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November 29, 2004
Yay for yoga!
Good practice tonight. I spent the day today working on stuff that needed to be done: laundry, getting in touch with the person who's supposed to repair my dryer sometime this week (something's wrong with the timer and it doesn't shut off...so I can't put stuff in the dryer if I'm leaving the house and if I start my laundry later in the evening I have to get up in the middle of the night to turn the dryer off!), not to mention sleeping in a little and getting to stay in and listen to CBC Radio One for three whole hours! Later in the day I went and picked up a registered letter that's been waiting for me at the post office and then I went to a cafe and worked on an article proposal as well as my autobiographical essay for my Western application. I was there for a few hours and it was nice to feel like I was using my day off in a productive way for once.
I got home from the cafe around 4:45, spent a little while lounging around then made it to J's 6 o'clock level three. I almost talked myself into not going, because it was cold out and I didn't feel like going all the way downtown, but I knew I'd thank myself if I did go. Sure enough, I ended up having a good class. I thought that I was going to be sluggish, weak and stiff, but I acutally had a lovely practice that seemed way more effortless than usual. Didn't do anything too silly...except for exiting bhujapidasana when I slid down my arms, out of tittibasana and my bum landed with a big thud just as J was saying, "Now float back." I laughed and she laughed and said, "I guess that was kind of like floating Andrea...it's all relative!" I was ctually quite impressed with my supta kurmasana..I came the closest I've come to binding as I think I ever have (I can bind with an assist, but never, never on my own...I like to blame the fact that I have hips and relatively short arms for my height). I left practice feeling really mellow and energized. Had a nice chat with J, and was on my way to the grocery store and then home. I'm glad I went to class tonight...I was thrilled to discover that despite my shitty attendance record of late, all is not lost!
Posted by alegato at 11:43 PM | Comments (1)
November 28, 2004
One more thing...
Reading Mysore blogs and talking to Em and G about their planned return trip to Asia in the new year makes me want to go back so badly. Em and I were talking last night about how incredible it would be to all go together...even if it was just for a short time. I miss it. Maybe it's the cold weather, or the fact that it was now a little less than a year ago that we left, but I've suddenly been rebitten by the travelbug, and a jaunt to Mexico or Cuba just isn't going to cut it for me...I want Asia!
Posted by alegato at 8:02 PM | Comments (1)
Weekend Update
Not too much to say, and certainly nothing that's all too relevant to yoga. I got sent home from work again on Wednesday...it seems that "non-drowsy" cold medication is really "not-as-drowsy-as-nighttime-cold-medication" and apparently being mildly stoned on decongestant is reason enough to be sent back to bed! I was thankful to come home and rest some more. Felt a lot better by Thursday. Worked through the rest of the week and I have today and tomorrow off (as usual). Things at work are still unreasonably normal after last weekend's admittance...but...whatever.
Friday night I went out for an awesome vegan meal with A and T from work. At the end of the meal I saw that G had tried to call me a few times, I mentioned this to A and T and told them that surely he was calling me to ask me to go out and I swore up and down that I was staying in...got in touch with G, sure enough he wanted to go out..I had to work Saturday morning, said I'd go out until midnight....well, one thing led to another...drinks at Pistol with K and Y and then over to Vol with G, M and various other Appleby folk...poutine at Belle Province, and whoops...didn't get to bed until 3.
Saturday night proved rather similar..I was upset that I couldn't get tickets to the James Brown concert, but instead G and I went to dinner and then to see Finding Neverland (which was good, but not great, Johnny Depp did a wonderful job..he's so versatile). We ended up walking all the way home from the AMC (about an hour and a half walk)...got home, chatted with my mum (it was like, 11:30 at this point)..Em called me and told me everyone was at Pistol...twist my arm..after a shower and a quick costume change I made it to Pistol by 12:30, we remained there until close, and then went to Lafleur for poutine and tofu dogs. A, P and I made it home shortly after 4...I slept until 11. Needless to say I missed E's class this morning...but I'm planning on taking a class with some work people tomorrow morning at 10 at Sattva...
