Happy Thursday one and all! Here's another yoga cat. This one seems to have more yoga skills than other cats I've seen videos of. Although, he or she must either not have have claws or be very, very zen because if my cats slid down my back like that during down dog it would turn yoga into a blood sport.
Now, I believe that every person has a few phrases they say frequently that define something about them. Like, the fact that I say, "Seriously, you can't talk to me about John and Kate Plus 8 or Toddlers in Tiaras because I will get so angry blood will shoot out of my eyes while I strangle you." or "I could be wrong...but I know I'm right." demonstrates my distaste for treating child abuse as television and my fairness of mind. Or something. Annnnyway, another phrase I use a lot is, "Correlation does not equal causation." That shows you that I have an undergraduate degree in social sciences that I am not currently using. But here's this!
I love a graph that proves my point and makes me laugh while insinuating that mountain ranges cause murders in New York. That is a good time for everyone.
One of the truly lovely things about a job in a academic setting is the holiday break. You see, my friends, in two weeks I will be on vacation for two weeks. If it helps to calm your jealousy at all, please know that for the majority of my working life this has not been the case. When I was in college, I worked at the public library and a bakery. Because I went to college in my hometown which meant to travel home for the holidays I had to drive all of, oh, five minutes, I usually volunteered to work Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas so that people with further to go could head home earlier. The bakery was a great place to work around the holidays. It was bursting with activity and pies and dinner rolls and my sister and I used to con people into buying extra pies by mentioning (maybe with tears in our eyes) that we could go home to our family as soon as all the pies were sold.
Anyway, now I have a vacation. There is no downside to this, but there is the practical concern that I live alone and most of my friends will still be working. My sister is a stay at home mom, so I plan on spending some time with her and the baby, but other than that I am free as a bird. And I don't have cable. And I'm sick of all the movies and books I own. But never fear, I work in the Interlibrary Loan department meaning all of the books and movies owned by libraries are right at my finger tips!
Here's a sample of what I've ordered so far:
Holiday Themed Books:
Movies I've been meaning to watch:
Books to keep me busy:
And, for the record, something I will not be ordering because I haven't gone completely cat-lady-insane:
Happy Thursday everyone! I used to watch the Sonny and Cher show every evening in high school. Because of this bit I've always had a desire to sit on top of a piano and sing in a red dress. I even do a pretty good Cher impression when I'm a couple of drinks in. That is, I think it's pretty good and people are usually too busy snorting their drinks through their noses and laughing to tell me otherwise and that is the kind of feedback I like: too debilitated to critisize.
I hope you have a lot of delightful weekend plans. I will be watching the first season of Remington Steele and knitting Christmas presents.
As you know, I like to keep seasonal things seasonal. I don't like to get ahead of myself; I want to enjoy November for its blustery in-between-ness, transforming from fall to winter and I love Thanksgiving and want to give it its due between Halloween and Christmas. So I do not watch any Christmas movies or listen to any Christmas music or read any Christmas books until after Thanksgiving. But I do tend to get a little excited to get excited for Christmas. Some Christmas things I can't help but think of before Thanksgiving. I make two lists every November: a list of things I'm going to give or make for people at Christmas and my Christmas list. My parents ask for my Christmas list every Thanksgiving and I'm a big dork about it. I play with fonts and colors and strategize about which category (yes, category: books, dvds, gift cards and miscellaneous) should go where.
Speaking of Christmas lists, one of the items at the very top of mine is non-stick frying pans because I only have two frying pans which are more of the everything-sticks variety and one is teeny weeny and the other is HUGE! Does anyone have a preferred brand? Something middle-of -the-road in expense and quality?
I'm a sucker for British TV. Especially anything with Maggie Smith in it.
She is so joyfully bitchy. Her scenes are absolutely the best. I've only seen the first two episodes, but the other discs should be coming in through Interlibrary Loan any day now and I can't wait to sit down with a cup of tea and knit and enjoy the (polite, British) drama.
3) The word "gormless"
I love that word. Gormless. Although now I've thought it to much and it's lost all meaning and sounds totally weird. I wonder if you can be gormful? Or what a gorm is? Apparently and a lot of different things, it seems.
