Driste

L is for.....

LADIES' HOLIDAY!!!! Which is finally here!!! It's like that person who walks up behind you when you're gossipping about them. It just needed to be mentioned. It needed to make an entrance. So, I apologize for worrying anyone, and don't worry mom, I'm a-okay!

And I'm glad it's ladies' holiday today because since The Republican couched it with us last night, I would have had to go to the gym to practice. Also, we were out until almost midnight last night and I didn't eat dinner until 10 p.m. Neither of which are conducive to a 5 a.m. ashtanga practice.

So now I can relax and take a few mornings off to rest, rejuvenate, and SLEEP IN!

Thursday is the Gridlock Challenge with Kathy, and I need all the rest I can get so I can be at my best. And lay the Smack Down on her. However, I just tried to find the page, and it looks like it's not working. So maybe we'll have to arm wrestle and call it even or something.

System Failure

Just realized......

Day 3 of what should be Ladies' Holiday (at least according to my Pill).

And still no Ladies' Holiday.

Now entering month two of amenorrhea.

I'm too young for menopause.

Perhaps I should take a fourth preg-O test. Or make yet another doctor's appointment. Maybe they'll give me another ultrasound. It is kind of fun staring at that screen and trying to figure out what the heck one's looking at.

Me: "That's my kidney? Really? How can you tell?"

I am experiencing mild discomfort in my abdominal area. Could be cramps, or perhaps it is only that butter croissant I had at breakfast. Butter equals "no bueno" when one is lactarded, but I continue to ignore that. Call me ignorant. Call me stupid. Call me late for my ladies' holiday. Just don't call me late for breakfast.

SHOES

Okay, so here's the truth. The reason I decided to wear my wedding shoes in Yellow's wedding instead of buying gold strappy shoes is because I found THESE shoes. And I'm obsessed with them. And I'm wearing them right now.

My feet are in shock as they have not seen the inside of a shoe (besides hiking shoes and flip-flops) in I don't know how long and neither do they. But every so often, even the lowest maintenance non-shoe wearers such as myself have to splurge on a pair of show-stopping, outstanding heels.

When I woke up this morning, I had been dreaming that I was sick. I was lying on the couch, and my mom was bringing me chicken soup, Nana's soup, Jell-o, 7Up, and soda crackers: all the foods she would feed me when I was sick as a little girl. My alarm went off, and I felt sick. I made it to my mat (somehow), got through standing, then went right into Savasana where I promptly fell asleep. I felt a little guilty not pushing myself through primary, but I can't afford to get sick right now. Have to be at optimal health in order to help Yellow orchestrate this weekend's events. I O.D.'d on Vitamin C before I left, drank a litre of water, and now I'm feeling much better. Must remember to pick up Airborn on the way home this evening.

We have an event here at the winery after work: a mixer of sorts for all tasting room and industry staff in the area, and it should be great fun. All wineries are bringing wine from their cellars, and we're pouring our single vineyard Pinots, which will be released Sept 1st and which are FABULOUS. My only reservation for this evening is that Sara (our winery caterer) will be making her famous bacon-wrapped almond-stuffed dates. Those are going to be difficult to ignore, but I'll just think of little piggies and slaughterhouses and RESIST TEMPTATION! Ahimsa. The Republican is coming up from Santa Barbara to surprise everyone (he used to work here before moving down south), so we'll do dinner after.

In other work-related news, we're making a dry saignee rose' of Syrah! I'm so excited because I love dry rose's, and PINK WINE IS THE SH*T as long as it isn't white zinfandel. I'm heading up the label design, as our black Bishop's Peak label just won't cut it for lovely, playful, pink rose'.

bees' knees again.

I'm beginning to wonder if my knees will ever be the same. Will they ever heal? Will they continue to be a grievance and a nuisance and a hindrance throughout my lifetime of yoga practice? Will i ever sit in padmasana again without the fear and/or certainty of reinjury????

Patience, grasshopper.

But you have to admit.... it's been a while.

I'm confident that my left knee will get there soon. I feel no aches on that side throughout my practice or any time after. But I told myself in June that I would give both knees until at least December before I attempt padmasana or half padmasana for any pose. I've learned my lesson. Just when you think you've healed, that's when you reinjure. And that's the most frustrating feeling in the world.

That's life. We take a few steps to test the water, we gain confidence, we gain our footing, we skip joyously, we revel in our abilities, and then..... with a POP.... they're stripped from us. Just like that.

