Yogapalooza 2010

Well a few years back I was heavy into yoga, 3-4 times a weeks, working with some great teachers, running a lunchtime yoga program at work, and even leading the odd casual session with co-workers. I wound up losing a bunch of weight, feeling great, and making some wonderful friends. Not quite sure what happened since then but I fell out of practice, gained back the weight and then some, and haven't felt myself really.

So after several years of intention, I finally actually signed up for a month of yoga at CorePower Yoga with encouragement from a friend (at a highly discounted price) and determined to go to as many classes as I could before either embracing it or dying. Weighing in at 260 lbs at 5'8" I felt pretty challenged by even the most basic class. To their credit, all the teachers at CorePower held fast to the yogic ideal that "you are exactly where you are supposed to be" (sometimes I felt like they were only saying this because I was in the class though). And it has been a very welcoming atmosphere. Even other students have been open hearted and encouraging during after class dressing room chatter.

End result, after my month long Yogapalooza which ended yesterday with a 90 minute Hot Yoga Class which at the time I described as "being trapped in a jungle with a sadistic circus trainer"- I have met some great teachers and students, am feeling great- just a little tired/dreamy, am almost down to 230 lbs (water weight), and am going to keep on going (especially after I found out my first paid month is also discounted and I get a corporate discount going forward).

At this rate in 230 days I should weight nothing....

Linger Trailer

Irish Fair

Irish Faire Minnesota

Royce | MySpace Video

Melody Gardot | Bluegrass Special

Great interview with Melody Gardot on everything from childhood to what she eats. Bluegrass Special

Herbie Hancock & Melody Gardot - Edith And The King-Pin on Abbey Road

Funny or Die - Prop 8 - The Musical

They have whole series of these at Funny or Die, mostly parodies ("A Gaythering Storm"), but I thought this musical with a star-studded class was great! I voted "Funny."

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black

Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver

Young adult fiction is a guilty pleasure for me. Guilty because I think I'm just too old to be eligible for it and a pleasure because I love the clarity, directness, and themes- fairies and werewolves don't seem to get much play in the regular fantasy/scifi realm.... So there, I'm out of the closet and with that I'd like to just say some of the best young adult writing I've come across is by Maggie Stiefvater. She has two series out currently, one about homicidal fairies, Lament and the sequal, Ballad, and another about werewolves, Shiver. I thought I'd post this because I thing they're great and also because I'm trying to win an advance copy of her new book Linger, the sequal to Shiver. Read on.....

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other.  Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack.  And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog.