Anybody Like Yoga?

Anybody like yoga? I've been going to some yoga classes at this studio nearby for the last couple of months and it totally kicks my trash! No, seriously--it's hard. There's not a chance I can get anywhere near doing that pose in the picture, but I think it looks super cool.

I swear, my body isn't built for yoga, but it's pretty dang awesome.  If you want to give it a whirl, CorePowerYoga in AV gives you a free week to try it out. They mostly offer heated classes, and I've become a fan.

It's Genetic

My sister and I both have this thing where we run into things. A lot. Apparently our body-eye coordination? Not so good which is weird since we're both pretty athletic. But I run into corners with my shoulders all the time (Mom says it's the broad shoulders--what?!). The other day I REALLY missed while getting into the shower and hit the sliding doors so hard that Mom figured I'd seriously hurt myself because the thud was so very loud. Nope, just didn't quite judge the right distance between my ever-so-broad shoulders (seriously?) and the sliding doors.

Which brings me to the point of the post. I've got this big bruise on my calf--maybe three inches by two inches--and I have NO idea how I got it.

Does this happen to anyone else? Random, painful bruises? Or maybe randomly running into things? You know, ALL THE TIME? Anyone? Anyone?

Human Jukebox

I'm a guitar player. A skills-are-much-regressed-in-the-last-five-years guitar player, but a guitar player nonetheless. One of the things I get a kick out of is seeing how people respond to you when you're jamming away at a bonfire with a bunch of friends. There are usually two types of folks who will engage in conversation with you: the kind who will list 20 of their favorite songs and ask you to play them all (and then ask if you have lyrics to all of them--no joke), and the kind who ask what your favorite songs are, and if you'd play them.

While I don't mind engaging in a little bit of human jukebox, it's incredibly refreshing when the 1% of folks who fall into the latter category pop up.

Perfect Thursday Night

What could be better than cooking dinner with a friend--roasted chicken chipotle tacos--and then watching the pilot of Castle, the series finale of Will & Grace, and then the season finale of Grey's with said friend?

Absolutely nothing.

Especially since that was the most intense two hours of TV I've ever seen, and I couldn't have watched it alone. SO GOOD. Thank you, m'dear!

Classic Quote of the Day

"I've literally downed two Diet Cokes in the last hour, so you know where I'm at." - Kath

What Are The Odds?

What are the odds that two of the girls I visit teach have seriously dated the same guy in the last year (and are SO unbelievably different)? And that that guy is the ex-husband of a good friend of mine? And that one of the said ladies I visit teach--and absolutely adore--saw some wedding announcements on the fridge and knew them (she knew Holly's fiancee and Rachel Terribilini)? And was in Kath's ward (of Page 17 fame)? What are the odds?

Liz Week! Part I

I'm finally getting around to posting about Liz's stay here since, you know, I've drafted two complaints this week that total somewhere around 300 pages. My brain hurts.

I LOVED having Liz visit; in fact, I think she should come back asap! Please? A gal after my own food-loving, Lab-loving, TV-show-obsessed heart.

Some highlights. For whatever reason, we watched a few minutes of Family Feud. One of the families was a group of young-ish men (teens to thirties, I'd say), each with some colored shirt and a matching, mono-chromatic tie, if I'm remembering correctly. One of the men seemed a little effeminate to me--and it wasn't just the peach-colored shirt and tie; his posture and diction were too good for a straighty--and I said something like, "Is he gay?"

He was then given the question, "Name one thing that people have a hard time walking away from."

He shouted out ever-so-enthusiastically, "BOYFRIEND!"

We just about died.

We went to La Sirena Grill in Laguna Beach one day (LOVE that place!), and as we were eating, we noticed a very intriguing seagull who apparently didn't like to get his little webbed feet on the filthy ground; he merely hopped from the top of one car to the next. It was awesome.

The new macaroni and cheese at BJ's is really good. Not Fleming's Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese good, but pretty dang good, especially for the $3.95 price tag. I'm a fan.

Liz apparently likes to make eye contact with other drivers to create fun and/or awkward situations. I pointed out that one guy in a car next to us was picking his nose, she looked over, and they made eye contact. AWKWARD! Or there was the couple waiting in their car in the parking structure at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Liz looked over, said, "Oh, they looked at me," looked over again, apparently made eye contact again, and squealed (no joke) "He was looking again!" "Liz, these doors and windows aren't soundproof--they totally heard you squeal!" "Luckily, it was mostly unintelligible."

One of Liz's classic phrases, used multiple times during the trip, was, "As we learned in 2012 . . ."

More later . . .

I'm Hooked

This happens every time I get sick: I get hooked on a new show.

Castle. I LOVE IT. Have you seen it? What do you think?

Icky and Ew

Dear Spiders,

I don't love all of God's creations. If I see one itty bit of your ick-y and ew-y selves, your life expectancy will be drastically reduced.

Thanks,
Laura

Las Brisas, Every Time

Every time Fred comes into town, we do Las Brisas. No, really. EVERY time.

You might have seen a new profile picture on Facebook, which happens every time he comes into town and immediately following their fantastic all-you-can-eat brunch. And why not--he's such a handsome guy! (not to mention hilarious and one of my best friends ever--love him! Thank the high heavens he mentioned St. Anthony in his Sacrament Meeting talk all those years ago, the tiny town in Idaho where his mom grew up, and where my mom grew up, too--that started this whole friendship)

Books, DVDs, and More Books--Oh My!

