Alas, day three of cabin fever.  The streets in my neighborhood are sheets of ice so although the main roads are passable, I can not safely get to them.

The good news is that I have been able to work remotely.  I was even able to get someone at the office to scan in more documents for me and email them to me so that I can (after this posting) continue to get work done.

I spent many years in Pennsylvania both as a child and as a college student.  One fond memory I have is fall.  In the fall my grandmother would get a preposterous supply of apples and make apple pies, apple dumplings and applesauce.  To this day, I will not purchase applesauce at any store.  The store version is cold, too sweet, has preservatives and is not lumpy.  I like my applesauce warm, I want to smell warm apples throughout the house.  Also home made, you keep a few lumps in it for good measure!  

I think that snow days are good days to go through the fridge and be creative in the kitchen.  So I took out all three varieties of apples that I had and decided to warm the house with the smell of applesauce. (also because it tastes delicious and I would like a nice warm bowl of it later!)

I found my little apple peeling machine and sure enough, after about 15 years of service, it quit so I did it all the old fashioned way.  I even got my grandmothers piggy cutting board out for good measure.  

The only things you add to good applesauce are apples, water (only a bit), sugar and nutmeg.  Some people add cinamon but I don't.  Also some add a bit of lemon juice to keep the color but I don't do that either.  

Meanwhile, the dogs are even board during this storm.  No camp, they slide when they try to play outside and I am online all day.  

Madison has been spying on the neighborhood from this bench below a window.  Every few hours she lets me know that some brave soul is walking down the street or about kids playing in the snow but otherwise, she is waiting just like the rest of us in Georgia to let the ice melt and get back to our routines.  

Until then I look forward to the warm smell of apples this afternoon and perhaps another hot bath this evening!

Be safe and stay warm!

http://goofyyogi.xanga.com/weblog/

Since I spend so much time on this blog on my yoga practice I thought it would be appropriate to start another blog all about my yoga practice.  

I barely have the holiday decorations down and the new year has already started on sort of an odd note.  

First a little sadness.  My neighbor, a wonderful gentleman that spent a career in public service, was a friend to everyone he met and was affectionately known as "the mayor of Virginia Highlands" passed away.  He watched out for me.  He called if a strange car was around for more than a day and always would touch base with me.  I met him within ten minutes of showing up with the new keys to my house and was comforted knowing that I had a guardian.  I will miss him terribly. 

My Ashtanga studio is less than two miles from my home.  I take odd backroads to and from the studio to avoid traffic lights.  After my fourth turn, I realized that I was being followed.  There is a sort of turn around on one of the streets in the neighborhood.  When I did a full circle they knew that I was onto them and at the next stop, I turned right and they turned left and pulled over.  A few months ago, we had a crime spree in the neighborhood where a car would block you in your drive way, rob you, steal your car and be gone within a minute.  This has made me very conscience of the cars around me so I was very unsettled.  I went to my honey's house and we traded cars for the night.  The next morning, a car matching the description of the one that followed me was involved in a robbery of the CVS in my neighborhood.  This really pisses me off.  No only for my safety but for the fact that I pay a ZILLION dollars in property taxes and WHY can't we do something about this?  

This was especially unsettling since my neighbor is gone.  I would have called him in this situation.  

But today is Sunday, a new week and sure enough we have the blizzard of 2011. 

This is within two hours of the snow starting.  Funny, my thoughts are on how I can be sure to log onto my work computer in case I don't have power and download the worksheets that I need to work on our financials.  The audit starts Thursday and I am so close to being done my work.  Hey, I can do these spreadsheets in my Uggs and jammys ~ as long as I have power and the internet is up and running!  

Yes, I am taking joy in the fact that it is beautiful outside.  I laughed my tailfeather's off when I watched little Peanut's reaction to snow.  She started to run towards it then when she realized it was cold and slick ran back inside.  She then ran out again to hide under a chair where there wasn't any snow.  She remained timid until she realized that packed snow was similar to ice and she loves ice cubes.  

