My yoga students left an envelope of cash in my chair at work today that says, "Thanks for being an awesome yoga teacher!"
Awwwwwwwww, my class at work has been and always will be free, and they wanted to pay me anyway. How sweet. I don't have to declare this on my taxes...right. :-P
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
My WoW Story
I’ve written all about yoga, but not much about WoW. I actually spend more of my time playing WoW than doing yoga. I raid in 25-person raids every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday, and 10-person raids every Thursday. The 10s come and go, but 25s are consistent. I can miss whenever I want to, but I don’t usually want to. :)
Brad bought WoW in December of 2004, right after we graduated from college. Then in January he started working full time while I was looking for a job. He’d play this stupid game from when he got home until it was bed time if I didn’t get mad. WoW and I did not get off to a good start.
We came up with some compromises to make us both happy. He played when I was asleep or watching Gilmore Girls. He used to get out of bed really early on weekends so he could get play time in before I woke up. hahaha What is this game? Crack?
This went on for a while as I dabbled in various hobbies, rolling my eyes at what he wasted his time on while I did productive things like making a messenger bag with my sewing machine. Then one day in February of 2006 I really, really wanted to play Donkey Kong Country on Super Nintendo from beginning to end. It was one of my favorite games as a kid, and I wanted to play it again REAL bad, and I wanted him to play with me. Eventually I proposed a compromise. I’ll match the time you spend playing DKC with me hour for hour playing WoW with him. He agreed.
Oh crap, why did I agree to this? I guess I have to do it now. He helped me set up my WoW character. It was really important to him that I enjoyed this game so he did his best to figure out which type of character I would like to play. He knew I’d want to be pretty, so he put me on the Alliance side instead of the ugly Horde side. I loved Cyclop’s ranged attack in X-Men, so he figured I’d like to be a hunter. He wouldn’t let me name my Night Elf Hunter “Flutterby” because it didn’t go with the WoW theme, and this was important to him (eye roll). Flutta was born.
I started to get into it and was up to level 5ish when he said, “At level 10 you get to tame a pet.” “OH BOY, I GET A PET!!!” That was the point of no return. We took the slow track to level 60 because I cared way more about pwning noobs in battlegrounds and playing with alts (other characters) than actually leveling. Around this time, we were planning our wedding. Several tasks were put off because I had some Warsong Gulch flag capturing to do.
In January of 2007, the first expansion The Burning Crusade came out, increasing the level cap to 70 and adding a new race, the Draenei. Since we’d been too busy battlegrounding to level to 60 (we were in the 50s by this time), we decided to make some Draenei. I wanted to give healing a try. It seemed like a neat role, and I’d read that priests were the best healers in the game. Also I was bitter that I’d let Brad talk me into naming myself “Flutta.”
Flutterby the priest was born. I had a lot of fun with her. I healed Brad along as we quested. He told me to stay shadow spec (the spec to do damage not heal) to level, but at low levels you can heal fine as shadow when needed. I really enjoyed healing. Around level 45ish I went against Brad’s advice and switched to holy spec (the only healing spec of the time). It was GREAT! Wow, healing is easier when you’re character is designed for it. Silly Brad.
Some of our real-life friends were really into raiding since level 60 and kept begging us to “finish a character” so we could raid with them. I finally leveled Flutta to 70 in June of 2007, and started raiding with her. It was fun, but boringly easy to raid as a hunter. The only way to do decent damage as a hunter at the time was to have a certain macro that you just mashed over and over again. It was nice to see myself doing the most damage in the raid, but it didn’t really feel like an accomplishment since I didn’t think at all. I just mashed 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 yawwwwwwwwwn.
So I quit raiding for a while and levelled Flutterby to 70. About that time, I decided that the raiding guild I was in before was a bit too serious about WoW. They’d yell in vent (voice chat) at people who messed up or weren’t good enough. They usually weren’t yelling at me, but I didn’t enjoy that negativity in my ear all the time.
I raided as Flutterby with a new guild without Brad because he didn’t want to raid after the negative experience with the first guild. After a few months I convinced him to join the guild with me, but they decided to transfer to another server, and we had real-life friends on this server, so I didn’t go. I joined the first guild again, but was eventually kicked out of the guild for not logging in for a few weeks (This kick was when the Guild Master was on vacation, a lot of people were kicked, it was crazy). There was a lot of drama among the officers over that…which eventually led to the guild disbanding.
