Thanks Timmay!

Thanks (or no thanks) to Timmay! over at Take 2! I got sucked in to the freerice.com where you answer multiple choice word definitions to donate grains of rice. Although, since I'm flying solo... no slade family to back me up... my vocab level has peaked at 34 with 3020 grains of rice. Please remember that I'm a math teacher that spends a great deal of her free time on a yoga mat.

Amongst my favorite words were bifurcate and hemidemisemiquaver.

Any guesses as to the definitions?

Spell checker doesn't even believe that hemidemisemiquaver is a word. Do you see the red underlining too?

One of them means forked and the other means sixty-fourth note. I think you can figure out which is which.

Yoga Proof... it can be done anywhere

So yesterday I complained about my lack of yoga activity over the weekend while camping because of the cold... but then I remembered a 10 minute stretch of time on Friday that Grant captured on film... I mean CCD chip. We were walking along the beach at Sonoma Coast State Park and Grant got interested in some waves or rocks or something while we were waiting for the sunset. I got tired of walking around so I decided to "hang out" and just watch the waves. Grant noticed me and came by to see what I was up to, so I gave him a little show.

I have one yoga teacher who says that us westerners rush things too much. We jump into beginner yoga classes and try to do our best at some pretty intense and advanced poses. My teacher says that if we really want to get something out of poses like triangle (utthita trikonasana) we need to work on the basics for 3 to 5 years. One of those basic poses is squats, as shown below. But who wants to pay $15 a class to do 90 minutes of squats? It seems that yoga teachers have to encourage a variety of interesting poses because they need students. Thus we have one of the many yoga debates that needs to be worked out as we in the west figure out how the practice and business of yoga will look for us.One of the poses that is not basic, and is not something that I'm even close to doing fully yet is an arm balance called crane pose (bakasana). I got caught doing it on Friday, on the beach. In the full version of the pose, my arms would be straight and my knees/legs held easily at my sides. In this picture, I'm just struggling to find the balance point for my weight front to back.
My feet really are off the ground... if only a 1/2 inch... I couldn't hold the balance for very long on Friday although today I held it for a whopping 4 seconds!

Anyways, that's my proof... no excuses! Yoga can (and will) be practiced anywhere. It's just a matter of time until yoga weaves its way into you and places thoughts in your head. You'll catch yourself om-ing in the shower or at the ocean and even worse... you'll catch yourself breathing! Watch out!

First Day Back...

I am not your typical yoga student who has fancy yoga gear. I have not purchased the special props that you see in the yoga studios. My "block" that I use at home is some left over mini cell foam from when Grant and I carved out seats for our kayaks. I don't have special yoga blankets, instead I carefully fold some camping mats and some rugs we don't use anymore. I use a belt as a strap, and pillows serve as bolsters. Even my yoga mat is strange. I got it at a Long's Drug Store on a whim because I thought it was required to go to a public class. (did I really want to use a mat that had other people's feet on it?) and it is a pink-purple color and says "Bally's" in one corner. I have never seen another student's yoga mat the same color as mine.

I definitiely do not have any specifically designed for yoga yoga clothes or a cute strapy bag the perfect size for a rolled up yoga mat. I don't even roll up my mat anymore. A rolled up mat, when bungeed to my bike rack, sticks out too far and flops down over my red flashy light that hopefully keeps cars from running me over in the dark. So my mat gets folded into eighths and squished into a firm pile of stickiness and strapped down to my rack.

On Thursday when I got home from my yummy 2.25 hour Thanksgiving class, the mat stayed in its position, on my bike, ready for me today to go to my Monday night inversion class.

I felt slightly disappointed in myself for letting my mat just stay on my bike all weekend. (I mean for not practicing yoga all weekend... well, I was camping for most of the time) As expected, when I unfolded it at class, there were a ton of wrinkles in the mat from the folds and the bungee. I tried to smooth them out and all I could do was smile at my mat and acknowledge that this is just the way I am. Never quite fitting in with the other students and all of their cute yoga gear... and then not really wanting to anyways. Wanting to have a consistent yoga home practice, but then never quite able to keep it together for more than a couple of days at a time.

But yoga (and my mat) are forgiving. After a few downward facing dogs, my mat was stretched out and the wrinkles had all but disappeared. My body was happy again after feeling tight during the day. I smiled and welcomed myself back to yoga, just happy that I got myself to class tonight and it was a great class. After several warm-up type poses, we worked on headstand and shoulderstand variations as well as plow pose (which usually scares me). Yeah for using chairs as props to make things a little easier. (the explanation of this will have to come in another post)

This was also my first day back to school after a week long Thanksgiving break. By lunch my head was cloudy from too much energy usage. The kids were nice enough... if not relieved to be back to a structured routine. It will take me a couple of days to get back into the groove. 4 school weeks until Winter Break!

Past Hobbies

There must be a message in here somewhere.

A week ago Sunday, we attended a pre-Thanksgiving dinner celebration hosted by a new friend from my PYS yoga program. Many of her friends that we met at the dinner are connected by a common activity: rock climbing. The only difference is that they still do it on a very regular (at least once a week) basis and they all have memberships to the local climbing gym. One person had pictures on his phone of their most recent trip to Waco, TX. Much of it was bouldering.

