Quirks

I like people’s quirks. It’s the quirks, not the perfects, that make us who we are. The perfects are boring. The quirkies are alive, human, and fun. Yes, we need to embrace our differences, our human faults and follies, because those are the fun parts of us.

But then there are those who have too many oddities and too many difficulties and dysfunctions. What to do with those? As we get older we are better at discerning what we want and need in our lives from those around us. We need those that love us, respect us, and want to be good friends. If someone is being a vampirical energy-sucker, a meanie, or a crazy (and not in a good way), then we need to cut them off before they render us dry and energy-less. Bye bye. Sayonara. Auf weidersehen. Adieu.

It has gotten easier to get rid of dead weight lately.

So we need to learn to embrace our differences, but not let anyone abuse the privilege of being your friend. Just saying. 

Sorry it's been a while. I haven't been busy. Not more than usual. It's been a weird time. A time of introspection and re-evaluation. That wasn't the weird part. The weird part was what was going through my head, and what was happening outside of my head, in the world. Things have happened this summer and fall of momentous proportions, but not in a happy way. I have to sit with it and let my soul digest what's happened. But that's for another blog posting. See you on the picnic blanket. Ta.

It's been a while

Hello lovely friends near and far. Please have a seat on my blanket, have some bread and cheese, pour yourself a glass of Prosecco and tell me how you have been.
It is Prosecco time here Brooklyn: the weather is warm and muggy, summer is around the corner. Blanket time. Picnic time. This gladdens me!!
I have yet to organize our first, real outdoors picnic, and it is just a matter of time...
My Bikram yoga stint really got me on track in my head, and I am forever grateful for that introductory offer they had. I can't afford it at the moment so I will have to do a lot of walking to get my weekly dose of exercise and endorphins. (Too bad I am not fond of jogging -- I really hate it to be honest.)

My rent just increased, so I will have to be a massage therapist, dance teacher, dancer, performer, cafe worker, mommy, therapist, cook, scheduler, organizer, bad dream dispeller, night watcher, sociology student, writer etc. a little bit more and a little bit mo' bettah from now on.

Well, it was nice of you to pop on my. Thank you so much for reading. I will write again soon! Toodles, my friends.

PS. What you see below in the photo is my picnic rug.

Yoga and chocolate

Helloooo - Brrrrrrr..... It's gotten a wee bit chilly in New York at the moment. Tonight it will go back down to freezing. :( So much for optimistically putting away my wintercoats during our little warm spell the last two weeks. Let's picnic indoors today, since the frost advisory makes it conducive to being snuggled up in blankets and warm socks, and holding a hot cup of tea. 

I haven't stopped eating since I got back home from yoga today. The coldness in my apartment does a number on me, and I need to ingest hot dishes all the time (currently eating a bowl of vegetable kurma over rice). But the yoga also does a number on me, I suspect. I need carbs injected straight into my bloodvessels! Rice, pasta, bread... and of course dark CHOCOLATE!!!! Apart from the fact that no one should really live their lives without chocolate, it gets even more essentially important after yoga! Today I ran to the food coop right after yoga and bought a bar of Chocolove XOXOX, and now it's all gone... ;-)

I have to return to the ladies in the locker room from the other day. They are the best. The younger ones are ok, but the more mature crowd rocks the Bikram Yoga place bigtime!! When I mentioned I had been feeling a bit nauseous at the peak of the class, one of the ladies told me to squeeze my buttcheeks together and the nausea will go away! I haven't had a chance to try this new little trick out yet, but I can't wait to see if it'll work!! Advice from yogi in the locker room - priceless! 

Ok, where I am in this yoga challenge? What day am I on? Let's see...? 

I went back to Bikram successfully on Friday. Day 14 was Saturday. I was so exhausted that evening, and went to bed at 10.30pm. Yeah, I'm a regular party girl!

I had to skip a day on Sunday morning unfortunately. My little girl's best best best friend in the whole world (they are getting married, I hear!) had a sleepover at our house. Between making myself happy and making my daughter happy, I choose her happiness - I just couldn't tell them: "No sleepovers for the next two weeks while mommy finishes her yoga challenge". 

Since I have made a commitment to my own happiness on a daily basis however, whether it be yoga, chocolate (both, please!), music, theatre, dance, a good book, or something else sweet for the soul, we went to see a performance at the West End Theatre on Sunday afternoon. Me and my girls got on the subway and headed uptown for Shigeko Suga's "Baudelaire: La Mort". Even little people need sweet things for their souls, and my little people loved the show. My littlest person had a paper and a pen at hand during the performance, and frequently dove down to her paper to write down little snippets of Baudelairian poetry her ear caught.

And now we are at Monday Day 15. Although it is not technically a Challenge anymore since I can't seem to do all the days in consecutive order (such is the plight of single mommyhood!), I still have an urge to number the days I attend yoga, for me. So that is what I will continue to do until I reach Day 30!

Stay warm, my friends! Much (choco)love to you all, and see you again back at the picnic spot.

Back to Bikram success!

Hellooo, on this very beautiful spring day in New York City. The temperature reached a high of 75 today, and there was a lovely breeze in the air which reminded me of Hawai'i. Aahhh.... (sigh). 

BACK TO BIKRAM SUCCESS!! Wooohooooo! 

In early March I started a 30 Day Yoga Challenge. I completed 12 days straight of Bikram Yoga, having never done it before! During my family's stay with me this past week I ordered myself a break from the challenge, only to continue it when I had the chance again. Today was the day when I stepped back into that HOT HOT yoga room: Day 13!

(So what if the days aren't consecutive - I make up the rules in my own challenge!)

I have to admit it wasn't without difficulties coming back today. At the peak of physical exertion during the 90 minute class, what they call the mountaintop, I felt nauseous and needed to sit down and chill for a moment. Eeek. I'm so happy I didn't barf... 

