Bizarre week!

First, it isn’t March but Apple that comes in like a Lion ~  I welcomed the new Apple OS to my Macbook Air.  Ohhhh I like it so far.  Getting used to scrolling is a little bit different but I like everything else, especially the upgraded mail.  That was one thing I always thought was a bit rudimentary for Apple ~ the Mac Mail.  I like the launchpad and I see we are moving closer and closer to having all software as aps.  It is sort of the beginning of the bridge between my Macbook Air and my iPad.  If you use an iPad, it is an easy transition.  If not, in about two minutes you will be off and running.

Sadly, my neighborhood Borders store started the “liquidation sale”.  I am one of the many people that contributed to the demise of Borders as I had the first generation of the Kindle then the first generation iPad.  I live in a cute 1930′s bungalow and just don’t have a lot of room for books galore so I immediately moved to an E reader.   I was going to Whole Foods last night and the parking lot was jam packed of everyone that was flooding into Borders so of course I followed.  I loaded my arms with things that I would enjoy (mostly craft magazines that you can’t get online).  Any time I was ever in the store the people were always wonderful and of course, it is a fun place to be!  I really only went in for gifts. With the unemployment rate in GA at 9.9%, I really hope all those people can find jobs soon.  I am putting an egg timer on Barnes and Noble next.  

Sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning I strained my knee.  Not same pain as when I torque it into ashtanga postures, but pain in walking.  I had two Rotary meetings on Monday and wearing heels that dad didn’t help.  By the end of the evening, I had my leg up with frozen peas packed all over it.  I repeated this process for the next few nights.  I am feeling much better now but it has been a full week without yoga.  My back hurts from sitting on my ass for so long instead of my normal evening routine of going to work out.  

It really pisses me off because I have finally gotten my legs crossed in this posture and am now working on picking them up as shown above.  Progress in yoga is slow and measured in millimeters but you don’t get any progress sitting on your TAIL!  Monday is my goal day back.  

Finally, goodies…  

Heat wave anyone???  Yea well AVOID the oven and the grill right now and try these:

Creamy Chilled Cucumber and Avocado Soup:

http://pinchmysalt.com/

I love this website ~ Nicole is OUTSTANDING and comes up with brilliant, simple, healthy choices!  A+++

AND

Watermelon Ganita

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/07/watermelon-granita/

Another great website for cooking, etc…  

OK, I just gave you tips for dinner and dessert ~ go and enjoy!!!

Stay cool~ The roofingryter!

This is Dolly.  I love her.  She is flippin’ adorable.  Can’t you hear Louis Armstrong belting out “HELLO DOLLY” when you see her!  I am so excited I almost do one of those happy chick squeak noises!!!  She is by Citroen and has a whopping two squirrels in the engine (aka not built for speed).  According to Wikipedia she was  ”designed to move the French peasantry on from horses and carts”.   It was designed for low cost, simplicity of use, versatility, reliability, and off-road driving. For this it had a light, easily serviceable engine, extremely soft long travel suspension (with adjustable ride height), high ground clearance, and for oversized loads a car-wide canvas sunroof.”  I’m crazy about her!

Sadly, she does not feel the same about me. 

In fact she would probably call me a krass, ignorant American.  Seriously.   Yesterday morning she showed me how she feels about me!

I have only driven her one time and waited all week to take her out this weekend.  The first time I drove her, I had trouble getting her into first gear.  Other gears, no problem but it is a little harder to feel where the gears are and I don’t want to try to force her into gear so I decided that until I have a little more experience, I would take her out around 7 – 830am on the weekends when fewer people are on the road.  

So at 7am I moved my other car, opened the gate and pulled Dolly out of my garage (yes my garage is inside the gate and my regular car sits outside the gate).  I made it up the “big hill” on my street and got to my first intersection and my first stall.  I cranked her up again and got rolling.  My goal was to make it about four miles on back roads to meet my parents for breakfast.  I was rolling along nicely with the ac (the little red panel below the front window opens and allows mother nature to cool you!) blowing through my hair and then came the big issue.  I was at a four way stop, on a hill and she stalled.  I cranked her and she wouldn’t start.  This happened again and again.  Finally, I called my father.  He was about .75 miles away and drove over.  The initial goal was to pull her to the side.  I thought the battery was dead but she would turn over.  Finally I did it one more time and sure enough she cranked up and I was able to make it to breakfast.

That is where I got a stern “talking to”.  My father, who taught me many years ago how to drive a stick shift, explained in “tender” words about flooding an engine.  Oops.  Then we had the discussion of “if she stalls, keep her in gear, roll a bit the take my foot off the clutch and give her gas”.  This was like telling me an alien just appeared.  My very sophisticated reaction was of course “huh”?  

