Yoga | Peaches Prattlings

{June 3, 2021} Our dogs have amazing hearing…selectively!

Yes, I said selectively! They crack us up, in case you couldn’t tell by some of the stories I have shared with you!

There are times they hear us and times they don’t, I don’t think they are different from any other dog. If it’s time for bed, Ruby sometimes pretends she doesn’t hear us, but Bee, well…there is a treat involved!

So…when I open the treat jars, Bee jumps up from a dead sleep! Ruby, she might look up, but she’s not as interested. Especially if we’re going out, or it’s bedtime and she’s not ready, and that means she has to go in to the crate. On the other hand, Ruby LOVES her walks, so…when she hears me open the Velcro on my sandals, she loses her mind! If it’s anywhere between about 415 and 5pm, which 5pm is their walk time, any time I move…are we going?!. I actually have to pick up my Chucks and carry them into the bedroom so I can put them on without her jumping on me!

Now…I know Ruby can hear my feet on the floor when I have my Chucks on, or almost any pair of shoes, and she thinks it’s walk time! But…if I walk towards the garage with shoes on, they are both on my heels like the world is gonna end! They think I’m heading for the car and we are going for a drive! HA HA

PSM said they never do that when he goes to the garage, I reminded him, most of the time when he leaves, he leaves through the back door and through the backyard fence, for me, my car is in the garage, that automatically signals car ride! Ruby is up for it, I think I told you, Bee isn’t a fan of going for drives, but she doesn’t want to be left behind more! What motivation!

When we get back from being out, they hear the garage door or the kitchen door and they perk their heads up, we have to tell them that we’ll be there in a minute, we might have to put some things down or away and then those tails start wagging and banging against the crate. We are super quiet when we leave for yoga at 530am, we know they can hear us, we hear them stirring! Ya can’t get past them!

So many times our dogs do something that cracks us up, makes us go hmmm or just plain tickles us. We love those goofballs!

{May 20, 2021} Another first…mask-less dining!

Yes, I know you can eat without a mask, this was walking into a restaurant without a mask!

Now, I know there are some of you out there who have been playing it very safe over the last year, not going out, strict quarantining, maybe only going out for groceries and curbside pickup, and I respect that. For us, as we’ve talked about, PSM and I have ventured out as often as possible. We respect the protocols the establishment has set for their business, masks walking in, masks walking around, masks off at the table, when eating. That is very fair, whatever is best for the business, I go with that.

This…was very different. So…I told you Monday about going to the yoga studio and being able to take our masks off at our mats, you still have to wear the mask when you walk in to the lobby, but on your mat, a machaya! [one of my favorite Yiddish words!] and they are allows you to shower at the studio again, rent mats, the whole gamut.

Tonight, we decided it had been a very long day, let’s go out for beer [for PSM] and brussels sprouts [for me]! I knew just where we were going! The Three Kings! Here’s where it was a new and different experience and took some getting used to. When I walked in, no one, and I mean no one…was wearing a mask! Now, there have been a few places, we may have talked about this, that you walk in with a mask and it’s half-arsed by the staff, so you’re like what’s the point, but you’re following the posted rules and I have accidentally walked out, especially if we’re sitting near the door without my mask on and felt odd and shocked when I got outside! This place, tonight…not one mask in sight, except for some people walking in the door.

I walked in with my mask, took it up when I sat next to PSM at the bar, but I have to tell you…the first time I walked to the bathroom, I didn’t wear my mask, and if felt weird, like I was doing something naughty! Imagine that! How times have changed! I walked to the bathroom, mask-less, no one looked at me, no one stopped me, it felt good, but weird.

Based on what the CDC said this week, businesses are at their own discretion to do what they want and I respect that. I will still be walking around with a mask in my pocket, probably for a very long time, until someone tells me I never have to wear one again, I’m not taking any chances, and why argue with what someone else is comfortable with/doing, what is it going to hurt?

I can’t wait to hear what your first experience is like going completely mask-less in an establishment. Oooh!

{May 17, 2021} It’s official! Yoga without a mask! O M G!