I went downtown to return a sweater this afternoon and ended up picking the new Rufus Wainwright CD, which I'm looking forward to listening to this evening (and I'm for sure going to the concert on December 11). I have a busy week ahead of me...have to work on a few things and I've made too many commitments to too many things that I can't get out of..(Monday: have to get my coat altered and get in touch with my landlord regarding the fact that my washing machine smells like burning when I use it, Tuesday: to go to Ottawa and protest Bush's arrival or attend J's jewelery vernissage?, Wednesday: staff meeting and A's birthday, Thursday: G's acapella concert, Friday and Saturday: so far no plans..I'm sure that will change, Sunday: staff dinner at Zenya (sushi) followed by karaoke (reward for making monthly goal in October, should be a blast! Phew...leaves me tonight and tomorrow to get stuff done...deadlines are starting to hang over my head. Ick).
So nothing entirely out of the ordinary, but an excessive amount of fun nonetheless. I'm getting into holday mode slowly but surely..spending this evening planning my menu. I'm really looking forward to staying in the city for Christmas. I'm going skiing for a few days between Christmas and New Year's, and then I'll be back in the city, along with all of my friends, for a proper New Year's..it all makes me feel so settled and so much less transitory than I did as a student. This is my home.
Posted by alegato at 6:29 PM | Comments (0)
November 24, 2004
Sicker
I'm actually sicker today than I was yesterday...yippee. I'm not sure how this happened seeing as I spent all day yesterday eating soup, drinking tea and lounging on the couch watching trashy television. I woke up this morning around 6, after a really horrible night's sleep (my nose was too congested and I was coughing), thought that I felt okay (more than anything I think I was just relieved that it was morning finally) and decided to go to work (okay, part of going to work was that I had to prove a point, but that's a whole other story). Was at work by 7:45, feeling not too bad. As the day continued though I felt ickier and ickier and finally they sent me home around 1. I went grocery shopping and to the pharmacy (stocked up on decongestant for the nighttime) and also to the video store. All I really felt like doing this afternoon was staying in bed and watching The Sopranos, but alas, they were out of the second season at Videotron, so I settled on Supersize Me and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I came home and tried to watch Supersize Me, but ended up just falling asleep repeatedly and having to rewind. Finally I gave up and just slept for a couple hours. Talked to a few people on the phone who all concluded that I sounded like death and shouldn't go to work tomorrow...I dunno, I'm gonna see how I feel.
I hate being sick. I rarely get sick, and when I do I'm usually able to beat it in a couple days...for some reason this one slipped by me. I've been loading up on vitamin C and zinc like a maniac...but I think it's just going to have to run it's course. I hate being sick. I don't get sick! Clearly I'm in denial.
Nighttime cold medication is kicking in...forming coherent sentences is becoming a challenge...must sleep.
P.S. Luckily I had nothing to worry about at work today...everything was as normal as could be...so normal that I was thinking, 'Did this whole thing even happen or did I just dream it?' Only time will tell what's around the bend...
Posted by alegato at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2004
Ew
Thing #1: Now I know why the chemistry was bulding and building but nothing ever happened....it seems that there's possibly someone else in the picture, an old relationship may be starting again. Oh well.
Thing #2: I'm sick. I woke up with a touch of a cold yesterday morning, but was still okay to go out for brunch with everyone for Em's birthday, and then shopping with K and T for the afternoon. I came home in the early evening and was so very thankful that A was making soup for dinner. Talked to R last night, got things figured out. Went to bed a little after 12 and then I woke up in the middle of the night incredibly nauseous and unable to sleep because I felt so ill. Somehow I finally managed to fall back to sleep, woke up this morning around 10 (day off, thank goodness, because I would have had to call in sick today) when my dad called to tell me that he and my stepmum and brother had gotten home safely from Whistler. Chatted with my dad. Chatted with my mum. Now I'm just sitting here trying to figure out what to do with my day. I have a really hard time not filling my day off with an ambitiousamount of activities/errands/chores, but today I'm too sick to do much of anything. Maybe I'll work on the grad school application. The idea of being home all day with nothing productive to do is driving me a little crazy, but...I really have no choice. I was supposed to practise tonight, but that's looking doubtful, because I feel too weak and icky to do much of anything.
