Friday, April 25, 2008

Egad!

Today I was on the phone with Sean and in all seriousness he busted out "oh egad! I forgot about that." I don't even remember what we were talking about, I was so thrown back by the use of a word I thought people stopped using, oh I don't know, 200 years ago. But then again this did come from the guy that also says "holy smokes" and calls people "dingleberries" when they disobey traffic laws, so I guess it shouldn't have been all that surprising.

Sean, I love your old soul :)

The Earth's Song

Last night I went to my very first yoga class. I have a lot of friends who love yoga and they always say how great it makes them feel so it's been on my list of things to try for awhile. I am extremely inflexible so I knew it was going to be very difficult for me, and honestly that's why I put off trying it for so long. Who likes to do things that they aren't good at? Not many people.

I went into the yoga studio with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. We started out by sitting on wool blankets with our legs crossed. The lights were dim and the heater was on so it was pretty relaxing and I was thinking to myself "hey, this does feel good." Then our teacher started talking about really hippie things like how the Earth has a song and so do our bodies and in yoga we are trying to find our song so that we are more connected to the Earth. All I was thinking was thank goodness everyone's eyes are closed and Allyson isn't here because I literally had to bite the inside of my lip to keep from busting up in fits of laughter. I'm not saying it wasn't relaxing and peaceful, because it definitely was, and I can totally understand and appreciate the merit of everyone's personal spiritual journey. But, seriously, it was hilarious.

After the introduction we started doing the typical yoga poses and I was no longer laughing or thinking "hey, this does feel good." At this point I was feeling retarded because I couldn't do any of the poses and I was shaking just trying to keep them up (maybe I was feeling weak because I had already been at the gym for an hour and a half before yoga started trying to get my workout in thinking that yoga wouldn't be hard). At any rate it was very difficult and I didn't enjoy it very much. I'm going to keep doing it as a challenge to myself and I would like to get more flexible and balanced so I think it will help me in the long run. Hopefully over time it will become less miserable as well.

The class ended with laying on our mats in the dark with our hippie teacher saying "ooohms" and ringing a bell. And even after an hour of appreciating how hard yoga is I still had to stifle a laugh.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Granola is yummy

This Sunday is Earth Day and the Green Apple Festival (which is free) is happening in Golden Gate Park at Noon. There's some live music and speeches. If this weekend is as nice as last weekend it should be a good time. It's pretty cool because the festival is supposed to be as green as possible. According to the website, they implement a zero waste goal, have mandated a paperless event, use organic cotton t-shirts for staff, use bio-diesel generators for power where possible, serve organic food and encourage patrons to take public transportation, bike or get to the event on foot. They also have aggressive recycling and reusing efforts. I think I will stop by because I like live music, free things, and supporting the environment.

On another note, Trader Joe's has new compostable bags to replace all plastic bags, which I think is really cool.

Here's the website for the Green Apple Festival:
http://www.greenapplemusicfestival.com

Monday, April 14, 2008

GAI

The other day, I was watching the Ben Franklin episode of The Office and it included one of my favorite all time Michael Scott quotes. He was in the conference room talking to Angela and the rest of the party planning committee about the bridal shower that they were giving Phyllis.

Angela: You know this is a luncheon shower. Girls only.

Michael Scott: No problem. The guys are having a little shindig of their own in the warehouse. From 2:30 to 3:15. That is the only time that Bob was available. Sort of a guys' night out. A 'G-N-O' if you will. A 'gno.' Actually it's more of a guys' afternoon in. A G-A-I. A gay. Not-- not... it's uh, not gay. It's, uh, just uh, it's a bridal shower for guys. A guy shower. An hour long shower with guys.

If you've never seen this episode I highly recommend it. Steve Carrell's delivery of this quote is perfect!

