Twister meets Simon Says... Anti-Gravity Yoga

I love yoga. I've been practicing yoga for a few years now. And by "practicing" I mean mayyyybe once every two months I'll get together with a friend and go.

Inspired by a post written by Salty Mom I decided to drag my friend Allison along and give Anti-Gravity yoga a try.

The class was at Gravitas in Portland, a facility that I HIGHLY recommend.

The whole hour ride up there I was nervous and excited. I couldn't figure out if I should eat before? I didn't want to be full and upside-down. Should I drink before? I didn't want to be dehydrated, but I didn't want to have to pee. Oh life is so hard!

We were about 40 minutes early (oh the excitement!) and were greeted by our instructor. She was super friendly and even gave us a tour of the whole facility.  I instantly felt at home here, and you can't say that about all yoga studios. The space is bright, well lit, painted in rich colors, very feng-shui, comforting, spacious, and all around beautiful. They also have some sort of "wall" yoga, and Gyrokenesis. I'll have to try those too since I have no idea what either of those are.

After she checked us in, she let us play around in the room and get used to the swings.

Nope, not excited at all.

I was also afraid the class would be really big, and I'd be lost, but there were only 9 of us, and six of us were first timers.

Relief.

We were taking a beginning class called "foundation" and it wasn't intimidating at all. We started off with a few easy stretches and simple moves to get us used to the swings.

The whole "swinging" action had me nervous enough, but when our instructor asked if anyone had any issues with seasickness, so I immediately started to feel sick to my stomach. Yay hypochondria! I really didn't want to be "that girl" and ralph all over the yoga floor. Ewww. And even when you're not moving in the swings, you are MOVING. But once we did our first inversion (being upside down) that whole feeling went away and I had no problems. YAY!

The class was not as difficult as I expected.  She did a really great job of showing the class the moves first, then having us try it on our own. She also went around to each person and helped them into more difficult moves. The hardest part is honestly trusting the swing, and trusting that you won't fall out on your face.

One main thing that struck me, as that there aren't many poses with different modifications for different difficulty levels. Its pretty much go, or no. There was only one post that gave me much trouble, and mostly because I'm not super flexible, so I only stayed in it for about ten seconds.

It's definitely a foundations class but there were lots of very nice students in the class and I was surprised at the diversity of the students.  Young and old, equal amount of men and women, some were very fit and flexible and some were like me, not that fit or flexible and needed modifications.

 

"Vampire" was the only pose I really had trouble with.
Stupid shoulders.

 To be honest, there were definitely a few "hurt so good" poses. A few really dug into my hips, which as our instructor called it, were "giving me physical feedback".

Definitely felt this one the next day.
No blood left in my feet.

My friend Allison, the former dancer, dominating "Swan" pose.

 
But the next day it felt sore, like I worked them out, not sore, like they were bruised. It was the weirdest senation, but awesome!

I HIGHLY recommend giving Anti-Gravity Yoga a try! Even if you aren't a big yoga person, its different enough that I think you'd enjoy it. It as SO FUN and I'm pretty sure I'm an inch taller.  Plus, after class, she let us all take pictures, and helped us get back into the poses for photo ops.

We are definitely going back. And we're dragging as many friends along as we can.

xoxo,

McGriddle Pants

 

I'm proud of you, Storm Trooper

Holy crap balls, I'm alive!

I've been such a major suck on my blog of late, and yet I've been quite productive in the real worlds. I have even only been checking my facebook every 2 days or so *GASP!*

The job has been keeping me busy, and am trying to gather up some material for some tales from the work place. Mostly I'm still learning the ropes and learning the hierarchy of the restaurant biz. You know, some servers think they are so much better than we, the mere host staff, and even higher than the lowly bussers. Which I think is total bullshit. On a high note, my manager said this to me the other day, "We're working on getting you started serving, so just be patient. But I think you'd make a much better manager" To which I said, I would definitely be down with that. But anywhoodle.