Meanwhile I joined a mostly alt guild that got stronger as the former guild fell apart. I put it a lot of work planning progression for that guild and logged in one day to see that Brad and I were officers. Neat. That Guild Master got more uptight the more we progressed and wouldn’t delegate anything, So as that fell apart, instead of trying to fix it I decided to switch to a non-PvP server, meaning players couldn’t kill each other in the game unless it was in a battleground. Killing each other was nuisance and not much fun, especially since the server was out of balance in the other side’s favor.
Brad went on a mission to find a good guild on a PvE server, and he did, and that’s where we’ve been playing since November of 2008 when the latest expansion, Lich King came out. Flutterby's name had to change to Beckster because Flutterby was taken on that server :( We’ve been consistent raiders as long as they’ve been raiding level 80 content and have become officers. Lately Brad’s the raid leader as the regular raid leader has a newborn baby at home, and I’m the healing leader as the former healing leader is the wife of the regular raid leader. I don’t think she wants the healing leader position back, so I think I should get used to it.
For a while, I wasn’t that dedicated to healing lead duties because I was just filling in, but after several months of leading raid healers, I think I’m the official heal leader now. I’m getting used to being in charge and tactfully telling people, “You failed, do it right this time.” :) I’m also doing more research and carefully planning out healing strategies in advance as much as possible. I’m really enjoying raiding with this guild, and I still can’t believe it’s possible to be in a guild that is not mean when things go wrong. I love it!
Brad bought WoW in December of 2004, right after we graduated from college. Then in January he started working full time while I was looking for a job. He’d play this stupid game from when he got home until it was bed time if I didn’t get mad. WoW and I did not get off to a good start.
We came up with some compromises to make us both happy. He played when I was asleep or watching Gilmore Girls. He used to get out of bed really early on weekends so he could get play time in before I woke up. hahaha What is this game? Crack?
This went on for a while as I dabbled in various hobbies, rolling my eyes at what he wasted his time on while I did productive things like making a messenger bag with my sewing machine. Then one day in February of 2006 I really, really wanted to play Donkey Kong Country on Super Nintendo from beginning to end. It was one of my favorite games as a kid, and I wanted to play it again REAL bad, and I wanted him to play with me. Eventually I proposed a compromise. I’ll match the time you spend playing DKC with me hour for hour playing WoW with him. He agreed.
Oh crap, why did I agree to this? I guess I have to do it now. He helped me set up my WoW character. It was really important to him that I enjoyed this game so he did his best to figure out which type of character I would like to play. He knew I’d want to be pretty, so he put me on the Alliance side instead of the ugly Horde side. I loved Cyclop’s ranged attack in X-Men, so he figured I’d like to be a hunter. He wouldn’t let me name my Night Elf Hunter “Flutterby” because it didn’t go with the WoW theme, and this was important to him (eye roll). Flutta was born.
I started to get into it and was up to level 5ish when he said, “At level 10 you get to tame a pet.” “OH BOY, I GET A PET!!!” That was the point of no return. We took the slow track to level 60 because I cared way more about pwning noobs in battlegrounds and playing with alts (other characters) than actually leveling. Around this time, we were planning our wedding. Several tasks were put off because I had some Warsong Gulch flag capturing to do.
In January of 2007, the first expansion The Burning Crusade came out, increasing the level cap to 70 and adding a new race, the Draenei. Since we’d been too busy battlegrounding to level to 60 (we were in the 50s by this time), we decided to make some Draenei. I wanted to give healing a try. It seemed like a neat role, and I’d read that priests were the best healers in the game. Also I was bitter that I’d let Brad talk me into naming myself “Flutta.”
Flutterby the priest was born. I had a lot of fun with her. I healed Brad along as we quested. He told me to stay shadow spec (the spec to do damage not heal) to level, but at low levels you can heal fine as shadow when needed. I really enjoyed healing. Around level 45ish I went against Brad’s advice and switched to holy spec (the only healing spec of the time). It was GREAT! Wow, healing is easier when you’re character is designed for it. Silly Brad.