On Thanksgiving, we were talking to another new friend about his emerging rock climbing hobby. He told us of how he is just starting to purchase some gear and is thinking about joining the gym close to where he works. We also talked about how there is a new gym opening soon about 1 mile from our neighborhood. (The friend lives about 4 blocks away) . And then we were like, we should make a date to go climbing! Wouldn't that be fun?

With all of this fresh in my head, on Friday, I was walking on a beach north of here in Sonoma and I noticed these rocks...and part of me just really wanted to climb around and see what it would feel like. Grant was off somewhere down the beach taking pictures and I just paused to look at the shape of the wall. Of course, I didn't do anything... for 3 not so good reasons... First, I was wearing chunky sandals. Second, the rock was rough, much much rougher than my yoga mat and I didn't feel like getting any scratches. Third, I let my mind and my self-conscious talk me out of it. But the thought was there and on Saturday, I knew that the thought was in Grant's mind also, because he challenged us to climb up this pile of rocks...

Thanksgiving Day Report

Just like all other bloggers out there, I must tell you about my Thanksgiving.

First: the place. Our dinner was held in the home that a friend of ours, Paul, is house-sitting for the next month. Before dinner, we sat outside and watched the sunset and we saw...Second: the people. Neither of us have any family out here and we would rather not travel during the busiest travel weekend of the year. So we either joyfully gather with friends or go camping for Thanksgiving. This year we did both, we just left for camping on Friday morning. But on Thursday night, 8 of us brought together by our hostess, our very dear friend...
ATE and ATE and DRANK and DRANK. Grant and I made biscuits and smashed root vegetables. Other people brought sweet potatoes, greens, cranberry sauce, salad, brussels sprouts, and pies. Everything was great, even the nibble of turkey that I tried... until I got tired and needed to go home so that we could rest before our cold camping trip.

(As always, click on the photos for more photos!)

Hopeful Waiting

I proudly wear this sweater...waiting for the snow that will never come to Oakland.
The days get darker and darker, earlier and earlier. Yet the temps stay about the same.
The cold just will not come.
No wind chill, no flurries, no snow days, no ice, no white outs, no salty roads, no slush, no sledding.
Just the snow flakes on an old sweater take me to memories of seasons from my youth, grounding me in a place where one month fades into another without much notice.
Except at the market...
New arrivals of oranges, persimmons, and apples. Goodbye avocados! We miss you already.
Hopeful waiting, but acting as if.

Tomorrow we will have dinner with some close friends and early Friday we will leave for a quick camping trip north to the Sonoma Coast. Hope you all enjoy your holiday where ever you are and who ever you're with.

Nature Fights Back

Saturday morning hike in SF's Land's End we ran into many fenced off trails that lead down to the ocean. This path in particular leads to a cliff overlooking the golden gate bridge. On this cliff there is a labyrinth made out of rocks. Grant and I planned to walk the labyrinth until we met this gate, protecting us from the oil that may have washed up onto the beach. Grant and I both took the photo opportunity seriously and then promptly went on our way.
I love spider webs, especially when there is a fresh dew clinging to the delicate threads. When processing this picture, a thought came to me. It is amazing and sad; the way in which humans and the rest of the natural world interact. We are always pushing in on nature. We're really good at rearranging and destroying. We have some good attempts at restoring, but nature is never the same again once humans get involved. Even when humans try to make it seem as if they never got involved in the first place, they still leave their mark. But deep down inside, nature has a resiliency, a desire to keep living and an ability to negotiate around us humans. Even when we do horrible things, like spill oil all over our precious bay, a spider can find a new home.While on the topic of human interaction with the world, the family over at No Impact Man just finished their year long project. As I read their reflections, I'm starting to question our living habits and impact. At home, the most we've done to reduce energy consumption is installing CFL's in the light fixtures and sending Grant to work during the day (at least $5 a month right there!). Our refrigerator got replaced over the summer which had a positive impact on our electricity bill. For fossil fuel consumption, we try to get the majority of our produce from local farms and we drive a biodiesel car. But what else can be [easily- without too much stress or inconvenience] done? The next thing I'm thinking about is cleaning products. Any ideas out there?

This Week I will be...

No teaching services will be provided until Monday November 26, 2007.

(picture was taken inside the bathroom of the "CPE on call room" at St. Francis Memorial Hospital where Grant works and has to spend the night about once a week)

Thursday Thank You's

Thank you to Oakland Unified School District for giving us a whole week off for Thanksgiving.

In previous years I have thought about how ridiculous it is to have a whole week off. Why not give us a long weekend and then let us out a week earlier in June?

Oh yeah, you're right. We have been in school for 12 weeks straight with only 1 3-day weekend. That is a long time with out a break. I guess we do need a whole week off.

Amazing Yoga Hours

Since starting the advanced studies program at PYS, I have been keeping track of the number of hours I've been practicing yoga at home, at school, or at public classes. As I have added up the hours, I have also been keeping track of the amount of money spent or earned.

