Week Off

Did I mention that I'm leaving for a much needed week long vacay tomorrow afternoon? Yep, I sure am! And to say I'm excited would be the understatement of the century because I am literally DYING to get out of this city and into beautiful Northern California.

I'll be there Wednesday thru Thursday, and I'm packing... wait for it... a carry-on. Yup - a carry-on. Me, the queen of overpacking and giant leopard suitcases, is packing a tiny purple carry-on for an entire week! That's because unlike many (okay, probably all) of my prior trips to Cali, I do not plan on getting any kind of fancy on this trip. No, this week is devoted to comfy hoodies, yoga pants, and hot pink Uggs. I'm not packing a single bauble (SO unlike me) besides what I plan to wear on the plane (not much). Makeup-wise I only brought my favorite peach blush, a light powder, a couple of liners, and the easiest, most flattering red lipstick ever. This is so weird, but I'm kind of excited about not having to worry about how I look for an entire week. It's tres unlike Manhattan. I mean, I'm not even bringing my hairspray!

Since I'm simplifying in all those ways, I've also decided not to pack my laptop. That doesn't mean that I won't be tweeting or checking email (although I plan to limit those if all goes as planned), but I definitely won't be blogging. I'm sure I'll have lots of stories to share when I get back though so I hope you'll be here when I return!

Obviously the darling I'm MOST excited about seeing that sweet lil doll below. It's been entirely too long, and despite her love of attention, she'll most likely attempt to escape my grasp by the end of my stay. I wonder if I could sneak her back on the plane...


Also? Ma Soeur and I are going here where I'll be indulging in the eucalyptus steam room, sauna, and an 80-minute massage. My body desperately needs it, and although I know it won't be as ahh-mazing as the ones I used to get in Austin (le sad), its definitely better than nothing.

I'm ALSO excited about our camping trip to Tahoe! We're going here, and Ma Soeur reserved our fantastic spot on the beach an entire YEAR ago, and she's already bought me a head lamp (cute, eh?) and sleeping bag and pad. I haven't been camping since I was in 7th grade, but I am STOKED. I'm not so stoked about the fact that we have to use bear lockers though... Scary!




However, the idea of strolling along the beach at sunset, hiking in the beautiful mountains, and making s'mores by the evening fire are SO good, I think I can handle the bears.

Needless to say, I'm a very happy camper (pun intended!) right now. I hope you all have a divine rest of the week/weekend/next week, and I'll see you next Friday!!

September Vacay

Alerted to absurdly cheap flights by Travelzoo.com, Ma Soeur and I quickly began messaging back and forth about a possible Cali trip for moi in September. Yes, I am planning to go to California over Christmas, but I am missing Lola like MAD, and these tickets were sooo cheap that the possibility of seeing Lola in a mere month was too tempting to pass up. (Not to mention the possibility of: cool evenings, a ginormous tub in which to bathe, gorgeous greenery and flowers everywhere, a hotel-like atmosphere, free delicious food... the list goes on and on.) Flights are booked, and I am spending one whole week with my beloved in early September. Also, my sis and bro-in-law were planning to go camping in Tahoe that weekend so guess who gets to join them? WHEE!

Voila pics that my sister's dogsitter sent today of Lola and her new favorite... stick. How can I resist?

Quick Lola Pic

A few days ago, Ma Soeur sent me this pic of my sweet Lola after a romp in the garden. Is she not the cutest?? I miss her tremendously, but I'm so happy to get updates via pics and videos.

Day 8... Life Sans Lola

This post is going to be a short one. My day was pretty uneventful... it was chilly and raining all day, and since I had to wait for the UPS guy anyway, I chose to stay in. On top of that, my mood kind of matched the weather outside. Everyone told me that New York is the loneliest city in the world, despite the insane number of people walking around it. I can see why. Even though my time here has been a flurry of brunches, drinks, dinners, and friend dates galore, I miss my family, and I really miss my Lola.

There are, like, 7 pet shops within a few blocks of my apartment, and every time I see one I think, "Oh good! I can get Lola's... Oh. Wait." And every time I see a fluffy white dog on the street, my heart stops. I miss her so much, and sometimes I think I made the wrong decision coming here because it means being without her. Dramatic? Maybe. But she's my child and my love, so I don't really care how stupid or silly I sound. And no, she can't come here. First, I can't afford to have her here and give her a good life. Second, it's disgusting... seriously. I would have to bathe her every single night before we went to bed if she lived here. And third, her life would be about 10x worse than it was in Austin, and you know what? Her life in California right now is about 5x better than it was in Austin. You do the math. I mean, just look at her...

(She's sleeping in her cousin Sofie's bed despite the very large bed next to it. Love.)

I don't think she misses me as much as I miss her, but like a parent, I don't care (that much) as long as I know she's happy. And she looks pretty happy to me...

