gussied up

I just got back from a gallery opening with my sister. I wore earrings and everything. That's more snazzy than I've been in months.

Hah! I do bend.

I'm not the most flexible of people. I've never been able to do the splits or anything and usually I have to spend some major effort to touch my toes. And it's noticeable in my yoga class where everyone else is reaching their palms to the floor without even bending their knees.

But we learned a knew pose last night. There is no way I'll be able to explain it in words properly but it's sort of like a cross-legged thing where you try to put your knees as close to the floor as you can. Anyway, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that I'm sitting there doing this pose thinking "this is really easy, I must be doing something wrong" when the instructor looks at me, yes AT ME! and says, "For you, you can increase the difficulty by doing such and such alteration". So I did it. Then she looked at me again and gave me another alteration to make it even harder! Then she explained the next alteration to make it even harder, because it was even too advanced for her.

I know yoga is about letting go of your ego and all that. But yeah right! Dude, I can do a move the instructor can't do! Of course when it comes next time to Downward facing Dog and Swan Dive and everyone else is kicking my butt, my ego will get sorely bruised and I'll forget all about the leg crossy move. But until then, I'm revelling in it.

mr. clean is my dream man

When I travel for work I usually come home and dump my luggage, paper, equipment, etc. on my floor. The clutter begins. If I am somewhat busy the following week the clutter in my house grows. If I go away angain the next week and return with new papers, luggage, etc. the clutter starts to take on a life of its own. You can see how this could be a problem when I am on a project that keeps me travelling every or every other week. Needless to say, my house was a bit on the messy side last week.

I am the kind of person who likes things perfectly neat. At heart, I am both a minamilist and a neat freak (I blame my mother). However, in reality I am not very good at keeping things neat and uncluttered or at getting rid of stuff I don't need (I blame my father). While not a dirty kind of messy person I am in fact a fairly disorganized kind of messy person. I am not at all talented at keeping things neat and tidy.

Thus, the state of my house usually upsets me and stresses me out a bit because I am constantly wishing it were cleaner. And I feel like my life is in disorder because my house is. I need those Clean Sweep people to come and show me what's what. Hey, that's kind of funny. You'd think I would watch their show and try to learn something - but I've never actually seen an episode, just commercials.

Anyway, this weekend, I feel great. After staying up late Friday night at a friend's wedding reception party thing, I woke up on Saturday morning and started cleaning for hours with my roomate as I mentioned in my previous post. Yesterday after lunch a bunch of people from my church came over to see my house. I loved how clean it was and how excited everyone was for me and my place. After they left I just sat and basked in the cleanliness.

This morning I woke up to a clean room and kitchen and bathroom and living room.

I think I will be in a good mood all week just because of my house. Unfortunately next week I leave for a 2 week road trip for work. I wonder if I will be able to manage to keep the cycle from repeating. Maybe I should try motivating myself with a prize or something. Any ideas?

This is hilarious. Right now my roomate and I, who are both sitting in my living room, are talking to the same person on MSN. Ah technology, how much you've changed our lives.

today

I hate being assertive. Today I had to tell someone something that I really didn't want to. But there is the whole "the truth will set you free" thing so I decided, with roomate encouragement, that I should. I don't know why it is so hard for me to be open about some things with certain people because in a lot of aspects of my life I am such an open person.

Anyway, I spent today cleaning. I got up, watched the Match Game and ate some watermelon and then go down to some cleaning. Didn't stop until around 3:30 when my roomate and I decided to make some lunch. I love it when it's clean - I feel very happy.

This evening I went on a scavenger hunt with my youth group. It was so much fun - I totally didn't want to go because I was still in cleaning mode. But I knew I'd have fun if I went and I did.

Oh, and I found out that my only female first cousin is going to have a baby. This is big news for her, and a little on the surprising side.

being in shape is overrated right?

alternate title: why my gluteus maximus hurts so much

so, i got busy over the last few months and stopped going to the gym. i was semi active this summer but not enough to stay in decent shape. i started up my gym membership again this week (i usually cancel it in the summer) to rectify this situation. yes, the fact that i am going to mexico for a friend's wedding in december has something to do with it.

i've been having trouble getting motivated so i've decided to set the goal of 3 visits a week. a yoga class, a core strength class and one day to do my own thing. this past tuesday, i arrived early so i started off the visit with a short, hard run before the yoga class began. now i'd heard, through my gym's grapevine, that the instructor is one of the ones that takes it really seriously so i had sort of been avoiding her. i like the active yoga or pilatees styles since i'm not really up for practicing the religion of yoga. but she is the only instructor at my gym, so i decided to give her a try. sure enough, i arrived and she started explain how hatha yoga is different from yoga fit. but it didn't sound all that bad. she said it was about not pushing your body to do things it can't do, but instead enjoying yourself and relaxing and taking pleasure in it, all the while concentrating on your breathing and technique. she said since most of us were new, we'd start off with an easy class of all the good stuff. "nothing too hard." i was a bit disappointed since i actually wanted a real workout. she lied. it was extremely challenging, moreso than the yoga fit classes i've taken before. the poses were killer and i was retardedly sore the next day, which would be yeseterday. i will be going to that class again.

if i was going to continue with my plan, it meant that today i had to go to the core strength class. now this is my weakest point i'd have to say. which is why i picked that class to attend. i knew it would be hard. and, brilliant me, was right. i couldn't even do the tricep kickbacks because my legs were shaking too much for me to stand up from all the lunges, squats and planks. we did this horrible and terrible exercise to work our outer thighs that made me want to die. i will be going to that class again too.

so here i sit, content in my excessive soreness. remind me of how much this hurts next time i get "too busy" to stay in shape.

now, bed. the pain will really hit tomorrow. does anyone else understand that even though it hurts, it is so incredibly satisfying? or is it just me.

You killed my father. Prepare to die.

I was watching the show Criminal Minds tonight. My roomate all of the sudden realised that the main character Jason Gideon played by this man


Is none other than an old favourite of mine. In university I had a Mexican sombrero wearing bookend that I named after him.



Inigo Montoya himself.