listersgirl: (anime me)
Hello! I can read again! Everybody do a little dance!

...

Excellent. So let me tell you what I did during my week of not posting:

  • On Saturday (both Saturdays, actually, but it's the first one I'm talking about here) I went to yoga and somehow managed to collapse my thumb during sun salutations. When you suddenly can't use it you realize exactly how useful a thumb really is.
  • Sunday [livejournal.com profile] vestra and I walked into town to see Bright Young Things. It took us an hour and a half, and saying that we were happy to sit down in the movie theatre is, perhaps, an understatement. Also, the movie was great.
  • We went to IKEA and I bought another bookcase, which we only barely managed to fit into [livejournal.com profile] mistress_wanda's car. I also managed to pick the communist cart*, which necessitated steering at a very bizarre angle, and in the epic battle between the cart, the bookcase and my hand, my hand was definitely the loser. Ouch.
  • I went to a Blue Jays game (vs. the Yankees) with [livejournal.com profile] dramaqueen_23, [livejournal.com profile] starfishchick and S's co-worker, who has "a guy" and got us great tickets. This is not only the only baseball game of any sort (live or televised) I've ever seen, but my first professional sports event, and probably only the fourth live sporting event I've been to, the others being one softball game (that I mostly remember because the boy I had a crush on was playing) and a few cricket games. It was fun! And [livejournal.com profile] starfishchick didn't smack me for asking too many stupid questions. The announcer amused me because he kept saying "Orlandooooooooooooooo Hudson", and there were some squeeing teenage girls that were extremely loud in their admiration of someone we nicknamed "Junior", because he looked about 14**. Plus, we won. Sweet.
  • I finally watched the second part of Lost. Whose stupid idea was it to split them up like that? Still pretty much hooked, though.
  • I made myself stay up past midnight on Friday so that I could read. It was very exciting. I also tried numerous times to post here over the weekend, but [livejournal.com profile] vestra's computer hates me and kept shutting down IE every time I tried to access the update page.


*Very left-leaning. Seriously, this cart wouldn't do anything except go left.
**Okay, I feel very old now. There's like three people on that team who aren't younger than me. How does this happen?


...

In more recent news, [livejournal.com profile] vestra and I have decided to become Runners. You can stop laughing now. [livejournal.com profile] vestra has a head start - she did some running this summer with [livejournal.com profile] mistress_wanda - but we've signed up for one of those "Learn to Run" clinics offered by the Running Room, and we're going to attempt to not fall over wheezing on our first night, which is tonight. I don't usually exercise outside, so I'm not entirely sure what to wear, especially since we've apparently skipped right from humidity index to windchill factor (hello, what happened to fall?!), but I guess if I'm underdressed I'll figure that out when my legs turn blue.

Anyway, if you're in the Beaches, and you see two people running along looking like complete dorks, please do stop and say hello.
listersgirl: (Default)
Oh, hello, I love long weekends. There should be more! In fact, every weekend should be a three-day weekend. Because, you know, I actually did everything I had to do and everything I wanted to do, and was a big social bunny on top of that. In fact, [livejournal.com profile] sarcasma and [livejournal.com profile] shoefiend are probably sick of me, since I saw them Saturday, Sunday and Monday. :)

Quick weekend update )

And then on Monday night great hordes of people came over (aka [livejournal.com profile] starfishchick, [livejournal.com profile] circe_tigana, [livejournal.com profile] sarcasma, [livejournal.com profile] sanity_clause, [livejournal.com profile] shoefiend, and [livejournal.com profile] vestra and [livejournal.com profile] vestra's friend S. (who does not have an LJ yet, although I think we may have badgered her into it), back from Cobourg for the night), and we sat in the ridiculous heat and tried on all the fabulous samples we ordered from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Between the 45 samples we ordered, and the 15 freebies they sent, we were definitely running out of tester body parts by the end of the evening. When you've been reduced to yogic contortions in order to smell the back of your left ankle, you know you're done. However, we all smell fabulous now, and I think everyone ended up with a wish list of other things to try. Also, a book, as I made everyone borrow things from my bookshelves.

