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Tonight was my very first Bikram yoga class and I can't even describe how nervous I was before I walked in the studio. The very nice lady working at the front desk put me at ease as I noted that I was wearing entirely too many clothes...shorts would have been much more appropriate then 3/4 length yoga pants.
I took off my sandals and went into the large room to lay out my mat and towel and HOLY HELL was it hot in there! I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but as I relaxed before class and practiced my breathing, I began to rethink the whole thing. Would I pass out? Would I throw up like my coworker did?
Well...I was actually pretty great! I stuck it out through each of the 2 sets of 26 poses and could really hang with the seasoned veterans that were there. The instructor (who told us in the beginning that leaving the room was not allowed, basically adding to my anxiety) was upbeat, hysterical and really knew how to get us to push just that little bit more. All throughtout the class, he was picking out the great things that people were doing and it was so motivational. As a newbie to the studio, it felt great that he picked out my technique to compliment a couple times! Sure I wasn't perfect or anything, but the heat definitely allowed me to be more flexible then I am in my normal power classes.
Probably the only negative part of the experience was the sweat that got in my eyes. And there was a LOT of it. I don't think I have ever sweated that much in my life and there were a couple times with it felt like I had a gallon of water running into my eyes. Not even that was enough to dampen my enthusiasm though!
It was tough, don't get me wrong, but I am SO glad I went through with it. I know this is definitely something that will become a staple in my workout at least once a week and I can't wait to go back. With shorts this time. :-)
IS BOOKED! I'm scared and excited all at the same time. I have heard so many horror and success stories about hot yoga and I'm wondering which category I will fall in. Will I throw up? I guess we shall find out on Wednesday evening at 6pm.
And I never bothered to update with any photos of her (or of anything else for that matter). Right out of the box, she was gorgeous; I was actually kind of pleased that her hair didn't end up as red as a Rouge Noir's, but rather it's a little more natural. I didn't worry about customization so much, but I did have to open her head in order to do the boggle and gaze lift. Opening an RBL head was SO EASY; it kind of makes me want to buy another one just to take apart. I'm not letting myself do that until I finish the reroot I've been working on for the past 6 months...let me just add here that working with curly nylon is kind of a pain in the ass.
So here is my Friendly Freckles, Makenna. She features chip changes, boggle, gaze lift and new eyelashes. I also did some work on her hair. I think she's just lovely. :-)
It's a sad state of affairs when you can't even remember how to compose a new entry in your own damn blog. It took me 5 minutes of clicking around just to figure out how to get here.
When he walked in the front door he immediately says "Did you drop something in the parking lot when you came in earlier?" He sounded kind of panicked and I'm kind of a klutz and have been known to drop stuff in the parking lot when I'm getting out of my car...so I was like "oh crap...maybe..."
And then Henry says, "Here...I found this on the ground next to your car." And he reached into his pocket and pulls out a white ring box. My first thought was, "wait that's not mine..." Then something clicked and my mind went completely blank. I took the box and opened it and it was my beautiful ring inside. I just stared at it and couldn't even talk...I barely even heard Mike saying "Lauren...will you marry me?"
Nodding works well as a confirmation, so I did that first and was finally able to squeak out a yes. I jumped up to hug him and he was totally sweaty from all of his nervousness (haha). My little brothers were jumping up and down and hugging us and calling Mike "brother" and telling Austin how excited they were to be his "uncles" (imagine...Appy as a 10 year old "uncle" of a kid that is 2 years older than him!).
I could not be happier with the way it all went down. Mike asked me if I was upset that he didn't ask me at some posh restaurant or at the top of a mountain and I told him OF COURSE NOT! Neither of those things are my style. One thing that has always drawn me to him is the closeness that he has with his family and his willing acceptance of my brothers as a huge part of his life. The fact that he thought to include them in on the most special day of my life so far only makes this engagement that much sweeter.
If I weren't the one getting married, I'd probably gag from the cuteness. Our wedding date is February 27, 2010.
Anyway, it took us about a month to figure out that planning at at home wedding was going to be the most epic pain in the ass either of our lives had ever seen. I never really thought about my wedding either way, so I had no idea what I wanted and the fact that I'm indecisive as hell certainly wouldn't have helped the situation. So in the end, we decided that the best route to go was a destination wedding. And believe me, it has DEFINITELY been the best route we possibly ever could have gone.
I mean, first of all, look at where we get to get married:
I am probably going to be wetting my pants as the plane attempts to land on that runway that you can clearly see spanning the entire length of the island, but I think it will be worth it. Turks and Caicos is about a 75 minute flight from Miami and while it kind of looks as if it's in the Caribbean, it's not. It's in the Atlantic Ocean. Which is just fine by me.
We have chosen to get hitched at an all-inclusive resort called Beaches. Beaches is owned by the same folks that own the Sandals resorts, but unlike Sandals, Beaches is very kid-friendly. Which works out great for our situation since all my younger brothers will be in attendance. We are booked to stay there for 11 days/10 nights; a nice long stay as it includes the time that we are supposed to be on the island per residency requirements and also our honeymoon. By law, we have to be there for 24 hours before applying for a marriage license and that takes two days to process.
My Christmas present from Mike.
It had been ages since I had the time/money to customize a Blythe. Unfortunately I ended up having to sell off a couple of my girls when money got a little tight...LA is expensive!! I sat on a bunch of mohair for a very long time (not literally or anything) and finally once I arrived back home, I re-discovered the joy that I get from taking apart dolls and putting them back together.
So last we spoke I had been spending a lot of time in the LA...hanging out with friends new and old and completely hating my life up in Ventura; the only thing keeping me there at that point being my job and my roommate who didn't want me to abandon her before she moves away in December.
What was your worst hairstyle decision ever?
I feel like I may have written about this one time in the past, but by far the worst thing to ever happen to my head occurred at a local salon, which is now ironically closed down. I went early on a Saturday morning only to be greeted by a WAY too bright eyed woman who was literally SHOUTING at me as she asked if I would like some coffeeteawaterjuicepastries....just thinking about it makes my brain hurt all over again.
So then she proceeds to shampoo me and ask me what exactly I would like done today. So I suggest to her that maybe I would like to try bangs. My hair had gotten really long and I wanted to keep it that way, so if she could just cut the split ends and add the fringe, I'd be good to go. The first snip of her scissors, however, sent a VERY long piece of hair falling to the floor, and I instantly knew that no good would come of this.
I was so tired and out of it that I zoned into my own little world and she hacked away at my hair. I don't know why I didn't try to stop her. I must have been in some sort of shock or something. Then it was all over and she begins to load about 50 pounds of product into my hair all the while exclaiming about how fantastic it looks and how happy I will be with the results. It was then that I actually realized what had happened here. She had given me new layers. I had not asked for them....and there were about eight of them. My hair had fallen to around the middle of my shoulder blades prior to this fiasco and now the longest layer was above my shoulder. She had also given me bangs, but literally they went ALL THE WAY AROUND MY HEAD. I wanted to cry and scream and punch her in the face.
But I didn't do any of those things. I paid and left as quickly as I could.
Over the next week I considered shaving my head, getting extensions, hiding in my room for the next several months. Then I discovered one hairstyle that looked passable and literally ended up wearing my hair that way for 2 months until it was long enough to do anything else with.
I found out later that she had been let go shortly after she did my hair....although I still never recommended that place to anyone else.
What's your best tax tip?
Do them early. Mine were done at the beginning of February and I had all my money by the middle of the month. It saves a lot of stress in the long run.
Seriously though...I don't really know why people wait so long. Taxes are easy.