My BFF came to visit me from Arizona for 2 1/2 weeks and I was literally sober for 2 whole days. TWO WHOLE DAYS in the last 17 days. I'm in a MAJOR detox right now. Well, today was actually the "hangover" period, in which I ate everything in the house for most of the day. I feel like I'm going to explode. I also napped for 4 hours. So tomorrow will begin the health cleanse. My liver will thank me for it.

Oh-- and we took pictures

the beach! still sober here..

"hurry up beer man"

"nipple"

let's just call this one "Oakshire Brewing Sample Night"

Ankle failure. Twice. Yes, we're drinking in a dugout. At 1 am.

"Portlandia"

Wenatchee

He wanted to call this one "Gaga" because 'Judas' came on for the millionth time.

Oh yeah, and his shirt says "You discussed me"

Bought at the Portland Saturday Market. Funniest shit ever.

lonelydinosaur.com

The pitcher actually had "PBR Only" written on it.
Why? Cause it taints everything it touches.

Lots of ridiculousness occurred.

'Judas' was in our heads constantly for the first week. I loves me some Gaga, but sweet Jesus, you can only sing it so many times. That and Adele's Rolling in the Deep.

Somehow we ended up watching a Real Housewives of New York City and became strangely addicted. What a SHITSHOW! Oh that Ramona... I want to kill her. And her Pinot Grigio!!! But I digress...

I also nearly broke my ankle again. Remember when I wrenched it during the Rise Against concert? Well basically it happened again. TWICE.We had spent most of the evening out drinking (surprise, surprise). The sky was perfectly clear and my friend wanted to "go look at the moon". So we picked up a six-er of tall cans of Miller Lite and headed to the park. For some reason the ball park lights were all on, at 1 am. So I proceeded to prance around the bases while holding my beer. No failure there, and actually you'd think that would have been the most likely place for ankle failure. Oh no.

We're sitting in the duggout and realized we needed to TAKE PICTURES!! So I ran off to the car to get the camera. Wait, no I froliced off. Sort of a skipping-jogging-frolicking action. The duggout is dirt, then transitions to sand, which then transitions to the grass throughout the rest of the park. Well, once I hit the sand... BAM! I ate shit. I laughed and laughed and rolled around grabbing my ankle. Biffing it is pretty funny, especially when you're wasted. But I was fine, so I made it to the car, and then headed back.

LITERALLY... in the exact same spot I ate shit. AGAIN. AGAIN!!! What the crap!? This time my stuff went flying. Camera. Beer. Keys. Hat. All strewn about. Again I was laughing so hard, but this time the tears came with it. My friends came running over and were trying to help me up asking if I was alright. (this part is hazy for me, so I'm going off what my friends relayed to me afterward) I guess I yelled "NO TALKING!!" because I was laughing so hard and it hurt SO BAD. Then they tried to help me up and I yelled "NO TOUCHING!!" At this point I was on my knees, laughing and laughing and crying and laughing, trying to figure out if I'd broken my ankle and if I could walk on it. Meanwhile my friends stood there histerically laughing at me.

I hobbled back to the duggout and managed to figure out that I didn't actually break it. I'm sure I tore some stuff up in there something fierce though, because two weeks later it still hurts. It was swollen huge for a week, and its more or less back to normal size. But it still hurts, especially in the monring when its stiff, or when I step weird.

We also went to Portland, went to a gay bar and got capital "T" Trashed, went to Powell's the world's largest used book store, to the Saturday Market. Then do the beach, and this last weekend, up to Leavenworth Washington for some awesome rafting action. We nearly froze to death, but that's a story that's really not as funny when retold, however we were crying/laughing in the back of the pickup when it was pouring POURING down rain. I just kept saying "This is a memory of a lifetime!!" I'm such a dork.

So there ya go.

I'm really going to try to update more often, at least once a week. The guilt is killing me. And I miss my bloggy buddies! I'll also admit that I haven't read ANY blogs in as much as two months. But I'm spending my cough time today catching up. I may not comment on everything I love, but I'll try to send some love your way so you know I was actually there catching up!

Peace out my homies! Miss and love you!!

wrong in all the right ways

Hiiiyoooooo!