Work tomorrow should be...interesting...trying not to worry about it...the mystery has been solved.
Posted by alegato at 10:21 AM | Comments (3)
November 21, 2004
Argh 2
Sometimes I could just kick myself.
Posted by alegato at 5:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 19, 2004
Argh!
Just got home from my night out and I have to be up in about 5 hours to get ready for work...eek! I don't know what to think...it should have been just the two of us, but A ended up meeting up with us, getting really drunk and not leaving...there is definitely chemistry, I don't think I could have imagined that. Something has to happen...soon. I need to go to sleep.
Posted by alegato at 2:19 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2004
Branching Out
So tonight I attempted to throw off the shackles of attachment to Ashtanga and try something new: hot yoga. I get free yoga classes at pretty much every studio in the city through the company, and there wasn't a class that I felt like taking tonight at Ashtanga Montreal, so I decided to take a class at Moksha, because I've heard really good things about it (albeit mostly from non-yogis/non-ashtangis). Moksha isn't the same as Bikram...it doesn't follow the same sequence or structure, but it certainly is hot. I'm still forming an opinion on the experience, but I can say for certain that I'm not giving up Ashtanga any time soon. What really struck me about it was that it didn't seem like yoga so much as it seemed like an exercise class. There was good focus on alignment and the breath, but still, something was definitely lacking in the "spirituality" end of things, which is fine, as I realise many people aren't into the spiritual part of yoga (i.e. they simply want a work out....which is all well and good, but it isn't yoga).
What really surprised me was how little strength it required...there was little to no upper body strength put to use...we did maybe 6 chaturangas throughout the course of the class...what I would have given for a good vinyasa! I have a tendency to not really feel heat, so although I was sweating like a maniac I wasn't really feeling hot, and I wasn't really challenged physically, but I can certainly see how it can be a great detoxifier...I'll probably go back in the future, maybe fit it in once a week, because it is free after all.
It's definitely good to experience other disciplinces, but I have to say that I am an ashtangi through and through....give me Mysore practice and a room full of ujayii breathing any day...there's nothing better.
Otherwise...slllllllooooooooowww day at work today. R invited me out tomorrow night with some of his friends and maybe some other work people, so hopefully that will work out! Other than that...tomorrow is dinner party night at my house (as was last night incidentally)...I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to fit in tomorrow and what I'm going to have to drop from my schedule. The plan is this: work 9-3, yoga at 6 (J, level 3), people over for dinner then out with R et al. at 10:30-ish...I think that it's a little ambitious though...especially because I'm supposed to be having people over, but if I got to J's class I won't get home until after 8...I really want to go to her class though as long as I'm not too sore tomorrow from the hot yoga (I anticipate some soreness just from the excessive flexibility that the heat provides)...anyway...things will fall into place.
For now it is bed and lots of water.
Posted by alegato at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2004
Who Said There's No Such Thing As a Free Lunch?!?
Today was my second day off...it was nice to sleep in a little a lounge around the house listening to the radio and reading the paper. I managed to get pretty much everything crossed off my to do list for the day, which always feels nice.
Went to J's level 3 tonight and got good and warm. The last few times I've practised I've barely broken a sweat, which is entirely unlike me, but it's just been too damn cold. So tonight I set up my mat close to the space heater, and sure enough the whole room was starting to get sweaty by the end of the surya namaskara B's. My practice was pretty good..nothing spectacular, but nothing horribly awful. I felt like for the first time I really got navasana...the whole deal...shoulders down, chest out good leg extension...I don't know why, but tonight it just felt exceptionally right. No bhujapidasana blunders, no rug burn in back bending...actually, my back felt quite open and I was able to walk my hands in quite a bit. Was feeling the bandhas tonight and my breath stayed with me pretty well...all in all it was a nice practice...I plan on practising again tomorrow night with J&E after work.
