Weekend Shenanigans: A Recap

I can't remember the last day I let pass without posting on the blog. And somehow, I let a whole weekend go by?! What is wrong with me?

My deepest apologies for my absence. I was in Santa Barbara, living life, having a blast, and was not sitting around on my laptop per usual.

Recap time!

I took Friday off work, drove to SB, got mani/pedis with the Biff, and then we had a classic SB night seeing a movie on the courthouse lawn. We watched "North By Northwest" while cuddled up with pillows and blankets on the grass under the stars, drinking champagne and eating cookies, and it was pretty fucking magical.

Saturday morning, we went to the beach and I taught a yoga class for the Biff. It was great practice and so much fun. She put herself in the mind of a beginner and it was super helpful to see how my cues were interpreted by someone who knows yoga but was pretending not to. Plus, the puppies were very helpful as well.

Then that evening I attended yet another wedding! One of my friends from high school married her best friend and boyfriend of something like six or seven years, and it was an absolutely beautiful event. She was overjoyed (and tipsy), he was beaming with pride (and drunk as well), and it was just a love-filled event full of dancing and laughing and....drinking.

Sunday there was brunch with the Biff, teacher training (at which I got some great feedback from my instructor on my presence), then another date with this new boy. Yup. Four dates in a week. He might like me.

We went to trivia again with his friends, then it turned out that motherfucking Dave Chappelle was doing an impromptu set at the boy's improv theater just down the street, so we ran over there and caught the last hour of his stand-up. So. Much. FUN! Such a classic LA night. I was stoked on it.

Oh yeah, and I'm kinda stoked on the boy too? Maybe?

So that was my weekend.

I'm exhausted.

Naptime?

Water Sign Girl Talk Texts

Me: I gotta learn to go with the flow.

Biff: It takes practice! I was born a water sign and even I've had to work at it.

Me: I'm a fishy! I should swim!

Biff: Fishies go with the current! Only salmon are silly enough to bloody themselves charging upstream.

Me: You are so wise. This is why you are my Biff.

Biff: It's nice that the thoughts I spew out are viewed as wise, that's why you're my biff!

GirlTalk Texts: True Love Edition

Biff: I had a dream that I was trying to figure out how to make a Paleo version of pecan pie, I think cauliflower was involved... obviously this shows the depths of my love for you.

(And this is why she's my bestest friend.)

A Glorious Day

That's the word my Biff and I keep using to describe everything we do today.

Glorious.

We woke up and took the pups to get their exercise, getting it out of the way bright and early. Then we hit an amazing yoga class, had a fantastic brunch complete with champagne "poinsettias", ran a few errands, and were back home on our asses with nothing else left to do before three pm.

My darling Biff made us "spa water" with mint, cucumber and lemon after we showered off the sweat, and we are now lounging, reading, writing, enjoying the glorious sunshine.

Glorious, glorious, glorious.

WW Recap 5/3-5/9: Achievement

I told you this on Wednesday, but as of today's weigh-in I am officially at the lowest weight I have seen since my teenage years.

Wanna see? WANNA SEEEEEE!?!?!?!

Goals!

1) Go to yoga. (Friday, then on rest per my tattoo artist.)
2) Keep reading. (Yup!)
3) Eat well. (Yup!)
4) Have fun. (Yup!)
5) Get my tattooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! (YUP!)

This is when I would usually list my goals for the upcoming week, but I've decided to change up my methods. Clearly, making a bunch of explicit goals isn't really working for me, so I'm going to shift. What's the definition of insanity again? I still like the idea of having specific things that I focus on every week, but that doesn't mean I have to demand anything exact of myself. To quote my Biff yet again, I'm going to switch over to the phrasing "this week I would like to...", because "we don't always get to do what we'd like, that's a fact of life", so there's "no sense of failure there, 'cause [I] didn't 'have to'".

Isn't she smart? 

This week I would like to...

...restart my yoga practice.

...read my yoga book and some fiction. 

...try to keep my apartment clean.

...spend my weekend time well. 

Easy peasy, right? 

The Punisher

Sometimes you just need your best friend to say exactly what you've been dancing around for months, in the clearest way, for you to really get it. 

"You punish yourself a lot, then when you fight back you wonder why."

Well.

WELL.

Isn't that just about the purest nugget of truth you've read on this blog in a long, long time?

I've thought variations on that same thing before, as I've been exploring my resistance to goals and challenges, thinking about how I try to force change on myself, why I struggle with the "shoulds" and the "musts" of life. But she just phrased it so succinctly and perfectly.

When I'm coming up with weekly goals or plans for self-improvement or lists of ways I want to be different, they're punishments. They don't come from a positive place. They're penalties for perceived misdeeds, for not being good enough. So of course I rebel against myself, against the negativity, it's what I do!

I've been much happier this week, without a pile of external to-dos weighing me down, without a ticking clock counting down to failure. 

That should tell me something.

A Bromantic Date Night

I bought this DVD pack at Target a few weeks ago on sale.

It inspired tonight's night in with my Biff. I definitely knew I wouldn't be in the mood to go out for a third weekend in a row (two is really my max in a one month span, old lady that I am), and of course she was happy to join me for a healthy meal and some puppy snuggles.

Our version of a Bro Date.

I made one of my mama's new best recipes, a strawberry feta salad with poppyseed dressing, added chicken, plus brie and apple crescent rolls!

The rolls were delicious. I'm a pretty remedial cook, as we all know, but I managed not to screw them up. I used low-fat brie, so the cheese wasn't as melty and they weren't as messy, which worked out really well. The salad, of course, was not as tasty as when my mom makes it, but I did alright!