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks

Last Friday Sean and I went to the Giants v. Cardinals game with some of our friends. I was very excited because it was the first night game of the regular season and the weather was supposed to be beautiful (and it was...no wind and probably high 60's or maybe even 70). I love baseball. True, I would rather watch the TV Guide Channel than a game on television and to be honest I don't pay much attention even when I watch live games. But despite that, I love the feel of baseball. It means the beginning of springtime, which means it is no longer winter, which means it's no longer my least favorite season. Philspunkter (or whatever that groundhog is named) has nothing on opening week of baseball. I love sitting in the sun and drinking beer and feeling like I'm part of a great American tradition.

And of course, baseball also means indulging in "food" that ends up having its way with your digestive system, if you know what I mean. I had some beer, cracker jacks, a hot dog, chips and garlic fries. It is Monday at 4:00 and I still don't feel quite right. I'm pretty sure it was the garlic fries that really did me in. We left the game early because we had another event to go to and we ended up walking for about 20 minutes before we found an available cab. At this point the "food" was starting to process and I wasn't feeling my best. About 2 minutes into the cab ride I realized that luck was not on my side that night. This cab driver was insane. He was trying to drive like 60 mph up Pine but he constantly had to slam on the brakes because, surprise surprise, there were other cars on the road not going 35 mph over the speed limit. The cab was a minivan and there were either no shocks or the cab driver had his own special driving technique because not only was the cab lurching forward when he slammed on the brakes, it was also swaying from side to side as we were barreling up Pine Street. Then to top it all off there was some sort of jazz music playing while the dispatcher radio was turned up to what must have been the loudest setting. Not a very relaxing cab ride to say the least. In fact, I'm sure there are still marks where I was digging my fingers into the seat. But to his credit, he got us all the way home for only $13.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Technology hurts my head

For those of you that don't know, I'm a bit slow when it comes to updating technology. I think it's a mixture of being cheap, lazy and rebellious. And yes I do know it sounds ironic because I have two flat screen TV's at home about 20 feet away from each other. However, if my living room wall would just rotate like in the movies it would be a moo point. I also realize that I have an iphone, but that was a gift and I did contemplate returning it. Anyway, for years I have been rebelling against paying extra for digital cable, but when we moved in July I finally caved and ordered the Comcast bundle meaning that I have digital cable, digital phone and cable internet for one low price. I have no idea what digital phone means or why anyone would ever pay more for it, but it was included in the bundle so it ended up being cheaper than regular phone service.

So the point is (well actually, for those of you who are hoping there's a point to this post, there isn't so you can stop reading at any time) our digital phone has been out of commission for about 3 months now. Sean has tried restarting the modem and doing some other things and nothing has worked. The only type of phone that I understand is the one that plugs into the wall, so I'm no help. At the beginning I kept asking Sean if he checked the wire that plugs into the phone jack and he kept having to explain that it's not that kind of phone. Sean is too busy/lazy/forgetful to call the cable company and I haven't done it because I wouldn't even know where to start fixing the damn thing. Sometimes I think technology is too complicated. I feel like I can't even call the cable company to fix our phone because I don't know what the millions of wires in our house are for or where they even are. All I know is that all I have to do is press one button on our crazy universal remote and everything magically turns on. It's amazing that I even know how to blog.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Going (or not) to a Hukilau

This week two major airlines that fly to Hawaii, Aloha and ATA, announced that they are filing for bankruptcy and are discontinuing all of their operations. On a purely selfish level this announcement left me feeling sad and concerned. I love Hawaii. I've been at least 20 times, maybe more. My family has been going since I was a child, my husband was born and raised on Oahu and his entire family still lives there. To think that the reduced competition coupled with high fuel costs will make a trip to the place with beautiful sandy beaches, lush tropical foliage, great shopping and delicious Vietnamese sandwiches less accessible, makes me sad. Hopefully Hawaiian Airlines keep their prices reasonable and/or Southwest or someone else starts flying to Hawaii. I hope my two options don't come down to shelling out $1,000 to fly United or visiting Allyson in Houston, not that I have anything against Houston (except for the obvious).