I opted for a change of scenery this morning and practiced at the gym instead of in my living room. Sometimes that's all I need to jumpstart my motivation. Looking back now, hours later, I realize I skipped Utkatasana. Oof. I built some nice heat this morning, had to roll out the mysore rug even before the Prasaritas. C was a bit painful, my shoulders protested and I could just barely touch the floor with my palms facing outward on the 5th breath. I'd been making contact on the 2nd or 3rd breath with palms facing eachoter before my vacations, so I can definitely feel the regression that week away brought to my practice. Also, my strength in vinyasas and arm balances faltered quite a bit this morning. The vinyasa out of Bhujapidasana was lack-luster, with a fairly strong tittibasana followed by a terrible attempt at Bakasana, and a step back to chaturanga instead of the usual jump/float. My legs weren't quite up on my shoulders in Kurmasana, but still managed to touch sternum to the floor and lift my feet off the ground for a few breaths. Supta Kurmasana did not feel very deep at all. I'm sure I looked more like a squashed turtle than a reclined turtle. Backbends were more of a chore than a release this morning, and dropbacks left me extremely winded.

None of this mattered to me. Starting a fresh week felt like returning home after a long journey away. Of course, now that I can devote myself to my daily practice, ladies' holiday is scheduled to start today or tomorrow. Maybe, just maybe, I'll skip it like I did last month.

While a small part of me is thrilled that I skipped last month's cycle and hopes this will be a regular occurence (regular irregularity?), a much larger part is alarmed, concerned, and unhappy. Bulimic and anorexic gymnasts have amenorrhea. Marathon runners and Triathletes who have 5% body fat have amenorrhea. I should not, since I eat plenty, take lots of supplements to make up for the meat I'm not eating, don't over-exercise, and do not have extremely low body fat. So, if I skip again this month, you can bet I'll be making yet another doctor's appointment. 

I've been an insurance company's worst nightmare these past few months. What would I do if I was like millions of other americans and was going through all of this without health insurance? American healthcare. Totally F-ed up. Even with insurance, I've met my co-payment deductible ($250) in just 2 short months, and have paid just over $300 in lab and diagnostic fees. And that's just the 20% I'm obligated to pay. My health insurance pays for the remaining 80%.

I've given up on gold shoes. I've decided to wear my wedding shoes, which are ivory like the other bridesmaids' shoes.

They are lovely shoes, just a tiny bit scuffed up from my big day. And this way I can save a few bucks and maybe buy a pair of jeans or a new outfit for the rehearsal dinner or something.

And I wish more than anything else in the world that I could hop on a plane and fly to Portland to give Yellow a big big hug and help her destress and help her get ready for her drive down to California to get MARRIED!

Here are Yellow and her sweetie right after he proposed at the Grand Canyon.

Hilarious side-story here. Yellow's sweetie was down on one knee proposing, Yellow said yes, kiss kiss, so excited..... then a man popped out of the bushes with a camera, said he'd been taking pictures of the views, and upon realizing what her sweetie was up to, he took some shots of them but didn't want to disturb them. Took down their address, sent them copies of the photos he took!

Wanted: Shoes

Not just any shoes. I'm looking for show-stopping, gold, fabulous shoes. For Yellow's wedding. As I mentioned, her gown is gold and eggplant. We're wearing ivory, with eggplant pashminas. But shoes! I don't want ivory shoes, because the ceremony is in a little redwood grove and ivory shoes would just get ruined. So I'm trying to find some fun, funky gold shoes. Strappy, not strappy, whatever.

San Luis Obispo SUCKS for shoe shopping. Any shopping, really. Which is usually just fine with me, as I'm not much of a clothes-horse/shopper. Not really my bag. Speaking of which, I need a bag, too! Or clutch, or purse, or whatever you call it....

We have one department store. ONE. Gottschalks. Besides that, we have a few great boutiques, but the shoe selection is RIDICULOUS. So I'm haunting all these websites, trying to find great shoes.... now I'm out of websites. Ladies (and fashion-minded gents), I NEED YOUR HELP! I need some great websites. Here's the ones I've tried: Anthropologie, Nordstroms, Urban Outfitters, Macys, Amazon (I got lost in the selection and gave up). Here's what my dress looks like:

Now, help a sista out!

I see London, I see France....

