Our Camellia

After 5 straight weeks of filling our yard waste bin with the branches and leaves from our camellia bush, today was finally the last load. This story is probably told better though, in pictures...

Zora hugging her beloved "climbing tree" early this fall.

The camellia is the big shrub in the background.

Zora climbing her tree.

Her favorite spot to sit.

And then it snowed, and sleeted and camellia snapped in two :-(

Alex got to work immediately cutting
branches off the downed portion.

Shrub carnage.

Split in two.

Doesn't look too good.

A little lopsided.

Alex with a chainsaw!

Bernadette and Marcel helping out too!

The downed portion was left behind to see if it
would grow. It is now a favorite little fort.

And this branch is a train. Or a bus. Depends on the day.

We'll see how she does through the spring and summer
before making any final decisions.

Om

To my delight, Zora has gotten to see me practice yoga pretty regularly lately. She's usually running around playing, arranging toys, looking at books, and sometimes crawling under me or on top of me in postures. The other day though, I stepped up to the front of my mat to do the opening prayer, and Zora asked "Can I chant with you?" Then she busted out with the prayer (in Sanskrit). I guess it shouldn't have been too surprising, as she's been hearing me chant it for awhile now, but it still took me awhile to learn it myself. She definitely has her father's brain when it comes to memorizing things! This morning I managed to catch her on tape. And yes, that's Zecky cleaning himself in the background ;-)

4 Things I Learned This Week

1. Just because you know how to use a pair of scissors doesn't mean you know how to cut hair.
2. Cutting hair is difficult, and cutting bangs is difficult-er.
3. A three-year-old will not only forgive you for giving her a bad haircut, she will adore the haircut, and still love you crazy hard.
4. Zora can rock any haircut you throw at her. This will be handy in life...

Way shorter and crookeder than I intended,
but you can see her beautiful face!

A Shift

A little over a month ago, Zora and I went in for our yearly physicals. I wasn't too surprised when I stepped on the scale to find that I had gained almost 10 pounds over the past year (we don't have a scale at home, so I never weigh myself). Zora is still nursing, but far less frequently, and I probably haven't adjusted my diet to match. What really hit me though, was when my ND asked me what kind of exercise I was getting. "Um, none really". This was the first time I have ever had that answer, and it felt kind of like a kick in the stomach to me.

I've always been pretty active, and when I started my Ashtanga practice (it will be 8 years this March!), it was the first yoga practice I had that was so physically rigorous. It felt like I was exercising as well as doing yoga. I should probably stop here, since I know a lot of people do consider yoga to be exercise, and it certainly can be. I am not intending to discount or belittle that in any way. It's just to me, the reason I did yoga was not for exercise. Sometimes it was for physical reasons--it did make my body feel better. Mostly though, it was a way for me to calm my mind, my spirit, and be present in both. Exercise was always a separate endeavor for me. When my Ashtanga practice started to be 2 hours, 5-6 days a week though, it seemed like a bonus to be able to count that time as exercising as well. And I think somewhere along the way, I became attached to that. Attached to my yoga practice exercising my body.

I've chronicled here, on this blog, the journey I've had with my Ashtanga practice. My practice has gone up and down. I stopped for awhile, and started up again, only to stop again. I've felt all kinds of frustration over not being able to do certain postures, and having such severe wrist pain that I could no longer do vinyasas. I tried making my practice public a little, to keep myself accountable. I tried practicing in "secret", without Alex even knowing (only Zora knew, since she was there). I think all of these things were symptoms and consequences though, of my attachment to my yoga-exercise. I wanted that rigorous practice back. That was what I was working toward. To do any less than that, I would not be getting the exercise I needed. But I wasn't even close to achieving this goal, which just led to more frustration.

So I completely stopped again. And it sucked. Then, somewhere along this path of no-yoga-at-all, there was a shift. Something clicked and I realized that, even if I was exercising my body during my yoga practice, that was not what I wanted my practice to be about, and I needed to let go of that attachment. I decided to start off again, with sun salutations as a goal, and that's it. So far, every time I've practiced, I've gone beyond the Surya Namaskaras, which is fine, but I'm intentionally not trying to build up to something. I need some time to get to know my practice again, for what it is--yoga.

For now it's taking place in the middle of our living room (not in the yoga room), because that's a place where I know I can exist peacefully for 20 minutes. Sometimes Alex is there to interact with Zora,  and tend to her if needed. Sometimes I am alone with Zora and my practice is interrupted briefly a couple of times. For the most part though, Zora seems cool with me yoga-ing in the living room.

I'm using these 20-30 minutes a day as a way to reacquaint myself with a practice that I don't want to lose completely. Even in the middle of my living room, with the noise and activity going on around me, I'm able to find little moments of calm and clarity. And really, that's all I ever would get even when I was practicing in a room full of Ashtangis surrounded by all kinds of wonderful yoga energy, or alone in our yoga room at home, before Zora was born, with nothing to think about but my practice. Little moments.

And exercise will be separate. I'm finding ways to exercise that will fit in with all the craziness and business of my life. I just started hooping. We'll see if it sticks. I hope next year when I go in for my annual exam, I will be able to say "yes, I am exercising regularly, and I have my yoga practice". And the scale can shove it, since I really don't care what it says!

Zora's First Surya Namaskara B

Sorry it's sideways. When we're recording, we always forget that our video editor can't rotate...

The Things I Miss About New Orleans

I haven't blogged in a long, long time (house-hunting, house-buying, moving, nesting, long trip out of the country, and most of all, laziness), but with another anniversary of Hurricane Katrina upon us, I of course have New Orleans on my mind, and I wanted to write something. In all honesty, I have New Orleans on my mind every day. I wonder if I will ever stop missing it. Probably not.

