Sunday Morning

I went to a yoga class lead by Sarla, she is so nice to take classes with. She is very open and has a great energy about her, and pushes you--but not too far. If you get a chance to take a lesson from her, you should. Next week she is doing a workshop for yoga and depression, not as a cure, but as a coping mechanism (Sarla is very open about her struggles with depression and how she lives with it).

...I am starting to reach a point in my life where I can't share many of my joys and goals with my family. I guess it might simply be a part of growing up. Parents say they want their children to be individuals, to be their own person, and no, they do not want to live their lives again through their offspring. Oh, but, how disappointed they are, when the life the kiddies decide to lead, is not the life they would have chosen.

Ah, well....

Green

So, my AC unit is out--again... and no repair man who comes to look can figure out why it keeps blowing fuses. Hence, our ac will only run for about 24 hrs at a time before it blows it's fuse.

And today is miserable. For the most part I feel sorry for our poor dogs cooped in this house-box while I work all these long days. But what has really started getting to me, is my envy of those who have air conditioning. It is walking out to my back door and hearing both of my neighbors units running.

Last night, as I lay with my windows cracked to relieve the stuffy-ness, I could hear the unit running next door and, for a moment, I could almost feel its frosty breeze... damnit.

Behold!

I went to Yoga last night, YEAH!!! And it was very good. I haven't been in a while, so today, I am super sore, but I feel good and sore.

I am also very bruised, and I don't know how or why, but I have been reading that it could be due to a or shortage of lack vitamin C and/or K. Right now, I look like I may be making an appearance on Jerry Springer soon.

Dude, the colors my skin can turn, it is something to behold.

Ready, Set...

Well, failed to go to yoga this morning. I did, however, succeed making a batch of carrot cake ice cream.

I had the worst coughing fits last night, so I chugged some TheraFlu cough medicine and passed out. I felt awful for missing this morning, BUT being a sleepy-ass has forced me to develop more of a home practice. I'm starting to wonder if I will ever kick this cough, and I am feeling a bit like I have let it (or let myself use it as an excuse to) put more than a few things on hold...

Fast starts Monday.

Ice Cream Dreams

I bought an ice cream maker Monday and today I got to try my hand at my first batch of vegan ice cream. I used a recipe I found online calling for soy yogurt. It's pretty good, but I only made a small batch, because I wasn't too sure how it was going to turn out. And while satisfying, it was missing...um, something.

THEN I found A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise. The recipe makes so much more sense (it calls for soy creamer and arrowroot to thicken) and I can hardly wait to just jump in and make tons of ice cream for my friends. Right now I am at work--dreaming about ice cream...

Lazy Girl

While I have stuck to the veganism, I have however slacked terribly with yoga. I have reasons for missing, but are they reasons, or excuses? I have been plagued with sinus problems and "The Cough", and this week I have been in my period. Yes, they are excuses. I have done some practicing at home, but I have to renew my commitment. So here I say, okay, no more 'reasons.' Get my ass together, go forth, and yoga.

Today, I missed because I am keeping Piper while Lisa is out of town, and she dropped her off this morning. While it is no Sarla class, it is for sure exercise to keep up with the three dogs. but Friday. and Sunday. I will go.


I have tentativly scheduled the fast to resume sometime after we have drinks with Caroline.

No Reason

I just really like this picture. It is wind-blown snow at sunset, while we (Brett and I) were driving home from Nashville.

the sacred cow

I was doing some reading and I found this quote, I thought it was an interesting idea as to why cows should be revered.

"The human infant is fed breast milk by its human mother for under three years. After weaning, the cow acts as the surrogate mother providing milk for the rest of the human life-through childhood, adult age and old age. Cow is verily the mother of the world. One would be filled with repugnance at the ungrateful idea of killing mother, whether surrogate mother or otherwise." --Bhishma

for caroline

I was sitting at the dining room table the other day, when I heard a racket outside the window. When I pulled back the blind, I saw a young bird-- adult feathers still coming in--sitting on the sill. Obviously a little freaked out, it had been learning to use it's wings and had barely made it to its new perch. It was breathing hard, slightly panicked, and after a second, it starting calling out. Cry after cry, looking around this way and that. I felt awful for it, it seemed like it was asking for mom, or anybody, but there was nobody to be found. After a while, it stopped crying, mustered up the courage and took off. Only a short distance, but it made it to a low lying tree limb. I almost gave a little cheer. Most creatures have to learn to walk, but if they stumble, they only have the distance between their head and feet to fall. But birds...wow. To jump from your safe, warm nest, into the world, relying on wings you have never tested before in your life.