Some of our real-life friends were really into raiding since level 60 and kept begging us to “finish a character” so we could raid with them. I finally leveled Flutta to 70 in June of 2007, and started raiding with her. It was fun, but boringly easy to raid as a hunter. The only way to do decent damage as a hunter at the time was to have a certain macro that you just mashed over and over again. It was nice to see myself doing the most damage in the raid, but it didn’t really feel like an accomplishment since I didn’t think at all. I just mashed 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 yawwwwwwwwwn.
So I quit raiding for a while and levelled Flutterby to 70. About that time, I decided that the raiding guild I was in before was a bit too serious about WoW. They’d yell in vent (voice chat) at people who messed up or weren’t good enough. They usually weren’t yelling at me, but I didn’t enjoy that negativity in my ear all the time.
I raided as Flutterby with a new guild without Brad because he didn’t want to raid after the negative experience with the first guild. After a few months I convinced him to join the guild with me, but they decided to transfer to another server, and we had real-life friends on this server, so I didn’t go. I joined the first guild again, but was eventually kicked out of the guild for not logging in for a few weeks (This kick was when the Guild Master was on vacation, a lot of people were kicked, it was crazy). There was a lot of drama among the officers over that…which eventually led to the guild disbanding.
Meanwhile I joined a mostly alt guild that got stronger as the former guild fell apart. I put it a lot of work planning progression for that guild and logged in one day to see that Brad and I were officers. Neat. That Guild Master got more uptight the more we progressed and wouldn’t delegate anything, So as that fell apart, instead of trying to fix it I decided to switch to a non-PvP server, meaning players couldn’t kill each other in the game unless it was in a battleground. Killing each other was nuisance and not much fun, especially since the server was out of balance in the other side’s favor.
Brad went on a mission to find a good guild on a PvE server, and he did, and that’s where we’ve been playing since November of 2008 when the latest expansion, Lich King came out. Flutterby's name had to change to Beckster because Flutterby was taken on that server :( We’ve been consistent raiders as long as they’ve been raiding level 80 content and have become officers. Lately Brad’s the raid leader as the regular raid leader has a newborn baby at home, and I’m the healing leader as the former healing leader is the wife of the regular raid leader. I don’t think she wants the healing leader position back, so I think I should get used to it.
For a while, I wasn’t that dedicated to healing lead duties because I was just filling in, but after several months of leading raid healers, I think I’m the official heal leader now. I’m getting used to being in charge and tactfully telling people, “You failed, do it right this time.” :) I’m also doing more research and carefully planning out healing strategies in advance as much as possible. I’m really enjoying raiding with this guild, and I still can’t believe it’s possible to be in a guild that is not mean when things go wrong. I love it!
Delicious Healthy Apple Snack
When I was a little kid, my favorite apple snack was made by drenching apple slices in butter, coating them in cinnamon and sugar, then microwaving them. It's delicious, but not a very healthy way to destroy an apple. The sugar and butter are bad enough, but microwaving also strips nutrients.
Grown-up healthy Becky still loves cinnamon on her apple slices, but now I put the slices in a zippy bag, splash in a little lemon juice, then sprinkle the cinnamon into the bag and shake it all around. The lemon juice keeps the slices from turning brown if when I slice them in the morning and eat them in a few hours as well as giving the cinnamon a non-butter liquid to spread around to the apple slices. It doesn't taste like lemon, but it has a little zing to go with the apple's sweetness.
Grown-up healthy Becky still loves cinnamon on her apple slices, but now I put the slices in a zippy bag, splash in a little lemon juice, then sprinkle the cinnamon into the bag and shake it all around. The lemon juice keeps the slices from turning brown if when I slice them in the morning and eat them in a few hours as well as giving the cinnamon a non-butter liquid to spread around to the apple slices. It doesn't taste like lemon, but it has a little zing to go with the apple's sweetness.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Nonjudgmental
Being nonjudgmental is an important value in yoga. It really resonates with me and is part of what drew me to yoga and kept me there.
It's human nature to judge others. We want to understand what is going on around us, including the people around us. We try to figure out how they think and what their motives are. Unfortunately, we naturally compare our perceptions of this to how we think it should be, and tend to form harsh judgments. Either we think we are better than they are, or we wish we were and try to find something wrong with them to convince ourselves that we're better.
So then it comes down to noncompetition. Another important value in yoga that really resonates with me. There is no need to be competitive. It doesn't matter who's better. Really, it doesn't matter. We waste so much energy trying to be better than others, when life is so much happier when you realize that you don't need to be better. We can all be happy together without concern over who's better.
