a good list

chex mix, bisque, baseball, chapter 2 of a yummy book, a good flirt, muscles, arm muscles, the END of a 3 hour yoga practice, boots, sweaters, coats, new york, my sister, 2 days off in a row!

11:53 PM - 5 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

update: My 60 Day Challenge--

today makes 33 down. 27 to go. I've proven a few things to myself and although i'm just slightly over halfway there I now know that the internet is not a negative distraction in my life and am coming back online as soon as I can coordinate meeting the cable guy! See y'all soon with lots-o-blogging!

Bikram's yoga is a type of yoga named after the yogi who "invented" it, Bikram Choudury.  (Hell I don't know how to spell his name, correctly, and have no energy left to google it, right now).  It's a 90 minute session of 26 poses, done twice each (except for one) and done in a room heated to 105F degrees.  It's effing hot.  It's hard.  Very hard.  One might find themselves dizzy, lightheaded and nauseated. 

The point of the heat is to warm the muscles, tendons and joints for the rigorous set of poses with less possibility of injury.  The heat is also in place to create an extreme amount of sweat helping to rid the body of toxins.  The heat also helps your body to endure extreme conditions.  The heat also forces you to seriously focus on your breathing therefore conditioning your lungs, as well, being only allowed to breathe through your nose (until the last breathing excercise, that is).  The heat ALSO gives practitioners bragging rights, "Yeah, I work out for 90 minutes in 105 degree temperatures."  Or, if you're like me you can say, "Yeah I puked, today, trying to work out in 105 degrees."

It's a really fascinating experience as not only is it physically grueling but it's also a mental excercise.  You are not allowed to move around between poses.  You are only allowed to drink water when the teacher announces "party time." You are not allowed to look at your classmates--only focusing on yourself in the mirror.  You cannot wipe the sweat away, yet you are expected to perform moves that require a very tight grip--incredibly challenging when you're completely soaked and dripping with sweat like rain drops in the whole room.  "No wiggle, no wipe," the teacher says quite often.  You cannot adjust your t shirt, your shorts, nothing.  "Your shirt will ride up again, leave it there. Accept it and be still," I've heard the teacher say. 

And when you can--when you do, truly, bring your mind back inside your body--you can perform a challenging pose with no wiggle, no wipe, no adjust, no gawking at anyone else, no thinking of who said what and when, no bills, no rejection, sorrow, stress, breathing in and out your nose, balancing, locking, releasing--you see why this Bikram's yoga is quite amazing.

All this in 5 90 minute sessions.  255 poses, "asanas." 

I excitedly and humbly look forward to the next 55 sessions.

Namaste.

5:43 AM - 11 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

the bad list

Driving, melted icecream, alcoholism, prejudice & ignorance, chipped toenail polish, self righteousness, raw tomatoes, celine Dion, dischord, unrequited love.

2:39 PM - 15 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

the night we met in ether

i awakened

heavy from the bedsheets

the sweaty rocket

nightly i fly

a solitary pilot

of whichever craft i craft

but that night i made

a gondola of hearts

and full blooms of heavy wet petals

roses from the South and climbing

full thorned on my gated ironheart

wings of flowers and a boat and a boat

but the sound of my voice sleeptalking sleep talking

now i'm awake awake

and the vapor of the ether where we met

has vanished

though we met in ether

has vanished.

10:28 AM - 12 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

it’s the smell of the lake

it's the smell of the lake

(all this time has passed)!

summers --a tomboy childhood

water skiing with all my cousins

though my mother wanted me to act like a girl

mallards and a fish floating

white-eyed death impervious and flesh stink

rotting youth

sneaking dad's miller lite 

conspiring with the other kids on similar life

no matter the countries i've been--

continents are not wide enough.

my drawl the thumbprint

as soft as arkansas.

4:02 PM - 18 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

the type of people i like

i like to laugh.  like seriously laugh real hard.  like this....HAHAHAHAHA.  like that.  and if, perchance, something i'm drinking exits my nose or something like that while struggling to hold my tummy from hurting because i'm laughing so hard--even better.  if you are the type of person to do this to me i love you forever. well, or at least until you begin to bore me. then i'll still love you but give you a little less attention. thanks.

7:15 PM - 9 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

the border of Afghanistan

floods in the midwest

storms to come in the East

mind the border of Afghanistan

the war in my heart

and the damp pillow

upon which i must sleep.

8:37 PM - 2 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

the sad circus

summer is thick

the air wet and heavy

thunder rumbles

no shelter no trees--

in the distance you might hear music

and sorrow to find

it's only the circus.

4:34 AM - 6 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

rat tatta ta tat tat, bang bang!

i'm a texan! i'm a texan!
i'm a texas star.
way out yonder where the
cowgirls are!
i can ride 'em
i can rope 'em
i can show 'em how it's done.
so, come on cowgirls
put your six shooters on!

4:45 AM - 14 Comments - 24 Kudos - Add Comment

like that winged seed (rev.)

like that winged seed
spiraling down from the tree
laughter is for my soul
and softens the blow.

3:52 AM - 14 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment