Goals for 2013

I've been thinking about goals and resolutions.  I like goal-setting, it makes me feel accountable to myself.  I feel really good about 2013 for three minor reasons:

1. Odd numbers are my favorite
2. The number thirteen has a history of good things in my family
3. There will be lots of change happening this year, and I embrace change

Personal Goals

• Go on a blind date
• Ask someone out on a date, because who says I can't go after what I want?
• Find a more unified theme for my blog, and increase my viewing audience
• Go on at least four brewery tours by the end of the year
• Ride a hot air balloon
• Send birthday packages/care packages/cards to show I love my family and friends 
• Buy all Christmas gifts by the end of November
• Send out Christmas cards by the first week of December
• Make a habit out of reading CNN, just like I read blogs/social media sites
• Every time I open social media I have to open CNN or another news source
• Minimizing all meat intake to once a week
• Go ALL OUT for holidays (Valentine's, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Mardi Gras)
• Travel abroad at least once this year 
• Travel to NYC, New Orleans, Dallas (for you, Sarah), Boston, Seattle, and Santa Fe
• Take another road trip across the country
• See more of my best friends (in person)
• Go to at least one concert

Physical Goals

• Continue to improve my yoga practice, and master at least two more headstands, including variations of dolphin and scorpion
• Join a yoga studio by the end of September 2013
• Join a gym with spinning classes by the end of September 2013 and join
• Find a team sport/ book club (not physical, but still) / beer tasting club or other group the join by October 2013

Professional Goals

• If accepted to a graduate program I want to choose one that will help achieve my long-term professional goals
• Apply to work at Teach For America's Summer Institute to gain professional development and better improve my management skills and leading a group of people towards success.
• Give my students a purpose every day for why they are in my classroom, with a goal-driven mindset until they exit in May 2013
• Mentor at minimum two more students individually on their life goals
• Set up a field trip for my Spanish I & Spanish II students by end of March 2013
• Make sure I am always doing something to work for social justice, whether that is volunteering somewhere new, helping individuals, or donating to a cause.

This list is definitely subject to change and I will probably add to it.  So much to accomplish, but it's a long year.  Among all these goals I want to create more.  The world is my canvas...

I'll show you how it turns out in 2013 ;)

What about you, share one thing you'd like to accomplish in 2013?

Inversion Number Two: Check

Some exciting news today:

• I wore my Frye Boots for the first time today! I received many compliments at school, even from my boys.  
• I mastered Salamba Sirasana II AKA: Tripod Headstand. Wahoo! I really thought I wasn't going to get it until at least November.  If you're thinking, "what's the big difference going from Salamba Sirasana I to Salamba Sirasana II?" Well, different headstands or inversions are different for everyone.  While one may appear difficult to one person, another may have the right arm strength or core strength to do another type of inversion.  Regardless, I'm proud of myself.  Last May I would not have been able to do this.  
• I'm also getting closer and closer to doing the non-modified version of Koundinyasana I 
• New goal is the forearm stand called Pincha Mayurasana

Obviously I was excited

..smiling and smiling. Focusing on my breathing.

...and finally balancing.

Tuesday Teacher outfit with my Fryes

Have you accomplished a fitness goal lately? Please share! 

Fall is...

Happy first day of FALL everyone!

The weather is changing.  The air smells lovely outside, and I cannot wait to see some leaves change color pretty soon.  My weekend has been pretty relaxing.  I've been getting a lot of things done.  My Saturday has been productive.  Woke up early, got a workout in, went walking on a trail, did some outdoor yoga, had a green monster, printed pictures, framed pictures, lunch, decorated for Halloween, hung pictures, walked to Walgreen's, dinner, graded, and that is a day.

My room is coming together nicely.  Here are some pictures to prove it.  I just love being able to see those I love and care about on my wall after framing some of my favorite pictures.  My current stress is my graduate school application essays.  I need inspiration to strike so that I can truly express myself.

Fall means fall colored nail polish 

Fall means fall candles!

Photo frame collage!

Shoe art

Fall is for swinging outdoors

Fall means yoga outdoors

Balance.

Namaste.