I finally, FINALLY FINALLY all moved in! And I finally have internet! I'm sure you've all been there. Having moved in, but pacing the floor patiently waiting for the comcast guy to come, to get the internet and cable tv all set up. This must be what a heroin addict feels like, needing a fix. GIMME MY FIX CABLE MAN!!

Whew. The hard part is over now.

So I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend. We had a big family dinner which is always interesting. Laughing, talking, lots of drama, whispering in one room, filling wine glasses in the next. Ohhhhh family. Isn't passive aggressiveness FUN!?! We took it fairly easy on the wine this year (as opposed to last Christmas when we drank 23 bottles of wine and there were 14 guests, two of whom were children and didn't drink and two were DD's and didn't drink... you do the math! WHOOP!) We did however have a turkey, a ham, elk roast and ANOTHER turkey. Seriously. We were worried about not having any leftovers. WRONG. Oh and not to mention the 15 pounds of mashed potatoes and SEVEN pies. We didn't even touch 2 of them. Ahhh!

On to other news, I now live with two kitties. The cutest kitties I have ever seen. Not so much that they are fluffy and adorable, but that they're INSANE and CRAZY and I love that about them. They are so entertaining :) I've re-named them (because I have no idea what they're names were before) Mischief and Mayhem. And boy do they live up to their names. I have video of Mischief chasing his tail in a tupperware tub. Too funny. But the best part is my mouser Mayhem. He's taken to playing in the bathtub. He likes to play with his fake mousies in the tub, flipping them up and around and pouncing on them. I think he likes that the shower curtain keeps them contained.

So anywhoodle... Cut to Saturday morning... 6:30 am...

*thump*
*thump thump*
*thud*
*thump*
*thud thud*

Sure enough. Mayhem. In the tub. With an actual dead mouse. Throwing it into the air, and attacking it. Kinda gross and kinda awesome at the same time. I let him play with it for another 30 minutes before I disposed of it. With tongs. LONG ass tongs.

But to THIS morning. 3:30 in the freaking am.
*thump*
*thump thump*
squeeeeeeeak!
*thud*
*thump* squeeeeeeeek!!
*thud thud*
squeeeek!

what they do, when i'm not home

Oh yeah. You guessed it. A LIVE mouse. Fucking alive, in my bathtub. Holy crap. I tried to get him to kill it. Meanwhile the other cat kept trying to worm in, and Mischief would grooooooooowl at him. Too funny. And again, kinda gross. I really felt bad for that poor mouse. Panting and panting. Kinda giving up on life, and yet still fighting. I don't have the heart to kill it. So I got my "mouse tongs" which have been officially repourposed and will never again touch food, and remove said victim and take it outside to the burning barrel. Hopefully he died quickly, cause I know there was no hope for the poor little guy.

And thus I leave you. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! And hopefully I'll be around a little more again! Love you all!

And here's a special shout out to Dr. Monkey VonMonkerstein, whom I totally forgot to invite to my pretend blog party. OF COURSE you'd be invited!! I'm sorry I was in a rush when addressing my pretend invitations. I just assumed you'd get the invite on facebook ;D
*smooches*

I'M SORRY I CAN'T HEAR YOU

One of these days I'm going to realize the value of watching a concert from the balcony and coming home without two days of ringing ears. One of these days I'm going to realize I'm too old to go charging across the pit and fight my way through the crush to set up shop at the rail, four feet from the band. Yesterday was not that day. 

I love you Bad Religion. Thanks again for another great show! (and thanks to Ben for the great quote above, stolen from his facebook page, hahaa!)

These guys may be nearly 40, but they still know how to rock

 Photobooth at a bar after the show? 

Um... YES PLEASE!

I said, "GOOD DAY SIR!!"

Hold on to your butts, this is a good one.

So last year, Budweiser came out with an AMAZING product. Yes, that's right, "fan cans."

me and all my Bud Light Beaver Can awesomeness

Yes, this was the best invention of my entire life. Seriously.

Anywhoodle...

This year,  Budweiser has decided to "not make" this can for fans. Or this is what I was told. I think its brilliant, amazing, and the awesomest thing ever. HOWEVER, after searching diligently for weeks, nay months, I have not found any. Something about encouraging "binge drinking" was what I read on the Internet.