After class I hopped on the bus with visions of my local poissonnerie dancing through my head...all I could think about was how badly I wanted a salad topped with maple-glazed grilled salmon for dinner (yes, I eat fish, no, I don't plan on ever, ever giving it up!)...alas, I got to the poissonnerie at 8:03 and it closed at 8...argh! So I went across the street to the new sushi place that opened last week, and I was paying for my twelve pieces the lady who owns the shop gave me this lovely, yummy looking salad for free, because it was the end of the day! Yay...tomorrow's lunch!! I love when little things like that happen and make my day...Oh, and also, I got a new skirt at Simon's for $5!!! I've been looking for a denim mini skirt for awhile, but I refused to pay $60+....but $5, $5 is perfect!
Has anyone else seen Love, Actually? I feel like the woman in that movie who has the thing for the guy she works with, and every night she goes to say something to him and every night she loses her nerve, and in the end she blows her one chance with him in favour of spending time with her brother in a mental institution...that's me...okay...well, except for the mental institution part...action must be taken (thanks for the advice S)!
Posted by alegato at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2004
Leap of Faith
It's been a pretty good week. Long though, I had 6 days of work in a row while two of the managers are out of town. Thankfully I have today and tomorrow off to recover and get some stuff done. Namely I have to get in touch with another magazine tomorrow that N, a coworker, is the Canadian rep for, and he's hopefully got me a job with them for their February issue...fingers crossed. Work is still going well. I'm still having a lot of fun. Also tomorrow I have to seriously start working on my Western application...reference letters, an autobiographical essay...fun stuff.
Nothing too exciting happened this weekend...my schedule and raging anemia (why am I so tired????) rendered practice relatively impossible. I was planning on going this morning, but G ended up staying over last night and I had breakfast plans this morning, so it didn't work out, but my schedule is such this coming week that I hope to get things back on track. I'm for sure going to J's class tomorrow night.
Ended up going out on Wednesday night straight from work. R mentioned to me that he and a friend were going to be checking out happy hour at Sharx and that I was welcome to join...L and A from work ended up coming along too. We had a lot of fun playing pool, bowling, grabbed some dinner and then went to McKibbin's for a couple hours. It was a good night. Learned some sad news about R's imminent employment future, but it is also, er, shall we say, interesting...potentially fruitful.
Thurday night we had the usual get together...T and K who have now moved in two doors down dropped by, and we were all so happy to see Chris get booted on The Apprentice. I'm a little upset that G's still so obsessed with Survivor so we can't watch the O.C. instead...I feel it's something that I could get shamefully addicted to!!!
Friday night was low key at home with A and P...I barely made it to 10 o'clock. Yesterday was thankfully my last day of work until Tuesday. Came home, had a glass of wine, had some dinner with A and then headed over to G's house..we came up with a list of criteria for a place that we wanted to go out to...it had to be: not too loud, comfortable and with ample seating, on St. Laurent, not too pricey and nice (i.e. not a sticky floored dive)...thankfully Z and S were looking for the same thing and we found it in Tinto. We had a lovely night, about 8 of us hanging out and laughing. Meg, G and I left around 1-ish..went to Buddha Bar briefly and then to Tokyo before going home. This morning was breakfast with friends and then shopping all day with G in Westmount and at Au Coeur de la Mode, an annual event that local stores/designers attend, sell their clothes at discounted prices and then part of the proceeds go to AIDS research. We had a good and fruitful time. Went out for dinner...came home...right now I'm just watching a couple documentaries...one about climbing Everest and one about Robert McNamara...I'm obsessed with documentaries. Thinking about rereading Catcher in the Rye for about the gazillionth time..
Has anyone else ever been in a place where they've met someone, found someone, with whom they know they'd be fantastically happpy, but simulataneously thought that it simply wouldn't be viable for reasons beyond either person's control? I'm not certain that it wouldn't be viable, but...I dunno. It's frustrating...to see something right there in front of you and to have to question repeatedly whether or not to take the leap, what the consequences will be, could be, if you do, but even worse, what they'll be if you don't...it's a leap that should be taken I think, but the 'how' of it all continues to evade me. But I think it could be so sweet...
