Christmas Break in California

 

My cousins and I got matching PJs for christmas. 

 

 Presents!  And new earmuffs from Derek.

 The fam bam playing games and eating massive amounts of desserts on Christmas. 

 Huntington Beach...I took my lovely friend Lisal and her fiance, Scott's engagement photos here. 

 I flew out of Orange County airport.  And was unaware of their "unique take-off procedures".

Basically the airplane shoots straight up into the air and once its up they kill the engines as to not disturb the newport beach residents.  Once the plan reaches the ocean the engine starts up again.  Right after take-off the engine went silent and the pilot went on the intercom and whispered "shhh, we're flying over rich people's houses".  Oh Orange County.  

All I Want For Christmas Is Some Mini Schnauzers...

I've always felt a special connection to dogs and babies, much more than normal people.

Maybe it's because I am a young soul.

Maybe it's because I am socially awkward.

Either way I post in honor of my favorite pups.

I love them.

Meet Ally. 

And dear old savan:

 

 

 

Merry Christmas! 

The snow is divine.

It astounds me how incredible beautiful snow is.

I feel like I've missed an integral part of my childhood not growing up in a place that snows.

Not experiencing the sheer excitement of the first snowfall.

There is something so purifying and peaceful about snowfall, especially in new york city. 

 For a short time the hussle and bussle of the city seems to pause, and the dirtiness of the city seems to be covered up by a blanket of white.  The snow assures me that there is a God up there, because these beautiful lovely little flakes are heavenly and simply divine.

Bhagavad-Gita

In the last three days I have written 23 pages of double spaced, MLA format text.

And quite frankly my brain is fried.

 ...

Also it's freezing, literally freezing.

Today was 18 degrees and I walked around nyc for 3 hours in the cold spreading the news of yoga

Good thing I love my job.

...

In better news...

The Bhagavad-Gita.

(The subject of one of my 12-pagers this week)

Enjoy the inspiration!

"Your own duty done imperfectly is better than another man’s done well.  It is better to die in one’s own duty; another man’s duty is perilous" 3:35

"Our bodies are known to end, but the embodied self is enduring, indestructible, and immeasurable"2:18

"Be intent on action, not on the fruits of action; avoid attraction to the fruits...be impartial to failure and success" 2:47-48

"Detached from external contacts, he discovers joy in himself; joined by discipline to the infinite spirit, the self attains inexhaustible joy" 5:21

I love this stuff.  The thing that has grabbed me the most is being intent on actions and not the results of those actions, because in all reality that is all we have control over.  We have complete control of our actions, and zero control of the results of those actions.  All be can do is our best.  It's empowering when you think about it.  To be able to live your life as best as possible, but at the end of the day let go, and completely detach yourself from success or failure.  I think my goal in the new year is to apply this to my life.  To not worry about whether I'm good enough, or if the world approves. To live my life the best I can, and focus on what I do, and let go of the rest! 

Things I have done instead of my paper:

Ped Egged my feet

Taken a nap

Gone grocery shopping

Looked at the Mexican/Californian border of google maps

Made a giant sandwich

StumbleUpon

Bought 2 Christmas presants online

Laundry

Went to a show at Adler

Talked to both sets of Grandparents on the phone

Looked at flights

Baked cookies

Vaccumed my room

Ate ice cream with oreos

Perezhilton.com

Made french toast with Nate

Danced with Fish (the dog)

Looked up  rescue websites for French Bulldogs

Wrote this blog post.

I am so close. Yet so far.

My front yard:

Have I mentioned I love Christmas?

The only reason worth leaving my apartment in 9 degree weather:

 

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

When I woke up this morning one thing was clear...


Winter had arrived. 


And had made sure to make itself know.  There was no going back, so I begrudgingly unpacked my northface coat, gloves and hat from the storage bag and welcomed them to a long winter.  I used to love the cold because I never grew up with it, but now that I've lived in new york for three years it has become significantly less excited.  

In more exciting winter news, 


I have officially done Christmas shopping for my family, with the help of retailmenot.com -- a VERY useful little website that has discount codes for almost every shopping website.  


This weekend was the Christmas Ball at Nate's school, which was so fun.  I spent the weekend in Long Island (where I learned I am just not cut out for cold weather).  Although it was just Nate and I, we have both come to love and depend on his barely functioning, highly impulsive, but very awesome jeep Lazerous, which I endearingly nicknamed "Laz".  On the way to the Ball, Nate and I all dressed up and ready to go, Laz decided not to start.  But don't worry, this happens all the time, all Nate has to do is go under the car and knock on the starter with a wench.  Mind you, it is snow-raining below 30 degree weather.  So he slaps on his bowler suit over his uniform and prepares to fix the starter.  Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who is not cut out for cold weather, because this time Laz refused to start.  


So there we sat for a good 40 minutes until the 7th of 8th try, when Laz magically decided to start as if nothing was wrong.  I love them, both the car and the "mechanic" who fixed it.  

Ten Awesome things about the last week:

10. I went to California with Nater Tater for thanksgiving.
I really got to know his fam which was great. And I experienced my first Buckley holiday gathering with a whooping 40 people (including 3 dogs!) It was awesome.

Nate and his Momma carving the turkey. 

9. Kate and I discovered the El Torito Grill of the east coast.  It's called Sinigual and is exactly the same, warm tortillas and all!