This first week of the year has been both funny and sad.  Tomorrow when I wake up and the light is on the snow, it will be as if Atlanta is sleeping.  I can take a breath and see if I can slow the pace down a bit.  Watch the dogs play in the snow, work on the spreadsheets and breathe.  

2010, I'll call it my bridge year.  A bridge between 2009, the worst year of my life and 2011 a year that hope to be another good building year.  

First some great stuff that I enjoyed from 2010:

#1. Peanut.  

I opened my home to be a foster for Atlanta Pet Rescue.  I completely enjoyed my experience.  I wanted to do something for APR as I believe so much in the work they do.  They are a no kill shelter.  They rescue animals from terrible situations as well as death row from county and other organizations.  Peanut was my foster.  She was found by Dekalb county animal shelter at a bus station.  She was about to be put down by the county when APR rescued her.  She was so terrified that she climbed a fence to escape.  Cathy at APR asked me to foster her.  No problem.  She had clearly never been in a home before, was unaccustomed to NOT having to scavenge for food and was curious about everything.  Madison my other APR dog quickly bonded with her and they became inseparable. They are happy, playful and full of joy together.  She was a perfect addition to my Max and Madison happy family.

#2 My bathroom reno. 

It took awhile and I believe that I overpaid.  (hate that but)  The end result is crazy fantastic.  Let's face it, I am obsessed with renovating this house.  I have been building and rebuilding since two days BEFORE I actually moved into my home.  Each year I make more progress and this was one of the fundamental pieces.  I LOVE the soaker tub, the storage, the body sprays in the shower and the fact that opened it up to my master bedroom.  Every single choice was perfect.  It is still a small spaced but well done, high end and serene.

#3 Visiting Maine 

Mark and I got to do some travel this year but not as much as I would have like.  We enjoyed KY a few times, especially the weekend of the 4th with his friends and the spectacular marina and home that they have but I have a special place in my heart for Maine.  It is so serene, beautiful and every breath you take reminds you that your are with mother nature.  I went fishing for the first time and enjoyed learning how to hook more than just the trees in the area!  

#4 Entertainment I loved 

I spent a lot of time landscaping the deck and patio/firepit area that I built last year and to do it I had a team.  It was me and Sade, weekend after weekend, sweating it out.  Her album, Soldier of Love is magnificent.  One song in particular really struck me, Bring me Home.  The lyrics reminded me so much of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot.  I would repeat it over and over again and it reminded me of what I loved about college, studying and writing poetry.  It was a time that reminded me that my background is of a writer and I have abandoned that now for almost 15 years.  At some point I need to go back.  

Also I loved spending time reading Ape House and listening to Sara Gruen talk about her research with bonobos that inspired this book.  

#5 Iyengar and Ashtanga 

This was a hard year.  I have to learn to heal my adrenals and it finally took me out of Bikram yoga.  I learned to let go and embrace new things, Iyengar and Ashtanga.  I am getting stronger, discovering fears and learning to be patient with myself.  This is not an easy process but I am pleased with the tools that I have in these two styles of yoga.  I am grateful that I have found two great instructors both teach more than just postures but also history and tradition that goes with it. 

2010 had plenty of challenges.  The biggest one has been restoring myself to good health.  I hate that I am not on a low does steroid regimen to help with my adrenal problem.  It comes with the side effect of anxiety attacks thus, meds to counter that as well.  My joints ache horribly at times particularly when I am trying to get into an intermediate yoga posture.  Thankfully my thyroid levels are doing well but they are dependant on those adrenals working well.  

Work was another challenge.  We were attacked from all angles, poor economy, competition that slashed prices as well as stabbed me in the back.  Legal issues that drained any profit that I made down the drain.  Fortunately, we have a huge backlog for 2011 as well as a lot of good signs to show a turn around in our market.  

