Hippee

This past weekend I pumped up my bike tires out of the tired winter slump and bought myself a little bike basket! I’m so excited! Mostly* because the basket will fit my bag (with my laptop) or grocery bags (and Trader Joe’s is within bike-riding distance), meaning less driving my car and more exercise to get to coffee shops for work or to run errands. Win, win!

When I texted a pic of my new basket to one of
 my BFFs, she called me a "Hippee." Ha!

I accidentally bought too much at Trader Joe’s my first go at bike riding home with my goods. Like a 30-pound bag of stuff! It made the front of my bike “top heavy,” and my balance was all thrown off. It was a treacherous ride home! Lesson learned: bike riding my groceries home will not only be great exercise, but it will decrease my over-spending too! Yippee!

*Partially because I see more bike riding time in my future this year while living in a less rainy and cold city.

Currently Feeling: Great after burning k-cals on the elliptical tonight – I’m excited for all the group classes at the new fitness center I joined (across the street from my house).
Currently Anticipating: Figuring out my Fourth of July plans! Lake Tahoe might be on the horizon… it’s weird to try to make plans with a bunch of people you don’t know very well for such a big holiday! Normally I would have been the one planning a cabin trip or joining best friends at a lake house… oh comfort zone, you’re by-and-by.
Currently Loving: The seven-layer bean dip I made (with carrot chips instead of tortilla chips)!

To Kombucha or not to Kombucha

Tell me, Blog Lovelies, have you tried Kombucha tea, known many years ago as “the elixir of life”?

I can’t get over the health effects, which are AWESOME (detoxifying! cleansing! vitamins! minerals! immune-enhancing!), and unfortunately, I can’t really get over the taste either.

I’m trying. I picked up the above flavor, Apple Pie Kava, at Metropolitan Market, which was far better than the home-brewed Kombucha I bought at a local farmer’s market that tasted like sweaty socks and old cottage cheese.

If you’re a Kombucha fan, tell me the brand and flavors you love! My hippie side will be ever so grateful. Namaste.

Currently Feeling: Antsy pants – there’s nothing worse than sitting home all day watching  TV and doing nothing while sick (even worse when it’s sunny outside, something we see so little of in Seattle right now)!
Currently Anticipating: A celebration with my coworkers tomorrow, Twestival Seattle on Thursday, two dinners with friends this weekend and something special planned with my mom on Sunday. Busy busy! Hope I feel better soon.
Currently Loving: Chocolate lava cakes from Domino’s. I’m supposed to be eating healthy! Gah!

Okay, it’s about time I created a ‘Dirty Hippies’ label

I’ve been patiently waiting to update everyone with a few pictures from my weekend, but they’re trapped on my best friend’s camera, so you’ll just have to read the text version for now. I’ll spare you long-winded details, but I had some fun events this past weekend, and some even greater photographs. Friday night I went to The Polish House for Polish dinner, Polish beer and hanging out with some Poles. Not, I’m not Polish, in case you were wondering. But you can become Polish and hang out in their private club for $1! Now that is a steal during these hard times of THE.RECESSION.

Saturday I went to crazy friend Wen’s birthday party (he who loves to have me as a back-up dancer in his videos)… as a hippie. What is it with hippies? I feel like I’m always talking about them. Maybe I’m a little bit more hippie than I like to admit. I was certainly a dirty hippie on Saturday. Why, oh why, you ask?

Saturday night I was SUPER rushed to get ready for the birthday party because my friend was picking me up at 7:30pm on the button. I arrived home, unshowered, with seven bags of groceries at 7pm. And, I didn’t know what to wear. A really awesome trifecta, if you ask me. After throwing on approximately five different outfits, I settled on a grey tie-died sweater, skinny jeans and tall, brown-suede boots. I gave myself a once-over in the mirror and realized that the sweater was a bit off-the-shoulder, so you could see my bra straps. Eww. That is one Carrie Bradshaw fashion statement I do not agree with (right next to the duck feathers on the butt) – bra straps are tacky. So I did the trick us girls learn in junior high while changing in the girls’ locker room for P.E. – a little slip and duck of the arms, and I threw my bra on top of storage drawers in my bathroom. “I’ll just throw a strapless on while I’m finishing my make-up” I thought to myself. I continued to run around like a chicken with my head cut-off, and barely threw my groceries in the fridge with enough time to slip out the door and into my friend’s car.