*** BTW We're starting the "thank-yous" early with a big Thank You to Veteran's Day for giving me the day off from school! Only 4 school days left until a week long Thanksgiving Break! ***

The first category is the advanced studies yoga program which costs about $13 an hour (plus the expenses of books). The program is 200 hours over the course of a year. We are currently 42 hours into the program.

The second category is free yoga classes that I get to take because I'm in the advanced studies program. I usually count these as money I've earned paying back for the program. My goal is to take as many free classes as I can to pay back half the expense of the program.

The third category is yoga that I teach to my teenagers at school. On Tuesdays I do the poses with them and on Thursdays I'm walking around giving directions. But I count the whole 3 hours a week as time I am participating in yoga activities and am getting paid an excellent amount... $50 an hour... yikes!!

The fourth category is public yoga classes that I pay for because my favorite teacher is not a part of the advanced studies yoga program.

The fifth category is yoga practiced at home. This is free yoga and I am not doing nearly enough of it. My computer calendar has a reoccurring event on it for 6am yoga. I usually miss it by not getting up until 6:30am.

I keep all of this organized on excel. I put in formulas to add up all of the hours, add up all of the money and then divide. I'm not trying to impress anyone here... I'm just feeling amazed. Since September 1, I have logged in 96.5 hours of yoga and I am currently getting paid $6.99 per hour. Later this afternoon, I'll take another free class and then it'll be 98 hours = $7.04 per hour. (note: this is slightly inaccurate b/c I need to save some of the money I've earned teaching yoga for paying taxes which weren't taken out of my check... I'm not sure how much that should be)

Yikes I've just thought about other things I could explore... like how I could find the daily $ over the last two months or I could figure out how many hours I would need to break even or to make money from the program.

This is what happens when a math teacher gets into yoga. You can all laugh now.

Thanks for reading.

Life Upside Down

Finding room in our apartment for all of our favorite activities (and their associated storage needs) has been challenging. Many rooms have double purposes. The living room doubles as a photography developing and equipment storage area. The dinning room is like the basement work area. The table is the workbench, complete with stains from both cooking muffins and experimenting with alcohol backpacking stoves. The wall has piles of boxes, several old magazines that we're "saving," and a car jack set. The bedroom closet doubles for a garage, holding 2 kayaks (and all the gear), backpacking gear, suitcases, and a tiny space for clothes. Looking at our linen closet, only one shelf is devoted to sheets and laundry. The rest of the shelves hold a variety of tools. Some for the house, some for the bikes, and the rest for the car. Candles stored next to air filters next to bridesmaid dresses next to the vacuum next to the cooler next to a pile of board games.

So it is no surprise that finding an adequate space for my yoga practice can be a challenge. If I want floor space, I need to be in the living room, where I distract and get distracted by my lovely husband. If I need a wall to lean against, I need to be in the bedroom where I get even more distracted by my reflection in our mirrored closet doors.

Doing yoga in front of a mirror can be beneficial. In poses like warrior 1 or warrior 2, when I think that my knee and thigh are at 90 degree angles, it is nice to look over in the mirror and see what is actually going on and then make adjustments. I would move my body using the mirror and then try to remember how the pose felt so that I could recreate it on my own without the mirror.

Unfortunately, not all poses can be adequately critiqued using a mirror. Poses where weight is on your neck, such as bridge, headstand, or shoulderstand cannot be observed because it is dangerous to turn your neck. So in those situations, I use the "interval" mode on my camera. In this series of pictures below, I was trying to see how straight my body was in shoulderstand. When I look up at my feet, where should I be? A while back, when doing the pose I had Grant move my legs to where he thought was vertical. Last week I wanted to see if there was any change. The other two areas of focus were my shoulder position relative to my chest and neck and my pelvis/upper thigh area. To the average person, some of these shots may not seem to be so flattering. But to the yoga practitioner, I think there are lessons to be learned.

Setting up a support for my shoulders to rest on.

Laying down on the support, rolling legs up and over head, toes touch the floor before...

lifting legs up into...

Shoulderstand. Pelvis is tilted with legs to far forward/over head. I think I need more core strength to straighten that out. Shoulders look pretty good, but elbows are splayed. So I still need some opening in the shoulders so I can keep my elbows in a better and easier to support position.

Lowering down into a variation of plow pose where you try to lower your knees to your ears. Toes should be pointed but I can't reach the floor yet.


The internet seems a little slow today and I'm getting impatient with uploading pictures to blogger... so the rest are HERE. Enjoy.

Happy November

In my California, the seasons are marked with food. Even though it was in the 60-70's today and I was comfortably wearing thin yoga capris and a lightweight long sleeve shirt, it still felt like fall when I had my yummy slice of homemade pumpkin pie.









This was our second experience making pumpkin pie. The first was last weekend. You remember this post where Grant talked about us cooking for our church. Yes, it did feel a little strange when we were at Trader Joe's buying 16 cans of pumpkin and telling the cashier that no, we weren't making any pie.









Well, we couldn't keep up the act. We couldn't help ourselves. We had to make pie! And the second time was excellent. (the first time was alright, but don't always trust the baking instructions for a recipe that comes off the side of a can!)