martedì 21 aprile 2009

susan boyle

I'm so glad I watched this youtube clip before someone told me what exactly I was in for. So if you are one of the 8 people in the internet connected world who hasn't seen this, click away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

sabato 11 aprile 2009

half gallon of half and half

so, i'm in the grocery store tonight getting some onions and beer and trying to soak up the easter-eve vibe. Not much easter-eve vibe in the outskirts of La Jolla...until I examine the contents of the guy in front of me in the express check-out line:

3 pounds of strawberries

two gallons of milk

a big ole pre-cooked ham

five pounds of potatoes

and...

drum roll

a half gallon of half and half.

what does one do with a half gallon of half and half?

coffee service for 50 perhaps.

but my money is on a crazy scalloped potato casserole recipe that calls for a butt-load of half and half.

mmmm

easter

before my half gallon of half and half express checkout line encounter, i tried to buy a small bag of Cadbury mini-eggs, just for old-time sake, but they only had 18 ounce bags...and I don't need that much extra candy in my life...

but that does raise the possibility that maybe the dude only needed a small amount of half and half, but all they had was the half gallon....so he went for it...if that's the case, i hope he does something fun with the leftovers...like pouring it in the bathtub and doing a kinky photo shoot.

mercoledì 8 aprile 2009

about that last post: I SO didn't read that

so...on Monday, I posted what I had planned to read at the end of my weekly Tuesday night yoga class in San Diego. Well, by Tuesday afternoon, when I re-read it, I was like "there is no way I'm going to read this."

So, I chose something that I didn't write...and read it almost word-for-word...just inserting "wise man" where the book had "holy man."

I'm all about de-religification of readings for savasana (deep relaxtion at the end of yoga practice). I mean, hello, what is a "holy man" anyway? The only holy man I know is Sponge Bob.

I'll include the text of what I read later.

lunedì 6 aprile 2009

what I'm reading at the end of tomorrow's yoga class

In the worldly life, one needs money to pay the rent or mortgage, to pay for transportation, insurance, clothes and other necessities. Without money, one cannot get these things.

But, there is a limit to what one can buy. One can buy a fountain pen, but one can't buy the ability to write. This, one has to acquire oneself. This experience cannot be bought.

One may pay for someone's help for just about anything you can imagine, but the help given by friends and family is something different. It is given with feeling. This feeling cannot be paid for with anything. It can only be given.

Likewise, in yoga and meditation, there are books and DVDs to give you knowledge, and knowledge certainly IS valuable. But more and more and more knowledge does not guarantee a deeper, richer or more freeing yoga or meditation practice.

Unless you make it to the path, knowledge of that path is not going to help much.

Instead, it's helpful to couple knowledge with regular attempts to teach the brain to follow the breath. Cultivating a hint of care-free joy within the practice is also helpful -- joy unencumbered by fears of whether a pose is imperfect; joy free from concerns that you are doing certain poses worse than you did them last week, last month or last year.

Joy that is free from any expectations that we put on ourselves, or expectations we imagine others are placing on us.

*adapted from the beginning of chapter 13 of Good Company by Sri Shantanand Saraswati

venerdì 3 aprile 2009

emailing w/ italian bf

from italian bf who is at a conference in Ohio:

ciao, sexy boy

cos'hai fatto ieri sera? hai dormito bene? io cosi' cosi'

ma ho fatto le mie tasse federali questa mattina e ora vado a mangiuare e poi alla conferenza

un bacio

even the most mundane things are more interesting in another language... "le mie tasse federali" ...sounds like a big italian beer glass emblazoned with a baroque federal symbol from Italy including both a bird of prey and a butch peasant with bulging biceps...but of course, it's just federal taxes.