Posted by alegato at 8:44 PM | Comments (0)
November 7, 2004
The Klutz's Guide to Ashtanga
Let's talk about how I'm the world's biggest klutz...I manage to accomplish things in yoga that I don't think anyone else could be ungraceful enough to do! Like the other week when I fell out of bhujapidasana and ended up with a huge bruise on my shin (how did I land on my shin??? I have no idea!), or the time that Meg will never let me forget when my legs started flailing in headstand and then I promptly fell over with a loud thud. Then there was this morning when not only did I slide right off my arms and onto my bum in the transition from bhujapidasana to vinyasa (bhuja has never been a problem for me until the last month or so!), and, and managed to get a rug burn on my hand in backbending. How does one happen to get a rug burn in urdhva dhanurasana? Good question. I'd like to know too. Somehow, in my last backbend, I was walking my hands towards my feet and it seems that I may have taken one step too many...my hand got caught in the towel that I had underneath me and the next thing I knew I came crashing down and now my hand (right where it meets my wrist) is all red and irritated...All M and K could do when I told them about it tonight at dinner was laugh hysterically trying to figure out how that was even possible. Gracefulness is definitely not one of my strong points!!! Otherwise my practice was okay, not great. Sluggish. Heavy. Way too laden with effort. I'm frustrated with myself. With my body. With my practice. But it's my own fault, I haven't been as disciplined as usual and so I've paid the price of regression. I know that I'll get it all back. Practise and all is coming. May this be a lesson to me not to neglect my practice in the future.
Class seemed to take a lot out of me this morning, so after coming home, making brunch and showering I napped for a couple hours this afternoon. The other night I mentioned to Em, G and A that we should go to this Indian resto called Bombay Mahal up on Jean Talon Ouest tonight. I had originally planned on it just being a small group, but then last night at Z's party I ended up telling a ton of people about it, so about 12 of us ended up making it up there tonight and had SUCH a wonderful meal. Vegetarian thali for $5, and it was quite possibly the best Indian I've had outside of India...daal, paneer, idli...mmmmm. It was a really fun night.
Tomorrow I work 9-5 and hopefully I can make it to J's evening class if I'm not too sore...this week R and I are working as "floor leaders" (basically temporary management) while our bosses are in Vancouver for management meetings...we'd joked about wearing capes at work, but, shock of shocks, that hasn't come to pass!! It should be a really fun (albeit long) week, I'm really looking forward to it.
Also, I've become mildly obsessed with the guy who opened for Sarah Harmer the other night. His name is Jeremy Fisher and I just found out tonight that he's from Hamilton too! He actually grew up just down the street from my friend Julia! I highly recommend checking him out.
Off to bed for me...the fact that it's now getting dark around 4pm is really started to bother me and make me way too tired way too early.
Posted by alegato at 11:14 PM | Comments (1)
Yogis at Parties
Well, that was such a happening Saturday night. This is the lesson I've learned of late: if I try to do the whole Thursday night dinner party thing and go out Friday night and go out Saturday night it really doesn't work for me.
Last night I went to the Sarah Harmer concert with A from work. It was so good. Sarah puts on a wonderful chilled out show, and the venue, La Tulipe was beautiful. After that we ended up hooking up with G and some other friends and going from Bifteck to Pistol to Lodge (awkward run-in with D in line...whoops!) to Blizzarts. By 1:30 I was so tired and no fun I came home and slept.
Great day today. Got up, had breakfast with A and P. Went to work (I wasn't working, I just went to meet Chip, the company's owner, who was in town for the weekend). C called me into her office to discuss Lululemon's expansion within the city and the potential role that I could play in it (!!!). Chatted with Chip for about 15 minutes about all the opportunities within Lululemon right now. Went to Atwater Market. Got some Asia photos developed. Came home. Baked Z a chocolate devil's food cake (with a hint of lavender) with chocolate orange buttercream frosting. And then I was so exhausted I wanted nothing to do with going out. I ended up getting to Z's a little after 9...the sushi that we rolled was awesome. It was nice to see everyone, but by 11-ish I was fading fast. All Meg, K and I could think about was how we had to get up in the morning to go to class (I want to do Darby's workshop in the morning tomorrow, but $35 is kind of steep, so I might end up doing the usual Sunday morning class with J&E)...Anyhow, all this to say that yoga makes you boring sometimes...but good-boring. Give me one glass of wine and I'm done by 11 o'clock on Saturday night. Most Saturdays in the past few months have been a different story, but for some reason tonight I was feeling yogic..
