All posts by ali

i’m gonna kick some asana

And if you don’t speak yogi, “asana” means “yoga pose”. Yoga humor, it is what it is…

The time has arrived. The yogathon is here and the schedule of events during my 24 hour yoga immersion starts at 9am on Saturday and runs until 9am on Sunday.

I am very proud of my donation contribution in the amount of $1400! Thank you to all who donated from the bottom of my heart. Not only did you donate your dollars to the amazing work of Habitat for Humanity, but you donated your dollars to support me. That means a lot. A *lot*. Thank you.

Thankfully, there are many things planned during the 24 hours other than Asana practice (which is the physical side of practicing yoga), but I will indeed do *six* physical classes.

Here’s what I get to do, hour by hour…

9 – 11am: Asana with Anthony & Rebecca (a fave teacher of mine & his wife)
11am – 12:30pm: Asana with Noah Maze (a teacher I’ve always wanted to try)
12:30 – 2pm: Lunch, donated by Tender Greens
2 – 3pm: A talk with a Habitat house recipient
3 – 5pm: Thai Yoga Massage (??, but sounds cool)
5 – 6:30pm: Asana with Tony Giuliano (also a yogathon participant)
6:30 – 8:30pm: Dinner, donated by Great India Cafe & Govindas Massage
8:30 – 10:30pm: Restorative Yoga with Sharon Skok (restful asanas only)
10:30pm – 12am: Drum Circle (*guests invited to attend!*)
12 – 2am: Musical guest, Kirtan
2:30 – 3am: Yoga Comedy (yogis can make fun of themselves!)
3 – 5am: Meditation & Asana with Kristopher Nelson
5 – 5:30am: Sunrise Comedy (at this point I believe the sun will be funny)
5:30 – 7:30: Asana with Anthony (again!)
7:30 – 8am: Breakfast, donated by Beverly Hills Juice & The Bagel Broker
8 – 9am: Closing with Habitat rep & presentation of Ceremonial Check!

What I expect is that I will start out looking something like this (Side Crane Pose):

pose

And end up looking something like this:

corpse_pose_savasana

I’ll see you on the other side, where I will post photos, stories and learnings from my experience!
Namaste.
*

best. weekend.

We went to Austin this weekend for R’s friend Juliane’s wedding. We really had the most divine time relaxing, playing, dancing, boating, celebrating, eating, laughing, hugging, boot shopping and sunning.

First, we flew into Houston, taking advantage of the fact that my work has a studio there. I am staying in Houston a few days extra so that my plane ticket was subsidized. It turns out there *are* advantages to having a hub in Houston. (I may not admit I wrote this later). We drove to Austin in our retal car, but not before we found my new favorite lunch spot “The Spicy Pickle”. It turns out, upon further investigation, that they are planning new locations in Los Angeles. I knew it was going to be a hit!

love at first bite mmmm. good. i predict a chain in the future.
You can’t see my spicy pickle in this photo because I had already eaten it…

We arrived safely in Austin and made our way to “The Salt Lick” for the rehearsal dinner. Talk about meat. Check it out. You know you’re in Texas when…

you know you're in Texas when...

We ate our faces off…and began the celebration of Jules & Adam!

celebrating them. rehearsal dinner full

Later, R tried to capture the wind (which was very warm, if not hot) by photographing it blowing through my hair, which caused us to laugh. The second time he got it…

he said "honey, you've got a good wind-blown hair look, lemme get it on camera". wind blown

The next day was the wedding, held at a gorgeous location called “Barr Mansion”. Seriously, people. This wedding was the most wonderful…

aisle cute boyfriend photo

After the ceremony we celebrated wildly with RJ’s friends from college, all of whom I now adore madly…

old friends celebrating give it a thumbs up! night full of laughter and dancing

Since the wedding was on Friday, we kept playing well into the next day. We went boating on Lake Travis! Here we are ambling down to the water and then it’s Jules, Adam, Sam & RJ in the boat…

ambling down to the lake Jules, Adam, Sam, RJ

We went tubing and swam in the water which was a cool 81 degrees. Yes, 81 degrees was cool at this point in the 100+ degree weather.

Here he waits to go…

close up

And here I go!

pulling up to my knees

Didn’t boating do wonders for our hair?

post tubing hair

Finally, we went out for the most decadent dinner. We ate ourselves silly again and just had an overall splendid time. Yes, splendid…

the entire weekend crew

Congratulations to Jules and Adam and thank you for the best wedding weekend getaway ever!
*

hooray, hooray for the month of may

May has always been one of my favorite months. Not only does it hold my birthday and that’s cool, but I just love the way it sounds. It’s May! Cool.

This May was filled with eventful fun. And here are the photos to prove it…

My friend Neil had a birthday mid-month and we went to a roof-top bbq to celebrate. Only a few photos made it to print…

Here is the birthday boy barbecuing with Jed and the cupcakes we enjoyed:
barbecue birthday boy cupcake close-up

And from the same evening, the 3 faces of R…

Another exciting event was that my hallway was finally completed and my house is now back to normal after a full 8 and 1/2 months of construction and disarray after the water and mold issue. This was most exciting and relieving…

Then, RJ ran the LA marathon and beat last year’s time by 27 minutes coming in at 3:30:55. His training partners, Neil, Ari & Scott, also did well and I was just as proud this year as I was last year…

Because several of my friends ran the marathon this year, we went out with everyone that evening for dinner where, of course, the guys decided to celebrate with a shot of Patron…

The next day was my birthday! I taught a couple of classes and R took me to dinner at Big Wangs ~ oh yes…I’m a classy broad. Then, the Sunday following my birthday he threw me a party in the park, which was just perfect.

We started the day with a picnic with friends and family…

The picnic was full of cuteness: puppies and babies and kids…

After the picnic, R, Ari & I went for our horseback ride, which was fantastic! There were beautiful views of the surrounding areas, we stopped halfway for some Mexican food and the night ride home was so peaceful…
three amigos over the shoulder

Here we are at the doorway to Viva Fresh…

viva fresh: halfway point

~~~

So as you can see…it was hooray for May!
*

one photo fill in

This week started off with a marathon and is ending in my birthday party! Mucho fun…here is a photo taken on R’s sister’s phone to fill in for me while I gather other photos and write a proper update:


*