Today, two of the yoga studios that we go to lifted the rule about wearing a mask in the studio and it was glorious!

We started doing yoga at these studios in December 2020, mask mandates in place. We may have talked about it, having to wear a mask doing yoga, especially hot yoga, wow, clawing! We would come out of the studio drenched and our masks were no better! Can you imagine how hot that is! I always walked in with one mask, then changed into another just to go into the studio, that way I would have something dry to put on when I came out.

One of the locations didn’t require you to wear one once you got to your mat, but you had to in the lobby. It was a little odd for us, since we were wearing them, to go to that particular studio and be the only ones wearing a mask, but it was what it was, we were doing what we were comfortable with. In the two studios we generally go to, masks everywhere, no showers, no renting mats or pillows. Then you have some folks, used to other studios who didn’t feel they had to follow the same rules when they came to these studios. Whatever…eyeroll!

Well, the management decided, since there have been no issues in the other studios that it would be safe to lift some of the restrictions. You still have to wear a mask in the lobby, but when you get into the studio and onto the mat, you can take it off. Even the showers are opening up again, mat rentals, all of it. Wah to the hoo!

Let me tell you…I went to a non-heated hot yoga, I know, sounds backwards! It was the routines, just not heated, and I’m ok with that! It felt great, more freedom and breathing so much easier! PSM took a hot class tonight and said he probably wouldn’t have been able to do one or two of the moves/poses if he was wearing the mask, awesome!

It’s funny, when I took a Power Yoga class on Wednesday, it was just myself and the instructor, she said since it was just the two of us, we weren’t going to get anywhere near each other, we both took our masks off and it was great and like we were doing something naughty! Something naughty! wow! But it felt great, I was able to do some of the harder poses/moves because I wasn’t wearing the mask.

Who knows how things are going to go, but for now, one thing is moving forward. Now…downward that dog and hold that tree!

{April 16, 2021} And we’re off…Chicago here we come!

Having a moment…can’t remeber if I told you…semi surprise for PSM. And it worked! Wah to the hoo! I’m hoping you know that PSM reads this so I can’t tell you stuff like this!

It ‘s Friday, so a regular work day, to start…one big thing that happened…we got a doggie door! Soooo excited! More about that another time. About 430p, just after the installer left, the Uber arrived and we were off to the airport!

We got there just in time to get on the flight, there was traffic on the highway, so our 20 minute drive turned into closer to 40. Don’t get me started on our driver! If he didn’t drive the way he did… we may have actually missed our flight! I do miss flying… and first class no less, gotta love it! Settled in, headphones in, movie on, let’s go!

Less than an hour flying time, we’re there! It reminded me of inter-island travel when we lived in Hawai’i, there were never any flights longer than 45 minutes, can’t beat it! We headed for CTA, the train into the city, it was a heck of a lot cheaper than $72 for an Uber! Then a 10 minute walk to the hotel. If we had driven from St Louis, we would still be on the road!

We checked in, dropped our stuff and headed back downstairs, there was a Thai restaurant, Thai Spoon, I remember ordering from there when I was here on my project a few years ago, you may remember some of our conversations about my time on a project in Illinois, maybe! The food was good. We had tofu satay with peanut sauce and cucumber salad, fried tofu with sweet and sour sauce with peanuts. I had vegetable soup, then Cashew Nut with tofu and PSM had Tom Kha soup, then Massaman Curry. I haven’t had Cashew Nut anything from a Thai restaurant before and I love Cashews and I didn’t want my typical go-to Pad See Ew, when I don’t know what I want. The cashews were tasty and I liked the tofu and veggies, all cooked well, but the sauce was waaaay too salty for me. Thank goodness for rice! Everything else was fabulous, I would go there again!

While we’re at dinner, we’re talking about everything and nothing, per our norm, ha ha, just the way we like it! Up until tonight, I asked PSM if he wanted to know what we were doing in Chicago, he kept saying no. He sort of knew what we were doing because the original plan was to do it in July, when I could get tickets! The Immersive Van Gogh Experience, which I will tell you all about it tomorrow, because that’s when we’re doing it, and there’s so much more! So that was the only surprise for this weekend. He took care of booking the flights and hotel…points baby! I got us to the airport and took care of getting the surprise set up.