As I was falling asleep last night, I started thinking about particular things I miss. I woke up this morning and wrote 25 of them down. They're in no particular order, and I'm sure I left out plenty (including some I was thinking of last night), but here they are:

1. Kiran's 6am Mysore (yoga) class

2. Andy's Thursday afternoon phone calls letting me know what not to miss in terms of music during the (extended) weekend

3. The music, when I managed to make it out (see #1)

4. Sharing an office with Amy and getting to watch her interact with her students (then debriefing on the interactions once they would leave)

5. My scooter, Typhoon (seriously), who I had for exactly 4 months before the failed levees completely submerged her in water and rusted her to a crisp

6. Living downstairs from Pam & her kitties

7. Not having a car

8. Riding my bike in the pouring rain (including tropical storms!)

9. Beignets (though they'd be off the menu now, due to the veganism)

10. Biking along the levee on the weekends

11. Exploring the city on our bikes

12. Movies at the Saenger Theatre

13. Post-yoga breakfasts at Surrey's

14. Living close enough to my brother and his kids to visit regularly

15. Jacques-Imo's (even though they had just one vegetarian option--it was delish!)

16. The "wild" parrots who lived in the palm trees in our neighborhood

17. Biking along Bayou St. John at night

18. Riding the Street Car at night in the summer

19. Watching thunderstorms from our front porch

20. Getting to miss work because of hurricane warnings (except for that last one!)

21. Having King Cake at work every day between Epiphany and Mardi Gras

22. Our community garden plot (or P-patch as they're called in Seattle). We tried, really we did…

23. Chit-chat in the math department main office--Lisa and Elaine!

24. Conversations with bus drivers and fellow passengers

25. Our CSA veggie box. Our porch was the drop-off spot, and every week we had at least one that didn't get picked up

But most of all, I miss the people, the people and the people! Those of you who are still there (holding down the fort), and the many who are no longer there.

The Top 5 Things I Will Miss

Even with all the excitement of buying a new house, and the upcoming move, I am still very aware of all the things I will miss about our current house. Yes, we're movin' on up (not to the east side), so we will be leaving behind our kitchen which fits 1.2 people comfortably, our bathroom which fits 0.7 people comfortably, our windows and the lovely icy breezes they let in (when closed), our interior doors--none of which close (but get stuck if you do manage to close them) and our cold, damp basement room, complete with the slight aroma of sewage. These are not the things I will miss. In fact, all the things I will miss lie outside of the house:

#5: Our cherry trees:

Pie cherries last summer

We have two pretty prolific cherry trees in our front yard--one pie cherry (sour cherry), the other is a variety of Rainier cherry. Last summer I discovered that pie cherries not only are great for pies (duh!), but they are delicious dried! Without a cherry pitter, it was a bit of a laborious task, but well worth it! And of course the Rainiers are delicious right off the tree. We just might need to sneak back some night in July to grab a few ;-)

#4: Our view of Mount Rainier: 
Sure, we can only see a piece of it from one of the little windows on the side of our house (damn giant house down the street that blocks the view!), but I love being able to stand in my living room and see this beautiful, majestic mountain. It's the most beautiful around the time the sun sets, and it's all pink like the photo below...

Note: This photo was NOT taken from our tiny window!

#3: The proximity to the library:
The library around the corner from our house was actually the first destination Zora ever walked to (at around 10 or 11 months). At the time, it was a good 45-minute walk, with all the flowers to pick (but not at the house on the corner--I'm scared to pick flowers there!), rocks to inspect and steps to walk up and down at each and every house along the way. Now we can make it there in about 5 minutes, and it's great being able to hang out there reading books, and visiting with all the familiar faces we see there. Our new house is also walkable from a library (15-20 minutes), and I'm sure we will meet new friendly faces, but I will miss being just around the corner.

#2: The proximity to the PCC:
The PCC is definitely our grocery store of choice, and that will not change. I have enjoyed being able to walk there (with my granny cart) to buy groceries, though we do get lazy about it in the rain. With the increased distance, we will just have to be more strategic about our grocery shopping.

and, the thing I will miss most about our old 'hood...

#1 Our Wonderful Neighbors:

Zora and Phineas

To the left, are Phoebe & Steve, who we have been friends with from the moment we moved in. Phoebe and I are kindred spirits, and I love how enchanted she and Zora are with each other. Last fall they adopted two adorable little bunnies--Never Never and Molly (who turned out to be a boy, so is now named Phineas). Phoebe included us in almost the entire process (including briefly searching for guinea pigs when we thought that would be a better idea than bunnies). Zora and I have been the official bunny-sitters when Phoebe and Steve are out of town, and I'm hoping that this won't change. We will both miss strolling next door to the bunny-compound with handfuls of greens for the anxiously awaiting bunnies--who, by the way, are no longer little. Most of all though, I'll miss strolling over with Zora to sit with Phoebe in her living room and just chat. I'm committed to this still happening, it will just take a little more planning.

To our right, we have the lovely Y family. We met A, E, I and N about a year and a half ago when they moved into our landladies' former house. We had a bit of a rocky period last spring, but since then, we have become friends, and our girls love playing together. I and N are both adorable, free-spirits and can often be seen dressed in pinks, purples and sparkles (and of course, a tutu for N), and elbow-deep in mud. I will miss our front yard (the two yards together form super-yard) double-trampoline sessions, as well as impromptu playdates. This is another connection that I hope will sustain the move--with a little more planning needed.

There are lots of other neighbors we will miss seeing on a regular basis, so I might end up going from stalking our new neighborhood, to stalking our old neighborhood. This said, we are only moving 3.6 miles away from our current house, but it is a change of neighborhood, and it will be a bit of an adjustment for all three of us.