Words

When I was in college, I had favorite words (like many of my teammates). My list of favorite words were as follows:

elephants

walk and shake

ball hunt

one-and-done (it's a word)

These words meant that the hard stuff was over and I had survived another workout or practice. Whether it was the end of a dynamic warm-up with my aging and achy body last year ('elephants')...or the end of a long practice ('ball hunt') ...or the last rep of the 100's (one-and-done), these words were always my favorite.

However, since I have stopped working out like I used to and have switched to bikram I now get very excited for words like:

savasana (a pose in yoga where lie on your back to rest)

namaste

cold towels

It's funny how things change so quickly. I used to be all about working out and running and lifting but I am thoroughly enjoying my new set of words to go with my new choice of working out. For now, we will see how long this new passion for yoga lasts and if I will return to the old standby- a pair of sock, sneakers and a jog (with a soft 'j').

Changing my life: one pose at a time

On January 17th I started Bikram yoga again. I have done it at a few different times in my life... starting with 6am classes with Kearny at Takoma Park Bikram in 2007(hah!) and now I am practicing at Bikram Annapolis. After my Christmas break and trip to Charleston filled with lots of good food and me in a boot, unable to do anything, I needed something good to get me back in shape and detox my body for a bit.

Enter: Bikram yoga.

The first few classes were a bit rough- I was dizzy, tired and dehydrated, but lately things have been changing. Yesterday I got new shorts at Lululemon to wear in class and I put on my leopard sports bra and things were looking up. My roomie Lizzie came with me to class too so I was extra excited to have a yoga friend. Also today, I think I did my best ever Locust Pose (salabhasana) and Standing Boat Pose (Dandayamana-Dhanuransana).... if you've never seen them they look like this:


this is locust pose


this is standing boat pose

I was really excited because I have never gotten my feet as high as I got them today in locust pose and I held the boat pose for a long time and even got a "good job" from the teacher. Anyway, that was the most exciting thing that has happened in my weekend- pretty crazy huh? I think one day...if I save up a ton of money and have nothing to do, I might become a Bikram yoga teacher. I love the sweating and wearing spandex and the 105 degree room in the middle of winter. I definitely recommend trying it!!

Vegas Baby!

Last weekend I went to Vegas and had a blast. Partied a little. Laxed a little. Ate good food. But I have to say that for someone with (self-diagnosed) ADD it is complete overstimulation on all fronts......

The flashing lights on everything.
The drunk people doing crazy stuff everywhere 24/7.
The video billboards everywhere.
The casinos with their crazy themes (volcanos, water shows, pirate ships etc).
The DJ's playing music in every language imaginable.
The people at the craps table going nuts while I'm trying to count the numbers on my cards during black jack to see if I have 21.
Beatles love and the 20 different people doing 20 completely different things.
The bartenders swinging above the bar on tire swings.
Even the candy store had so many colors and choices and candies I didn't even know what to do with myself (they even had white chocolate covered gummie bears).

So Vegas wore me out. I loved it but after 3 days I was 100% ready to get back to real life. When they say "what happens in vegas stays in Vegas"....well that would be my voice. I left my voice in Vegas and it has yet to return to full strength. In short, I will leave this post with a photo that helps to explain the type of shenanigans I got into which resulted in a total destruction of my vocal chords.



Final thought: How do people live there and stay alive?

On the Road Again...

VS.



Something just happened that was so monumental that I just HAD to blog about it.

I saved $100 switching my car insurance to Progressive.

Crazy. I know. And what is also crazy is that my car insurance was high enough that I could save $100 and still have money to pay out, haha.
Yes, I have had a few accidents in my day, but I am hoping that those days are behind me.
Yes, it is true that you can name your price with Progressive- although I may have signed away my life with this new policy.
Yes, I am actually wondering right now why I did not name a lower price just to see how low it will go. I don't exactly know why I settled on the price that I did. Perhaps I will be writing back soon that I saved even more money...but for now, if you are paying too much for car insurance, visit www.progressive.com and name your price.

Das Boot

Yet again I find myself avoiding work. I swear I love what I am studying but I do need a good amount of study breaks to get me through a full day of academic writing.

I decided I would write about the recent addition to my wardrobe. The Boot (aka das boot)


I'm in Charleston with Ram (he already won Boyfriend of the Year 2010 and he is the frontrunner for BOY2011) and when I got here we got ambitious and went for a run together. I felt great after the run so the next day I dabbled in the fitness room at his condo and ellipticalled for a bit. Which, may I add, elliptical is a non-impact workout that places little stress on the body so when I couldn;t walk the next day I was kind of surprised. Thankfully, although this was 2 days before NYE my foot injury only hurt when I walked flat footed but felt fine when I was on the balls on my feet- so I was able to wear my 4 inch nude pumps pain free.