So…while we’re eating, and we’re enjoying it, he looks at me and says…”I’m not doing yoga tomorrow” “What?” and he looks at me and I say “you are” and he gives me another look and I say…do you want to know? “ok, tell me…” We are doing yoga IN the Immersive Van Gogh Experience! Yes, I said IN!!! Again, I’ll tell you all about it after we do it, but…we are going to be doing yoga while immersed in the exhibit! And then we get to check out the exhibit.

He looks at me and you can see the lightbulb going off over his head! But I don’t have any of my yoga stuff with me. And then he looks at my Cheshire Cat grin…why do you think my bag is so heavy…for a 3 day weekend? If we weren’t doing this, I would have brought a much smaller bag! ha ha. “Oh, that’s why you insisted on getting our yoga stuff washed last night!” Yupper! I am so sneaky like that! ha ha. Then I fessed up why I needed to go to Walmart after yoga on Thursday! I bought a travel yoga mat! It’s hysterical! I’ll show you tomorrow! It has the primary poses on it! So…I got a travel yoga mat, it folds up nicely, I snuck into the closet in his office, after he went to bed, of course, and grabbed his travel yoga mat and yoga towel. I also grabbed a pair of shorts and a t-shirt so he wouldn’t have to wear what he brought to do yoga! I then packed all that, my yoga mat, my yoga towel, and my yoga clothes! ha ha! Surprise! The look on his face…absolutely the best! so worth it! He said it was a good surprise!

That’s about it folks, it’s been a long day, up early to take care of the pups, work, flight to Chicago, dinner, surprise! and now, talking to you! I’m beat, how about you?! I cannot wait for our experience tomorrow and to tell you all about it!

‘Night!

{March 2, 2021} Wearing a mask…

It’s been quite the year, hasn’t it?

When everything started, many of us were on the fence about wearing masks. I’ll be honest, I fought it as long as I could, I just didn’t want to wear one or be told I had to. No one likes to be told what they have to do, and we still weren’t at critical, but we were encouraged to wear one. I carried one with me and always asked when I entered a store if I needed to put it on and if they said yes, I complied.

As things progressed, PSM started to wear his more consistently and shortly after we had a conversation and I decided that I would wear my mask full time. I kept one in my pocket and put it on when I got to the door of wherever I or we were going. Now, it’s the new normal, as they say. And people not wearing masks is more noticeable to me, it reminds me of former smokers who sometimes get more sensitive when someone around them is smoking. I’m not here to talk about people wearing or not wearing masks.

One thing that hasn’t been bad is wearing the mask keeps my face warm in the winter, so that’s been a plus. What hasn’t been a plus is having to wear a mask when we do yoga, it gets hot, sweaty, wet, and it’s hard to breathe, especially when it’s hot yoga. When I said it gets hot, sweaty, and wet, I wasn’t kidding. The mask itself is wet, and when you’re sweating, the straps get wet, ick! Ha Ha! I always wear a different mask into and out of the yoga studio, and if I forget, ugh.

PSM and I both have multiple masks, he’s bought a few, I’ve bought a few, PSM works for Bayer, and they sent us a set with their logo on it and those are the ones we wear for yoga. They are soft and silky and fit just right, soft enough to wear when we do yoga. I’ve tried the cloth ones, they don’t breathe as well and wearing the disposable, medical masks with the metal bridge get wet during yoga and when I bend over, they ride up into my eyes. We’ve definitely tested!

With all the safety precautions at the ski resorts, I believe I told you, masks are mandatory. Actually, in Colorado, when you step out of your car, you should be wearing your mask. I wear a mask that my sister got me, a Beatles Hey Jude pattern and a Turtle Fur neck gaiter. I was talking with a friend who said it must be great, the mask keeps my face warm while I’m skiing, but…it’s like when I’m doing yoga, and it’s actually the same on the motorcycle when it’s cold and I have to wear a face cover to keep warm…when you ski you breath out of your mouth and nose, which is covered, and when it’s that close, and you’re active, you’re breathing heavier and guess what happens? It gets wet. ick. So…as it gets wet and cold, and the temperature drops, sometimes it freezes, how’s that for ya?!