It wasn’t until I had arrived at the party, hung my jacket, said my hellos and took my place in line at the bar that I realized I.HAD.NO.BRA.ON. OMG. I panicked and quickly tried to call my friend who was arriving at the party later, but she didn’t have a bra in her car. Looks like the girls were standing alone on this one. Yep, I officially hung out at the bar all night, braless. And Bestie Amanda had a great time gently poking my braless boobs and snickering at me. Hussie.

Who has two thumbs and is officially a dirty hippie? Yep, this girl.

Stay tuned for my adventures in not shaving my armpits or legs!

Currently Feeling: In love with my recent lunchtime Maximum Sculpt classes. It feels so great to have my workout done so early in the day!
Currently Anticipating: Date night tonight with salmon teriyaki dinner.
Currently Wanting: Another slice of lemon cake that’s sitting in the break room.

In which I relent on hating hippies, just a bit

Last night I finally tried out this Nia fitness class at my gym. I recently grabbed a calendar of classes, scowering for a few fun ones I could hit after the 5 o’clock chime rang at work. The description for the class read,

“Bring total well-being to your lifestyle through Nia, a unique workout that empowers physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health by blending dance, martial and healing arts to creatively move “your body’s way.”

So, I Googled it to wrap my head around the concept a little more, and found a Web site that explained that Nia is a combination of martial arts (T’ai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Aikido), dance (Jazz, Modern and Duncan) and healing arts (Yoga, Feldenkrais method and Alexander technique), and Nia stands for neuromuscular integrative action.

It all sounded very hippie to me… I was reminded of the Sex and the City episode when Carrie and Miranda take the fitness class with scarves…and although I’ve previously stated that I dislike hippies, I decided to give it a try.

True to my preconceived ideas, the class was Earth-loving, good thoughts, auras and chakras. But it was also totally awesome. The music was upbeat and modern, and we were supposed to wave our arms, stretch or reach to the side in the “movement right for your body.” It was a lot of freeform, dancing around the floor, “reaching to the sky and pounding the Earth,” mixed in with some true martial arts kicks, punches and loud grunts. It was totally hilarious, and I tried to ignore the people, walking by the glass walls of the classroom. I don’t know if I would have been able to truly let go and follow along with the class if I’d been with someone I knew. But I gave it my all. I grunted, and flung my arms, and twirled around like a butterfly, and kicked and punched the air (while picturing my frustrations).

Afterward, when the lights were out, and we were sending out our good thoughts into the World, loving the whooollle human race and pushing all the bad thoughts out of our head, I thought, “I’m totally coming next week.”

Currently Feeling: Restless for the weekend.
Currently Anticipating: Staying in tonight with my BF, a bottle of wine and some cheesecake.
Currently Excited For: Larisa and Dave, who finally set a date!

Return of the Dirty Hippies

I recently joined a gym – yet again – to try to get into better shape.

I’ve belonged to Pure Fitness down on Westlake since moving to Seattle. At first it was an okay place, but then it turned into nothing I like about a gym. The owners changed, and the place became more sterile looking and less inviting. To access it, I had to drive down Mercer after work, which is equivalent to sitting on the 520 bridge; it sucks. To top it off, I get bored on treadmills and elliptical trainers, so it didn’t help when there was never any good magazines to read and you couldn’t see the TVs to read the shitty subtitles, let alone hear them.

Conclusion: I stopped going to the gym.

So, I joined All Star Fitness on lower Queen Anne. It’s a little bit more inviting, I drive by it nearly every day or can jog down to it, and it has private TV screens in front of each workout machine. Plus, I dug the idea of going to their location downtown on my lunch hour, and the gym also has a pool and hot tub. Major bonus.

Baby Daddy and I have been dying to go hot tubbing for some time now. (G-rated hot-tubbing; just for relaxation, really.) Since we’re not crazy enough to brave Tubs in the University District, which is closed anyway, I decided to sneak him into my gym. (Although I did go to Tubs once in college, and they have beds next to the hot tubs. Beds!)

The poolroom is a really nice set up, albeit a little muggy for mid-summer. But, the hot tub has Jacuzzi jets, the lap pool is a comfortable temperature, no one from the gym can see in, and there is a sauna and steam room. I’ve never been in a steam room, so I suggested that we check it out. I stepped inside, and was hit with a cloud of eucalyptus steam. Very niiiice! We sat in there for a bit, but then I started to feel extremely hot and like I couldn’t breathe. I kept opening the door to stick my head out and gulp fresh air.