I came home, watched a few minutes of Psycho with A and P. Talked to G for a few minutes on the phone..wished that I'd gone to Jupiter Room to hang out with work people, but not really....thinking about getting up in the morning while it's still dark, the sound of ujayi breathing and cracking joints...the feeling of my mat beneath my feet. I want nothing more right now than to really get back into my practice...I've been without its familiarity and comfort and peacefulness for too long.
Posted by alegato at 12:32 AM | Comments (0)
November 5, 2004
Photos...at long last
Halloween:
left to right: the dragon, Marge, the pirate, Peter Pan
Yogis on Halloween
Election Day in NY:
"Democracy Plaza" @ Rockefeller Center
Vote or Die in Times Square
No explanation required
Posted by alegato at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
November 3, 2004
How Can This Be Happening?
NO. NO! This can't be right. This can't be happening. Bush did not win the election, it was all just a bad dream...I'm in denial. Who are these Republicans anyhow? Where do they live and why haven't I ever met one (probably because I live in Canada, where even Kerry would be considered a staunch conservative)? Last night I stood in Times Square, outside of the CNN election HQ, and watched in utter disbelief as the returns came in. We moved further downtown after that, and hung out in a pub in Greenwich Village watching Kerry lose and hoping he wouldn't. Exhausted by 11:30, we crawled into the car and drove back upstate, half asleep, half depressed, listening to NPR and cursing Bush's likely victory the whole way home.
The good news is that I had a good weekend and a good couple days in NY before the world came crashing down! Saturday evening was the night to celebrate Halloween here in Montreal...I started by having dinner and drinks at Meg's, B and Z joined us as well. Marge was out in full force.
Later in the evening all of us headed out to a loft party on St. Laurent, but I didn't last long there...it was really hot, which was causing my charming yellow makeup to melt off my face. So Z and I met up with her boyfriend K at Tokyo, and somehow Em managed to find me there. She and I ended up at Go-Go and then at Bifteck, where we had the ingenius idea of participating in a spooning chain...on the floor (SO gross in retrospect)...well thought out there Andrea. By then it was after close, so I went back to Meg's, got my house keys, cabbed home and was ill. Note to self: I cannot drink and thus should not even try...it makes me very sick.
Somehow on Sunday morning Graham and I managed to pull ourselves together enough to go pick up the car and head out. We got to Meg's place by about 7 that evening, had dinner and then passed out in the living room watching pre-election coverage.
Monday was supposed to be spent in the city, but we kind of didn't make it. Instead we spent the day upstate...breakfast at an awesome diner, the late afternoon hanging out in Woodstock where Sue took us all out for dinner at Joshua's (a fantastic Middle Eastern resto), which was lovely (and wonderfully healthy in comparison to our breakfast!). We went home, watched a movie and then crashed.
Yesterday we were up early and into the city by 11-ish. Parked downtown in Greenwich Village and then wandered for most of the day. Somehow, not meaning to, we ended up browsing a little on Canal, and joy of joys, I found another shell exactly like the one that I'd bought on a necklace in Bangkok hat broke in two at the end of the trip. Yippee! Otherwise we wandered, ate, shopped, perused and purchased. Second note to self: I should not be allowed to go to Century 21 ever again...but hey, the cashmere hoodie was so worth it. Around dinnertime we headed up to midtown to wander around "Democracy Plaza" at Rockefeller Center, observe all the anti-Bush people and to watch the returns in Times Square. We had a good day, a long day, but a good day nonetheless.
This morning Graham and I left Meg's place and made it back to Montreal in a record 4 hours. Never before have I been so happy to cross the border back into Canada, Canadian passport in hand, leaving the craziness behind me.
Since then I've dropped off the car and run a couple errands, and now I'm just hanging out at home planning on making some dinner eventually and doing some laundry before I head back to work tomorrow.
Oh, and it's Z's birthday today, although I don't think we're doing anything to celebrate it until the weekend....but still, happy birthday Z!!!
There are a few photos that I wanted to post along with this entry, but I keep getting error messages whenever I try to upload them...so they will follow in the not too distant future.
Posted by alegato at 4:14 PM | Comments (0)