Sunday Night Friday Favorites

It's been so long since I wrote Friday Favorites, but I have so many favorites from the past few weeks... So I end my weekend by skipping homework and enjoying writing :-)

First, I love this song: Hit play and enjoy while you read!

Okay, now to the favorites!

Luca turned one!
Jen and Romo did such a great job with the decorations at his party:
I think Jamie made the chalkboard. So cute!!

More decorations and the favors - Snacks in Mason Jars with little ties on them.

Birthday boy with his smash cake...he was not into it! :-)

Some of my favorite cousins with their funny faces.

And Cath...Love you!

Luca, Mom, and Dad. Always so fun to hang out with you guys!

Love coming to your parties, cousins! Happy first birthday, Luca!

Bucktown Arts Fest

This fest is like two little blocks from my house. It was so nice to walk over, be in the neighborhood, find some great art, and have some drinks with friends while we listen to a band. 

I bought a piece of art from the guy who did this one...I liked this one, but only enough to take a pic of it.

Liz and I - so happy to have a neighborhood friend to hang out with!

And my new shirt! And yes, I would say that Midwest is best....all the way through the holidays. Then, in January and February, when I'm sick of snow and slush and cold and ice....that's probably the only time I would disagree. But, it's my favorite season right now...fall! Can't wait until the leaves start changing!

Visiting Jackie

Got to hang out with Rachel, Jackie, and Jackie's sister - Amos, text me one of our pics to add to the blog! 

Jackie and Mikey just bought a new house somewhere out really far away, so Rachel and I were happy to schlep ourselves all the way out there to visit and see the new place!

And her larger-than-life dog! His name is slipping my mind at the moment - Schlophy, what is it again?

And you know we've gotta have a baller-status pic :-)

Thanks for having us, Jackie! So good to catch up and see your new place!

ASU Game

Went to watch our season opener on Thursday and got to see my ASU girls. As Laurie put it in her epic status - up by 42 at the half, our bartender sportin our colors, $20 drink wristbands, and hanging out with the girls. Love them, love the Sun Devils!

Sweet text from a great friend...

Michelle, who was on my team at Heritage, overheard some of the elementary girls talking on their way home one day last week:

Makes me so happy that the kiddos are loving reading and writing! It's been awesome to coteach in the third grade classroom that is right next door to me....I love those kiddos! And I get to see them on the playground, so that's where the cheer moves was coming from. It's safe to say that I'm loving my new job!

Happy Hour with Kerry

Got to catch up with my mentee on Friday for happy hour and it was exactly. what. I needed. By the looks of those smiles, you can guess that I left feeling way better after we had a few drinks and appetizers!

Saturday night out with Liz

Liz and I went out to Division last night. It's in the neighborhood next door - or it's in Bucktown, I'm not sure where the boundaries are. Anyways, we sat on the patio outside Smoke Daddy and had some great drinks and dinner. Then we met some more of her friends at a Nebraska bar down the street. I can't remember the name of that bar, but the music was great and we were in great company. And, I was home in good shape and in time to not sleep away my day today. Good stuff!

I had such a good weekend - had fun, but also got my philosophy paper drafted, my presentation ready for Wednesday night, some reading done .... and laundry and grocery shopping. Boom. Kickin ass, takin names :-)

One more thing: found this graphic online somewhere and loved it...

Going to try and keep this in mind as I navigate my way through my new job. Got myself a new notebook to pay better attention to the appointments I make for coteaching and planning, so that's definitely going to keep me in better shape this week.

And that is all....

Have a great week everyone!

I pledge allegiance...

I don't claim the college I went to for undergrad. Some of my friends get mad at me about this, but there's a few reasons....

Actually, I have a confession to make first:

I never really cared too much about college football until about two years ago. (Don't judge me!) Two years ago, I started going to watch the Arizona State games at Cubby Bear here in Chicago with the ASU Chicago Alumni. I originally went with this girl:

bff!

And that same night, I met Kristy and the guy who I would go on to date for a year and a half:
(Ex not pictured.)

I kept going back to games and also met Laurie:

Because I was dating the ex, I kinda flaked on lots of the games - but I was still watching college football with him, except he's a Gator from University of Florida. So, I was loving college football because of new friends and the new boyfriend.

I'm so happy that I found Cubby Bear and all the connections it made me in Chicago. Also super  excited to go back this week to watch our season opener, but I wasn't always a Sun Devil...