Unfortunately 2 days later I really couldn't walk. Went to a foot doc. Got an xray. Found out I have a stress reaction (not too serious) and tendonitis in my peronaeus brevis so I got booted. The boot makes it hurt less but it's awkward and kinda sucks. The only positive in this whole situation is that I get to wear spandex everyday because they are easy to wear with a boot and still pretty fashionable. So for the next 2 weeks I am in tunics and spandys. Sawwie I'm not sawwie.

The Racial Whisper

So for blog #2 I have chosen to write about the phenomenon I experience in my daily life that I like to call, "the racial whisper". It goes a little something like this:

Person 1: I don't know you you're talking about...
My friend: Oh you know Jenny, she's about 5'3, dark hair, dark eyes
Person 1: hmm...no I don't know who you're talking about
My friend: She has really curly hair, it's kind of below her shoulders
Person 1: No still don;t know
My friend: She's really athletic and has muscles....
Person 1: Still don't know....
My friend: She's the (whisper voice) 'black' one

Another instance, which I find particularly comical....

Lacrosse recruit parent (who is watching practice): Oh we love Jenny! we always watch her play.....which one is she again?
**mind you, I am the only athlete of color on my team**
Teammate: If you have to ask...you'll never know

Ok so after all this...my question is: why do people always whisper racial terms, as if it makes it any more politically correct to say it quietly than it does than to say it out loud? If anything, it draws more attention to the fact that you are using race as an identitfying factor. So, if in the future you find yourself doing this....just own up to the fact that I may just be your only black friend in attendance on a particular occasian and you may feel less awkward by just acknolwedging that I am African American from the get-go, instead of dancing around the obvious.

First One. Good One.

Some call me their black friend. Some call me their white friend. But those who know me best just call me Jenny

I decided that so many people do this blogging thing that I mind as well take a stab at it. And for those of you who do know me personally as Jenny, know from my journals that in my younger years I was an avid writer, haha. So for now I am going to just give this the old college try and see what comes of it.

So to start out, on my first day of class this year, my professor told me that 'writing should be like shitting...you do it everyday whether you like it or not"....however, I don't think this blog was what he had in mind. I think I am supposed to be doing scholarly writing and thinking new thoughts that change the face of physical cultural studies, but I don't feel I am at that point yet. To be truly honest, there are probably so many other things I should be doing right now that I have been avoiding like the plague. My thoughts are that in writing them down below I will either feel a) relieved that I at least have them in a list and can keep track of them or b) be overwhelmed but what i have not accomplished them, haha, so here goes:

In a perfect world the below tasks would already be completed:
1. monday's readings for class
2. a proposal for my final paper that was due 10 days ago
4. steam cleaning the carpets
5. giving lola a bath
6. buying new pillows
7. bring cupcakes i baked over to the neighbors
8. my thesis proposal
9. working out every day
10. decorating for thanksgiving
11. buying cheesecloth so I can use the mulling spices I bought like a 30 yr old woman from William Sonoma
12. taking my car to Nissan because my gearshift doesn't work
13. doing a 21 day cleanse
14. throwing away the halloween pumpkins
15. saving my receipts for taxes
16. not buying plants from whole foods because they always die 2 weeks later
17. Raking the yard and jumping in leaves
18. Eating my food in the freeer before buying more stuff
19. Going to the doctor to get ADD medicine because after reading over this list I made I realized that I definitely need it...especially because I decided to spontaneously create this blog while I was mid sentence and half-way through an article about post-modernism and Michael Jordan (scholarly reading is not typically a catalyst for this kind of thing)

Welp...looks like I have alot on my plate. I'll be interested to see if I complete these things. I think tomorrow I will take attempt #1, #5, #14 and #18 and within the week I'll aim for #8, #9 and the newly created #20: celebrating my 24th birthday.

On that note, let's talk birthdays. Every birthday after 21 has been kind of a let down. I'm not exactly sure why 21 was even really that cool. I think 21 was so exciting because I took 21 shots...actually 24 (quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself)...and my friends made me a cool t-shirt (see picture). So that leads me to think that if I want to have a good birthday I should take a lot of shots and wear an oversized white tee with a picture of myself on it. Perhaps I will try that this weekend and see how it goes. I just want to see if it really is the shots and the shirt that make the recipe for success.

So after that final thought, I think it is time to wrap this thing up. Back to post-modernism and MJ and sitting at home on a Saturday pretending to be studious when I am devoting at least 30% of the evening to some much needed facebook stalking of people I barely know. If that isn't the makings of a champion then I don't know what is hahah.

LYLAS (only a few understand the humor behind this)
Jenny