Nay...

My roomie hears that a store in town is selling "fan cans" so I immediately drive there. Oh no. Yeah, that's right. Oregon cans. ALL OREGON CANS. Fucking GREEN AND YELLOW cans of pure BULLSHIT. No Oregon State, black and orange beautifulness. Whores. It was all I could do to not freak out on the poor clerk at the store. She told me that "Budweiser has chosen not to support Oregon State. They only support University of Oregon."

Um.......... excuse me?!?!?!?!?!?!

I stomped out of that store so fast.

Now, please keep in mind, I am a DIE HARD Bud Light drinker. For the last 12 years!! And now... I have vowed to FIND ANOTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fucking Fucker. I'll show you "not supporting" my team.

Commence "taste test 2010"!!!!!

FUCK YOU BUD LIGHT!! I don't need you!!!!!  I'll find another!!!!!!!!!

The winners!!!!!!!!!! Kinda mad that Bud and Bud Light are in the running.... but what ever.....

 The losers!!!!!!!!

Lesson Learned: Almost EVERY SINGLE BEER tasted exactly the same as all the other beers. Seriously. Except for the losers. I swear!!!!!!! I could drink anything from our starting batch and never complain.

Please note that
Budweiser
Bud Light
Coors
Coors Light
Busch Light
Miller Light
Keystone Light

ALL TASTE THE EXACT SAMEEEEEEEEEE. 

And I know my beers. And I know my football.
Oh well. It was super fun anyway! :)

And I'll be composing a STRONGLY worded letter to my local Budweiser distributor about my anger. I will be petitioning them. And telling them about their LOSS as a great customer!! I'll keep you updated!!

With love, and GO BEAVERS

flashback friday: the hell train to prague

Lovely green fields sprinkled with glowers. Wild flowers in fact, of white and lavender. Then we enter the woods, tall green trees with grass and small shrubs scattering the floor. A lot like Oregon in fact. We are traveling awfully slow. I wonder why... This train seems to be dallying, letting me enjoy the views and landscapes of the Czech Republic.

This picturesque train ride is a bit lovelier than our Hell Train to Prague. Boarding in Würzburg, originating in Frankfurt, we boarded at 1 am or so. We enter and find every seat and compartment is filled. Maybe we should have made seating reservations? Oh well, too late now. So, not only are the seats filled, oh no, they are filled with drunken German football players. A whole team perhaps. Drunk, loud, smoking, singing and running from compartment to compartment, car to car. The five of us scurry on and try to find some seats. Any seats. The closest we find is some floor space outside the WC at the end of the car.

Scotty in the stairwell, Ester, myself and Walt, blocking the door to the bathroom. They plan was to sleep on this train, arriving in Prague around 830. We soon realize this plan will be unsuccessful at best. Jeanine and Scotty are sitting in the stairwells opposite each other. Every time the drunkards blow through the doors, they are slammed into Jeanine and Scott's backs. This I do not envy. However our seats on the floor are less than grand, with our boney behinds drilling into the floor, and our backs aching from leaning on the wall. Our backpacks make horrible pillows, but we try to make do.

Ester and Walt and I are all leaning on each other, attempting to leave a path for the drunks to move from car to car. Not that this matter much because they trip over us no matter what. They also try to talk to us, offer us beer, and spill beer on us, even though we are so obviously trying to sleep. They also want to use the restroom behind us, but there is no way in hell we are getting up every 30 seconds. We joke that we need a black marker and tape to put up an out of order sign up. A good idea, except for the fact that none of us actually know how to say "out of order" in Deutsch. Luckily there is a bathroom in the next car that we refer them to. One trip to that bathroom I en counted a man urinating in the stairwell. I guess he couldn't wait; when you gotta go, you gotta go. I however opt to wait, although the situation in that WC is a whole other story.