I had a stick shift for years.  I purchased it in the late ’80s.  I have always owned new or newer Toyota or Volvo products.  I have only one time been stuck and am a zealous “take my car in for service” person so I never do get stuck.  This means I have zero experience at handling a car that requires an experienced DRIVER not gear shifter.  I have an M on my license and thought that gave me more insight into listening to the car, using the choke, etc but in reality, I totally sucked with Dolly.  

Needless to say, on the way home, more cars were on the road and I talked to her even more than I did on the way to breakfast.  We stalled out four times and I had a car on my bumper for a considerable amount of the drive.  I took my dad’s advise and only had to crank her one more time.  Finally she stalled up my driveway so I gave her a rest before driving her around a cul de sac and using that momentum to get up my driveway.  Dear Dolly is resting safely in my garage again.  Safe from me!  I think next drive I need to take an experience “driver” out with me to offer a little more guidance.  My relationship with Dolly is rocky right now.  I adore her and need to learn to treat her well.  

After breakfast today (separate post I will add regarding my troubles driving the new old car, Dolly) I took Max for a walk to the Morningside Market.  The closer I got to the market, the more people I saw leaving with armfuls of Sunflowers.  No one has a sneer on their face when walking around with sunflowers!  I love Sunflowers.  It is a tight race between Sunflowers and the Peony for my favorite flower but nothing says summer like the Sunflower.  First they are HUGE and bright and are just happy flowers!  Along with the flowers I was able to get a preposterous amount of blueberries (yet another one of my favorite things), cucumbers and yellow squash.  

I don’t take enough time to walk my border collie to the organic market.  I don’t buy enough sunflowers.  And I certainly don’t get to do these favorite things often.  It has been a very good day!  

It might be time to evaluate.  

I’m on the flight to my conference and it is a 3.5 hr flight.  Since I leave out of Atlanta, it is about a 25 minute window between when they shut the door and when we can use our electronic devices.  I used to read during this time however, I am not allowed to us my Ipad and my currently library of everything from books to newspapers to magazines is on it so no reading.  So I bring my knitting with me.  I just learned a technique called entrelac and I stink at it.  No really.  BIG time.  Glad I don’t have to make my own clothing.  I would be very cold…

Any way as soon as it is possible I whip out my computer and work on catching up with work and rotary items.  Then the in flight movie starts and they are serving lunch and I cant put my laptop on the serving trey so I watch the movie and eat and relax.  Then I’m done eating and decided, I don’t need to do any more right now, I can HAVE more free time.

That is it.  More free time.  Less guilt about it.  

How do I successfully implement that strategy????  

I’m tired.  My brain has been on full overload.  I have spent the past few weeks at work churning through a lot of very important things and doing a lot of paperwork.  My job has a few hard and fast deadlines for BIG things, (year end financials, monthly financials, LOC renewal, insurance renewals, etc) and I have completed one of these and have until June 30 to complete another.

Meanwhile it is Rotary time.  Our year begins on July 1 and I am cleaning up the ends of one job and doing a LOT of prep work for a new role that we have redefined.  My new role (outside of the title) will be to begin a full scale program of member engagement.  It is very exciting but will be the first year of taking an “idea” or a “feeling” and putting measurable results behind it.  I haven’t finished all the details but plan on doing that on my plane ride out on Monday and mulling about it for a day or two more then sending out all the details to the team before our kick off meeting.  

 The annual Women in Business conference is next week.  One full week away from the office however the opportunties are fantastic and I am excited about it!

And then there are the things that suffer when I am so overwhelmed but I am trying hard to counterbalance.  I will enjoy a Mysore class today and keep working hard on getting my feet OFF the ground (isn’t it funny my goal is to NOT have my feet grounded).  Then I carved out two hours to go to knitting class and learn entrelac (knitting that looks woven but is not)  (no this is not mine as I have just learned and have spent most of my time while practicing ripping out what I am working on).  It was a great learning experience and that was two whole hours that I didn’t spend obsessing or stressing on something.  AND then there is the table.  The damn bane of my existence!  You know the project you take on with great enthusiasm and then wham ~ it smacks you right in the head!    This is how it started and my big green egg rests inside of the hole.  This is mid progress  and yesterday I finally finished tiling.  Yea it weighs a LOT and thank GOD it is on wheels!  Today I will grout it and when I return next weekend I will seal it and then I have to have people help me MOVE it back THEN put the Big green egg BACK inside of it.  Going to work out to help with this…