Also, I didn't get to escape with Mark where it was just us, exploring and having fun.  I love the everyday experience with Mark, we watched movies and cooked and took it easy for New Year's eve but I love most the us time when we escape somewhere for a few days and explore.  We did travel but didn't have any "us" time away.

I have some great hopes for 2011

#1 Work  Time to get it back to the level of profitability of a few years ago.

#2 Health I need to find a way to do what it takes to eat well, work out well, live well and ween off the adrenal medicine.  Adrenals can take 2 years to heal and I need to support myself enough to help that healing process move fast.  I am ambitious and am happy to do the hard work it takes as well as learning that it also takes down time to heal.  

#3 Next home construction project ~ redo the driveway and add an auto gate so that I can park my car in the garage. In my 1930's bungalow, the garage is in the backyard, inside the fence, through the very tight driveway.  The driveway is cracked, poorly sloped and curves in a strange way.  Time to help it.  If I have the money, it is also time to hire and architect to work with me to plan the HUGE renovation I would like to do in about three years.  I want to raise the roof line of the house and add a floor that is the entire footprint of the ground level.  This will also mean knocking down walls downstairs to accommodate a proper size staircase and perhaps knocking down another wall and expanding the kitchen.  I have an upstairs master bedroom but use it just for guests.  Whomever renovated it, did a piss poor job.  I would like to start the serious planning process for this. 

#4 Alaska with Mark Ohhhhhhhh need I say more?  ALASKA WITH MARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YESSSSSSSSSsssssssssssssssssssssssss

#5 Agility/Obedience/Good time with the dogs ~ no matter what, I always like to keep the dogs active, healthy and well behaved.  I am giving myself a break this year and taking off the wintertime from agility.  I am instead taking them to other obedience classes (redo for max new for peanut and maddy will just get extra one on one time with me).  Also this allows me to spend more time with my yoga classes.  Yoga and dog classes, a great thing!

I will certainly be modifying this list and there are other things on it that I am keeping to myself for now but welcome 2011!  

Happy NEW YEAR!  May it be filled with peace, joy, good health, love and prosperity for all of us!

I love NY but Jezzz is it an expensive city. So the notion of being stuck and not making it home on Christmas was NOT going to happen if I could prevent it!

By 11 am on the 24th Delta had changed me from the 9am flight on the 25th to the 11am flight as the cancelled the flights in anticipation of bad weather.  OK, that time frame would still work for my Christmas plans.  Then at 4pm the rescheduled me for a 4pm flight.  OH NO that wouldn't work and that is when I got on the phone with Delta.  They were so nice and did all that the could to try to get me out sooner.  We searched every flight leaving out of ANY of the three airports in the NY area that even connected to another city were totally oversold and unavailable.  UG.  Then as we were on the phone Delta cancelled 500 flights for Christmas.  The best they could do is reschedule me until the 26th at 7am.  Oh hell no.

Then I went to the Airtran website.  They have four seats available in business class for the 7am flight on the 25th to Atlanta.  So I whipped out that credit card and paid... $451 for that ONE WAY seat.  OUCH.  Of course I thought, after freezing my ass off in NY and now shelling out a lot of cash to get home, what are the odds that my ex husband was flying the plane?  

The airport was a nightmare, packed with really tired people that just wanted to try to get home.  I am glad I spent the money as I safely made it home and my ex was NOT flying the plane.  I drove straight to my honey's house and he made me a nice breakfast.  I went home to nap before all the Xmas festivities. 

If I had NOT made that flight, chances are good that I would still be in NY, freezing, missing my honey and family and friends on Xmas.  Best money I spent this year!  

An early happy new year to everyone!

OK, so a few years ago in order to reduce stress, I took a class on knitting. I know very ...quaint of me. Any way I completely sucked at it but enjoyed going into yarn stores as it is pure eye candy.

Finally last summer I got on my game and practiced then put it down again. But this fall, I picked it back up and made a great cashmere scarf for myself. Well that scarf had two mistakes in it but I left them. Then I started a ruffle scarf for a friend for Xmas, that one is perfect.