So we attempt to sleep. I think I may have gotten 20 minutes. Maybe. Walt and I decide to go look for seats. At the other end of the car we find 11 other Americans standing in the same place we are sitting. I realize there are no seats and am thankful that at least we an sit. Poor Jeanine keeps getting jammed in her back by that damn door. And every time it opens we are hit by the stench of smoke, beer and urine like a punch in the fact. So, at around 315 we arrive in Nüremberg. Passengers attempt to board, and turn around and get off. Full house, sorry guys. So we wait. and wait. and wait.

kill meeeeeeeee

Still sitting in Nüremberg a guy makes something like four phone calls to Lord knows who, laughing and yelling at the top of his lungs. No sleeping for us. The dude then attempts to open a beer and sprays half of it all over the floor and the other half on Jeanine. What a douche. Then we sit there for like another 30 minutes, for only Lord knows why. Finally we get moving. Jeanine and Walt talk, Ester and Scotty sleep and I attempt to rest. I am in a interesting state; definitely not asleep, but not really awake either. 4:10 the doors fly open. Passport check. We must be close to the border now. Some German guy runs by, yelling sheisse! Sheisse! SHEISSE!!! (shit!), and something about his passport being in another car.

Then somewhere in the Czech Republic people start gathering their stuff. Some guy drops his bag on me and wakes me up. There are 5 or 6 guys getting off at the next stop. Its only 430 so we definitely aren't in Prague yet. I stand up to make some room. We then realize that these guys WERE sitting and have left empty seats somewhere. I wake up Walt to ask them where. I picked up my bags and told Walt and Jeanine to go for it. What happened next was the funniest thing I've seen. I leaned over Ester and Scott and yelled, "SEATS! SEATS! GET UP GET UP! WE'VE GOT SEATS!" They literally sprang up from the floor, bags in hand without missing a beat. We weren't sure if the rooms really were vacant, but at this point we didn't care.

We piled into that tiny compartment, threw our bags up, slammed the door shut and shut the curtains. They couldn't kick us out even if they had wanted to. After this point we had a more or less uneventful ride into Prague. Arriving on time at 830, with more or less three hours of crappy sleep, we deboarded and tried to freshen ourselves up in the Prague train station restroom. Having the hell train behind us, we exited the station determined to have a glorious time in Prague, in order to make the hell train ride worth it.

The Hell Train? Totally worth it!

July, 2006

when beavers attack!!

Man, I'm a major fail at the last couple of Random Shit Tuesdays... And today's a wednesday and look at all these words!  But I really wanted to get out some stuff from this weekend, now that I'm a little more coherent and more energized.

Friday was super awesome, setting up camp and starting up our boozey weekend with a blast. A couple of my old friends came out for some CLC's (coors light cans) and some bonfire action.

Saturday we woke up and had a bit of a slow start (due  to the CLC's and BLC's). Luckily we didn't have a floating start time until noon-thirty. Once we got  all situated we headed to the boat ramp. Mr. Man met us down there in his kayak. The cooler was so full, we could barely put one seven pound bag of ice in there. There were nine of us on the Raft-Like-Boat, which by the way has a 700 pound capacity... whoops!! And after this weekend has earned its own "like" page on facebook.

Saturday was pretty much a huge success. We had so much fun on the river, some more than others. One friend literally couldn't get out of the water (slippery rocks and all) without help. Then refused to sit down, so it took three of us to push him into the chair. That was pretty hilarious. And he of course passed out 3 seconds later. And my Will Truman also had too much apple pie, so we played a little prank on him...

we called him whiskers for about an hour

But honestly our second float on Sunday had the best BEST story of the weekend was the beaver story. (Even better than when I was in the water, drunk, pulling the raft-like-boat along because the current was too slow, and Journey's "Dont Stop Believin' " came on the radio [water-proof shower radio, bitches!] and we all started singing along. Then I shouted "I think this one of the best moments of my life!!"  I know, right?!

Ok, back to The Beaver Story.

Floating along we saw a beaver swimming along about 20 yards off. Mr. Man was in the water for a pee-break when we spotted him. So Mr. Man decided to head on over to Old Man Beaver (that's his name now). Old Man Beaver was just chugging along going real slow.