Happy Thursday, everyone! Here's the best thing I've seen online all week:
This weekend is busy, busy, busy: I'm teaching two classes, helping my grandpa with a project, starting Christmas projects, going to a party, and hopefully vacuuming (my living room carpet looks like it's made out of cat hair. Ew).
You know those mornings that start out like any other morning and then rapidly go downhill? It starts with the alarm jolting you out of a weird dream where you are at the movie theater watching a Jason Bateman movie on a date with Jason Bateman and your friend is encouraging you to hold his hand except it's not really Jason Bateman, it's more like a Jason Bateman/somebody else hybrid. And then you actually have enough time for once in the morning and you get just to the point of doing your hair where there is no turning back, the point of no return: the curling has begun and if it doesn't come out looking reasonably sane then you will actually have to call in sick because if you go in with crazy hair like that they will fire you anyway and then you realize that you hit some sort of wormhole because you are now five minutes late. Everything is the worst, it's everyone's fault, mostly Jason Bateman and you're so late and then you get to work to discover that it's just as awful as it is everyday and everyone's crabby and everything is terrible. Or is it just me? Here are some adventures from this kind of morning:
-I forgot what Ravelry was called and how to get there. Forgot. I go to this website everyday and I forgot it. I kept thinking: "Stitch...something? Stitchery? Stitch'n bitch'n? Yarn...? Yarny?...Do I have a brain tumor? I can see the website with the alpacas and the Boston Terrier...Knit...something?"
-Seriously. We are grown ups. If you are going to chew your gum, chew it. If you want to snap it constantly (20 times in 30 seconds I COUNTED), fine. But don't blame me if I "trip" and "accidentally" impale you with a letter opener.
-You know what I find extremely soothing on crabby days? Well, yes, whiskey, but not at work. What I find truly soothing is imagining I have a tiny little pocket-sized Al Swearengen. And he whispers in my ear and I laugh at all the mean, terrible thing he says and how bad ass-ly he says them. And it really, really helps.
*BEFORE YOU WATCH THIS VIDEO* They don't call him Swearengen for nothing. There are a lot of swears in this video. Do not watch it if you have an aversion to foul language and reference to vulgar acts in a wild west saloon setting. Do watch it if you need to know how to rant like a champ.
(Other pocket-size friends I wish I had include, but are not limited to: Eddie Izzard, Gloria Steinem, Ina Garten, and Dolly Parton.)
-I love it when a staff member from another department comes into our department and takes the treats we are sharing without asking and without being there for any specific work related task. It really lends credence to my theory that she just walks around the place eating free food instead of doing, say, her job. It gets even better when she complains about our selection of free goodies.
-As I work on my list of items to make for people for Christmas I would like to know why I was cursed with two pretty, sociable sisters who have increased the size of our family with their boyfriend and husband and baby (respectively. Laura is not cheating on Aaron. And if she does, I am not making her other man anything for Christmas. So there). Then I realized that it's genetic because I am also pretty and sociable and have waaaay too many close friends.Why, oh, why couldn't we have had ugly, mean parents?
It was at this point of the morning that I realized I was complaining about loving and being loved by too many people and I snapped out of my funk. Also, watching Swearengen videos can really help a girl out.
I've known about this band for a while and liked what I've heard. But as I was trying to find stuff to listen to on YouTube while I work I put on a few videos and it just hit me in a certain way. I'm now in full on obsession mode.
The thing that brought The Dead Weather to mind was the preview for AMC's new Western Hell on Wheels. I don't have cable at my house (thus my obsession with DVD's I can get through the library like Moonlighting) so I didn't see the premiere last night. The previews do kind of make my Deadwood-loving heart beat a little faster so maybe I'll watch the show online or when the DVD's come out. But back to the point, the song on the previews for Hell on Wheels had me humming and straining to think WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT SONG until I finally got to a computer and with some creative Googling re-discovered my favorite Dead Weather song:
3) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
It took me 50 pages and at least two zombie nightmare before I decided I liked this book (and that I probably shouldn't read it before I go to bed). It's weird and can be a little jarring sometimes if you're really familiar with Pride and Prejudice but if you're willing to take it for what it is, it's a pretty enjoyable read. There's some gross zombie action, some country dances and gossip, something for everyone!
