The a/c at work is broken. This is not a problem for me. I get cold, y'all! I always turn it off when I'm working anyway. The weather has been so nice recently and that gives me a whole new outlook on life. Seriously, living under constant grey skies had really been taking a toll on me. Here's hoping the sun is here to stay for the summer.
Stormy is still here and we've been having fun. So far I've taken her to Multnomah Falls, Hood River, Mt Hood, Manzanita and Cannon Beach. She is 15 (16 in a few days) and doesn't seem as interested in some of these sights as I'd like her to be. She sometimes seems far more interested in who is texting her and what Joe Schmoe's facebook status says, but I think that these memories will be with her for the rest of her life and that she will remember them fondly. For Pete's sake, (who is Pete?) she has never been anywhere besides North Carolina and Pennsylvania! It is a whole different world out here! She thinks the people are weird, but that's to be expected. I mean, aren't they? I've just gotten used to it! And let's be honest- by Virginia standards, I am probably pretty weird myself. Tonight is the cupcake and champagne party that I've been talking about for almost two months! I can't believe it's already the end of June. We're going to have a lot of fun! Stormy is making funfetti cupcakes with vanilla icing, and when I get home from work we are going to decorate them together.
Stormy's been going to bed pretty early. I think she is still on east coast time, and also the child sleeps for 12-14 hours a night. So last night after she went to bed, Keith and I had a date. We went to M Bar. Finally! I'll have to start carrying my camera around with me to take pictures of things I do. This place was ka-yoot! I have been walking past it on my way home from Trader Joe's for months and months and I've really been wanting to go it. The whole place is 280 square feet, and the bathroom makes up 80 of those square feet. There are three seats at the bar, and lucky Keith and I scored two of them. I had a glass of white wine and he had a really good ipa. From there, we headed down to Cha Bar, another place I've been wanting to check out. Unfortunately, because of the neighborhood association, you can't sit outside after 10pm, so we sat inside and had some happy hour food. Keith got a Dos Equis and I got sangria. I decided that I don't like sangria so Keith drank most of it. I'm sure he didn't mind! There are so many cute and fun little places around our house that we haven't been to, so we've vowed to check more of them out. Besides, who knows how long we'll be sticking around?
A girl came into my store wearing a really cute dress. I commented on it and she told me that she made it and that she has a store in Nob Hill. She gave me her card with her website on it, and it turns out that she custom makes clothing for people! I thought it was pretty awesome, so I'm going to share her website with you and you can see for yourself. www.lindsaypantano.com
xoxo-
T
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
yesterday
Multnomah Falls. Hood River. Coffee and a bagel in the sun at Doppio Coffee Lounge. Handmade earrings by a local arteest that were out of my price range. A scenic drive from Hood River to Timberline Lodge. Blue skies. Snow covered mountain. Green trees. Abundant color. Abundant life. A deer on the side of the road. Vineyards. Fruit stands. My soul sister sitting next to me (texting the whole time, but with me nonetheless). A beautiful day.
Monday, June 21, 2010
monday
Yoga feeds my soul and makes my life worth living. You should try it sometime. I can teach you???
Thursday, June 10, 2010
thursday
It is no surprise that I hate the rain. Well, it's raining. The past couple of days, if I remember correctly, have been really on and off with the rain. I never know when I'm leaving the house if I should take sunglasses or an umbrella. But right now, it's just pouring. I hope it will stop for The Corners tonight! I really wanted an americano and a donut when I woke up, but I don't even want to so much as walk across the street in this shiz. When will it end?! So I am listening to the Beirut Pandora station to make myself feel better. Beirut reminds me of the desert! Not sure why? But I like it!