Free time.  Time with my honey. We spend it during meal time, rest time, and me teaching him all about his new iPad (lately).  He makes me smile, helps lower my stress and makes me always wish that I had more free time with him.  After four years, I can still say that.  His schedule is insane this summer and I will be gone next week and then we have another 1.5 days overlap before he is gone until August.  ***sigh***  

Time to rush around for another day. Time to hope to get that to do list done, pack and then rush around in another city.  8)

It has been awhile since I have blogged.  I have to finish a lot of Rotary items to prep for the incoming year, have been working on a big DIY project and am busy at work so this is a brief catch up…

First, If you haven’t seen my little Peanut in her photo session, lets start here: www.leesiateh.com/slideshows/klein2  Beware, it is an extra cute slideshow.

Next I had a tiny victory and an embarrassing moment last night in mysore.  I did a repeat.  Sure enough in headstand, during a flailing moment, I kicked my instructor in the head.  I was so embarrassed I put a towel over my face.  I mean it isn’t as bad as say farting in class but Lori is SOOO nice and SOOO good to me and wham, I nail her in the head.    When am I going to learn that yoga is NOT a contact sport?  The good news is that I finally made some tiny movement forward in bhujapidasana and was able to cross my feet.  Of course they are still on the ground and that isn’t the posture, that is just me as a human starting to learn to get into the posture, then I have to learn to hold it here:

Then learn to balance my chin on the floor to here:

(and don’t these gentleman rock?) So I am a long way off but practice moves forward slowly so I appreciate these victory moments.  

Meanwhile on the DIY front, I have made progress on turning my wooden Big Green Egg table that is chipping and needs a total face lift into something better.  I am part way through tiling it to blend in with the stonework on my patio and in my fire pit.  Here is the before and during (and yes this has been a lot of work):

Soon. Soon. Soon.  

Sadly my agility school will be closing soon and I am not inclined to go back to my former school as they run the dogs outside in the heat.  That may be a good break for me though to use that night as some down time or time to work more on my bhujapidasana!

Meanwhile I will get about 18 hrs with my honey this weekend!  He will be home after six weeks for less than one day!  Fortunately, he will be back next week.  

That is all for now, just a brief update…  

I brought my new laptop with me last week on vacation because I have a pressing work issue that I have to work on.  I loved San Diego.  My particular favorite was Del Mar with Encinitas ~ how marvelous.  I played in the tidal pools and watched dogs play on the beach.  I saw the sun rise while I drove to class and had fellow yogis great me as if we have been friends for a long time.  I did work while I was away but, not enough.  Taking the time away let me see that I need to redo one item that I have been working on and that item along with an avalanche of other items have kicked my butt all week long.  

Additionally this is my first week in reducing my dosage of steriods.  The affects are apparent and immediate.  Last week in yoga, I woke up early and although I couldn’t do all the postures of the series, my joints were the most limber they have been in a long time.  I had the advantage of nine hours of sleep at night, didn’t have but one glass of wine, consumed a gallon of water a day and I was relaxed.  I still feel some of the relaxation but I have to accept the fact that the step down in dosage comes with an adjustment period.  It should take me about two weeks based on my history to see if this transition will work.  Until then, my knees ache, my fingers and wrists are tender but I am not tired as I would expect!  A very good sign.  I am hoping that I am on the road to recovery. 

And in that spirit I am taking the night off.  For the next two weeks I can’t do ashtanga five times a week.  I should probably only do three and with that, some good yard work and perhaps a bit of dog walking too.  Spring is here in Georgia and it is time for me to finish planting my herbs and vegetables, work on planting in the back yard and see how far I can toss the tennis ball to my border collie.  I have learned that if I want to do these things, I have to respect the healing process, so tonight is for knitting, watching some tv, doing a few house chores, and go to bed early.  

So good night and I hope that you too get some down time tonight.

After this morning’s yoga class I stopped along the 101 to take photos.  I had to tell myself in class today that yoga is NOT a contact sport.  Until this morning, I had never wiped out in headstand.  Today I wiped out and almost took Sharath and my neighbor with me.  MORTIFIED.  At least they weren’t live streaming the class where the camera would be on Sharath and my attempt to hit him again with my big bunny feet as I did yesterday.  He really is a kind, gracious and good man!  I am so glad that he has been so patient with me this week.  One more class left and it is sold out tomorrow so our mats will be an inch apart.  I pray that I can keep all my limbs on my own mat and no more hitting ANYONE with my feet.  Yoga is not a contact sport…

More beach photos…

As promised, more beach photos.