This weekend I have knitting on my mind: I'm knitting a gift (I don't dare say more about it until it's given, just in case), knitting samples for my November/December classes, finishing a design for submission to a book (I am so excited! But again, I don't dare say anything more until it's finished. It's just a submission, there's a huge chance it won't get in. But just the thought that it might!), and starting what I like to call the Christmas cast-on: wherein I get way too ambitious about making gifts for friends and family for the holidays. I am hoping (hoping) this year to pare down my grandiose ideas to something more achievable. The theme of my holiday gifts will be thrifty, handmade, loving and reasonable. Although, as I type that I can hear the tiny voice of my more reasonable self saying, "J'accuse! You already have one grandiose idea that is in a medium with which you are not proficient and you are in love with it! Take heed!" Uh, my reasonable but dramatic self, apparently. Annnyway, I'm starting the planning process of my holiday gifts and I'm looking forward to it. I have matured recently as a knitter in that I actually knit gauge swatches and design before I start the actual project instead of during. It's still not my favorite part, my fingers still itch to get those stitches on the needle and just get started already but I have noticed that my designs are better and my finished products are nicer if I take some time to think about what I'm going to do before I do it. Somewhere, my mother just heard a thousand angles break into song and said quietly to herself, "One of the many, many lessons I tried to teach my willful daughters just sunk in to one of their thick skulls! Glory, glory!"
In case any of you knitters out there haven't seen this yet, feast your eyes on this video. And if any of you non-knitters actually made it through a paragraph about nothing but gauge swatches and designing, you will still appreciate this:
It makes my vision blur just thinking about knitting on a scale that small. And the colorwork on some of those pieces... I am in awe.
Other activities for the weekend: watching Coraline, cleaning and cooking, a party for a friend, an open-house at JoAnn Fabrics (if you live in the Mt Pleasant area and want to take a class at JoAnn's (not just knitting, there are lots of other classes offered) come sign up this Saturday for 50% off! And if you don't want to take a class, maybe you just come and visit me!), cinnamon buns/coffee/knitting at Erica's so I can meet her new kittens, and playing Boggle with my Grandma. And if the Interlibrary Loan gods smile upon me, Season 3 of Moonlighting will come in and I can spend some more time with David and Maddie.
Ok, this isn't the night, but still! Happy almost Halloween!
Hopefully, you've decided on a costume by now. And have a dumb, sweet little dog to help you get twice the candy. But beware: if you meet scary ghost pirates and the dumb, sweet little dog saves your life, you will have to, in the spirit of Halloween generosity, give that little dog his bag of candy. So make sure you gird your loins and don't get scared.
(For the record, I TOTALLY did not pick up on Garfield having a different singing voice some of the time. Why didn't Lou Rawls sing all the songs? I'll grant you that his awesome voice would have been wasted on lyrics like, "I could be an astronaut, a robot, a hobo, a clown. Or an alien creature goin' out on the town." but is "I don't chase mice and all that jazz. I might be sassy, yeah and all of that, but the one thing I'm not is a scaredy cat." any more deserving?
My family quotes movies a lot and this one more than most. We "Put the candle back" accuse each other of being "abby normal" and sing "Puttin' on the Ritz" like monsters. I couldn't love this movie more if I tried.
2. Carving Pumpkins
Last night, my sisters and assorted boyfriends/husbands/babies gathered to carve pumpkins. Last year, my sister was so pregnant she couldn't get up by herself and it took my other sister and I all of our strength to heave-ho her up. This year, we had a little child wandering around the garage in a walker, banging into things and yelling. She reminded me of an angry roomba, or R2D2 malfunctioning or Captain Pike in his little scooty chair but without the disfiguring scars.
For those of you too cool to know what Captain Pike's scooty chair looks like.