Speaking of The Corners- let's talk about this. Portland Mercury and Willamette Week reviewed it as part of the Portland Underground Film Festival yesterday. WW didn't even mention it, but the Mercury sure did. They called it insufferable and said to "skip it" in favor of some film called 'Taint' that features "ejaculating zombies" and "a humorous home abortion scene". Okay, so we'll take that review with a grain of salt. But still, it stung a little. This film was our life for several months. Longer for Keith and Jon. Way to support your city's local film makers, you dingbat assholes.
And while we're speaking of films, I rented Shutter Island out of the redbox last night. Keith had been wanting to see it and I was sure I wouldn't like it. But, since those stupid reviews left a little rain cloud over his head I decided I would rent it for him. Especially since the last two movies I redboxed were 'Dear John' and 'It's Complicated'. We didn't start the movie until almost 10 and it was over two hours long, but I got sucked in and stayed up to watch the whole thing. This is quite a feat for me, I used to have a really hard time sitting down to watch an entire movie. This movie completely blew me away. It was phenomenal, fantastic, and took a few dramatic twists that really worked. It wasn't the kind of movie you could just pop in while doing something else and still "get it", so if you're going to watch it, you need to give it your full attention. Keith and I might watch it again today to get the "bigger picture" effect. Man, it was great! Highly recommend it. I thought it was supposed to be a horror film, but it's not. It's actually listed on imdb as 'drama', 'thriller' and 'mystery'. See it now!
Okay, enough about movies. Let's talk about yoga. Yes! Yoga. Yesterday I had two great classes. I have come to truly love Wednesdays. Yoga at 5:45 am, then I take Eva's spinning class at 6:30 and teach my class at 7:30. A lot of the people in the spin class come next door for my yoga class afterwards, so that makes it really fun. Eva even takes my class after I take hers! I call it "spin and zen night". The problem with yesterday was that I'd only eaten a potato with ketchup, a bagel and a banana all day (in that exact reverse order) and I started feeling really shaky and jittery midway through spin class. Yikes! So I left class 5 minutes early so I could run down to the front desk and buy, then inhale, some sort of food bar. Not sure what it was, I didn't even bother to look. I just grabbed one that said 'soy' on the label and ate it in four bites. Then I ran back upstairs and taught my class. 40 students. That's a good number, because class is full but I still have room to move around and demonstrate if need be. And sometimes, it's not so much demonstrating as I just want to practice, too! Especially when I do some crap like, "HOLD PLANK FOR 10 BREATHS FOLLOWED BY A 5 COUNT CHATURANGA", I think the participants appreciate when I'm "right there with them", as I say. Last week, I asked my students if they'd like to hear some classic rock jams in class and they threw their arms in the air and yelled yes. I delivered. Here's my playlist from last night:
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Simple Man
Bob Dylan: The Man In Me
Eagles: Hotel California
Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Tuesday's Gone
Neil Young: Harvest Moon
Grateful Dead: Ripple
Bob Dylan: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
The Beatles: Imagine
...and we had a nice juicy six minute savasana to a beautiful Krishna Das track that I don't know the name of!
You may be reading this and thinking I am crazy. You may also be right. But! I know my students. And they know me. I've announced several times how much I love music, and I've talked about the power I believe it has to muster up that we didn't know existed. It has the power to bring back memories, put a smile on our faces, and just in general make everything more fun! Yoga, after all, is supposed to be fun. I want people to look forward to my classes because of my fun music, creative flows and lighthearted approach to an ass-kicking vinyasa class. When people tell me on their way out that class was fun and they can't wait until next week, I feel like my job is done. I also love it when people share their success stories with me. For example, "two months ago I couldn't touch my toes, and now I can!" I love teaching yoga! It feeds my soul more than anything else in this world. Now don't get me wrong, while I do try to make my classes fun and accessible, there's still a spiritual aspect involved. We always take a few minutes at the beginning of class to transition from life into our yoga practice, we set an intention, connect with our breath. And we come back to that randomly throughout class. After class, in that space between savasana and 'namaste' I ask students to notice the differences in their bodies and minds "now as opposed to an hour ago". I think God put me on this Earth to teach yoga. I'm no Kathryn Budig or Seane Corn, but I am Tami Hurley, learning more and more with each passing day and each passing class. Yoga gets me through. There are days when I think, "How am I going to teach tonight? How am I going to get out of bed at 5 am and guide folks through a YOGA PRACTICE?!" But I always find a way. Just thinking about my yoga practice and how it has changed my life, just typing these words, puts a huge smile on my face.