Notes from Providence

melting snow, bicycles, cobblestone, and colonial era buildings. *sigh*

The Cough

It has become it's own entity. Almost everyone I know or have met this spring has endured some form of it. Last night I, I was in tears--I thought my head was going to explode with every fit, until Brett went and got me some serious cough medicine that knocked me unconscious (if he had just hit me over the head I wouldn't care.)

Today I still have a killer headache, and feel rather puny, but functional. However, I am always 'functional' when I am sick. I mean, I CAN push through work--unless I am on the verge of hospitalization--but I would rather not have to. I guess that is why it is so hard for me to call in sick to work...ever. Because I can be there, even if I am little more than a warm body.

As much as I like the extra income from my second job at Otherlands, I am wondering how much it's actual worth is. Being sick and not having the time to fully get better has really made think about this. If I go in at O-Lands in the morning (where calling in sick is nearly impossible), I feel I need to go to work at the tattoo shop that night, even when I feel exhausted--though, usually, if it is not busy THEY will tell me to go on home.

The extra income has also been the reason I have had the financial freedom to pay for yoga classes. However... I never have enough time or energy (the sick) to actually go. So what's the fricken' point?

And with the 16 hr days three days a week--I feel like I've started to look older.

I want your opinions.

(to the question: 'should I quit?', not 'do I look older?')


***Once I am over this crap (and my period) I am restarting the fast. I am quite ready in my head-- I just have to wait for my body to catch up. I have found sticking to a vegan diet isn't so hard (I have been vegetarian for over 12 years, and I am already lactose-intolerant)--and I think it is evening out my blood sugar. As in, other than the menstruation-induced cravings, I am not all that hungry. so, yeah!***

Bad Ideas

Around 8pm Monday (after a great yoga class by Yo) my body pretty much revolted against me. Not that I can blame it, I was not really fully recovered from The Cough, and I'm also in full-swing PMS. I started running a fever, and I thoroughly wished I could remove my head for all the pounding. Brett was very sweet and took me to get (veggie) sushi....the first true test of my veganism. I passed, but now without some (much)sighing. I'm going to give it another go, once I am all better and in more peak form. Like, when I am not craving chocolate like an crack addict.

Brett asked if I would ever look at him differently for eating meat now that my eating habits come from an ethical outlook. I don't believe that would happen. Right now, I can think of all the delicious food that I will never eat again. I just don't know if I could enjoy it, now matter how amazing tuna, and salmon,...and hushpuppies with tater sauce from Soul Fish...are. I would be thinking the whole time of how that egg made it from the chicken (and what that chicken had to endure), into the mayonnaise, to my mouth. And there goes any enjoyment of tarter sauce.

Now I am starting to get a bit more soapbox-y, but not about 'M-E-A-T', but about how as people we have become so disconnected from our food and how it is produced. We never know the who, how, and where of our food. And we eat it. put it in our bodies. I believe so many issues with large corporations and their insatiable greed would be tempered if we knew what we were buying. EXACTLY what we were buying and how it got to our hands. That goes for food and clothes and, well, just about everything these days. We would probably buy a lot less of what we do now if we understood what is sacrificed for "affordable" product.

Hinduism

So, all I did was put Hinduism as an interest of mine in my profile and now blogger keeps trying to encourage me to write in my "native Indian script." How sweet. (that little pop up window is also accompanied by a cute little cartoon 'aum' symbol.")

Day 1

I was so excited to start the fast this morning, and maybe through a placebo effect, I felt not as sick as I have been feeling the past week. On top of the lemonade (and not eating), you are also suposed to do this saline laxative in the morning, and be near a bathroom for the next 1-2 hours. First, ack!! I could only get two gulps down and now 2 hours later I feel instead a little consipated. Maybe I will try the tea.

I tried to not drink the lemonade right away, instead waitng until the time I normally eat. That didn't last. Before long I was gulping it down. You see, while waiting to move brown, I thought I would watch some TV. It was about 15 min, until my previous un-hunger turned into, "ooh, townhouse cracker pretzels!" Then a little later finding myself entertaining the idea of one of those frozen childrens' meals with the penguin. Man, they advertise food A LOT on tv. So, I got online, and right there on my myspace homepage there were frozen Sonic treats. Wow, food is everywhere--and so is effective advertising.

I guess I haven't done too bad, 1:15pm and I have only drank about 10oz. But for TEN DAYS--I am gonna need more lemonade.