I know this comparison is not a new one, but hanging out with toddlers is so much like hanging out with drunk people. Last night I was sitting on the floor eating chili, when my niece, using the couch to steady herself, staggered over to me smiling, grabbed my boobs, smashed my cornbread muffin into a thousand pieces, tripped over my legs and fell into me giggling. Then she puked on my pants. It's a good thing she's darn cute.
Anyway, we all managed to dodge the mad toddler long enough to carve our pumpkins without anyone getting hurt. It was the most fun you could have while sitting on a cold, cement floor in October.
3) Moonlighting
So this one doesn't have anything to do with Halloween, but I spent all weekend at the Blue Moon Detective Agency and I am smitten! Smitten with young Bruce Willis, smitten with Cybil Shepherd's entire wardrobe, smitten with Ms. Dipesto, the list goes on and on. I don't care how the two lead actors felt/feel about each other in real life and I don't want to know. I just want to sew shoulder pads into all of my shirts and practice using a banana clip while watching this show. And waiting for this guy to show up.
You know what I love? A good rainy Thursday in October complete with blustery winds, leaves flyin' all over the place, gray skies, umbrellas, rain coats, and that cozy feeling of being inside on such a day: hopefully under a blanket, with a cup of tea and a cookie and a cat and a book. I am at work right now but I am FULLY PREPPED to get that cozy after work and maybe after a large meal at Los Palominos with no fewer than two big margaritas. I love today! I also love:
1) My Haircut
I did it: I went with this cut. As I suspected, it was basically what I already had with a few layers and some coaching from my hair stylist. Did you know that when you want your hair to do something besides what it naturally does there's this stuff you can put it in? It's called product and there are all different kinds that do different things! You don't have to just use the power of your mind! I now use a little gel and a little hair spray along with a straightening iron (which I already had and used, but now I use it to curl my hair. Which is weird). It's a bit more work than before BUT it's messy so it's not that much more work and it looks pretty even as it starts to relax a little throughout the day. So I'm pleased.
2) Halloween Time
Oooo, Halloween! Spooky, scary (boys becoming men, men becoming wolves)! I love Halloween time! My dad is a huge Halloween dork: my parent's house gets completely decked out each October with a graveyard in the front yard and all kinds of decorations that jump and scream and threaten you as you walk past them. There are boiling eyeballs on the bookcases, at least three Frankenstein monsters, skulls that gnash their teeth, a Medusa head with moving snake hair, and a life-size zombie (or something, he sort of defies categorization) that lifts his head off his shoulders. Part of the Halloween experience, of course, is watching all the movies and books that get saved for this time of year. When my sisters and I were little, we were not allowed to watch Halloween movies at any other time than October. It was a way of keeping those movies festive and celebrating the season and both my sisters and I keep this tradition. I cheat every once in a while (I can't keep zombie movies only to October, I just can't!) but there is something really satisfying about saving seasonal movies for their seasons. For example:
These are forever linked in my mind because my family has an old VHS recording from when they were played one after the other on TV. My dad burned these onto a DVD complete with the old 80's commercial because it just wouldn't be Halloween for my sisters and I if we couldn't sing along with Ronald McDonald and the Chicken McNuggets when they sing "Scared Silly." Just wait until Christmas when I can tell you all about the three part harmony in the McDonalds commercial "Hardnose Mrs. Hatcher."
3) This song:
I am completely obsessed.
4) Fall Love
My friend Annie wrote this about how much she loves fall and what food/activity/media says fall to her. I have to say I am in complete agreement with her. I read Jane Eyre every November, watch Gilmore Girls from about September through December, and watch the temperature drop with glee until I can put on sweaters and tights.
5) Fall cooking and crafting
I have big, big plans for apple butter (thanks to Erica for the recipe and the ridiculously good jar of apple butter that she gave me), ginger snaps, split pea soup, apple/pumpkin risotto, white chicken chili and more more more cooking. I also intend to get my fall crafting under control and get ready for one last craft sale and start the holiday crafting (I've totally already started, for once, I am ahead of the game.) I just love cooking and crafting in the fall. Love it.
Today it is foggy both in the world and in my brain. But it's October, so that's kind of how things should be. I first heard God Help the Girl in the fall, so to me their music is as October as pumpkins, fog,and apple cider.
