life is good

[inmyriadbits]

Has it really been almost four months since I last posted? Yikes.

Okay, The Princess Bride Life of Lindsey, The Good Parts Version:

1. Acquired new (non-permanent, i.e. for five months) job in January; left the food service industry behind for good.
2. Discovered the joys of an 8-to-5 lifestyle, complete with weekends, nights off, paid vacation time, health insurance, and bus commuting.
3. Got to experience the Wendy Davis filibuster from the inside.
4. Despaired of my state's politicians.
5. Job which was expected to last through May extended through June, and then through August.
6. Started practicing yoga on a regular basis. Have now become that person who goes as often as possible and talks about how great it is to anyone who will listen.
7. Found a psychiatrist, started taking sertraline (aka Zoloft) for "generalized anxiety disorder" and "major depressive affective disorder, recurrent episode, in partial or unspecified remission" (whoo, official diagnoses), and acquired a therapist. Discovered that it's a lot easier to wake up at 6am now, among other things.
8. Job which was originally expected to end three months earlier instead offers me a permanent position, a promotion, a raise, and minions. My granny is possibly even more delighted than I am.
9. Shopping spree ensues. (I have these boots and no regrets. They make me feel like a Star Trek reboot crew member.)
10. Planning for double half-birthday party with my twin sister which looms large next weekend.

That covers the big stuff, I guess. Today, I wrote 1000 words on the epic Ethan/Brandt MI4 fic that Katie and I have already written almost 15,000 words on but has been languishing away in google docs. I'm recovering from my first SRS BZNS yoga class, because I reached a point of fitness where I feel comfortable leveling up like that, and I was poking/helping Katie until she got traction on her POI Regency AU a little while ago. And I have tomorrow off (four-day weekend!), so I think I'm going to eat another fudgesicle and stay up late writing spy shenanigans.

Comments

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

Yay, you posted!

Re:
1. & 2, 5, & 8: YAY, weekends and vacation pay and health insurance are all GOOD THINGS. Bus commuting...has its pros and cons. :D
3 & 4: Yay for having a front-row seat to history?
6: ME TOO. I picked it up again when my dad got really sick last fall/winter and it's been wonderful. I haven't been going to a studio as regularly as I'd like, but the place near my house is starting up a 6 a.m. (gah) class on Friday mornings, along with an existing Thursday evening class, and I'm going to try to start doing both on a regular basis. It is WONDERFUL, on a physical, mental, and emotional level.
7: Whoo, good for you! I'm glad it's helping!
9: NICE, I like. Boots shopping sprees are the best. (I just bought these in New Hampshire last weekend. Uh, on sale, because I do not make that much money.)
10: That sounds like so much fun and reminds me that I want to come visit you!

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

1. All of those things are great! Also, paid sick leave. I've never had a job with paid sick leave before. I got sick on Thursday, and I got to call in instead of feeling like I had to show up at work with a fever, getting other people sick so I could pay rent. AWESOME.
2. *facepalms*
3. It's really been working for me. It makes me feel so great, and now that I've been doing it long enough, the whole "fitting into your clothes better" thing is starting to kick in, which is also pretty ace. What style do you practice? I've been doing Hatha, but I used to practice Ashtanga before college.
4. It really has! I was super nervous, because of course in this community you hear all the horror stories as well as the success stories, but it's nice. I can wake up at 8am on weekends and go to yoga class! I did that today! :D
5. Ooh, very nice! I've yet to find a boot in that style which works for me, but I will never give up hope, because they always look so cool.
6. You should totally come visit me! I would love to see you!

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

I've been practicing Vinyasa, mainly because it seems to be the most common style offered near me, but I find it really works for me, too. I like that it's not too slow-paced that I get bored. And yes, I can totally see the progress! I don't know that my clothes are fitting differently, but I can hold Plank for several minutes at a time, when two months ago I could barely hold it for 10 seconds. I'd like to try Ashtanga at some point, but haven't found any convenient classes. (But it's New York, so I'm sure I'm just not looking hard enough)

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

If you like Vinyasa, you'd probably love Ashtanga! I used to practice Ashtanga, but the way they pace based on breaths plus the fact that I tend to breathe longer and slower than everyone else in the world meant that I ended up feeling more anxious than fulfilled, because I would end up either three poses behind or cutting my poses short to keep up with the class pace. I think I'm going to try it again, though, because if I can get to the point where I can take advantage of their Mysore (ie without the instructor) classes, that would be nice. But then again, I like instruction in yoga. It helps take me out of my head. IDK.

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

I probably would like Ashtanga! Vinyasa is clearly a lot like Ashtanga, since it tends to be paced on breath as well, but I get the impression there's a little more freedom to move at your own pace/breath in Vinyasa. Plus the routine is just whatever the instructor or you feel like doing. I tend to breathe faster than most people (except when I'm breathing much slower and deeper), so I sometimes end up moving faster, but that's something that's usually just fine in Vinyasa. I'm actually at the point where I belong in intermediate/all-level classes, which is frankly ASTONISHING to me, because I've only been doing this on the regular for maybe four or five months. And not even all that regularly, to be honest. But today the instructor in the intermediate class I (er, accidentally) went to had us doing three-legged down dog to three-legged plank with one foot stacked on the other, and I was *fine*.

I suppose I shouldn't be that amazed that my body, when doing something regularly, actually becomes good at that thing, but I am!