I know there’s an end in sight and I look forward to it. Until that time, masks up!

{February 22, 2021} Yoga…Love…Love…Yoga

As you know, PSM and I have been taking yoga together for almost two months, well, you may not have known how long, but you knew we were taking it together.

People ask me how I like yoga…I’m getting there.

My favorite question and answer:

“How do you like hot yoga?”

PSM LOVES hot yoga.

I LOVE PSM.

{February 14, 2021} It’s February 14th…That means so many things!

For most people, it’s Valentine’s Day, the day of love, in all sorts of ways. So, to you, who celebrate, I say Happy Valentine’s Day! Wait, let me say it in a few different ways!

Traditional Chinese: 情人節快樂 Qíngrén jié kuàilè
Russian: С днем Святого Валентина S dnem Svyatogo Valentina
Scottish Gaelic: Latha Valentine sona dhut
Samoan: Manuia le Aso o Valentine
Kazah: Әулие Валентин күні құтты болсын Äwlïe Valentïn küni quttı bolsın [nod Miss A!],
Hebrew: יום אהבה שמח
Greek: Καλή Ημέρα του Αγίου Βαλεντίνου Kalí Iméra tou Agíou Valentínou
Welsh: Dydd San Ffolant Hapus
Vietnamese: Chúc mừng ngày lễ tình nhân ❤ ️ 🌹 🌷
French: Joyeuse saint Valentin
Hawai’ian: Hauʻoli lā aloha

Don’t get too excited, Google Translate is my friend! HA HA It truly saved me in several countries we have visited! Ok, so Valentine’s day, if you celebrate it, enjoy it!

For one of my best friends, JCT, and her husband, it’s their wedding anniversary! What a beautiful testament to love. Happy anniversary to you my seester friend, I hope today today is just as par-fect as you two! [They are a golfing family, har har har]

For two very special people in my life it’s Gotcha Day! This is the day that Miss A’s adoption by SDL became official in 2011! O M G! We often have chats, trying to remember what life was like before she came into our lives! Don’t remember!

For me, it’s a day to tell the people you love that you are thinking about them and you love them. If I didn’t reach out to you directly, please know that I am thinking about you and I la la la love you! I am spoiled by mty dad, he sent me flowers and…I got the most amazing hand painted cards, one of them…I even thought about turning into a tattoo! O MG! I am such a daddy’s girl, thank you!

One great memory, I can’t go without sharing with you…I told you a few weeks ago that this was the 6th anniversary of my first date with PSM. What you didn’t know, or maybe you did, six years ago, this weekend was our third date and he took me skiing! We actually skied on Saturday, 2/14/15, pretty cool, right?! When we first started emailing, he came up with six ideas for a first date, what guy does that!? and skiing was one of them. On our second date, I mentioned it, and he said…”since you mentioned it…” ha ha ha. So…Friday, 2/13/15, I received a dozen roses, a little while before he picked me up, with Molly, his [and my soon-to-be] dog, and we drove to the ski house he owned with his brother in New Hampshire. That was our first road trip, of sorts, and we discovered how much we had in common, especially with random music selections, come on, how often do the Animaniacs come up when talking about music! And…as you might say, the rest is history.

Whatever February 14th means to you, maybe you tried to kill yourself doing a power yoga class, ha ha, or should I say, hint hint, I hope it was the best Sunday, or Valentine’s Day, or Anniversary, or Gotcha Day, or whatever…I wish you love and happiness. Wait, I do that every day, why is it so special today? Just is!

{February 9, 2021} Anyone else want to make me feel old today?

Come on, line up! I’m kidding of course, but seriously, who else?!