“God! I’m hot!” I exclaimed. I picked up a water bottle sitting on the ledge. “This has to be water to spray on you, right?” I asked Baby Daddy.

“Uh. I don’t know. I don’t think so…”

“Well, why else would it be here?” I said in my usual know-it-all way. “It’s probably to cool you off, duh!”

I proceeded to spray it all over my body—my neck, my legs, my chest. And then all over Baby Daddy’s body too.

“I don’t think that’s water,” he continued. “You just sprayed it in my eye, and it stung.”

And then my whole body started to sting.

“Shit!” I smelled the contents of the bottle, which burned my nose. It smelled like very strong, pure eucalyptus oil.

And it was.

It was so strong my eyes and nose were stinging, even after we had dressed and left the gym. It gave me a huge headache, and both of our bodies continued to sting through the night.

“We’re going to die from, like, eucalyptus oil overdose or something!” I said.

“Smooth move, 20-Something,” he said as we walked home.

Worse part about it—we smelled like a couple of dirty hippies. And you all know how much I love hippies.

Currently Feeling: Sleepy with a bit of a wine headache.
Currently Anticipating: The Bite of Seattle this weekend and Jana’s bachelorette party.
Currently Wishing: I can sell all this ad space before the August deadline!

Say No to Hippies

Saturday morning Baby Daddy and I went to breakfast at the The Hi-Life in Ballard and then decided to take a mini walking and shopping trip through Ballard and Fremont. My goal—a tea strainer and some teas for my mom’s birthday gift. His goal—new sneakers. But not running shoes, and they can’t be black, brown or tan. They have to be GREY. (I’m dating a bit of a metrosexual. But tits okay. I enjoy a man with style.)

Ballard has a well-known teashop that we stopped into. Teashops are quite overwhelming. I had NO idea there was such a subculture in tea. You could buy all sorts of imported teas from Asian with names like “Oriental Beauty” and “Green Goddess.” Now really. I have no idea what “Oriental Beauty” tastes like and prefer tea canisters that give it to you straight. “Peppermint,” “Orange Blossom,” or “Vanilla.” Those I can handle. But there wasn’t just tea, the shop was filled with fancy tea sets, even sets to-go with zippable cases and handles, antique tea tables, and all sorts of contraptions and devices for drinking, preparing and serving tea that I never knew even existed. I didn’t find a basic tea strainer, which is what my mom was wanting. So, the owners kindly directed us to a “natural and herbal” store on the opposite side of the building.

When we pushed open the shop’s door with a tingle from the hanging bell, an overwhelming smell rushed out of incense and Patchouli oil. “Uh Oh…. HIPPIES!” I whispered to Baby Daddy. But, the first table I saw was covered in teapots and mugs, which included strainers for loose teas. Perfect. I picked one up in cornflower blue (my mom’s favorite) and walked through the store to check out their other items and perhaps find a tea to accompany the mug. There were small bags of loose tea, but each looked like a bag of dried weeds and listed ingredients like honeysuckle and catnip. “CATNIP?!” I exclaimed out loud.

“I hope you don’t have a furry friend to compete with at home,” the shop owner said.

Yes. I do. And so does my mom. I’m most certainly not gifting my mom tea with weeds and catnip, or other weird, natural hippie ingredients. “Here mom! I picked up a handful of lawn clippings and mulch from the yard recycle bin, you can drink them as tea, and you can even smoke them!”

I decided against buying tea and wandered over to where Baby Daddy was looking at some incense and soaps. In a display shelf next to where he was standing, there was a sign and a basket of little colorful cloth squares with snaps, in all sorts of fun fabrics. “Hmm. What are these?” I thought, and picked one up, turning it over in my hand. I slowly leaned over to read the description hanging on the shelf.

“All Natural, Re-Usable and Washable Menstrual Pads”

HUHHHHHHHH.

In case that doesn’t translate, it’s supposed to be a sucking in of the breath, shocked and disgusted sort of a sound.

Hippies are dirtier than I ever thought.

Currently Feeling: Slightly better, but still pretty anxious.
Currently Anticipating: My day off for Good Friday tomorrow.
Currently Loving: The patience and understanding that resides in my boyfriend.

Your Aura is Purple…PURPLE!

Twice in the last two months, I’ve had a complete stranger make a comment about my “aura.”

At the terrible, horrible no-good, very bad Lock and Key party, I was briefly talking to an Indian guy. (And by that, I literally mean, from India) for a while, trying to be as nice as can be. Finally, he made a motioned in a circle around my head and told me that I had an aura that people can pick out of a room. And since he’s been in Seattle, he’s met a lot of people with an aura like mine. Most of which, don’t eat meat or practice yoga, etc. I was very intrigued by this conversation—it was actually the only time I wasn’t yawning, feeling creeped out or checking my watch. I mean, he’s from India, which means he’s most likely Hindu, and they believe in chakras, auras and things like that, right?! He must know a little about what he’s talking about…

Then last Thursday, I was at a bar with some college friends, celebrating a birthday. At the end of the night, I found myself outside, chugging down my Fresh ‘n’ Clean and taking hits from the ole nicotine. I started talking to an older woman, I can’t remember about what. But, she stopped before she left the patio to tell me that I have a beautiful aura—“like Kate Hudson or something.”

My aura is purple…PURPLE!

Telling me I have an aura like Kate Hudson is pretty much the best compliment anyone’s ever given me. No matter how farfetched, far-reaching or bull shit it could be. But, after hearing this from two people recently, my interest was piqued. What, exactly, does it mean to have a good aura? And why, may I ask, do people feel the need to comment on mine?

Now, I’m one to believe in funky hippie beliefs like reincarnation and karma, far more than I believe I was made from an effing rib and my savior walked on water. Maybe that’s just me. Maybe I’m just crazy. But, auras?! Do they exist, and if so, what color is mine? I started to do a little research, and here’s briefly what I discovered:

• Auras are believed to be a representation of your inner energy.

• They exist in different shapes, colors, sizes and positions.

• Chakras are spinning vortexes of energy where spiritual energy flows into the body. The seven main chakras are located in line with the spine. The energy typically flows in through the front and out the back.

• Aura readings can help you identify and release blocks, and also help you get in touch with your own energy, so you can know your own truth and make the highest choices for yourself.

Here are the basic color auras:

RED: lifeforce, survival, raw passion, anger, frustration, menstruation, determination, sense of importance, feeling overwhelmed by change

ORANGE: sensuality, physical pleasure, emotional self-expression, creativity, lacking reason, lacking self-discipline, health, vitality

YELLOW: mental alertness, analytical thought, happiness, optimism, child-like, ego driven, thinking at expense of feeling

GREEN: healing, peace, nurturing, new growth, fear, need for security, jealousy and envy, balance

BLUE: verbal communication, freethinking, relating to structure and organization, emphasis on business, male energies, sadness, possibilities

PURPLE: wisdom, authoritative, female energies, matriarchal, sense of superiority, controlling, imagination, intuition

BROWN: grounding, down to earth, practical, male energies, invalidating, emphasizing body and denying spirit, feeling worth-less

BLACK: issues relating to death, hatred, lack of forgiveness, unresolved karma, dark intentions, shadow games, needing compassion for self

PINK: self-love, tenderness, female energies, gay energies, emphasis on physical appearances, being ‘nice’ at expense of being ‘real’

WHITE (CLOUDY): New Age or religious energy, lacking consciousness, a cover-up, denial, being ‘good’ at expense of being ‘whole’

WHITE (CLEAR LIGHT): very high spiritual vibration, godly, divine, inspiration, seeing spiritual big picture, compassionate

GOLD: high spiritual vibration, integrity, respect, freedom, clearseeing, integrating spirit and body, creating as spirit

Now, I wish one of these two “aura believing and seeing” people would have commented on what color I was because I find a little bit of myself in each category. However, what I’ve concluded from this whole aura business is that they must be seeing some of the inner energy I’ve been feeling lately—happy, content, lucky and blessed (in a non-Jesus way).

I think when you’re happy, it shows. And that is all I can conclude from my “aura.”

Currently Feeling: Confused and perplexed.
Currently Anticipating: Walking Greenlake tonight with my parents
Currently Loving: The Nike +iPod—it tells you how far you have left to run, right in the middle of your workout. It’s genius!