Oh man I love that song. It's hard to listen to at work because I really, really like to sing along. Same with this one:
This weekend promises to be full of fall festivities with a movie premiere (that is a story for another blog post), a visiting friend, the corn maze with my sisters and brother-in-law and sister's boyfriend and baby niece ( Evelyn's first corn maze!), yoga, crafting, and a date with the cats to pop popcorn and watch The Shining. You know, when I spell out my weekend plans like that, it's easy to appreciate that I have a pretty fantastic life. Kind of clears the brain fog a little.
My sister's wedding anniversary was yesterday. Two years of wedded bliss and even a baby for Laura and Aaron! Congratulations!
Two years is also the anniversary of my having long hair. From the time Laura got engaged, I grew my hair out (as bridesmaids seem to do) and shortly after the wedding I chopped it all off. Well, chopped it off to my shoulders. Lately, I've seen a lot of cute hair ideas online for hair longer than mine and it got me to thinking about growing my hair back out again. I've been fantasizing about pig tails, braids, buns, twists, pony tails, and more. My hair is just on the cusp of these possibilities; to really do some fun hair stuff I would need just a little more length. I would need something, maybe, like this:
But then, I watched Bridesmaids and saw Kristen Wiig:
Super cute hair! It's a messy look, which is good because I am not great at hair styling. Also, it's about the length my hair is now, meaning I would just need some layers and a brief tutorial from my hair dresser as opposed to months of hair growing. But there go the fantasies of all that cute hair stuff right onto the salon floor, chopped off before they even got a chance to frustrate me and not work the way I want them to!
I have a hair cut appointment this Friday and I need to decide whether to keep it and add a little Kristen Wiig to what I currently have going on which is this:
I promise to look this sassy no matter what hairstyle I choose.
or cancel it in the name of waiting to go back to something like this:
I'm the girl in the middle. Pay no attention to the beautiful mane of golden locks on Laura's head.
What do I DO?! What DO I do?! Do I:
A. Cancel the appointment and let that hair grow!
B. Keep the appointment learn how to make messy curls look intentional.
C. Shave my head and invest in wigs
D. Hold my sister down, shave her head, and make a wig from her hair
Welcome to another edition of the Monday Beloveds!
1) Bridesmaids
Oh my, this movie. I don't know what took me so long to see it; I had been meaning to for quite some time. I was not disappointed.
Kristen Wiig is so funny, Jon Hamm plays that jerky guy who gets you to think not committing is your idea so well that I would hate him if he weren't the most handsome man to ever walk the earth and so clearly enjoying hamming (hahahaha) it up. I also really love the repore between Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudoph.
2) Chris O'Dowd
I also watched Pirate Radio this weekend. It was a very Chris O'Dowd-y weekend. I loved him in The IT Crowd, and I think I'll commence stalking him by ordering every movie of his I can get my hands on through Interlibrary Loan.
3) Hot Apple Cider
Another Applefest has come and gone and I have another windburn on my face to prove it. We had a good time; the weather was better but still freezing and hot apple cider helped a lot. Thank you, hot apple cider: I owe still having all of my fingers to you.
Isn't the fall just spectacular? On the drive to work this morning, I noticed all the colorful leaves falling to the ground and thought, "I better pay attention, fall's here!" It should be pretty easy to pay attention to fall this weekend because Applefest is finally here! There will be apples, apple cider, pumpkins, donuts, a corn maze and the most amazing french fries in the world! The only fall things I love that are missing from that list are Halloween, Thanksgiving and football.
It's going to be a busy weekend full of yoga, running errands, finishing crafting projects, cleaning the house, cooking, having a few friends over (I like cooking and cleaning so much more when it's because friends are coming over) and then sitting outside all day trying to get people to buy the stuff we made. If you're in the Mount Pleasant area, come on out to Applefest and be one of those people!