I am quite proud of the fact that I am 49 years old! Can you believe it, this year, I turn the big 5-0! I rocked the silver, for a minute, I’ve gone blue, purple, aqua, pink, green. I ride a motorcycle, I still wear my collection of Chuck Taylors, I laugh until I snort, which makes me laugh more, and quite often I forget that I’m 49, which started around when I turned 43, I can’t always remember where I am north of 40!

As a consultant, I work with a lot of people who are a lot younger than me, some just out of college. Since we’re colleagues, I don’t think about the age difference until they say something and I have to look at them and think…how old are you?

Today, on a call, someone said they were old at 41. Wait, what? I messaged my boss “Did he just say he’s old at 41?!” Her response “I still feel young and I have him beat by a lot”. Yup, same here!

Tonight at yoga, it was 90s themed. I didn’t know what that meant until the instructor told us that every year, in honor of her birthday week, she always plays music from the decade she was born. What?! She was born in 92…I was in my junior year of college. I give up! Ugh… did I just hear my bones start to creak? HA HA

No one can make you feel old and most of the time, I definitely do not feel old, but every once in a while…

The cure…crank the music waaaayyyy too loud on the way home, so loud the mirrors shake, oh yeah! Don’t forget…if the music’s too loud…you’re too old!

{February 4, 2021} Maternity…seriously?!

Not what you’re thinking, I’m sure!

We have been doing yoga steadily for just over a month and it’s been fun doing it together. PSM wears shorts and a t-shirt, and for me, I have tried a few things. I’ve worn a t-shirt and running pants, then I decided I wanted to try yoga pants, I’ve gotten two different pairs, and with one of them, I totally get why some people, mostly women, live in their yoga pants! They are very comfy, wow! But…the ones I got are a bit long, so if they didn’t have a ribbon to cinch the legs, I would be walking on them and I just paid good money, why would I walk off the ends. Jeans, I get, not yoga pants. Also…I’m not 15 anymore. Wait, I would still probably do it to a pair of jeans well, not intentionally! ha ha.

Sometimes it’s tough being a bit shorter, there are times I have to go with capris to get the pant to my ankle. No short cracks, thank you! and NO…I do not have to sit on a phone book to see over the steering wheel, thank you very much!

I’ve tried a few different shirts, even bought a set of yoga shirts, well, they were advertised as yoga shirts, not sure what makes them yoga shirts, they aren’t flowy, they’re made of very soft material, but they are still clingy in some places, that goes back to the lumpy comment from the other day. I’ll figure out the shirt eventually or I’ll go back to the basic t-shirt!

The last thing I have to wear, that luckily PSM and other men, at least I don’t think other men have to, is a sports bra. This is something that most women have to wear and it’s no fun, let’s just say that. I have tried so many different ones, there are different types made for different sports. I happen to be on the more well endowed side, let’s just say, so for any physical activity I can’t go with out.

Here begins my yoga journey…I’ve had to wear two at a time in the past because one didn’t hold me enough, that was when I was running, let’s just say it doesn’t feel good when the girls bounce like that. I found a great one for running, recommended by a friend who’s a runner and it’s great. For yoga, I didn’t want to wear that one, but I tried it, it’s ok, but doesn’t move as well, it’s more binding. I’ve worn double tank tops, they hold me in and since we’re not jumping, it’s not bad, but I want something with more support. I’ve tried the tank/sports bra I’ve worn as a bathing suit, it’s ok, I’ve been wearing it for a few years, don’t think it has a huge amount of life left. I had another one that I kept having to pull down and then I happened to pop out at the top, no thanks! When I bought the yoga pants and shirts, just after we started doing yoga, I bought a two pack of sports bras as well.

The big problem these days when shopping for clothes is, as you can imagine, with new health and safety regulations due to Covid, you can’t try on clothes in the stores. That saves a lot of time when you can try them on in the store. Needless to say, I have bought a few things I cannot return, oh well.