Happy Birthday, Lola!

I can't believe my little Lolalicious turns TWO today! She's still a puppy in so many ways, and although I'm eager for her energy to go down a notch or two (namely when I'm away from the house, and she finds anything/everything to chew), I love her puppy-esque curiosity, joy, and playfulness (see Snuggle action shot below).

my first day with Lola

back when i used to dress her up

"Lola, shake!"



squinty camera shot over Christmas





Happy Birthday, baby girl! You're the bestest pup a gal could ask for!!

P.S. The whole "terrible 2's" thing isn't applicable to dogs... is it?

Update!

Bonjour, darling friends! How was your long weekend? Mine was fantastic. I had a whirlwind 4 days in D.C., and it was the time of my life. I hope to post an entry about my trip (avec pictures!) tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, I wish you all a HAPPY TUESDAY and leave you with this adorable pic of Lola in her Snuggie for Dogs. (P.S. Tomorrow is Lola's birthday - she's turning 2!!!)


(Pardon her dirtiness... she was romping around with her cousin Sofie in the snow!)

Photo du Jour

I couldn't resist this photo op last night as I was pulling images for collaging...

Bonjour, 26!

Bonjour, my lovelies! Oh you've all been so divine with your birthday wishes, and I sincerely thank you. You totally made my day (and week!). I've been so blessed with love this birthday, and so unexpectedly, that I've spent the majority of the last few days with a huge smile on my face. It's so funny to think that one month ago, I was dreading my 26th birthday and wanting it to pass quietly. (That's so not moi... i should've known better!) Anyhoo, I'm so behind on thank you notes, thank you tweets, thank you emails, and thank you facebook messages and hope to catch up at some point this weekend. Not to mention catching up on blogs and blogging!

Yesterday I began my 26th bday with a fun and challenging yoga class. I don't know what it was about yesterday, but I was fearless! I kicked up into handstand for the first time ever without assistance (and actually hung out there for a few seconds!), *finally* felt what it was like to balance in headstand, did backbend push-ups (had no idea I had the strength), and even attempted some scorpion-esque poses (all near the safety of a wall, of course!). It was intense and fun and felt SO good.

Afterwards, mon amie C & I went home to pack for Barton Springs, picked up some yummies from Central Market, and then hit the Springs. It was UNBEARABLY hot with little to no breeze, but luckily the water in the Springs is freakishly cold so we spent 3 hours alternating between laying out and jumping into the freezing pool. Next time I am bringing a float! Voila a glimpse into Austin's beloved Barton Springs -



Divine, isn't it? I can't wait to go back avec float and more H2O!

After the Springs, we got sushi at a fun new sushi restaurant mere steps from my apartment, had some wine and oodles of laughs. Topped off the day with delicious peanut butter froyo. Mmmmm delish. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday.

Of course now, I'm exhausted and soooooo did not want to wake up and get dressed for work this morning. Luckily I woke up to this sweet face, which somehow put me in a better mood:



Don't her legs look freakishly long? That's because they are! Oh how I love my little (giant) Lola bear!!

How are you darlings?? I'm missing you masses!! Tell me what's been going on!

Home Practice

Many of you have blogged about home yoga practices before, but I rarely comment because I've had very little to say about it. I always assumed that I just couldn't have a home practice, not in my small, cluttered apartment, with my 2 animals, and lack of self-discipline and guidance. But this past weekend I headed to Castle Hill for a class with one of my favorite yoga teachers in Austin, Hannah Emlen, only to learn that there was a substitute (AGAIN). After too many sub-par substitute teachers, I decided to save my money and walk away. There weren't any other classes I could take at the time, and my body was really really craving some yoga. So I went home, pulled out my mats (need double love b/c of my hard concrete floors), Kimberly's Get Your Yoga On cd, and indulged in my first real home practice.

There were a few minor mishaps. In the first 5 minutes or so of the CD, Kimberly has you sitting on your mat, hands on your knees, eyes closed and doing the 3-part yogic breath. This was all well and fine until I felt a tap on my nose. Opened my eyes to see Lola right in front of me, smiling and pawing away. After several unsuccessful attempts at shooing her away, I finally had to pick her up and plop her on the couch (which, btw, is where she stayed for the rest of my practice - hooray!). I also forgot to light a candle and/or incense, and I forgot to pull out my block ahead of time. Still it was a lovely practice overall, and I felt awesome afterwards (and sore on Sunday, which is always a good sign). I think I'm going to indulge in more home practices and save some money! :)

Afterwards I kept my yoga mats out because someone rather enjoyed laying/sleeping/playing on it...

Any little tips/preferences/rituals/extras you incorporate into your own home yoga practice?