His indian name is "Swims with Beavers"

Then Old Man beaver decided to make a left turn and started swimming right for us!! I shit you not. Closer. Closer. And closer still. We were all laughing and freaking out and then really freaking out once the beaver NEARLY FUCKING BOARDED US!! Like a foot away. I had images of him crawling aboard and causing mass carnage amongst we raft-like-boaters!! Old Man Beaver had to be blind, or deaf, or both, cause we were causing a hell of a ruckus. My roomie sort of "swooshed" him away with the oar, without hitting him in the face. He changed directions and swam ahead of us towards the other shore. Meanwhile Mr. Man is swimming after the beaver with a fucking oar!! I was freaking the fuck out. I was yelling, NO! PLEASE NO! DON'T CHASE THE BEAVER! Seriously. I was having issues. Everyone was laughing at me, cause I was freaking out. I mean, I wasn't really afraid of the beaver, I just didn't know if they're as aggressive as nutria, or rats, or whatever the fuck else is prone to attacking, biting, and giving people rabies.

So other than that, our trip was uneventful. Seriously LONG, and COLD but uneventful (we hadn't floated that trip before, so didn't know exactly how long it would take).

We had many, many, MANY awesome conversations over the weekend too, most of which I can't remember... but here's what I can remember (and yes, most of these will make no sense to those not actually involved in the conversation)

Oh, and did I mention that my friend Adri surprised me with a visit on Saturday night?! It was super awesome. And she brought an awesome present:

yeah, like we needed MORE booze. yup, we're drunks.

i have not labored once today

This weekend was so insane and awesome. I'm exhausted, bruised, sunburned, sore and hungover. It was amazingness. I've got some great tales to tell, but I'm just too tired to type any longer. Please enjoy some pics of our insanity, and stay tuned for more!! :)

The raft-like-boat!

I'm on a boat and... Its going fast and...

"Apple Pie"  

A fifth of Everclear

1 gallon apple cider

1 gallon apple juice

cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

YUMMM! (and quite dangerous!)

I think you're supposed to be inside the kayak, honey

that's the way, uh huh, uh huh, i like it!

"SUMMER IS FUCKING OVER!" We were freezing our asses off right here.

turn right after SE 172nd Ave

And now... laundry awaits!!

raging river weekend

Great freaking weekend indeed! Holy crap! I can't even begin to say how much fun we had! Mostly I'll be relaying my adventure to you through  pictures, because honestly, they do speak 1,000 words.

Our adventure began in Maupin, OR, a huge mecca for rafting adventures. Its great to know river guides and people who own their own gear, so this weekend basically cost us about $40 each. Awesome I know!! We (after 2 hours) found a place to camp, and I was finally able to crack my first beer at 3pm on Friday. I was hoping for a noon-time starting, but it didn't happen, c'est la vie.

Saturday morning bright an early we got up and got geared up. We headed down to the launch site and then proceeded to wait and wait and wait, since there were a ton of other boats waiting to launch. But once we got going, it was amazing!! Mr. Man and I were in a boat with my friend's brother T*, joined by two other boats, 11 people in all.

A beautiful day on the Deschutes!

During a slow part of the river, T* let me steer our boat. I am an excellent guide! Forward Paddle Bitches!!!

Dominating this guide thing... a new calling?!

Box Car, Class III rapids

 Oak Springs, Class IV rapids

Of course of all the pics Oak Springs looks like no big deal, however here's a video (not mine) that shows you how bad ass it is! Oak Springs Video

  Wapinitia, Class III

Saturday night the boys decided last minute to head into Washington to raft the White Salmon River (on the way home, and only 40 minutes out of our way). Its a totally different river and more technically difficult. The best way to describe it is to say the Deschutes (in the high desert) has larger falls with more "downtime" and the White Salmon (in the woods) is consistantly rough, narrower and tougher to maneuver. Both were insanely awesome but in totally different ways. I didn't get any pics of us on the White Salmon... however there is a Class V rapid that was "voluntary" for us, and only a brave 4 volunteered, Mr. Man included. Heres some pics of the boys on the Husum Falls.

Going...

...going...

... GONE!!

And he's OKAY!!

Hahahaa, yeah, they didn't quite make it. There's video on facebook, which I of course can't download to show you kids here. But here's a video of some other crazies who actually made it!

Oh... and the best part?

My super awesome rafting booties!!