I love teaching at Know-no-limits gym in Andersonville, AND I have contracted a gig at the Beneteaus Rendesvous in Annapolis, MD at the end of May!
I am also currently building a web site which I will reveal when it is complete. I spent way too much time last weekend in front of this screen so now I'm jumping into it in bits & pieces.
On random other things....
I am attempting to be a greener individual... both for the planet, my yogic beliefs, and my wallet. I am making a conscious effort to unplug anything I can when not in use, and especially when I'm out of town. I think it has visibly lowered my electric bill! I'm on a crusade to reuse/recycle what I can. I am disgusted with all of the plastic I am accumulating. Anything that can be reused at this point is taking up space in my bathroom cabinet. I know I'm a girl & all but even trying to clean out all of the freebies & samples that I've gotten (by actually using them) has brought on a stupid amount of plastic waste. If I didn't already have a zillion things going on... I would attempt an art project about this.
Another weird thing... I recently read an article which stated that it has been proven that plants leaves perk up when their owners walk into the room. So in the interest of experiment, I have begun talking to my one, lone, plant. Not only have the leaves stopped turning brown, but it is FLOURISHING with growth! It's a type of palm tree which was really doing poorly. Now it has busted through the side of the stalk with an entirely new branch of greenery! I am super jazzed about my horticultural efforts... in other words, I am a dork.
That's all for this shitty weather Sunday morning in Chicago. I hope all of you in the rest of the country (and beyond) are enjoying spring/summer like weather as it is 45 degrees here on April 25th, 2009!

Things are a happenin'

I picked up another teaching job! I am on a roll!
I will be teaching at Know-No-Limits on Clark Ave., Saturday's from 12-1pm. Yipeeeee!!!!

what time is it?

This may sound stupid and/or not much of a "wow" factor but I spent 2 days not knowing what time it was. I am amazed and stunned not only at how difficult it was sometimes but how liberating it was simply not to care.

While camping in St. Augustine this past week, the watches came off and the cell phones were turned off after about 3 hours. That evening it didn't really occur to us what we were doing but the next morning it hit home. As my eyes opened (to a confused little dog), one time it was dark outside, the next it was light. The first instinct was to look at a clock & wonder "what time is it?". When I realized I didn't have a clock, the next instinct was to find one. Instead I just layed there & thought, " do I really care?" "does it really matter?".
It's sad how our lives revolve around the fucking clock. So the order of the day was... No Time. We ate when hungry & slept when tired & showered when dirty... and gaged the time by the sun.

How primative and lovely all at the same time. I can only dream of living an entire week this way!...but wait! What about my Facebook addiction???