PM/AM Ritual

A few of us gals have a started a petit, informal morning ritual group called Abundant A.M.'s (cute name, huh?), and one gal mentioned how her morning routine is very much tied to her night before. So true, right? I've touched on this before, about how I was doing a fairly good job of creating an evening ritual despite my inability to create a morning one. I need to stick to that because if my evening is out of whack, my morning is guaranteed to be as well.

I've decided that the best way for moi to create a morning ritual that I'll stick to is to add one petit thing every week or so. There's less pressure that way, you know? It's like SARK's micromovements. I'm undecided as to what my petit thing will be for this week. 10 minutes morning pages/journaling? A few sun salutations? Taking Lola for a walk? Any suggestions?

Speaking of Lola, how cute is she? I just love that she uses a pillow for her head. Comme une personne!



Oh and as for 500 Days of Summer, it was a great flick! I have to admit that my expectations were insanely high, and I felt like I was waiting for a big something throughout the whole movie (naturally that big something never happened), BUT the movie was still good. Good and realistic and oui, un peu triste. And yes, Zooey Deschanel is ADORABLE!!

It's Summertime and the Livin's Easy...

I'm changing her nickname from Lolabear to Lazybear.

P.S. i LOVE when she's all shaggy like this, but alas, i think a trip to the Groomer's is in order...

Quarantine

Ugh. I am officially over this illness. Being stuck at home with nothing to do but sleep, cuddle with Lola and watch girly movies is fun in theory, but when you can't taste anything and get nauseous almost every time you do manage to get something down, SUCKS. Not being able to eat is K-I-L-L-I-N-G me. I'm so cranky when i'm hungry. :(

Luckily, i do have this sweet thang keeping me company (even though she's probably bored to tears). This has pretty much been our life for the past 4 days...


Bless her little heart. I promise her oodles of outside playtime and delicious treats once i'm fully recovered.

By the way, when will that be??

Oh and dear readers, i promise you some beautiful, inspiration and fun posts soon, too!! I'm sure you're tired of my cranky blogs/tweets. ;)

"Dog Person" & Meat

2 Things:

1) First, do you consider yourself a "dog person"? I never have, especially since we never grew up with dogs, only a cat, and so i never really knew what it meant to have one. Since then, of course, i've gotten my darling Lola, love of my life, and Ma Soeur has gotten her (sometimes) sweet Sofie (haha i so funny!). The first few months after getting Lola, our conversations literally revolved around our dogs - no lie. It was ridiculous! Since then, we've toned it down a bit, but no conversation goes by without mentioning Lola-bear and/or Sofie-monster (other nicknames include Snuffalofogus, Wofie Wof, Rora, and Sof Sof), how they're doing, what they chewed today, how cute they are, etc. Yes, it's annoying.

Anyway, i've noticed lately that my love for Lola has, if possible, grown exponentially. Whereas once i thought of her as just a pet, i now consider her my baby and a valid member of my family. I also found myself getting ridiculously emotional over stories involving lost dogs, mistreated dogs, etc. I watched Bolt while Ma Soeur and Bro were at a wedding on Sunday night and seriously LOST. IT. I'm talking major tears. (Also cried when Mittens told her story about being left by her family, declawed and defenseless and swore to myself then and there to take really good care of Puffin forever no matter how annoying he can be!) Also? 99% of the all the pics on my blackberry are of, you guessed it, Lola.


So... am i now a dog person? Officially? Or am i just crazy? The reason i'm hesitant to call myself a true "dog person" is because, and i'm being perfectly honest here, i don't love all dogs. I love my dog and a few select others. I do not love every dog (particularly the slobbery, ill-mannered, bad-tempered, or yip-y variety). Know what i mean??

2) Second, a word about meat. This past weekend, as you saw, i indulged in a lot of carnivorous activity. That's right - i ate lamb, beef, pork, you name it! And it was all good, REALLY good, until Memorial Day when we decided to BBQ. You see, the day before, Ma Soeur and i were @ Whole Foods getting BBQ supplies when i told her, "i'm done eating meat!! get me a portabello and lots of veggies." So we picked up a fat portobello, corn on the cob, zucchini, and shrimp. But then as we neared the meat counter, and Ma Soeur decided the steaks were way too overpriced and "i guess we'll just grill hamburgers instead", the thought of a nice, juicy, grass-fed and natural beef hamburger overtook my mind and senses, and before i knew it, i blurted "OOH I WANT A BURGER!!!". Yeah. I know. I'm a BAD vegetarian.


Fast forward to Monday afternoon - i'm getting ready to dig into my delicious burger, adorned with a thick slice of cheddar cheese, fresh romaine, organic ketchup and mayo, all sandwiched between two sprouted grain buns (really tasty, actually). I take my first bite - DELISH. Yum. Love it. I take my second bite - um, a little less enthusiastic this time. After Ma Soeur decided hers wasn't cooked enough and threw it back on the grill, i started to think about what i was eating and examined my own meat. It was fully cooked. But the more i stared, the more i thought, the more i chewed, the more disgusted i became. To the point where i couldn't take it anymore and proceeded to hand my leftover burger to Bro and instead shoved the grilled portobellos in between the delicious aforementioned buns. Yum!