And on that note, I shall end!
xoxo-
T
Speaking of The Corners- let's talk about this. Portland Mercury and Willamette Week reviewed it as part of the Portland Underground Film Festival yesterday. WW didn't even mention it, but the Mercury sure did. They called it insufferable and said to "skip it" in favor of some film called 'Taint' that features "ejaculating zombies" and "a humorous home abortion scene". Okay, so we'll take that review with a grain of salt. But still, it stung a little. This film was our life for several months. Longer for Keith and Jon. Way to support your city's local film makers, you dingbat assholes.
And while we're speaking of films, I rented Shutter Island out of the redbox last night. Keith had been wanting to see it and I was sure I wouldn't like it. But, since those stupid reviews left a little rain cloud over his head I decided I would rent it for him. Especially since the last two movies I redboxed were 'Dear John' and 'It's Complicated'. We didn't start the movie until almost 10 and it was over two hours long, but I got sucked in and stayed up to watch the whole thing. This is quite a feat for me, I used to have a really hard time sitting down to watch an entire movie. This movie completely blew me away. It was phenomenal, fantastic, and took a few dramatic twists that really worked. It wasn't the kind of movie you could just pop in while doing something else and still "get it", so if you're going to watch it, you need to give it your full attention. Keith and I might watch it again today to get the "bigger picture" effect. Man, it was great! Highly recommend it. I thought it was supposed to be a horror film, but it's not. It's actually listed on imdb as 'drama', 'thriller' and 'mystery'. See it now!
Okay, enough about movies. Let's talk about yoga. Yes! Yoga. Yesterday I had two great classes. I have come to truly love Wednesdays. Yoga at 5:45 am, then I take Eva's spinning class at 6:30 and teach my class at 7:30. A lot of the people in the spin class come next door for my yoga class afterwards, so that makes it really fun. Eva even takes my class after I take hers! I call it "spin and zen night". The problem with yesterday was that I'd only eaten a potato with ketchup, a bagel and a banana all day (in that exact reverse order) and I started feeling really shaky and jittery midway through spin class. Yikes! So I left class 5 minutes early so I could run down to the front desk and buy, then inhale, some sort of food bar. Not sure what it was, I didn't even bother to look. I just grabbed one that said 'soy' on the label and ate it in four bites. Then I ran back upstairs and taught my class. 40 students. That's a good number, because class is full but I still have room to move around and demonstrate if need be. And sometimes, it's not so much demonstrating as I just want to practice, too! Especially when I do some crap like, "HOLD PLANK FOR 10 BREATHS FOLLOWED BY A 5 COUNT CHATURANGA", I think the participants appreciate when I'm "right there with them", as I say. Last week, I asked my students if they'd like to hear some classic rock jams in class and they threw their arms in the air and yelled yes. I delivered. Here's my playlist from last night:
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Simple Man
Bob Dylan: The Man In Me
Eagles: Hotel California
Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Tuesday's Gone
Neil Young: Harvest Moon
Grateful Dead: Ripple
Bob Dylan: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
The Beatles: Imagine
...and we had a nice juicy six minute savasana to a beautiful Krishna Das track that I don't know the name of!
