Almost forgot to update today!

Though really, I probably forgot because I didn't really do anything today. I skipped the gym this morning in favor of getting work done and then mostly failed to get any work done at all. It's like pulling teeth with me to get any homework done at all these days. In the end I managed one reading jounral entry and the discussion summary I was supposed to do like a month ago. Whoops. At least it's something? And in an effort to avoid my homework, I dusted my Legos and took out my overflowing box of recycled paper. Ha!

Tomorrow's going to be a busy day! On my list of things to do:

- Morning run if it's not raining
- Go to the bank and deposit checks/get cash
- Return library books
- Pack for New York freakin' City!
- Change stuff that is uploaded to my iPod
- School
- Where the Wild Things Are with Ian :)
- Do new henna for NYC

My brain just cannot comprehend that in 48 hours, I will be in a different part of the country. I can't seem to get past tomorrow. XD

excited

Got back into the pool for the first time in quite a while. I sort of flailed around for the first few laps, but then I remembered how to breathe properly. It's nice to know you don't actually forget these things. I had to split up the half mile into several short segments, but I'm hoping that by the time I'm done, I'll have them strung together and be able to do the last half mile all in one go. But I won't be back to the pool until after Thanksgiving, since I'm going out of town. Man I can feel those laps in my arms already, sheesh.

After swimming, I wandered upstairs and rode 10 miles on the stationary bike. FYI, the stationary bike is one of the most boring life experiences known to man. My Dad's going to drag my bike downstairs and put it on the trainer so that I can ride at home. He suggested bringing my laptop/iPod down with me and watching a movie or something to help pass the time because a stationary bike will be even more boring in the basement, where there's nothing to look at. That's not a bad idea, actually. I would just grab a magazine or something, but I know I will stop paying attention to my speed and just get slower and slower if I try to concentrate on reading. Watching a movie is a little more mindless.

It occurred to me while I was on the bike that I had swum half a mile and was riding 10. If I bumped the ride up to 12 and then stayed at the gym to run for half an hour, I could have completed a full sprint triathlon this morning. Cool, no? I think I might try to do that for my final workout.

I suppose I should try and make myself do some schoolwork before lunch.

0.5 S, 20 B, 0.0 R

bored R.E.M. - It's the End of the World As We Know It cycling, fitness, swimming

I didn't really mean to wax philosophical about yoga for the entire last entry. It just sort of happened. So now I shall recap the fabulous weekend that I had!

Saturday morning, I had bells which was pretty good. We have started Christmas music and my director handed out a fabulous arrangement of the Coventry Carol which I love love love. The bass part is really technical and interesting annnnd I even get the melody once or twice! Sweet deal.

Then I worked which mostly meant that I wasted time until 2:00 at which point I could run a few errands in preparation for the evening. I tried to buy delicious focaccia from the Bread Basket, but when I got there there was a sign on the door saying they are out of business! That's super weird because I was there just last Friday, and nobody said anything to me about an imminent closing forever. So that was sad. I got substitute focaccia from Hy-Vee, but it's just not the same.

I needed the aforementioned focaccia for dinner at Brad and Jenna's house. They made the spaghetti and I brought the bread. I broiled it a bit and then made an olive oil and herb dipping sauce for it. Turned out fabulously, if I do say so myself. Dinner with Brad and Jenna is always fun.

After dinner, we waited for Jess to show up and then went down to the District for OK Go (You know, these guys.) at RIBCO! It was a really great, super fun show. I think I like them better live than recorded. I bought their second album and only really liked about half of it, but they were fabulous live. Great energy. I'll probably get their next album when it comes out as well. But if I didn't already know that I liked them, they would have totally won me over at this show. Why? Because they played a song on freakin handbells! Handbells!! My musical instrument of choice that nobody has ever heard of most of the time! Here's a video of them doing a handbell song (not the show I went to and nevermind their horrible technique, haha). Sigh. I think I'm in love.

Sunday, I didn't do a whole lot. For class, I finished reading my chosen book for Horror, which was I Am Legend. I guess when it was first published (in 1954) it was marketed as sci-fi, but most people now recognize it as the beginning of the modern horror genre. It's really, really good. Really makes you feel like you are right there with Robert while he goes through his terrible ordeal. It's absolutely nothing like the movie. I am not going to say I like one better than the other - they are really two different stories and both good in their own right. The only similarity is that the main character is a dude named Robert Neville who is the last man left in a world of humans turned into undead. But anyway, I would highly recommend reading the book if you've seen the movie. And even if you haven't!

Finally, the Lazyman Triathlon has begun!
0.0 S, 10 B, 0.0 R

cheerful Train - All American Girl bells, books, concerts

This morning I felt like doing just about anything other than dragging my tired butt to Sunday Primary Series class. So what did I do? I dragged my tired butt to Sunday Primary Series class. That must be the love of Ashtanga that one of my teachers always talks about. You do yoga when you don't want to do yoga. You do yoga because you don't want to do yoga. It's days like that when you actually make personal progress. Strong days are great (and I do love them), but it's the tired days where you really feel like you've accomplished something by the time you're lying in Savasana, wishing you could just fall asleep.