Given my love for books, DVDs, and even more books, Amazon Prime might just be the DEATH of me. Anyone else have it? Love it? Overuse it? Ahem.

Yay!

And it came to pass, that The Gardeners came today, and there was much rejoicing in Kobe's land.

YAY!

Last week was just too sad.

iSick

I've been sick since Sunday. Not so much fun. So, in an effort to make healing as easy on my body as possible, I've essentially been vegan since Saturday night: green smoothies, Living Fuel (powdered super food, not unlike green smoothies, that you blend with water, the stuff Brooke once said she wanted to try when we were roommates, but couldn't bring herself to--I never had to worry about roommates taking my food), and apples and tangerines are really all I've eaten.

While I'm really craving some Chipotle, I gotta say it's not all bad. Heaven knows I won't maintain this one bit when I'm over this blasted cold, but good to know I won't shrivel up and die if I don't eat my beloved barbacoa or pepperjack cheese or something else yummy for four days.

Thursdays

Dear Gardeners,

My dog looks forward to your visits every week--he thinks you come for him, not the yard!--and every time a truck parks anywhere near our house on a Thursday (yes, he knows which day Thursday is) morning or afternoon before you've come, he runs outside and starts talking, I mean, barking, hoping the truck is yours.

You know how much he loves you guys; he has a special bark reserved just for you. You guys are awesome and play with him every week, and have for over a decade now.

You haven't come yet today, and he's beside himself. SUPER sad. Please come soon.

Thanks,
Kobe's Mom

Black Labs are Fun!

I love it when the neighbor's black Lab, Scoot, randomly meanders up four houses to our house, scooches in the gate, squeezes through an open door, and finds us upstairs. At first we're like, Wait, Kobe, get on your place! Only to realize we're not talking to Kobe.

I love it!

I Get Attached

I got an email from my boss this week, with this post-script:

"P.S. You've adopted the Graham school of voicemail box management -- it's full."

Very true. Full, and has been full for over a week.

See, here's the thing. I have wonderful friends who leave me voice messages that range anywhere from hilarious to sweet to insightful to blog-worthy, and sometimes all in the same message. So I save messages.

What am I doing right now? Recording the saved messages with my digital voice recorder so I can finally delete some messages and make room for some more fantastically awesome voice messages in the near future.

So please, feel free to call and leave funny messages if I don't pick up. I'll love you all the more for it. 

Thanks, Jillian!

 

Last week one of my uncle's came to LA for the day, meeting with Jillian Michaels. She's endorsed some of his company's products for a while now, and I'm personally grateful to her because I got to see my uncle for an evening! We grabbed some food in his hotel's restaurant and chatted it up until 11pm. My uncle is SO much fun that your cheeks end up being sore from all the laughing when you're with him.

One of my favorite things he shared? He hardly packed a thing. The only things in his luggage were products to show Ms. Michaels. Once he'd shown her the products and given them to her, he collapsed all the boxes in his rental car and had empty bags. What *did* he pack, you ask? 

Everything he has in his bathroom at his house in UT. 

A toothbrush.

Yep. That's ALL he has. He's so low-maintenance that it's ridiculous--props, Jace!

Holy Yum. II.

Went to Las Brisas today for brunch with Christa and Emily this morning and it was YUM. Omelets, waffles, bacon (the national food in my world), etc. etc. Beautiful weather, really good food, fun friends, and the fourth fun thing? Music. I heard at least two Sarah McLachlan songs and a Dido song,

Perfection.

Holy Yum.

I tried a yoga class today at Core Power Yoga in Aliso Viejo. If you've never been there before, you get a free week to try it out, so I went today, taking a break from work. I learned a couple of things.

1. Holy cow, I'm going to be so sore tomorrow. The class I did today was a heated yoga class; I've never done heated yoga before but I LOVED it. But it was hard.

2. People in the yoga community are super nice. I've been to quite a few yoga classes at different 24 Hours over the years, but this is the first time I've been to one at a dedicated yoga studio.

3. I had the most amazing view. A guy in front of me, maybe my age-ish or several years older, had what I consider to be the most perfect body I've ever seen.

I was in heaven. And he was nice enough to come up and introduce himself after the class!

Holy yum.

Brooke Classics

I caught up with my old roommate, Brooke, on the phone tonight. She's called me a couple times lately and has left hilarious messages, but I've been a complete slacker and didn't call her back until tonight.

Luckily for me, she'd taken a Tylenol Cold Nighttime about 20 minutes before I called her, so I got some golden material.

She and some friends got together to watch what was apparently a really crappy chick flick the other night. Her invite list, according to her? "Only girls and gay guys can come."

"Someday I'll go to Cirque du Soleil, and by someday, I mean when a boy will take me and pay for me."

Then, after hearing a friend drop an f-bomb this week, I realized the only time in my life where I ever found that word not incredibly painful to my ears and kind of hilarious was when Brooke launched it. About our other roommate's boyfriend (and now husband). In front of that roommate. It was wildly inappropriate (she did apologize the next day!), but oh, man, at the time it was absolutely hilarious to the two of us.

I love Brooke. (she's in the middle in the pic)