Welcome to the first installment of The Monday Beloveds! I've decided to blog every Monday about some stuff I'm in love with. Every week, it seems, I have a new beloved TV show or object or snack or something and I feel the need to share the love with you! I'm making it Monday because I became really irrationally attached to calling the objects of my affections "beloveds," there's no weekday starting in a "b" removing my favorite writing device the illiteration from the title option and today is Monday and I am, as always, eager and excited to get started on this project before I can really think it through! So, on that note, let's jump right in!
The Monday Beloveds!
1) Akeelah and the Bee
I watched this movie for the first time over the weekend and fell in love. I laughed, I cried, I clapped, I cheered all while sitting at home alone and therefore bumping myself one more notch in the, "She's crazy because she lives alone" meter. I highly recommend this movie because I found it inspiring and touching and really triumphant. I've been meaning to watch it for quite some time. I can't really say why I chose this time in my life to check it out from the library. I really have no idea.
Curtis Armstrong is in this movie?! What a strange coincidence!
2) Essie Nail Polish
I tried it on a whim and it rules. It's pricier than the really cheap stuff I normally buy and worth every penny. It goes on nicely and comes in a large array of fun and unusual colors. I'm completely hooked.
3) Trail Mix
There has never been a more convincing way to eat chocolate as part of a healthy snack. Yum.
4) Artie from Glee
It took me a long time to watch Glee. I know a lot of people like it and a lot of people told me I would like it because of my love for gratuitous displays of singing and dancing. And because I live alone and because I knit a lot and because I like to watch TV while I knit I finally checked out Glee. I have to say, it is the perfect knitting show. You don't have to pay attention because the plot is not complex and not even that important. The songs are fun and can be enjoyed even if you are in the middle of a difficult Celtic cable and you can't really look at the screen. But there is something about Artie's voice and attitude that gets me to look up just about every time he's on screen, dropped stitches be damned.
The other day, I bought a new knitting book that I am CRAZY for. I was telling my sister how bonkers bananas I was for this knitting book and I told her it was one of the items I would go out of my way to rescue in case of a house fire. Here is the rest of that list:
1) My favorite knitting book
The book that started the whole conversation, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns has absolutely changed the way I design and has me actually knitting gauge swatches just like a real knitter. Erica told me about it months ago, but I was resistant because I thought I had enough knitting books (I do have a fair few). But finally at her urging I checked it out from the library. The minute I opened it, I ordered my own copy from the local bookstore. It's a series of charts which allow you to either make basic hats, mittens, gloves, etc or a pattern upon which to base your design. It is the most useful book I own and I would encourage any knitter at all interested in designing their own work to take a look at this book.
2) My favorite cookbook
The Joy of Cooking is as valuable to me for cooking as the pattern book is for knitting. It has a great index in the back so that when I bring home a butternut squash from the farmer's market because it looked pretty, I can look it up and find a couple of options of what to do with it. Joy has more information than I may ever use about setting a table, nutrition, stocking a pantry and certainly more recipes than I'll ever try. But it is my go-to resource in the kitchen.
3) My favorite kitchen tool
For my birthday last year, my sisters bought me this immersion blender. Before I had my immersion blender, I got squash all over my ceiling. I made that same recipe this weekend and voila, no squash anywhere but in the soup pot! I love my immersion blender so, so much!
4) All three copies of Jane Eyre
I have been trying to get my book collecting under control. I work in a library for goodness sakes, and in the interlibrary loan department for that matter! I can get most any book I can think of! But there are some books that deserve collecting which is why I have three editions of Jane Eyre. There's the Signet Classic edition that was the first edition I owned and it is in tatters (I read Jane Eyre at least once a year). Then, I picked up a Norton Critical Edition at a used bookstore in town a few years ago. And then. The jewel of my library, the best gift I have ever in my life received (yes, even a notch or two above the immersion blender). A copy of Jane Eyre in Thai. My ex-boyfriend Casey went to Thailand when his brother and sister-in-law got married and brought this back to me. His family thought he was nuts because I can't read Thai but I love it so much. It's not pictured above, I couldn't find it anywhere online, which actually just makes it cooler.
So while clearly I would be most concerned about my cats were a fire to break out, while I would of course want to rescue pictures and other sentimental objects, and while there's no way I would ever actually take the time to rescue any material thing from a house fire (my police officer father didn't raise any fools), these are my "Things I would save from a house fire" type of possessions, my favorite things.