Now I am in NY taking care of my sister post op and I brought my knitting. I mean my job is to basically take care of the dogs and to sit around until she needs anything. So I finished a white wool scarf just in time as I am freezing my ass off up here. Now I am working on a cowl. It is looking very good and I am proud of myself.

I came up here on Monday to my sister having the flu and her Tuesday surgery date was postponed until Thursday. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE NY and I LOVE Uniqlo and went banannas in the store, so much so that I had to send myself some of my packiing home via usps so I can still carry on my luggage. But those two days were stressful for Beth as she was both sick and nervious and well, I wasn't doing what I came here to do. So now we can all relax as everything went well, she is in recovery mode and Today is pie day. My job is to make her an apple pie and work on my cowl.

This is my vacation, not exactly as I had planned this year but everyone is OK and I have talent in other areas as well!

Rock on it is time!  

Yep that is Christy Turlington doing Kukkutasana (rooster) pose.  She looks stunning (aside from the fact that she is a supermodel).  That is one of the poses in the ashtanga primary series.  As is Sleeping turtle pose, Supta Kurmasana: 

Well at my studio they break the ashtanga classes into the first half of the primary series then the intermediate is the full primary series.  Normally it takes about a year to go from no ashtanga to intermediate.  Well in a week and a half, I will start the full primary series which include the very cool Kukkutasana and Supta Kurmasana!  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.  I have done a very poor version of Supta Kurmasana one time but now, I will be practicing it and Kukkutasana on a regular basis.  I understand it will take time to properly learn these postures however this is one of the things that sort of threw me for a loop about my Bikram practice.  After 5.5 years, I was still not allowed to do the advanced series as you had to have gone to teacher training.  Well where I take Ashtanga and Iyengar, the instructors teach you as you are ready to learn postures.  I appreciate that.  So next year it is a rooster, sleeping turtle and feathered peacock goal for me!  

 (feathered peacock pincha mayurasana)

Yea, I am soooo flippin' excited...  

This weekend I planned on enjoying a unique yoga "class". Two instructors from the Iyengar studio that I enjoy needed volunteers to assist them in a dry run for an event in January where they will be assessed on teaching. One of the two instructors I adore, she is tough and talented. The other one I have only attended one of her classes but she has the gift of joy in her teaching. So I expected a great experience.

What I got was an eye opener.

They each had 50 minutes to teach 6 postures. I had no idea what postures but I was determined to do my best to be a good student and work hard at every single one of them. Certainly I bring this attitude to class however if I get tired etc., in class I will rest, hold, move slowly. Not during this. I didn't want to disrupt or detract from the tight time schedule.

One of the side effects that I still experience from the adrenal issues is joint pain. Now if I were the average person that got up and went through the course of a normal day, I would not experience pain. However I practice both Iyengar and Ashtanga, both demand binds and turns and torques that cause me a lot of pain at times. My steroid dosage is such that the only consistent place that I have pain that affects my range of motion is my right knee. After a hard class, I will also feel pain in my hips and feet but that doesn't stop me. It isn't an injury, it is pain and it goes away when the posture is over.

Sure enough both teachers chose postures that incorporated the Lotus position ~ an absolute knee killer for me. Yes I got into Lotus each time and yes it hurt.  After Matsya Asana (Fish Pose) I was really in rough shape. (see photo above of someone doing it while holding feet as we were doing it with arms folded above head on the ground)

But the time the second session rolled around I was uncomfortable. The second session was taught by the woman I said that brings joy to her teaching and I could not experience one ounce of it. As we were preparing for another long session of torquing that right knee into place my anxiety level peaked. I was sweating from the pain and the knowledge that I was going to do it again. I got into the posture and realized that I was on the verge of tears. When I released the posture and took a long exhale what I discovered was that I was still on the verge of tears. The pain was gone but I still wanted to cry.