And the great thing is that I have my elbows bent and can upload these items with minimal arm movement since I am all kinds of sore today.  Day 2 of Ashtanga was fantastic again but wow I am tight!! I got to visit with my best friend today and enjoyed a nice big dinner.  The kind that will make me say “curse you cake” when I try to bind my arms around my body tomorrow at 6:30 am.  Of course that will occur after I do about 40 minutes of class and all those postures that are pure agony when you are as sore as I am.  

Until then, beach photos. 

(beach photo as requested, more to follow)

When the alarm went off at 5am today I sprung out of bed like a child on Christmas waiting to see the delights of the season.  I quickly showered, and got in my car. In my nervousness, proceeded to leave the hotel without my yoga mat. Fortunately my obsessive compulsive side built in time for bonehead moments like this and I went back to my room and got my gear.  As I drove from La Jolla to Encinitas, the sun was just rising over the mountains and even my rent a wreck seemed like a glorious beast of an automobile.  Life was grand.

I arrive way too early to the studio and sat for a bit before checking in.  As with all yoga studios, I had to fill out a waiver.  Here is where my anxiety set in.  I had no problem with the medical waiver but the “we have the right to photograph and use all images” struck me.  There is no shame for me in being new to Ashtanga.  It is an exciting learning process.  However having an image of say my rear up in the air, didn’t really warm my heart especially since I was in a group of happy buzzing 2% body fat yogis could have been an ad for Lululemon.  The water in Encinitas has some sort of beauty magic in it I swear!!  Then I started to look around me and it hit me that everyone seems to be friends here.  DUH ~ I was in a room of ashtanga INSTRUCTORS.  Many of these people have spent time in India together.  On one hand that excited me as I am inspired by the people around me in yoga on the other I wanted to run and hide in the bathroom.  The only thing that I had going for me was that I had the courage to spend a week with this group in order to better myself and my practice.  And at that moment, the courage was slipping away.  No one wants to be the bottom of the bell curve.

Upon reflection, I realize that this was like the first day of school for everyone except some people were already friends.  No one could sit still.  Everyone had on there best smiles and big happy eyes waiting for class to start.  Everyone was thrilled and honored to be in that room.  My anxiety was horribly misplaced. The only difference between all of us was the varying degree that we could get into the postures.  

The room had about sixty people in it.  It was packed to capacity.  When Sharath entered, it fell silent.  Then the magic happened.  Instantly everyone was perfectly lined up and Sharath lead us with the “OM”.  Sixty people filled every millimeter of space in that room with the sound of pure joy.  As a recovering Catholic, the best I can equate it to is during specific religious ceremonies (say in Notre Dame) a full choir including a bell choir, with great beauty and zealousness would sing in a way that would give you goosebumps.  Although I am new to Ashtanga, I am not new to yoga or other Eastern practices and that was the first moment I could comprehend the power and mysticism of the meaning of “OM”. I felt absolute peace.  All the inner chatter about “what if I can’t” dissolved.  As we continued into the opening chant I felt simultaneously uplifted and joyous.  I completely let go of any expectations and was totally in the moment.

A few observations about the class itself:  

1. It passed in a heartbeat.  Before I knew it the woman to my right had her foot above my head in the part of Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana where you move your leg to the side (no not kidding she was amazing and I am almost 5’8″)  Yes it was 1.5 hrs but the energy in the room was so upbeat we seemed to fly through the series.  

2. Navasana isn’t the only pose that Sharath likes to hold.  He is also enjoys strong Chaturanga Dandasanas and we stopped for each one and held.  My silly noodle excuse for arms loved that!!!   

3. The room was never warm or humid and I sweat more than I did in most of the five years of Birkram yoga.  I was drenched, sweat all over my mat, the floor, etc..  I didn’t notice it until I put my head down in Baddha Konasana and dumped water from my forehead into my feet.  I must have looked like a train wreck but felt great!! 

4. In class we always lay straight back for shavasana.  I always thought that was odd as showing the bottoms of your feet to someone is considered disrespectful by many cultures.  Now this could be just because I am an American learning Ashtanga in America where we don’t have a culture issue with feet.  About 1/4 of the class turned around for shavasana.  I thought that was a nice touch.  Sharath didn’t ask anyone to do it. It was simply done out of respect. 

5. Sharath is as nice and friendly and approachable as I was told.  He has a combination of demand for hard work and humor at the same time.  I understand why everyone was so excited to see him.

Of course tomorrow is day two.  I had several days of rest before day one but if it is 1/2 as great I will still be crazy thrilled!