Actually, I've never seen London or France. I have seen mountains. The Pioneer Mountains. And now you can too!

Don't I look smug? I soon wiped that shitty grin off my face within 5 minutes of climbing. Or the altitude wiped it off.

I use maps. Why can't he? *sigh* Men.

Okay, so it was beautiful. But painful. Oh so painful.

You can't hear me, but I'm cussing right here.

Can you tell? I can feel the burn. Please Note: Big Belly.

The Bench.

Us and The Bench.

Pioneer Cabin. Finally. Isn't it beautiful? Built in the 30's as an outpost for the blossoming cross country and downhill skiing trends in the area.

Bejeweled

I am pierced! I love my little stud (and I'm not talking about my husband, here). It's not as tiny as I would like to eventually have, but the piercer said they've had troubles with the tiny ones falling through the hole in the first few weeks. Not good. But it's still tiny enough that not many people at work have noticed it yet. I like to think that means it just looks natural, like it should be there or has been there already.

I was telling REW in an email that I'm a bit of a nose-smasher. When I have an itch, I smack the palm of my hand against my nose and smush it about. I have a small, squishy nose so a simple little scratch just doesn't suffice. So I'll have to stop the nose smashing for a bit and give the thing a chance to heal.

I DID wake up this morning on time, hopped out of bed, struggled to find undies, yoga pants and yoga top in the dark, and stood on my mat in Tadasana, toes wiggling in excitement. I'm back, baby! However, my practice is not. My knees are still bothering me, I felt a slight strain even in Janu Sirsasana A. I skipped B, C was okay, but not comfortable by any means. My hips have tightened up a bit. My wrists hurt through vinyasas and in Bhujapidasana. Stand ups were a joke. I dropped like a ton of bricks in dropbacks, not light or controlled. Need more Pilates.

Despite all of my body's complaints, I was happy as a clam, knowing better days are ahead. I spent a long time in Padmasana (modified for knee injuries), just soaking it in and breathing.

And I love looking down my nose and seeing a little sparkle.

a.m. or p.m.

Can't seem to get those two straight. Set my alarm for 5 last night, turns out I set it for 5 P.M.. So I woke up at 7 A.M., not even time for a sun salutation. First word out of the mouth was an expletive, which Tay says is not a good way to start the day. So maybe I can get in a practice this evening, but I doubt it. I just feel so wound up and frustrated that my routine has been completely annihilated. And I'm really not one of those routine freaks, really I'm not. Not like, "Thursdays I have a breakfast burrito at Buzz Cafe and thanks for asking, but I don't hike on Tuesdays...." Although I do know a few people like that. I think my practice is the only routine I have in my day. It's my anchor. It grounds me. The rest of my life just flies around me like a hurricane, papers everywhere, clothes everywhere, and a clock or two just ticking away the hours much too quickly. I really need a 26 hour day.

In other news, REW pierced her nose. And I have wanted to pierce mine for years. And so, today, I'm gonna do it. And when my mom gets mad and asked me why I did it, I'm simply going to say "Because REW did it, and she's so cool." So there.

And I downloaded my Idaho pics on to my computer, and I was going to post them this morning. And then I took a closer look. I had some bloating going on. Y'all know I've been having stomach issues, well apparently I don't travel well. I look like a malnourished person with the distended stomach. Only well nourished, because I've never looked frail or anorexic a day in my life. So maybe I'll have to do some cropping in iPhoto and post pics from the chest up only. Or maybe I'll just say screw it and bare my belly with pride now that I've typed in this disclaimer.

Elbow Room

Home from Yellow's send-off weekend. It was a great time, and after all my feet-dragging and bitching last week, I have to say I'm so glad I went. Really my only complaints from the get-go were about the drive, and it actually wasn't all that bad! The Good gave me a whole bunch of This American Life episodes which she had downloaded and burned to CD. For those of you not familiar with NPR or this show, y'all are missing out. Absolute Brilliance, IMHO. I laughed and cried myself all the way to Tahoe and all the way back. And I didn't fall asleep at the wheel once. Amazing.

We were packed into a tiny studio-with-loft condo like sardines. Ten very headstrong, open, verbally unsuppressed women, four walls, one bathroom with a dysfunctional toilet.... all very comical. Now that I'm home, I'm thrilled to have some elbow room.

