rock n roll kitty

this is one of our cats. his name is sinkowitz. he loves being in and on things. we used to store our band equipment upstairs in our living space. one day he discovered the bass drum. our drummer keeps this blanket in inside to muffle the sound. of course, sink thought this was the ideal set-up for a nap.

these days, since we've moved most of the equipment to our practice space, no longer accessible to him, i occasionally find him here....
on top of my bass case.

so we think he might have been a musician in one of his past lives. at least he is drawn to the equipment...

... and like most cats, he loves to be in the sun. you can see this was a bit of an issue here, as he had to sit on the very end of the case.


i finally went to the new yoga studio yesterday. it was great! beautiful and had a good vibe. the room was a little small, but it worked. i like being in a small room because you can really feel the energy from everyone there. i also loved the heat! nothing like a good, sweaty practice- so cleansing. i read somewhere that to get the full benefits from practice one has to rub the sweat into their skin instead of wiping it off. um, i'll hold off on that for now... anyway, i look forward to going back. it was also nice to see people i hadn't seen for a while.

i started slowly. everything felt great- although i'm a little sore today. i didn't do all of the poses- i skipped laghuvajrasana (didn't feel like i had the energy- and it's been hurting my knees). i also only did 3 backbends and didn't do dropbacks. i imagine by next week i'll be back to my full practice... i'm also trying to be mindful of my hamstring. i thought it was mostly healed, but i could feel a little twinge in it yesterday.

tomorrow is my water fast. my teacher has given me some advice to follow- i have very little experience with fasting. today i'll cut back on food. tomorrow, the fast. i'll spend the day crocheting and studying. the idea is not to do too much. then sunday i plan to eat all raw- lots of fruit! i'll try to continue raw monday. if it feels right, i'll continue to eat raw for a while. i won't force it, but i'll see how it goes. updates to come...

what are these?!?

i got these in an organic veggie box we got from some friends. i've never seen anything like them... i'm thinking they're of the chive, onion family, but i'm not sure. i haven't tasted them, yet. i imagine they'll end up in some salad tomorrow...

practice today was very rushed because i got up late *again* and had an hour fifteen before i had to get out the door. that set a bad tone for the entire day. things kept piling up... you know those days, where nothing seems easy!

i did have a nice lunch, though with friends. pizza and ice cream. ice cream always helps cheer me up! especially when it has peanut butter cups in it! actually, anything with peanut butter cups cheers me up!

one more thing about paris

before we went to paris last summer, we saw a fun little movie called "le chat". it was an independent film that was centered around a cat that vandals had painted on buildings and structures around paris- apparently a political statement. when we got there i eagerly anticipated my first "chat" sighting. i ended up seeing 3 or 4 on random buildings. this is one. i think this is the first one i saw.

monday starts my detox. i plan to eat fruits and veggies during the day and brown rice/ soups at night. i'm mixing recipes from a couple of detox books and a gourmet raw book i bought (mainly for the beautiful picutres) called raw food real world. these cooked recipes include an indian cleansing stew called kitchari as well as some other soups- a beet soup, and a veg soup. tomorrow i'll make the kitchari because i have tons of mung beans in my pantry. it's so good with brown basmati rice!

today i practiced full primary with second up to laghuvajrasana- for the first time in over 2 weeks! backbends were great, but i felt a little sore later in the day, so i need to be mindful of that- i.e. i need to keep my heels down. i got a late start, though, because i slept in and went to brunch with friends. i really need to get up earlier. that will be the next step. once i can combine the two- full practice and not sleeping in- i'll be back in action!

crazy experience and perpendicular parallel parking

i've never been a fan of big cars. big, gass guzzling cars.-- i was going through some old pics from our trip to paris last summer. i love the smart cars they drive in europe. and i HAD to take this picture of one of them "parallel parked" perpendicularly. AND apparently they're going to be offered in the US in 2008! in addition to being environmentaly friendly, they're super cute! the obvious drawback for most, however, is the 2 person capacity...

today was unseasonably cold. we went to the first ever "BAM- belmont arts and music festival" tonight. got to see bob mould, the bon mots, and the redwalls. all fun bands.

i also had a crazy experience... last night i went to a friend's b-day party which included live band karaoke. (i'm a huge karaoke nut- it must be my korean heritage!) anyway, a random guy there (i.e. no one i knew) sang "welcome to the jungle". that was late last night. then today, we were having dinner at one of my fav places "cho sun ok"- completely different part of the city- and he just happened to walk in! kind of freaky... we decided NOT to say anything to him, lest he'd rather forget the night before drunken axl rose imitation... so i didn't mention it. but tonight at the BAM, there he was again (!!), standing next to us watching the bands play! so i HAD to say something. he was as freaked out as we were! and to think, we never would have known if he hadn't gotten up to sing the night before! we never would have recognized him! which makes me wonder if this has happened before and i just never noticed. weird.

so no yoga today (saturday) but i'm going to try to do my entire practice tomorrow- including what i did before my long break. i've decided to go on a water fast this friday (moon day) and a juice fast the following two days. one of my teachers is doing this- as part of a longer fruit/veggie diet and she has inspired me to clean up my act, too!

slowly getting back

last night we watched "the motorcycle diaries" a fantastic movie based on journal writings by Che Guevara. it was one of the better films i've seen in awhile. i didn't know much about his life and this film has inspired me to learn more. a couple years back i had a student write a brilliant poem about him for "louder than a bomb"- an annual poetry slam contest for chicago high school students.

(yoga)
i'm getting back into the swing of things after a 2 week long vacation. i'm trying to get back into a 6 X per week practice schedule. i'm also trying to eat better. i'm researching a few detox styles. i know the "master cleanse" is popular with a lot of people but the thought of drinking only a lemonade concoction for 10 days sounds a little extreme... i've also been looking at "the raw detox diet" by natalia rose. it looks good, and more importantly, it looks like something i could stick with for awhile.

today i just did primary again. it worked out well, because i only do primary on fridays. then tomorrow, rest. on sunday i hope to do my full primary along with second series- up to laghuvajrasana. i'm still working to get up from that pose. most recently my teacher told me to go back as far as i can without disengaging my legs- and then come up. that works- and i can feel myself getting closer with practice.... however, now that i took a couple of weeks off, i've probably taken a few steps back.

chia lemonade

i can't believe i'm still sore from primary series on friday! didn't practice this morning... had some friends over for brunch- chilaquiles and bloody marys. and this crazy drink called chia lemonade. it was amazing and refreshing. who knew the same seeds that created those silly chia pets could taste so good AND be so good for you! you must check out the recipe!

last night i went with some friends to this italian festival in the city. it was so great- i haven't seen so many mullets (that weren't jokes) since the 80's! there was lots of cheese such as fake statues of the leaning tower of pisa and a copy of the david statue. there was also this great band that played covers of bobby darin and the buckinghams!

ahh, the weekend...
today i have to get back to work. i meet with some other grad students to discuss some math tomorrow and i should be prepared. so today i'm going to resist the urge to go out and enjoy the beautiful (!!) day and instead study until my brain is full. then tonight, we're going to do our ritual "movie, chinese food night". tonight it's "midnight cowboy" (with jon voight) and general tso's fried tofu. yummy!