The thing that I really love about yoga is that, if you look back, you can always tell that you've made progress. It comes slowly (often agonizingly so), but it does come. In the past year, I've accomplished a lot. I'm now able to do full Utthita Parsvakonasana with my hand flat on the floor (fully flat on my right side, fingertips touching on the left), full Marichyasana II with my leg in half lotus rather than cross-leg, Padmasana (though it's a bit shaky and I'm not as good with right leg first, which is standard) and (the big one for me) Urdhva Dhanurasana, which I can do straight-armed, all three times. I'd love to start learning full dropback eventually.

There are still quite a few poses that continue to elude me. Arm balances are very hard for me, though I feel like I am gaining ground with Bakasana and will be able to hold myself up in it soon. And I also have a very difficult time with balancing inversions. I've got great balance right-side up, but turn me upside-down and I have a tough time finding my center. A year after coming back to it, my Sirsasana is still reliant on a wall. I think that's probably a mental block at this point, rather than a physical inability, to be honest. That's a bit frustrating. I'm sure it will come in time, but who knows how long it will take.

I should practice more.

contemplative yoga

I really need to write in this thing more. So much is going on in my life now that I really should keep some sort of record, but it's so hard when I'm so busy all the time... I guess if I have enough time to read my FList (which I do - daily), I should have enough time to at least write a short post. I think I will try to post in here every day for the next week and see if that gets me back in the habit. :)

School is crazy, as per usual. A lot of the time, I feel like I'm just barely hanging on - getting stuff done at the very last minute, but somehow it all gets done. I really need to knuckle down and work on final projects this week, as I will be out of town (in NEW YORK CITY!) for Thanksgiving week, which is when I would have gotten a lot of catch-up work done.

Yesterday I went to the poster session for the SLIS students who are graduating this December. Instead of a thesis, each student has to present a poster of a research project/paper that they've done over the course of the degree. I graduate next spring and I haven't been to a poster session yet, so I figured I should go yesterday and check it out. My classmates are all doing some very interesting projects and I'll be hard pressed to come up with something cool of my own next semester.

After the posters session, the whole mess of us (students and their friends/family and the SLIS faculty) all went out for dinner and drinks. I had a really, really good time. I got to socialize with some people that I don't get to talk to much and it made me kind of sad that I missed out on hanging out with these cool people during the program, since I live an hour away and don't usually get to go to social stuff. The people at my table went from dinner to another bar to hang out more, which was also very fun. It was cool to have a group of people that don't know each other all that well go out and hang out for a couple hours and always have something to talk about. Like I said, too bad they're graduating next month.

In fitness news, I am participating in a program that starts tomorrow that I am SUPER excited abut (Can I just say that I think it's awesome that I am actually *excited* about a fitness program? Me! Who would have thought!). It's called the Lazyman Triathlon. Basically, it's all the elements of an Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run) but you have 6 weeks to complete it. I still think people that try to do it all at once are kind of insane, but I'm looking forward to doing it this way. The swim will be easy (I *could* finish it in 2 trips to the pool, but I'm going to break it into 5 probably) and I can break the running down into 3 mile segments. The biking is what will be the challenge to finish as I think my day to day obligations will keep me from riding more than 10-12 miles or so at a time.

So let's see here...
2.4 mile swim / .5 mile increments = 5 swims
112 mile bike / ~10 mile increments = 11 rides
26.2 mile run / 3 mile increments = 9 runs

25 workouts all together and I have 45 days to do it (though I will be in NYC for a week and I figure I'll only get one run and maybe one ride in, depending on whether or not the guest pass to Lindsey's gym works out). Since I'm only doing half mile swims, which only take 15-20 minutes, I can probably get in 10 miles on the bike afterward and combine those two workouts. I'm crossing my fingers that my Dad can help me set up the stationary bike in the basement, as that will make completing the rides a lot easier.

happy fitness, library school

Max hat!!


Obligatory Wild Thing Roar! picture.

Pattern and directions found here.

Let the wild rumpus start!

awesome, costuming

So today in Primary Series class I did the full version of Urdhva Dhanurasana for the first time ever! I figured out how to push up into the posture a couple months ago, but in class the call is to press up, hold for five breaths, lower to touch just your head to the ground, press up, hold for five breaths, lower again, and press up for a final five breaths. I've never managed all three press-ups before, so I was pretty jazzed about that. Though doing that sapped the tiny bit of energy I had left (the pose comes late in the series so you're already very tired by the time you get to it...that's why this is a big deal for me). I was so spent that I skipped the next vinyasa and just laid on the floor curled in a ball, haha. But anyway... yay!


Apparently, Kelly took a picture, because I found it on facebook this evening. :D

And doing three straight arm press-ups is the pre-requisite for being allowed to learn how to drop back into the posture. Sweet!

accomplished Kate Nash - Merry Happy yoga

It is hard to concentrate in yoga class when the guy next to you takes his shirt off and you are forced to stare at his gorgeous shoulders every time you do a side-facing pose. Seriously!

yoga

I have had so many awesome experiences in the last few weeks that I really should be writing about instead, but all I seem to have time for are lame posts like this. So without further ado...

Poll #1460722 What should Julia be for Halloween?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

What should I be for Halloween?

costuming

Ian: nice star trek avatar
Me: lol thanks. it's supposed to be spock - I'm a nerd
Ian: duh, youre in a library program

library school, quotes