The sports bras I bought are ok, they don’t have a lot of support in some areas and are tight in some areas. What I really don’t like is that they pull on my neck when I’m doing yoga. I don’t enjoy things tight around my neck, think turtlenecks, tight necklaces, some scarves, bathing suits, yeah, I know…So…it’s not always easy for me to concentrate or relax in yoga because of this. I have looked online and I can see almost everyone else’s when we’re in class, either they are only wearing their yoga sports bras, on top, ooh cheeky! or their tank tops are loose and flowy I can see the sports bra. I haven’t gotten to that stage yet. I may wear a bikini on the beach, but I’m in the water or not moving too much, things stay where they should and I can lengthen enough to not scare people! HA HA

I went online to see if I can find something that might work better. Something that will hold me together, not pull on my neck, not rise up, and let me move, and maybe help me not look so lumpy! I’m not asking much, right? I have found a few things here and there, but on one site, and I’m not going to mention the site because I really do like it, but when I put in my size, the ONLY thing they took me to was MATERNITY cami! Seriously! A cami, for those of you don’t know, is short for a camisole and it’s morphed into many things. It was traditionally a pretty thing that you wear under a blouse, along with a bra, especially if your blouse is sheer, it adds a layer of modesty and if it’s pretty, maybe with a little lace trim at the top, it adds a touch of purdy.

They still make camis in the traditional style, but now, they are functional as well, it’s a tank top with spaghetti straps. Tank tops traditionally have wider ‘sleeves’, I wear them sometimes as pajama tops, they’re comfy and some are loose and some are tight.

Now that you know what a cami is…you might understand my outrage! When I went to this site and put in my bra size, it only came back with MATERNITY camis, really?! I’m not teeny, but I’m also not pregnant and my size does not indicate that I am pregnant, just not on the thinner size. Really?! How do you think that made me feel?! I think you’ve figured out how I feel!

As gawd is my witness, I will find a yoga sports bra that works for me! UGH! Sigh…

{February 3, 2021} Are you kidding?! Rude much?!

Thanks, you ruined my chi, my flow. I have enough time with the relaxing/meditation part of yoga, but tonight, you made it more so because you were flat out, wow. Ok, sorry, this is a slight rant, if you haven’t figured that out.

I got to yoga about 15 minutes before class started, chatted with the girl at the desk and the yoga instructor, then went into the studio to set up my yoga mat. There was one other person in the studio on the far side, by the windows. I decided to set myself up on the opposite wall, near the door, towards the back. The only other mat was the instructor’s at the front of the room and a camera on a tripod, which was probably there from the last livestream class.

After I got my mat situated, I started stretching to get ready for class. Then another person came in, set up next to the other woman in the room, and then another woman came in and set up in the very back of the room, not too far away from where I was. So, now…there are four of us, waiting on the instructor. In comes the last student and guess where she sets up…literally IN FRONT OF ME. Seriously? I know the studio isn’t huge, but with only 4 of us, there was plenty of room to set up.

I get wanting to be in front of the mirror, well, not always, sometimes I just feel lumpy and don’t actually want to see myself, but…I do like to see my form while I’m doing the positions or attempting to get into a particular position. Is my back flat? How’s my Warrior 2? Things like that. Even when a class is full, we all seem to space ourselves juts far enough over that the person behind can see what they are doing, but not this woman, the only thing I could see was my hand, if it moved out of the way. Could you have moved maybe 3 or 4 inches to the left or right? Apparently not…

And, if you’re like me, sometimes when you can’t see the instructor you look to the other participants to see what they’re doing. I didn’t even want to do that, she was still there! Then, when it was time to focus on our breathing and just let everything go, I couldn’t, grrr…all I kept thinking was, well, you know what I was thinking! One thing I’m sure you didn’t know that I was thinking…one of my favorite lines from a movie. Buffy, played by Kristy Swanson, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is said to Merrick, her mentor, played by Donald Sutherland, “Excuse much! Rude or anything?”

And that led to me thinking about telling you all about it in tonight’s post. Thankfully, that movie makes me laugh, so now that I’ve told you about it, it’s in the universe and I’m over it, thanks for listening!

And…lastly…it’s February 3rd, Groundhog Day was yesterday, no “Babe, I Got You Babe” [bummer, I wish I had shared that link yesterday, glad I found it! enjoy!] and it’s tomorrow. Wa to the hoo!

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What was I thinking?