Remember that time I confessed to having a crush on Booger? It hasn't really gone away. I can't explain it, when I confessed it to a friend she was totally grossed out and said, "But I'm pretty sure Booger smells bad." She is not wrong.
But now my crush has developed and become multifaceted and now I also really like Charles de Marr from Better Off Dead. I submit the following for your review:
I can't explain it, he's such a weird little dude. But he is darn funny!
Tell me I'm not the only one with a weird, semi-embarrassing crush. Who are you inexplicably in love with?
(Much thanks to Liz for bringing the Charles de Mar video to my attention!)
If this video doesn't make you happy, you need some serious help.*
I want to be in this video so badly! I want to be as cool as that tattooed girl hanging out by the piano but I definitely want to be the girl Frank pulls on stage to play the harmonica. Because I lurve him.
Earlier this week I looked at my calender to see two blank, white squares labeled Friday and Saturday. You know what that means? NO COMMITMENTS! I'm going to cook and read and watch a lot of Mad Men and knit A TON because Applefest is coming right up. I'm also going to buy myself something pretty with my birthday money because my Grandma told me to, and then I'm going to go show it to her. There's also a really good chance I'm going to drink too much coffee, eat a donut, get Mexican food for at least two meals and probably drink some wine (maybe even in a hot tub). Weekend, here I come!
Happy Thursday!
*Ok, try this:
Don Draper, kids. He will cheer you up anytime! (Also, you may have gotten pregnant just looking at these photos. Yes, even if you are a man. And you may be reduced to mumbling, "Don Draper...Handsome...Don...HANDSOME...Don Draper..." for the next hour or so.)
I can only do it for a half a second or so, but I can totally do it! I did it for the first time in class yesterday and then did it about 75 more times when I got home just to make sure I still actually could.
I still actually could! And now my arms are tired.
You're probably not supposed to brag about yoga, huh? Oh well.
This woman's real crime wasn't yoga, but drawstring pants. None of my pants have drawstrings.
I've started trying to practice yoga at home in the mornings before work. I was running, but I really, really hate running and the number of times I would hit snooze with a profanity and not get up and go running were beginning to outnumber the times I actually ran. And then when I did get up and go running I hated it. Hated. I don't know what endorphins you people who run are getting from said running, but I was born without them. And because life is too short to start every day with something I hate, I decided to try starting it with something I love instead. I've been practicing at OmBodies for a year now (on August 14, my one year anniversary, I got a little congratulatory email from the studio which made my whole day) and I felt like I could remember enough poses and sequences to direct my own practice. Not to mention I've got some serious upper body strength to build if I'm going to get inverted anytime soon. The twice a week I can get to the studio just isn't cutting it anymore.
However, I have three cats. And every morning that I unroll my mat and go get a drink of water, I come back to three cats resting comfortably on the mat giving me a look that clearly states, "Yes, thank you for the new surface to rest on. You may go." So I shoo them off the mat and get on with my practice. It's gone ok for the most part, I only had one incident where I squished one of the cats when going from downward facing dog through chaturanga to upward facing dog. (That, by the way is one of my favorite things to do. Not just one of my favorite yoga poses, but one of my favorite things to do ever, right up there with watch Jaws, drink coffee and knit. Love it!)
The other problem I've had has been with savasana. The cats seem to think this pose stands for, "The crazy human is done with her crazy movements and now invites us to lay on her!" They roll around next to me and purr, they lay on my stomach, they sniff my face, they even licked my feet one morning. I was able to focus and breathe and not let any of this distract me until the Maine Coon decided to try the ever popular yoga pose Cat Reclines on Yogi's Face and took the deepening option of cutting off the air supply.
That is a lot of fur to have on your face even if you aren't sweaty after yoga.
Brushes with asphyxiation aside, it's been a really great way to start my day. Plus, cats are just a really great way to remind yourself to always focus on your practice no matter what is going on around you, right Hayward? As long as you've taken the drawstrings out of your pants of course.