Inversion #1...Check!

My first yoga goal: doing an inversion (headstand) successfully using only my core strength and balancing. CHECK.

Salamba Sirasana - Headstand 

So much arm strength :) 

Don't worry, I got so excited I decided to try again outside at home.  

Belle, the cat was obviously amused by my headstand

 Yesterday I attempted to do this in class without the use of a wall and got so excited that I flipped forward and fell hard on my caboose.  Still hurts, don't you worry.  Today, I practiced before trying it without a wall to break my fall.  I just feel so accomplished.  This pose does not hurt the head if your weight is distributed evenly throughout your arms.  I barely put any pressure on my head and believe it or not it is extremely relaxing.  I take a couple of deep breaths, keep my core sucked in, and imagine a youthful glow taking over my face.

Inversion goal number #2: to master a second headstand by December. I CAN DO IT!

For all your yoga fans, here is a video I hope you enjoy.
 Namaste.

"Of my heart to see"

I just paid for something really expensive.  Well, for shoes, okay boots.  When I think of the fact that I have wanted these boots for years and years...(no I am not exaggerating) I can justify how okay it is for me to have purchased them.  I am using birthday money I never used, so it's really okay, right?  That, and I never splurge this much on myself.  Check these babies out:

Frye Paige Tall Riding Boot 

I am utterly excited about my boots for the fall/winter season.  They should be arriving within five to seven days and I ordered purposely from Nordstrom's because of their loyalty and essentially infinite return policy.  First wear for these? Seattle, Washington of course! 

I'm really into the Mumford and Sons Pandora station lately.  I used to not like Mumford about two years ago when I discovered them, but lately I have found that I really connect to their lyrics.  Their new album comes out September 24th.  I am seriously thinking Mumford and Sons are the perfect fall music, and if categorizing music by seasons is wrong I don't want to be right.  

Thoughts about my weekend: 

• I felt accomplished for having my Spanish 1 students writing paragraphs
• I bought a football jersey at the football game Friday night
• I discovered my house's balcony and sat up there Saturday night 
• The roomies and I have been taking run/walks around town 
• Yoga inversions (AKA: Headstands) became possible! Hip, hip, hooray for core strength
• We celebrated Mexican Independence Day by making fish tacos with avocado crema and Mexican beer. 

So proud of my Spanish I students for writing short paragraphs in Spanish a month into school.

Excuse my form

Go Mustangs! 

Fish tacos with avocado crema

Closing thoughts on must-do's in Seattle (not including spontaneous adventures) in October:

• Evolution Fresh
• Visit a Microbrewery
• Picture on a rooftop with the skyline in the background
• The Seattle Great Wheel
• Eat at Row House again...mmmm so good. 

"Om namah shivaya" and WIWW

Thoughts from my Wednesday and Thursday:

• Due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaac, we have school closures all over Louisiana and I should be returning to work on Friday.  Is it bad that I secretly hope we don't have to?!
• I not so secretly hope that the storm damages are minor 
• More than anything, I don't want the storm to prevent flights from going out this weekend, specifically my flight on Saturday morning to Seattle to visit the sweet Lisa.  
• The roommates and I spent the morning being lazy, but we got our vinyasa flowing. 
• I plan on buying two drawer handles from Anthropologie. 

Speaking of yoga...you have to see this video.  Makes me laugh every time.  It's perfectly perfect.  

On a different note, yesterday was my ex-boyfriend's birthday.  It's difficult not thinking of someone who you used to share everything with and not being able to share this moment anymore.  Almost as if it shouldn't still mean something.  I definitely remembered and definitely thought about it...all day.  I didn't push myself to send an email until sometime after 10pm.  Why was it so hard to press send? 

Pressing send meant opening a line of communication again.  Not pressing it would be easy, it would be fully letting it go.  Or would it?  Would letting go be pressing send and pouring the kindness that was in my heart?  So I pressed it.  I didn't expect the immediate response I received.  And now, the question that lies is whether I'm ready to accept a friendship.  Every kind fiber that resonates inside me wants to say yes, but something is holding me back from welcoming that friendship again.  A huge part of it is that I haven't taken the time to truly feel all of the emotions from what once was.  Yes, I am in a great place in comparison to where I was in May.  Also, definitely much better than when I was in that relationship, but I still need to feel things I haven't felt.  A part of me is afraid that a friendship with him will mean going back to where I was.  