The physical pain caused an emotional impression. I brought on a physical condition ~ adrenal stress ~ that was a result of all the shit I put myself through over the course of the past five years. The horrible excuse for a marriage and then the divorce, having to put down four dogs (they were between 14 - 16 when it was the time for each of them), the stress of moving in a down market, the stress associated with running a business in a down market, the long and horrific nightmare of my mother's illness that almost took my whole family down over the course of two years, the ups and downs of my current relationship, the erratic nature of my hypothyroidism and of course then there is life in general. It has been a very heavy load of shit, more than I see most people handle over the course of 20 years nonetheless five.

When I released my knee and still wanted to cry I don't think it was for the pain in that joint. I think it was me trying to release some of this load of emotional memory.

I have a goal over the next several months.

Now that isn't a posture that hurts my knee but it does represent something to me. It is an inversion that requires balance. My life has turned upside down and I am still trying to find the balance to heal my body and stay focused. When I can do that posture (it is new to me), I want to have it photographed and put it on the fridge, as wallpaper, etc.. It is a symbol that I can do it. My pain is ok and it is talking to me. Moving forward and balancing in spite of it might be what I need to heal my adrenals.

Another interesting week in the life of the female roofer.

Last week, as we were driving to KY I was knitting.  Now My Dr insists that I do things to remove stress so for awhile when I was unable to work out at all, I would knit.  I am not very good but have gotten a scarf or two that I am proud of.  I had such a rough week leading up to Thanksgiving that I brought my knitting for the drive.  Usually I knit and relax but not this time.  I could not get the idea of how I was stabbed in the back over the big bid out of my head and I began knitting the stitches so tight I could barely continue.  I decided it was time for me to make a move.

So Monday I called in to my office a vendor that I have not spoken with in seven years.  The same vendor that I think played the ultimate hand in having a big job taken from me.  I made it painful for him to be in my office and wanted to discuss our "relationship".  I was tough, intimidating and he did in a backhanded way, admit some things that I suspected.  I essentially threatened the relationship.  You see we have done a great job by them but they have not done a good job by us at ALL.  They have actively discriminated against us.  

By mid week the word was on the street that I had expressed my discomfort and I spoke to a mutual colleague about it.  He followed up with the vendor, reiterating that I was unhappy and that we could build a bridge and it was the correct thing to do.

By Thursday it appeared that we would be doing two large projects with this manufacuters product in Q1 of next year.  Like clockwork after the bid opening, I got a phone call denying that was the reason for the call but to invite me to lunch.  Now ever time I speak to this guy, my bullshit meter gets pegged.  Therefore I am hunker down and become the immovable object.  We set up a lunch for Monday.  By Friday I got cc:ed on an email telling me where and when lunch was.  Yep, same bullshit pattern of not listening to me or thinking to ask me at all.  So I countered with where my team would be and when.  

This week started with me wondering about my hand and ended with the realization that I have picked up a pair of aces.  Monday, I plan to use them.  I want something ~ I want for him to sweeten the pot on upcoming work.  He hasn't listened to me in seven years, lets see if he is finally smart enough to pay attention.

For some reason it is a mystery why I can not respond to comments on xanga when using my ipad so I am throwing this out there as if it is a new weblog. What do you think of the Canon EOS T2i? I am sort of curious as the cost has dropped so much and the whopping amount of megapixles for the $ seems ... tempting.

I canceled my trip to Equador and can probably sell my other Canon on Ebay and get something good out of it so I was toying of the idea seeing as I see it on crazy sale this holiday season.

My sister is a photographer and although I have not had the chance to really explore and learn I am going to Alaska this spring and I love taking photos of everything when I travel. Now understand I hate being photographed (except for that one notion that when I can do some of the very advanced yoga postures I do want a photo of that as proof) and don't take a lot of shots of people (you know mom dad stand in front of the blah blah blah so I can take your photo).

Therefore I have always been attracted to having good tools if I should ever have the occasion to use them. Around town, I keep a small camera in my bag but this is not that. This would replace the camera that I have to pack in order to travel.

What do you think????

Happy Holiday weekend!