girmander

happy new year everyone! it's the year of the dog. and supposedly a lucky year to get married (c&p!) something about having 2 springs in the year. according to the new york times:

The reason many Chinese (and half-Chinese) couples are choosing Dog wedding dates over Rooster ones traces back to the solar calendar. The Year of the Rooster, which began on Feb. 9, 2005, and ended yesterday, did not contain a lichun, or beginning of spring. (Lichun usually falls on Feb. 4, the halfway point between the winter and summer solstices.) A year without a lichun is called a "widow year" or "blind year," explained Theodora Lau, the author of "The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes" (HarperCollins, 2005). "The thinking is that if you get married in a blind year, you didn't look at what you were doing, and you could get divorced next year."

The Year of the Dog, which will end Feb. 17, 2007, will span two lichun, Ms. Lau said. "It's very lucky to see spring in the beginning of the year and in the end. A lot of people would love to get married in a double-spring year."

interesting... i knew that last year wasn't a very good year to get married but i had no clue why. this almost makes me want to elope this year instead of next and not tell my parents :D

anyways... it's only been a month in the traditional sense of this year and 2 days in the lunar year and i'm feeling a strong pull to change myself. well, i shouldn't say change - i think the best term is enhance or improve myself.

if you were to ask my sisters what books i usually read, they would say fiction, nonfiction, tech books and magazines (as of late!!) but i highly doubt they would say or *I* would say books that would help me personally (self help, finance, ect..) i was never one of those people who would walk down THAT aisle. i mean, the last thing i want to spend my 20 bucks on, is a book by dr phil telling story after heart tugging story about how it's not me and it's not my fault that i'm screwed up and that it's everyone elses fault and that i need *space* to heal myself. blah blah blah.

the lion and i took a trip to chicago over the weekend. i loved it! we were treated like rock stars!

we stayed at the W city center (not lakeshore) and the hotel capacity was about 30%. we got a room upgrade, free dessert and champagne (for the lion's b-day), some full sized bliss stuff, and we met some very cool people who worked at the W. fun! fun!

saturday we walked the mile. we checked out some suits for the lion. i do have to say the dude @ the ralph lauren store rocked. he was really nice and told us when the trunk shows were as well as how much a custom suit was. armani? uhh you guys sucked.

then we headed back to the hotel for dinner @ alinea. definitely worth the money. we jumped in and out of the wine pairing and they priced it accordingly. we also had 3 extra courses added on to our 12 course meal which was nice. AND the lion got some safron cake with a chocolate candle (that actually was burning like a candle and was edible). we took picture of the event here. a 12 (15 for us) course meal took about 2.5-2.75 hours. we also met the chef and got to peak into the kitchen.

sunday, we headed to chinatown and had some dim sum. and then we headed to the art museum. the chagall window had been taken down for work so, that was kind of sad. but we did get to see the seurat. heh... ferris bueller, you're my hero.

then we went to lincoln park. very cool by the way.. i bought like some serious lushage and then we went to bucktown to get some pizza (sorry it wasn't chicago deep dish) and to check out the shops... argghhh!!! sunday.. close early....

buy that point we were so pooped out we went back to the hotel to hang out with karl and joseph (the store dude and the concierge.) hi guys! and then joseph told us we should go to the rosebud for a nice itallian dinner. very sopranos. in fact frankie was imortalized on the wall right next to us. :)

hrmmm and now.. i'm thinking of going to yellow spring to see this rolf guy for a sunday mysore class... too much to do.

i've really noticed my intuition has grown leaps and bounds.. or is it that my intution has been the same but i'm more in tune with it as i grow older?

anyways, i really pick up on people's vibes. it could possibly be because i'm exploring reiki much more. I do have to say working with my own, other people's and universal energy is pretty personal. i totally won't do reiki on someone i don't know. it's because i personally really feel affected by it (i know you can do things not to take it on as much) and a friend of mine (who's a long time practitioner) has told me stories about what she's felt. she's pretty much felt everything and i don't think i can deal with feeling death or even worse.. .evil.

a couple of friends and i went to yellow springs to do mysore with rolf naujokat. very cool guy. his energy is so much like tim's. and i really felt at home with him. joanie (bless her heart) had that break through moment of "wow he's my teacher". just like laruga and i had with tim. it was very cool to see that. i hope joanie will get to see her teacher again. rolf had asked me where i was in my practice and i told him that i was just going to do primary (i hadn't done 2nd since september) and joanie pipes up "she practices 2nd too"! i was like f*!@#. so, i told him that i'm only comfortable up to eka pada sirsasana and he goes you do all of primary and second to that pose. that was like a marathon practice just about as intense as my time @ yoga works santa monica with john doyle. i totally needed that taste of 2nd again. i could tell i was resistant to alot of things and i know if i go "there" i don't want to deal with it yet. and rolf made me go "there" - he told me not to resist and just let it happen. it was a good trip. and it makes me psyched to see tim in april and then again in july. hopefully, i can stitch back some sembalance of my practice pre- yoga tt drama.

random fun

so, like there's a breaking club that meets @ the rpac and the prez of the club wanted me to show him some rehab-y yoga moves b/c he tore his intercostal. he actually told me that i should learn how to break or more specifically "freeze". i was like dude, i'm older than you by like 5 years and i'm really not that co-ordinated.

ha.. my new b-girl name will be girbling! *eyeroll* really, i'm sure "freezing" will help me in handstands especially since alot of them do handstands by not jumping but by using their muscles to lift up from a short down dog position. hrmm.. it's so interesting how random things can be so integrated.

this weekend is prom.. w00t!