I went to ASU for grad school, but I went to Northern Arizona University for undergrad. This is the thing that gets my friends from undergrad all ticked off - I don't follow NAU. Funny story about this though - I actually dated the mascot at NAU:

Louie the Lumberjack

Wait, let me rephrase....I dated the guy who *was* the mascot : )

also goes by Justin : )

Anyways, I saw Justin this summer and even he brought up this whole thing about how I claim ASU now saying, "You even dated Louie!"

But the thing is, while NAU was a great school and I had so much fun there, it just wasn't ASU. This may partly be because when you get into a master's program, it's totally what you're interested in. I LOVED my program at ASU. And then when I got to Chicago, I met awesome people because I went to ASU game watching.

So, it's not that I don't like NAU - it was an awesome experience. I had tons of great friends, my program was pretty great...but I just love ASU so much because of all the connections it has made me here in Chicago. I don't see this changing either - I am starting another master's at Northeastern Illinois and I have no desire for any golden eagle shirts. Sparky....my heart belongs only to you!

Our first game watching event is this Thursday and I can't wait! Bunch of friends all meeting up, and while I have to work on Friday (Laurie and Kristy were smart and asked for the day off!) I am good with getting some extra coffee on Friday morning and taking a nap after school.

I'm hoping it's a great season! We're not ranked, but not forgotten, either....falling just a few shy of #25. I read that our Wisconsin game is going to say lots about our season, so I'm especially excited for that game...

That's all for Monday and my second Slice of Life! Go Devils!

Camel got me....

Went to yoga yesterday - finally, first time since last Monday. In the Hot Power Fusion class, it's the same sequence you go through, and camel pose is one we do towards the end. It looks like this:

Now first off, I can't reach my feet. In fact, I don't even reach for them, but put my hands in my "yogi pockets" right on my lower back. Every time we do this pose, they always tell us after, "Take a few minutes....this pose might bring up some stuff that you don't expect." Physically, it makes your heart race, and it also takes a lot of trust to go back and reach that far backwards (probably the reason I haven't even tried to reach for my feet yet.)

The whole theme of our class yesterday was "When the dark is at rest, the light begins to move." So our instructor read a little bit about this to us and kept talking about the darkness and light throughout class. We tried camel the first time, I came out of it early feeling really shaky and then she told us to try again - to look past the scariness and darkness of it and reach for the light.

I stuck with her the second time - still not reaching my feet and just leaning back, but stuck it out. I'm so glad it's hot yoga and everyone is sweating their @$$es off in there, because aside from the sniffling no one would probably know that I kinda started crying.

I was. I didn't want to, but I couldn't stop. I was thinking about the dark and the light thing. Here's the passage our teacher shared, which is not my words, but from The Book of Awakening (Nepo):

"Just how do we deal with agitations of the dark? How do we make our way through the tangle of being confused or sad or blocked in understanding a way to tomorrow? it seems natural enough to treat our problems like an overgrown path and go hacking our way through, doing small violence to ourselves. Yet this insight from an ancient Chinese text implies something harder and simler. It implies that agitation itself is dark, that only when we can keep our hands off will there be room for light.

How many times have I examined and reexamined the words of another in my mind, growing dark vines by going over and over what was said: What could it mean? What could all that wasn't said mean? What must I now do in response or in no-response? The thought-weeds grow, blocking the light.

I had to laugh when I think of how many hours I have spent in my life weaving story lines that never came true until, like weeds, they covered my heart. It was as if the light, in infinite patience, won't force itself into our hearts. No, it seems to wait and wait for us to open, content to fill whatever small space we can clear in ourselves.

It seems that agitations of the dark always cover over. For myself, I worked for years covering over more lesions of esteem with agitations of accomplishment, till my heart was covered over with a thicket of achievements. only when I put the achievements aside did the light begin to move. Only then did a Universal warmth reach my sore center. Only when I let the dark energies rest did I begin to heal."

So there I was, crying in yoga class. I was just thinking about how  my thoughts are still pretty frequently going back to my ex and thinking about him, wondering what he's doing or if he's thinking of me. I mean, I'm definitely getting better, but these thoughts still continue to put this darkness in me. I had never thought of it like this until yesterday, and I think that was where the tears were coming from.

So I guess this is the thing - you can't really move on from things until you've learned the lessons. As I look back on my old relationships that didn't work, I can see if I had gone through this journey that I am on now, the recovery may have happened a little quicker. It's been four months, and although I was sad yesterday, I feel way better today. I'd say that's progress : )

Is there anything in your life that is bothering you? Maybe try camel pose and see what surfaces...

Happy Labor Day,