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!