I don't know what came over me, but i'm kind of glad it did. Because last week when i wasn't eating much meat, i felt a lot better. More energy, less heavy-full, no more afternoon headaches, and better sleep. I don't know if i can attribute all that to the lack of meat in my diet, but i know that i liked how i felt. And since i'm not all that keen on eating meat as it is, i'm glad that the burger incident reminded me not to.

Btw, pics of the BBQ and the rest of my weekend coming SOON. Just super busy with getting ready for this weekend's festivities (big bday bash for friend's 30th Friday night a bachelorette party on Saturday).

xoxo!!


P.S. A Note About Work: I cannot tell you how much i appreciated your kind and helpful comments re: my work situation. Although this week doesn't look particularly promising, i've decided to just let. go. I can't control how much work is available, that's not my job as a first-year associate, and the only thing i can really do is do what i can to get work, and when there just isn't any to be done, relax. I can fully defend my numbers if it came to it (which i doubt it would at my firm, it's just not that kind of place), and i know the partners in this office know i'm doing the best i can. No need to fret, n'est ce pas?

P.S.

She makes me smile, even on my worst days.

Finding Balance and... Poop.

Remember that scene in Season 6 of Sex and the City where Carrie is roaming the streets of Paris alone (b/c that jerk deserted her once again!) and steps into a pile of horse poop while wearing some adorable Louboutins? Replace "horse" with "dog" and "adorable Louboutins" with "NOTHING" and voila - welcome to my life. Oui, early this morning, around 5 a.m. or so, still 95% asleep, i stumbled my way into the bathroom. On my way my foot lands on something soft, wet, and squishy. Whaa? I thought maybe the cat had dragged something out of the trash or what have you. I flip on the light and through my very hazy eyes (terrible vision), what do i see? Poop. A LOT of poop. All over my bathroom floor and now all over my feet. Disgusted doesn't even begin to describe what i was feeling.

A bit of background info: My precious pup Lola has recently become a very picky eater. Where she once inhaled her kibble, she now ignores it unless i do something to make it more appetizing. That used to be mixing in a tablespoon of wet food. This past weekend she decided that wasn't enough so I resorted to mixing the kibble/wet food combo with warm water. And putting a treat on top. That seemed to do the trick - hurray! Except, apparently that combo makes for some untimely bowel movements (any dog owner has her dog's poop schedule down cold so accidents are few and far between). Hence this morning's "incident". (Btw i would happily just let her starve because i know eventually she'll eat whatever is given to her, but the problem with that is she will throw up bile, and while bile is not as disgusting as poop, it's still unpleasant.)

After 3 floor cleanings (@ 5 a.m. mind you) and about 8 scalding-water-foot-scrubs, i retreated to bed only to wake up 2 hours later. Gross. I'm still nauseous from the whole thing and will probably proceed to mop my entire apartment twice when i get home. *Shudders* It's a good thing she's so darn cute and lovable...



In other news, after yoga yesterday i found myself spending some time reflecting and just being. I came upon the unfortunate realization that i've sort of lost touch with that self-reflective/soul-searching/meditative/mindful part of myself recently. It's no coincidence that my journal hasn't been touched in weeks, and my mind-body connection is all whack. I need to get back to that place. I decided it might be a good time to re-read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. Love it or hate it, this book has undeniably impacted a number of lives, mine included. I actually own the book on CD (read by the author) and decided to pop it in first thing in the morning on my drive to work. In addition to listening to Ms. Gilbert's soothing voice, I am also planning to clean up my diet (no diet sodas, limited sugar in general, more grains and greens), get back in tune with my body (more yoga, regular exercise, long walks w/ the aforementioned pooptastic dog), spend more time reflecting (journaling, praying, meditating), and indulging my creative but not-so-spendy side (DIY projects, reading & writing). I hate that i'm the all-or-nothing type. I tend to get... obsessive about stuff. I can be so many Carolyn's, into so many different things, and i know it's frustrating for my family and entertaining/ridiculous to my friends. I truly believe I CAN be all those versions of myself, but in moderation. Moderation... that word has never seemed to jive well with my personality. But there has to be some sort of achievable, healthy balance that won't force me to sacrifice what makes me ME... right?

I Heart Lola

Name: Lola Collette Park
Age: 1 year
Breed: Maltese-Poodle mix
Loves: All humans and all dogs (altho i'm a bit scared of loud, jumpy children), my Mom's shoes, electrical cords, terrorizing Puffin (the cat)
Hates: When my mom gets inexplicably mad at me (she says she's working on it)
Signature color: Pink! (DUH)