8. Jetblue airlines. (Which is an even better experience when you get to spend 6+ hours sitting next to your best friend playing approximately 500 games of Uno!)

7. I have officially started buying Christmas presents. And it's totally getting me into the holiday spirit.

6. In and Out. (Enough said.)

5. Macy's in Herald Sq. is all decorated for the holidays.

4. I am going to a ball in approximately 5 days.

3. I discovered 1000 Awesome Things - a very awesome website (which totally inspired this post if you couldn't already tell!)

2. I got these awesome new shoes for way cheap from the Vans outlet;  I've never been one for skater shoes but they were just too cute.

1. I am officially employed by YogaWorks. And am so unbelievably grateful!

Things that I am grateful for...

I adore Thursdays. Mostly because I don't have class on Fridays, so as soon as I get out of recitation at 1:45 I am on top of the world. I've started a little routine of coming home, making a relaxing lunch, catching up on LOST, and going to yoga in the evening. Tonight I left yoga filled with gratitude. I felt like everywhere I walked I found something to be grateful for. It was misting outside but it felt good and I had a yogi tea to keep me warm.

Tonight I feel like I am exactly where I need to be. 


It's true. We are all exactly where we need to be, and I believe we each have a very specific, very special plan for our lives.  I may be jobless and financially crippled and so far from who I want to be and what I want to do with my life, but it's okay, because right now, in this moment, I am exactly where I need to be and the rest, with faith, will come. I'm trying not to forget that.

So for tonight here are some things I am thankful for...

In no particular order:

The fact that I'm from California,
My family,
Yoga,
Being able to get an education at NYU,
Nathan Arlo Buckley,
The fact that I was raised Christian,
The opportunity to live in New York City,
Christmas, and everything it stands for,
Being content with what I have,
My dog, Savanna,
Being able to fly to California for Thanksgiving,
My friend Lisal,
Whole Foods and my Sigg,
The new yoga journal I bought tonight-- here's a picture, it's way awesome.

This week I...

Got an A on my developmental test
Did yoga in the window of the soho Old Navy for 2 hours
Discovered nieniedialogues.blogspot.com written by a very incredible woman
Met with an adviser and decided I'm going to try and study abroad this summer
Missed my first full day of classes all semester and instead spent it sick in bed
Discovered that my favorite apples are fuji and bought them from the farmers market
Fell more in love
Finally finished every episode of LOST

Dharma

I've been thinking a lot about dharma lately. It's a relatively new concept for me, we talked about it a little in yoga training, and recently we've been discussing it to great lengths in my Ancient Indian Literature class. Basically dharma is a term originating in India which literally means "that which upholds" but in a larger sense means "one's life purpose". Dharma is why you were created, it's what you're here for, it's your divine purpose, oh, and everyone has one. It's a beautiful idea actually, and I completely believe it. But lately I have been obsessing about it, I feel this urgency to figure out what I really truly want to do with my life, because in a year, bam, it's here. I was lucky enough to have parents who always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be when I grew up, but this idea of having a limitless number of paths in life now seems daunting. Not to mention that fact that whatever path I choose better make me enough money to live and pay off student loans. I keep thinking about how ancient Indians had it easy, their dharma was simply determined by their age, social class, and gender. But mine? It's not quite that simple.

Well last night I was sitting in my Indian Lit class, talking about the importance of dharma in the Bagavadgita (and incredible book, by the way) when I decided to google something. I've been thinking if I could do anything with my life, and take it as far as I wanted what would I do, and I 'd like to teach yoga in hospitals, particularly to patients suffering from severe depression and anxiety. So I typed into google "yoga in hospitals". What came up were articles about this brilliant institute called NIMHANS- National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience, which has started offering yoga as a form of alternative medicine in government hospitals everywhere, particularly for patients with depression. I saw this and I thought, "great! this is exactly what I want to do! I need to find this institute and go there to help!". Turns out, it's in India. So right then and there I decided, someone has to help bring something like this to America...what about me?

Today is good.

I've been feeling pretty bummed lately, my job won't schedule me, the wheel on my ipod broke, I've been stressed out money what I'm going to do with my life. But today about half an hour ago that all changed when I got this beautiful envelope in the mail from Costa Mesa, CA. My yoga teacher certification has finally arrived! 200 hours of training, exams, and lots of patience and it's here. And I am ecstatic!

Tyra

One of the cool things that I've recently discovered about living in New York is all the live tapings of shows and how easy it is to get free tickets to them. About two weeks ago Ashley, Nate and I went to the Tyra Banks show. It was ridiculous, but very fun, and we got free Haley Berry perfume! And this Wednesday the filming we went to will air so look for us in the audience!

Happy Halloween!

Apples, Autumn, and Upstate.

I love fall on the east coast. Ever since moving to New York, from that "place without seasons" I have learned to appreciate change so much. I still act like a child the at the first snow fall. And have come to appreciate how truly incredible Spring time is after a long winter. The change of seasons is so magical. So Nate, I, and his car Lazareth (who was brought back from the dead) went upstate this weekend to enjoy the fall to its fullest. Nate drove and I took a million pictures and after lots of nyc traffic we got to a little family farm. We bought pie, picked apples, and ate the best donuts I have ever tasted. And on the way home, I may have snapped some of my favorite sunset pictures of all time. I love new york. I love fall. I am so lucky.