My latest challenge is to let go of the need to be better and not to judge others' weaknesses. I can learn something from everyone. I want to focus on learning rather than wasting my time and energy judging.
It's human nature to judge others. We want to understand what is going on around us, including the people around us. We try to figure out how they think and what their motives are. Unfortunately, we naturally compare our perceptions of this to how we think it should be, and tend to form harsh judgments. Either we think we are better than they are, or we wish we were and try to find something wrong with them to convince ourselves that we're better.
So then it comes down to noncompetition. Another important value in yoga that really resonates with me. There is no need to be competitive. It doesn't matter who's better. Really, it doesn't matter. We waste so much energy trying to be better than others, when life is so much happier when you realize that you don't need to be better. We can all be happy together without concern over who's better.
My latest challenge is to let go of the need to be better and not to judge others' weaknesses. I can learn something from everyone. I want to focus on learning rather than wasting my time and energy judging.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Balance
Balance is an important theme in my life. Here are some balance struggles that I think about a lot:
Yoga
- going to class vs. practicing on my own
challenging myself in the basic poses and doing/learning advanced poses vs. being too easy on myself- focusing on teaching vs. focusing on my own practice
- power yoga vs. restorative yoga
- not falling over in balancing poses (this is especially fun when teaching them because you have to talk and look around)
- doing my work quickly, but with perfect accuracy
- being friendly, but not spend too much time socializing
- taking it seriously, but not stressing out to the extreme
- working overtime when needed, but trying to not need overtime to get the job done
- being a good officer, but not dedicating my life to the game
- keeping the game fun for myself and others so it doesn't become more like work than a game
- caring about the success of the guild without taking the fun out of the game
- doing things with Brad that we both enjoy vs. doing my own thing
- planning everything out vs. being spontaneous
- relaxing vs. being active
- chores vs. fun time
- hanging out with friends/leaving the house vs. staying home
- having the yard not look like the house is abandoned vs. overdoing the yard so that it's too much work to maintain it
- eating healthy vs. enjoying treats/not being too strict with food
- cooking vs. eating out
- meat vs. veggies
- food as fuel vs. food for pleasure
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Greenling.com
I just got my first order from Greenling today. A lot of my friends asked me to tell them how I like it before they try it.
It's great! They delivered organic, mostly local food to my door. How is that not awesome?
I went a little crazy ordering things and got Thunderheart Bison Jerky Sausage and Tabuleh from The Mediterranean Chef. I didn't know what to expect from either, but they're delicious.
About the Tabuleh: I had no idea what it was. I just knew it was some kind of Mediterranean stuff. It is gooooooood. Hummus has been replaced as my favorite snack. I also got their hummus. It's just alright for me.
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It's great! They delivered organic, mostly local food to my door. How is that not awesome?
I went a little crazy ordering things and got Thunderheart Bison Jerky Sausage and Tabuleh from The Mediterranean Chef. I didn't know what to expect from either, but they're delicious.
About the Tabuleh: I had no idea what it was. I just knew it was some kind of Mediterranean stuff. It is gooooooood. Hummus has been replaced as my favorite snack. I also got their hummus. It's just alright for me.
Tabuleh
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Peanut Butter (Look! No Sugar!)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Reunited With My First Passion
Yoga reminds me a lot of diving. There are quite a few similarities, which explains why I love them both. I was only a diver for one year, but I have vivid happy memories of it, and I really miss it.
I need to teach a community yoga class for teacher training, so I looked up the place where I used to dive. Two of the three coaches on the website were my coaches 13 years ago. Wow, how cool is that? I sent out an email with my offer of free yoga for divers. One already responded and says that he remembers me and my sister. Neat.
I wonder if they teach adult diving classes or if they're just looking for young blood to win competitions. That's one reason yoga appeals to me so much. It's beautiful, but it's not a spectator sport or a competition, and I'll never be too old for it.
I need to teach a community yoga class for teacher training, so I looked up the place where I used to dive. Two of the three coaches on the website were my coaches 13 years ago. Wow, how cool is that? I sent out an email with my offer of free yoga for divers. One already responded and says that he remembers me and my sister. Neat.
I wonder if they teach adult diving classes or if they're just looking for young blood to win competitions. That's one reason yoga appeals to me so much. It's beautiful, but it's not a spectator sport or a competition, and I'll never be too old for it.
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