I'll post a complete review of my BPAL scents, but for now, let me just say that Puck, in the immortal words of Circe, "smells like dog shit hiding in the grass of the park after a rain". If anyone wants to experience this for themselves, we have an imp to offer up. :)
listersgirl: (jack sword - teh_indy)
Why Thai Yoga Massage Is The Ultimate Lazy Person Indulgence

A study in sloth


Ah, stretching. So good for you, yet so much work. I mean, you have to put your arms up, and then you have to hold them there! With no help! It's unconscionable. I'm sure you'll agree that this is far too much effort for any reasonable person, especially for something that is supposed to be relaxing.

Allow me, then, to introduce you to the wonders of Thai yoga massage. If you've ever sat in a yoga class thinking, "Wow, this would be really great if only I didn't have to move my legs all by myself", this is perfect for you. It requires so little energy, you don't even have to get undressed - the massaging is all done through your clothes. In fact, you just lie there, as limp as humanly possible, while the masseuse manipulates your body into complicated postures, even providing pillows at the appropriate time, so that there is never a chance you might not feel like you're still in bed, only with the side benefit of getting your muscles well and truly stretched.

I don't know how beneficial this would be to someone with intensely tight muscles, but I do know that I was in such a state of relaxation when it was over that I literally couldn't lift myself off the massage pad for a good five minutes, and it was only Bento the cat wandering into arms length that got me to attempt movement.

So I say thank you to my lovely friend Shelley for providing me with such a wonderful Sunday afternoon (and thank you to her boyfriend for gifting her with the training course in the first place).
listersgirl: (Default)
Just a little clarification: Yoga? Hard. I take back everything I've ever said about how relaxing and inspiring the classes are, how energetic yet calm I feel afterward. I was lying, even if I didn't know it at the time. Completely fabricating the entire thing.

How did I come to this realization? Well, my happy little intro class ended in August, so I decided to take another class, because that one just felt so good. I thought I was taking another intro class - something to ease me into the practice, something where it was all about breathing, and it didn't really matter that I looked like an twisted tree stump for most of the class. Sadly, I signed up for the wrong day, and ended up in a class called Ashtanga Yoga for Beginners. Fine, I thought, I'm a beginner, and I wouldn't mind delving a little more deeply into the Ashtanga postures. No problem.

Problem. Three problems, actually: My first teacher appears to have been a bit of an anomaly among yoga teachers, most of whom want something from you other than just deeeep breeaaaathing; the "beginners" part of the title is somewhat inaccurate, since the class is really intended for people who are currently studying Ashtanga but want to make sure they're doing it correctly; and the postures, oddly enough, become much harder when you have to actually do them up to speed. Who knew.

I've only had two classes in this series, and I'm very much still enjoying it, but it's definitely been a bruise on my ego. Last night we worked on Surya Namaskara B, which managed to point out to me exactly how unmoving my shins want to be, how much my back is curved in daily life, how short my arms are, and how tight my hamstrings are, among other things. It was so sad - I felt like I was totally letting down the instructor, and I wanted to apologize every other minute. I actually nearly fell over at one point, as I was struggling to move my leg up between my hands from Downward Dog ("gracefully", my ass - it took both hands pulling it along). I definitely heard the teacher stifle a laugh as I attempted to balance myself while bending into a squat. I think I only redeemed myself because I was the only person in class who had heard of the psoas muscle. (I didn't mention that I thought it was spelled "soaz".)

I'm not giving up, though. I figure I made a fool of myself already, so it really can't get any worse. Right? RIGHT??
listersgirl: (Default)
Dude. Yoga is haaarrrrd. I've taken it before, many years ago, but it was always through the Y, or through my university gym. And a lot of the stretches that we do in bellydance are based on yoga moves, and I've never found them more than usually difficult. The yoga class I started last night, though, is at a proper studio, where yoga is more a way of life than an after work timewaster. According to my (very hot, which, sadly, was the first thing I noticed) teacher, it's all about breathing and being very aware of your breath. I have never breathed so deeply for so long in all my life. It was worse than an orchestra rehearsal.

Oh, and for some reason, as soon as we stood up and did the first stretch (which seriously was nothing more than your basic downward facing dog) my legs started shaking, and Did Not Stop the entire class. I'm sure everyone else could feel the floor moving from the force of my wobbling legs. What was with that, I ask? Maybe I was getting oxygen poisoning or something.

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