Also, there was wine.

We watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "40 Year Old Virgin", watched the pups play, and had our usual gossip sessions and bonding.

Good times. Good bro times.

I'm sure bros eat strawberry salad all the time, right?

For The Biff

Hot on the Mesa

For years, the only hot yoga Santa Barbara had was a Bikram studio on Upper State. I definitely intended to try Bikram at some point, but I'll be quite honest with you---I'm afraid. I'm afraid of the 90 minute classes, the rigid structure of the practice, and even more honestly, I have a really weird hang-up/anxiety about the carpet in the studios. Isn't that...gross? Sweaty carpet? I don't know. I definitely want to try it, I just haven't allocated the funds yet. But the international Bikram headquarters are right down the street from my office, and Bikram himself teaches there when he's in town, so I will make it a point to have him teach my first class.

I'm getting off track.

Right, Santa Barbara has a Bikram studio, but no other hot yoga. Lo and behold, CorePower is opening a studio in June! Yay! And, equally as exciting, a new studio opened just recently exactly halfway between my parents' house and the Biff's house. And considering we live a one song drive apart, that's pretty damn close.

Today we decided to try Mesa Hot Yoga together. This was the Biff's first attempt at hot yoga, and I lent her my brown towel, so we each had the best kind of towel possible for our practice!

The class we took was called "Jammin", which as you may have guessed from the name, was full of Bob Marley and reggae music. Sold! The temperature at this studio is lower than I'm used to, 92-95, but it was glorious. The studio itself was so beautiful, on the second floor with an amazing view, bright and airy and sunny. And he instructor was amazing, I loved her guided breathing and the different flows she led us through and I left feeling like exhilarated jelly. I bought a package since they were running a 50% off deal for their opening, so I am definitely going again next weekend!

After yoga, we indulged in brunch at our spot just across the street, Mesa Cafe. Mmmm BISCUITS.

Then it was puppy play time at SBCC. It is so freaking gorgeous out this afternoon, after a gloomy morning. We laid on a hill for ages, just soaking in the sun.

Unedited.

Oh, and I don't have a picture of this, but I wore sexy shirts today, both to yoga and to SBCC. Open back and open sides. HOT.

Now, I nap. After the Biff works tonight, we're going out downtown, and I need my beauty rest after this morning's events.

Saturday Bliss In Pictures

I am in a state of complete relaxed bliss.

Everything fell together last night to create the most perfect, oh, fifteen, sixteen hours or so, and now I am curled up on my dad's amazing chair and a half with a glass of wine (it's five o'clock somewhere, eh?) and the biggest, nicest TV they make. "They" being "the man".

I got to SB last night a little after nine, and within twenty minutes my favorite Biff had texted me she was getting off work early. So Deuce and I went over to her place for a visit! He had never been to her house before, so it was a test of his maturity and he passed with flying colors. Didn't intentionally destroy anything!

I was fully planning to come back here to sleep, but Biff bought a bottle of champagne on her way home from work...what was I going to do, say no? So it turned into a sleepover!

My sincere apologies to the Biff and the pups for my raging coughing fit all night. Horrifying. Barely slept.

This morning I was up early and Dubs and I went home to change and grab his various accessories for a walk! I went back and played on my new inherited iPad until the Biff woke up. Have I mentioned that? I don't think I had. One of my birthday gifts was my mom's old iPad passed down when my dad gifted her a new mini. Squeeeeee. While I messed about, the boys played. They are in love.

We decided to walk to the Douglas Preserve since it's right by the Biff's house. Usually my family doesn't take Dubs there since there are a lot of foxtails and they get in his feeties, but it's a bit early for them so I risked it. And the views are just goooorgeous. The pups had a grand time frolicking, I had a grand time burning some calories and taking pictures and chatting with my fave lady, and it was a beautiful morning. 

Towards the end of our walk, something absolutely wonderful happened. We were almost out of the park when we ran into a man and his Akita, Bello, a two year old and 85 pound handsome monster of a pup. My family had two Akitas when I was growing up, Kuma and Zeus (yes, Zeus and Deuce) and they were the sweetest, most protective teddy bears. I just love the breed and the second Dubs met Bello the two got along like peas and carrots! They romped and played and had a ball. And played ball. Badumdumchh.

After our lovely hour-long walk, we took the pups to their respective homes to pass out, and then we went to feast on brunch at our favorite spot in town, Mesa Cafe. I couldn't wait to start eating to take a picture. I had scrambled eggs with bacon, green onion, mushrooms and cream cheese, and biscuits with blackberry jam. SO GOOD.

After brunch we sadly parted ways (TEAR), and I headed downtown to finally shop for my 10KCAL Challenge reward! Last weekend when I was out with my mama I bought new foundation and blush from Laura Mercier, which I love, but today I went to Sephora and went a little crazy with the rest of my reward funds. I also went to Marshalls to look for a case for the previously mentioned iPad. Funny story about that, I went to the one near work earlier this week and found an Ellie Tahari one I wanted to buy, but it was EIGHTY FUCKING DOLLARS. Yeah, not in this universe. I found the exact same one here marked for seven. Clearly the one in LA was marked wrong.

So yeah...exercise, food, shopping, wine?

 Oh my, I'm happy.

Puppies in Paradise

At this point, I've been blogging for nearly a year. I'm sure I've been to Santa Barbara at least a couple dozen times and have posted pictures probably half the times I'm there.

I'm sure they're all starting to look the same.

But I just don't care. The views are always beautiful and the puppies are always adorable. 

YOU GET WHAT YOU GET.

Santa Barbara City College

The BEACH

The Balcony