A Week of Amazing Friends and Some Art

I've spent the past week in the company of many glorious friends of mine.  We laughed at the ridulousness of watching Pitch Perfect 2 on opening night in a theater full of tweens who actually clapped at the end like it was a world class movie (it was pretty funny though). We've worked out at the gym laughing at all of the lugs grunting and groaning taking themselves way to seriously. We've walked around the Lilac Festival making sure to stop and enjoy the lilacs, gone to yoga and laughed out loud at the horrible poses requested of us (that obviously normal people aren't meant to be able to do), enjoyed the amazing weather by going to stand up paddle boarding at the bay and creek (trying not to anger the geese with their ducklings), and eating a lot of ice cream and chocolate chip cookies!!! What more can a person ask for in life

I've even starting creating some art again. I'm taking my little travel sketchbook and pens with me on my trip. There is going to be a horrific amount of time spent in airports and planes so maybe I'll get some good creating time in. ;)

AcroYoga

So life has been busy and I haven't gotten to do yoga at all for over a month. I finally made it back to Sunday morning yoga at Lulu Lemon. I knew something was up from the time I walked in. They had coffee, and Kind bars (yuck), and a raffle for a couple of prizes. That was unusual but the most unusual part was the wood floor was covered with mats and not the yoga mats of everyone but the kind that are puzzle pieces that you put together. Then everyone put their mats on top of those mats.  The place was packed.

It turned out that I was in for some acroyoga (acrobat).  The first half of the class was tough yoga and the second half required you to partner up with (your community) in twos and threes where you tried some pretty wacky moves.

I left there unsure about the yoga session. It was good to try something new but I like my personal space and having others walk and lay all over my mat didn't really appeal to me. Plus it was pretty uncomfortable trying to trust complete strangers to hold you up in these awkward poses and not drop you. Not to mention it was to close to comfort. Some people were sweaty and smelling a bit ripe since it was hot in the store.  It was my favorite kind of yoga, that's for sure.

Once again I feel that we as a society try to take things to far sometimes. What happen to just plain yoga...you know something that's good for your body and mind...without having to twist it into something new and different?

Catching Up

I've been lacking in keeping up with my blog over the past couple of weeks. Been a bit busy. So here's the skinny on what I've been up to.

1. I got to run the Corporate Challenge 2014! My professor surprising gave us the night off and although registration had closed one of my co-workers canceled out at the last moment so I was able to take her place. I ran as our 60 y/o nurse.  This event was pretty crazy. There was almost 11,000 people in the race. Our company didn't rent a tent or sponser food so my co-workers and I hauled a pop up tent and camping chairs over a mile and illegal found a spot to set it all up. Our team enjoyed the benefits of this; however we still had no food which was a slight bummer. Mostly because it was a long night and as you're rounding the last half mile you smell tons of bbq food from the other company tents so I was at least salvating.

Overall, I ran really well. It was wierd in that it wasn't a 5k but 3.5 miles. I came in first for females in my company and 2nd overall in my company. I ranked 81st of about 5,500 females overall in the race and 627 out of almost 11,000 total runners.  I was very pleased with my results.

**Next up on the race front-a Teachers 5K to support our city school district, then a 4th of July 5K with my friend and her family, followed by the Warrior Dash.

2.  I'm back into yoga (well a little). My friend and I went to Lulu Lemon on a Sunday morning as they have free yoga, pilates and zoomba classes.  We followed up with a run along beach path at Durrand Park and then laid out at beach. To round off our day we went to Cheese Masters and had an amazing grilled cheese sandwich ending with Yolishous for froyo for dessert. What a perfect day.

 

 

Work also is sponsering free yoga for faculty, students and staff every Wednesday so I went last week and am planning to go to as many as I can. We did yoga outside last week on the grass which was nice but had it's challenges, such as ants on my mat. ;(

3.  I went to my parents this past weekend to help celebrate my grandma's 85th birthday. We threw a surprise large family/friend birthday party for her. My mom asked me to make a sunflower banner to post up at the event. She always forgets how long this takes. I spent about 2.5 hours making it but it turned out well and I think my grandma appreciated. 

My mom outdid herself with making awesome centerpieces. She made up 16 sunflower centerpieces using canning jars, one fake sunflower, burlap and ribbon and finished them off with ordering real sunflowers and some time of neat filler that smelled good. My job was to put the flower arrangements together. I think I did pretty good.

Trampoline Fitness, Races, Potluck Dinners and Art: What a combo

My friends and I checked out Ariel Arts of Rochester trampoline fitness class this week as a new adventure.  It was a full body workout and a hilariously good time.  I like that you can just do drop in classes that fit whatever your schedule is that given week. This workout was way different from running and I enjoyed that it worked different muscles. I was less excited about being sore for the next couple of days.  All of us are going back this week!  We took a couple of group photos but unfortunately I forgot to have them take one of just me so I could post.  In order to respect my friends privacy I won't post the group photo. However; since this exercise class just started being offered they asked us if they could video tape a small portion of it for advertising. The class said yes, but little did we know we would be a main advertisement on the Ariel Arts site now!  So, if you want/need a laugh for the day check out our exercise class video at http://aerialartsrochester.com/classes/trampoline-fitness/. **Note there were others in the class that were regulars and been taking the class.

Other news; I registered for the Mess a Dress run and so far have about 4 friends also running with me in the race.  I have two dresses to pick from as a co-worker and my intern both donated dresses to me. Both have to be altered to fit me and make it so I can run in the dress, but I'm excited to kind of make my own dress. One is shades of pink so if I choose that one I'll be Molly Ringwald from Pretty in Pink and if I choose the red lace dress I'll be Julie Roberts in Pretty Woman. Stay tuned to see which dress I end up choosing. I'll take a before and after pic with the alterations and of course before and after pics at the race.

I'm excited to report that my friend found a Night Glow run for us to possibly travel to this summer. There is one in Baltimore and my friend has a friend we can stay with in D.C.. I believe the date for that run is July 9th. This was a run I had on my list of races to participate in and is one of the top 20 fun runs to partake in.

Oh, the faculty/staff Arts and Crafts Exhibit at work was just announced. It will take place through the month of March. I already submitted by piece. Aren't you surprised. :)

I started back to work and classes full time this week. It's been an adventure in and of itself. Adjusting has been a bit difficult but by the end of this coming week things should settle out.  One of things I was excited about with the semester starting was that it meant Candlelight Yoga would restart.  My institution is awesome in that it offers 5 different yoga classes each week (2 during lunch breaks and 3 at night) for free to all faculty, students, staff and alumni.  I was able to talk one of my classmates into trying out the candlelight yoga which I did last semester and loved.  I go on Thursday nights because I especially love the instructor Laura.  I feel she incorporates what yoga should be instead of what the western world has turned it into.  At the end of class I leave there feeling very much at peace with myself and the world.  As an added bonus I sleep like a rock those nights. It felt good to back in the class. I also found yoga makes me a stronger and faster runner.

A positive end to my week was a get together with my friends for a potluck dinner and game night. The food was amazing (chicken and dumplings, homemade mac and cheese, apple and walnut salad, desserts, risotto and more). In addition there was great beverages to choose from.  After dinner our games were Cranium and some wager game that we've played before. Last game night included Humanity and Pictionary.  Now if only I wasn't the only single person with 6 couples! ;)

Stay tuned for more art, races and other adventures...