You may be reading this and thinking I am crazy. You may also be right. But! I know my students. And they know me. I've announced several times how much I love music, and I've talked about the power I believe it has to muster up that we didn't know existed. It has the power to bring back memories, put a smile on our faces, and just in general make everything more fun! Yoga, after all, is supposed to be fun. I want people to look forward to my classes because of my fun music, creative flows and lighthearted approach to an ass-kicking vinyasa class. When people tell me on their way out that class was fun and they can't wait until next week, I feel like my job is done. I also love it when people share their success stories with me. For example, "two months ago I couldn't touch my toes, and now I can!" I love teaching yoga! It feeds my soul more than anything else in this world. Now don't get me wrong, while I do try to make my classes fun and accessible, there's still a spiritual aspect involved. We always take a few minutes at the beginning of class to transition from life into our yoga practice, we set an intention, connect with our breath. And we come back to that randomly throughout class. After class, in that space between savasana and 'namaste' I ask students to notice the differences in their bodies and minds "now as opposed to an hour ago". I think God put me on this Earth to teach yoga. I'm no Kathryn Budig or Seane Corn, but I am Tami Hurley, learning more and more with each passing day and each passing class. Yoga gets me through. There are days when I think, "How am I going to teach tonight? How am I going to get out of bed at 5 am and guide folks through a YOGA PRACTICE?!" But I always find a way. Just thinking about my yoga practice and how it has changed my life, just typing these words, puts a huge smile on my face.
And on that note, I shall end!
xoxo-
T
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
kyron horman
There is a little 7 year old boy missing from Portland, OR. My mom sent me a text about it yesterday, but I was so wrapped up in my own situation that I had completely forgotten about it. When I logged on to people.com this morning, I saw it in the headline news. I hope that he is safe and brought home soon. It has put a damper on my day already. He is so cute. My heart is breaking for him and his family! There are some terrible people in this world. I don't know how someone could harm another human, let alone an innocent little child.
:( :( :(
:( :( :(
Monday, June 7, 2010
monday
Fear is temporary, regret is forever.
I saw this on an old friend's facebook page tonight. Well, just now, actually. And it inspired me. I'm at a place right now where I'm experiencing uncertainty, discomfort and fear. A crossroads, if you will. Decision making time. Not my favorite place to be. I've cried a lot today. Life is not easy. I realize that plenty of people have bigger problems than mine, but that doesn't make mine any easier to deal with. I've changed so much since I've moved to Oregon. I've been forced to. I can't yet figure out if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I am realizing that even when I had a bad day in Virginia, at the end of the day I always had some sense of security, stability. I had my family, my friends, and everything I'd ever known for 23 years. Today, I can honestly say that I have no idea where I will be in six months. I don't know where I will be living. Maybe in another apartment? Maybe in a different city? Different state? I don't know what I will be doing for work, besides teaching yoga. I just don't know. The truth of the matter is that I really don't need to know, I am okay with that. I just want to know that everything will be okay. And tonight, as I sit here staring at this computer screen, I really just don't know.
Answers, please. And life, you can feel free to get easier any time now.
xoxo-
T
I saw this on an old friend's facebook page tonight. Well, just now, actually. And it inspired me. I'm at a place right now where I'm experiencing uncertainty, discomfort and fear. A crossroads, if you will. Decision making time. Not my favorite place to be. I've cried a lot today. Life is not easy. I realize that plenty of people have bigger problems than mine, but that doesn't make mine any easier to deal with. I've changed so much since I've moved to Oregon. I've been forced to. I can't yet figure out if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I am realizing that even when I had a bad day in Virginia, at the end of the day I always had some sense of security, stability. I had my family, my friends, and everything I'd ever known for 23 years. Today, I can honestly say that I have no idea where I will be in six months. I don't know where I will be living. Maybe in another apartment? Maybe in a different city? Different state? I don't know what I will be doing for work, besides teaching yoga. I just don't know. The truth of the matter is that I really don't need to know, I am okay with that. I just want to know that everything will be okay. And tonight, as I sit here staring at this computer screen, I really just don't know.
Answers, please. And life, you can feel free to get easier any time now.
xoxo-
T
Sunday, June 6, 2010
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