Friday night I rolled in at about 11 p.m. Yellow and the rest of her college friends hadn't yet arrived (they thought they'd be there at 6 p.m.) and they had the ONE KEY to the condo. Two of my high school comrades were waiting in the parking lot (they had been there since 6 p.m.) and seemed a little miffed, bored out of their minds, and not all that impressed with the night life in Truckee. Have no fear ladies..... I have screw-top wine.* We passed a couple of bottles back and forth between the three of us (with comments such as "come on man, you're f-in' up the rotation! puff puff give!") and reflected upon that moment's similarities to high school. Sitting in the car outside school dances or Disco Night at the Coconut Grove, swigging something, talking, laughing, shushing each other so as not to gain the attention of the security guard.... good times. By the time Yellow and the other girls showed up at 12, we were just a little sloppy.

The rest of the weekend was great, and it was so nice to get to know some of these girls a little better and catch up with those who I once knew so well. I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and possibly still a wee bit drunk on Saturday morning at 6, so tiptoed out the door, downstairs to the lobby for primary underneath the surveillance camera. Balancing poses were a challenge. Sunday morning, I led a one hour yoga session. I followed most of the standing series, dandasana, paschimottanasana A, purvottanasana, janu sirsasana A, marichyasana A and C, bakasana, bhujapidasana (just some fun arm balances to lighten the mood a bit), 3 navasanas, shoulder stand, halasana, matsyasana, and savasana. Some stuff I will take out, some stuff I'll need to add..... I do have to say..... tough to keep from panting out your directions at high altitude through sun salutations. I'll change a few things before the wedding yoga in 2 weeks, but it was good to get some feedback from the girls and get a little taste of what it's like. I had a few goof ups: "Put your right foot on your right shin" in trikonasana, that sort of thing. But we all just got a good laugh out of it.

So now I'm struggling to rediscover my routine. I miss my practice. The 5 a.m. alarm was completely ignored this morning, so hopefully I can get in a short practice before my pilates class this evening. Tomorrow I WILL get up.

It's 11 a.m. and I'm completely obsessing over what I'll make for dinner tonight. Think I'm hungry?

There and Back Again

And for my next trick....

I will disappear once again, whisked away by my trusty Honda off to Tahoe for a weekend of ESTROGEN!!!

Ahhh, bachelorette parties. But as bachelorette parties go, this one is a-okay in my book. A weekend at the cabin on donner lake, hiking, yoga (led by yours truly), wine, and food. No bars, no strippers, no shots, no dildos (well, no promises on that one).... good times will be had by all.

As I previously mentioned, Idaho was grand. I used to vacation there as a young'un, and it's even more fun now than it was then. What made it even better is that we were automatically linked in to this local community of Tay's childhood friends. (He grew up there, then moved away when he was 13. Most of his friends moved away and then moved back.) So while he was off mountainbiking with one guy, I was off mountainbiking with some other guy's girlfriend.

We celebrated our one year anniversary by going on a hike through the Pioneer mountains that consisted of two trails which met at Pioneer Cabin, a little shack built in 1938 for cross country skiers at 9600 ft. elevation. The views from the cabin were said to rival any views from the Alps. This was not just any hike. We had unknowingly began a death-march. We thought we were good hikers. We thought we were bad-asses. Frankly, this trail put us in our place. We climbed 4000 feet in elevation along a ridge on a trail so faint we wondered if we were going the right way. No switch-backs because apparently switch-backs are for pussies. When we started descending into a valley, I trembled in excitement. Or was it exhaustion? The cabin must be just up ahead, I thought. No such luck. Taylor pointed to the trail hundreds of feet above us. "I think we have to climb over that mountain first." Well, that one, and another one, and then finally.... THE CABIN!!!

We realized our error when we descended the Corral Creek trail, which was wide, pristine, and loaded with switch-backs. No one does the loop. People climb Corral Creek Trail and then turn around and walk back down the way they came. If they do hike the loop, they hike up Corral Creek trail and down what we came up.

When we reached our hotel, we were exhausted. We stayed here for the night, courtesy of Mom and Dad (thanks, guys!). We got to our room, and there were roses from Tay, a bottle of French Champagne from my boss, and a huge gift basket from the folks (thanks again, guys!). We had a great dinner at Felix's in Ketchum, then back to the hotel to collapse in an exhausted heap.

I'm glad I left Ketchum when I did. Hiking, biking, kayaking..... all at high altitude..... if I had stayed, I would have died of exhaustion. Or my feet may have fallen off. One or the other.