I fear being drained of my happiness, of my optimism, and of losing every part of me that I have begun to gain back in the last couple of months.  Whether my associations with what once was are partly or completely fair, I still have them, I still fear what a friendship with him would mean.  All I know is that I am vulnerable enough to admit that I don't think my heart is ready for that friendship right now.  

The house is really coming along! We are quite the desperate housewives. 

When teachers don't have to teach---Hurricane Isaac Party! 

Taco Tuesday

Namaste from our dining room

What I wore Wednesday - T-Shirt, running shorts, no makeup. 

We partied with the Biebs

Don't worry, I was wearing shorts underneath.  The winds were getting pretty rough here.

What we wear when we go out in a hurricane. 

Yoga-ta try this post!

I would bet that Fernando Delgadillo read this prior to writing Entre Pairos y Derivas

I have to tell y'all that sometimes I get inspiration (mostly for my personal posts) and it's like something foreign takes over my body mind heart and all I do is write until it empties.  I write, and write, and write.  I hit publish and about two hours later it settles and I realize, "Yes, I just did that."  I go through a cycle of wonder, "What came over me? Why did I do that?"and that is how I result posting things like  this.

On a different note, I must share with you and tell y'all that the highlight of my week is always my yoga sessions.  Among my other workouts, which are in the morning, I attend yoga twice a week in the evenings.  These are hardcore sessions my friends.  Most days I sweat buckets in there, and it's not even "hot" yoga.  I have resorted to not wearing a shirt and just keeping my yoga pants and sports bra on.  Hey, you would too if you were in this class.  No need to feel self-conscious, the lights are completely out in the room anyway.  Not just because I sweat a ton, but I feel so incredibly cleansed afterward.

In a variation of pigeon pose.  Excuse my messy hair s'il vous plait. 

Transitions
If you are new to yoga it may be a difficult transition from other forms of exercise.  Yoga takes patience, time, and concentration.  I find that when I fully concentrate in my practice it makes a load of difference than when I'm too focused on other things going on in my life.  The best thing to do when you're not sure what you should be thinking or how to "focus" is to breathe.  Keep breathing, through hard poses, and especially follow the guidance of your yoga instructor.  They typically do a great job of telling you when you should be inhaling or exhaling.

Isn't it all flexibility and pretzel formations though?
Most people who have never experienced yoga tend to think "pretzel" formations or "flexibility." And while yes, sometimes you end up looking like a pretzel in class and you definitely improve your overall flexibility, yoga is so much more than that.  I think it is often taken for granted how much strength it takes to get through a yoga class.  You are constantly strengthening your body by doing different poses.  You use the weight of your own body and, if done correctly, your core. Yoga sculpts your body, and with poses like warrior III and plank you are lifting pounds of your own body weight.

What it can do for you
Through yoga you learn to love your body in a completely different way.  As cheesy and granola as this sounds, you start to learn the rhythm of your body and become more in tune with it.  The power of the human body will surprise you, and you will gain greater self-confidence.  I love that yoga focuses on how your body feels and what it can do rather than how it looks.

First Timer
Don't be turned off if you find it to be intimidating going to your first yoga class.  There are always beginner classes you can try, and I promise there are pose modifications for every pose! Make sure and arrive early to tell the instructor you are new to the practice, ask them to show modifications for poses.  Yoga instructors can be some of the nicest people you will ever encounter.  Fear them not!

And last, I leave you all with the song that's been in my head all day.  Old, old, song from the nineties (best decade ever!).  A Tejano song by Bobby Pulido (what a hunk).  I find the video strange because he is in San Francisco of all places.  If you've never heard Tejano music before, it is a genre original to the state of Texas and listened to mostly by Mexican Americans.  The music has German influences, can you tell? (Hint, hint: the accordion).  Enough of that, here's the video:

What's your favorite yoga pose?

Namaste.