I managed to stay with it, I breathed through it, and I laughed at it after the class with the ladies in the locker room. :)

The ladies in the locker room... well, they are in the classroom as well, but you're in your own meditative bubble of concentration during the 90 minute class, so its hard to see who's in class with you. But after class there is time to get to know some of the Bikram yoga practitioners. Some of these ladies are hard core!! Wow! They come everyday, sometimes they take double classes, back-to-back, sometimes they take a morning class and then come back for a night class. Wow wow!! They live and breathe this yoga. 

What I like about this studio - having not been to another Bikram Yoga studio so I really don't have anything to compare with - is that the teachers are very forgiving and careful and protective of their students' bodies in the class. Bikram Yoga can be very intense, and your body and mind needs to be in a loving and caring place so you feel safe to explore your limits on any given day, and not be judged when you feel weaker on another day. 

I am proud of myself for coming back to class today. Think of something you can be proud of today, something you did for you or someone else, something you said, something you thought, and simply who you are! We all have something we can be proud of. Reach in, grab it, lift it out and look at it, and let the sun shine on it. It's OK to be proud of yourself! 

Thanks for checking in, and come back soon again! Toodles, my friends!

Back to Bikram fail

Hellooo my friends, and welcome back to the picnic spot. I am doing something different today. Please join me at the table with a frozen Margarita. That's right my friends!

It feels decidedly strange to be having a frozen Margarita a few minutes past 12 noon, but apparently not strange enough for me to not have it!! It is 75 degrees Fahrenheit here in New York today so frozen drinks are back on the menu in March.

Today was the day when I packed my yoga bag, and full of anticipation, and a little dose of dread, I headed for hot yoga class to continue my self guided "Yoga Challenge 2012". Upon arrival at the studio they told us class is cancelled - the heat was not working.
Remember, half the battle is getting to class. I made it to class and I was ready.

But before the disappointment swelled over me completely, I decided to shake things up. So here I am eating a nice bean soup and having a frozen Margarita instead and blogging on my phone for the first time. Let's see how it turns out?

I have study materials and will practice some oli, or chants - quietly of course, so as not to be mistaken for a crazy lady. We will see if I can focus long enough to learn anything today.



Cheers, and see you again here at the lovely, and soon to very green, picnic spot.

DDK and Hula

Hello my fellow picnicers - YEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAW! Today was one of the warmest day yet this year. It was the perfect day for a stroll in the Botanic Garden, so guess what we did today? We did just that. Me, the kiddos, and the visiting cousins took a stroll in the Botanic Garden under the springwarm sun and the clear blue skies. Aaaahhhh, spring. :) 

I haven't started my Day 13 in my 30 Day Yoga Challenge yet. My family leaves tomorrow morning (really early!) and I will get back to Hot Yoga again. 

But this is not about yoga. Today's posting is about hula. 

Yesterday I had the honor to dance for the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre's 35th Anniversary Gala Dinner at the Edison Ballroom in midtown, together with the wonderful guitarist Andy Wang. We were the intro number for Pan Asian Rep's Honoree, actor Daniel Dae Kim (LOST, Hawaii 5-0). It was a very special evening and I was very fortunate to share it with a lot of my friends from the Asian-American acting community whom I've met and worked with over the years. Amazing, wonderful, awesome people!

But most of all I was reminded how very grateful I am to be studying under my AWESOME 'kumu hula', or master hula teacher, Vicky Holt Takamine, who shared the beautiful mele, or song, we performed yesterday, in NYC a few years back. I completely fell in love with this mele, and  I had the opportunity to share it together with Andy with the Pan Asian 'ohana last night. I felt very blessed. Mahalo nui kumu, for the gift of dance! 

This photo is taken by a hurried Corky Lee, who was working his own professional camera and was nice enough to snap this for me - even though, eummmm, my face was cut in half... :) 

Goodnight and sleep tight my dears. I am jumping in to the couch, which is where I'm sleeping now. Don't worry, I haven't been bad. I am sleeping on the couch so that all my guests can fit in my apartment. Lately I have been living according to the Swedish saying: Finns the hjärterum, så finns det stjärterum. Loosely translated to: Where the is room for the heart, there is room for the bum/behind. So, International Hostel at the apartment is open for business between the hours of half past heart and quarter to tush. ;-)

Day 12 - family visitors

Hola everyone - today's posting is going to be a quickie, since it's already 2.30am. 

I completed Day 12 of my yoga challenge earlier in the day. It really was a great class today. I am feeling stronger. In 12 days I feel my core again: my physical core is strengthening, and I am feeling my emotional and mental core stir and awaken. 

When I tried some of the poses on my very first day of Bikram (having never taken Bikram yoga ever!) I thought "What the heck, I will never be able to do this!". Guess what? I can do those poses now! :)

My cousins from Japan are here now. They arrived this evening after a very long flight: my two cousins and one cousin-child whom I had never met before. It's so nice to see them all. 

I was debating with myself whether I should break my 30 Day Challenge during their visit. Will it really be a challenge if I disrupt it? Doesn't a challenge have to be so-and-so many days  of continuous, uninterrupted practice? Well, usually, yes. But I am not partaking in an official challenge. I'm not doing someone else's challenge. I'm doing MY personal challenge, where I make up the rules. If I say I can take a break, then by golly I can!

The reason, the main reason, I am doing my own little personal yoga challenge, is because of the happiness and wellbeing of my soul. Being with my family for four days that I don't get to see very often is also for the happiness and wellbeing of my soul. So there we have it. I will be back to continue Day 13 in a few days.

Check in again, my lovelies, and thanks for stopping by today. Namaste and Oyasuminasai (sleep tight, in Japanese)