A Quarter-Year Crisis

One sign of being nearly middle aged is that you mark your year off in quarters.  Or maybe that’s just a sign of someone who works in a cubicle.  Either way, I’m nearly a quarter of the way through the year and I definitely have not accomplished a quarter of the items on my list. 

The problem is that yoga is taking up nearly all of my free time.  I had a stressful day at work on Friday and all I wanted to do was come home and practice doing handstands.  It occurred to me that either I’m a full-fledged weirdo or the benefits of yoga are really starting to sink in. 

I’ve finally mastered crow pose, and my next benchmark will be standing up in handstand without needing to use the wall for balance. 

By the way, Donnie is sick of me asking him to photograph me in these poses, but studying the photos really helps me to correct my form.  For example, look how my front foot is pointed all wrong in this warrior:

 

And this wall scorpion is horrendous:

 

It was also the final straw for Donnie who has more important things to do than take pictures of my yoga practice.  Like keep up with the search for Malaysian Air Flight 370.  Because, no, we have not yet cut off the cable (#31).    

I don't know what the search crew would do without him.

Anyway, the only downside to all this yoga is that the time I spend on it takes time away from other things I need to do, like spring clean and bake bread.   Which just stresses me out.  Which makes me need to do more yoga.  Which stresses me out.  Which makes me want to do more yoga. 

This is my life.

# 4)  Loosen Up:  Because yoga is so stressful, on Saturday I made use of a gift certificate that I had for a total body wrap from a local massage therapist. 

Is it weird that I asked her to take my picture?  It doesn't matter, because I can’t recommend this enough.  The wrap included a full body exfoliation and afterwards I felt like a new woman.  So even if I didn’t get around to spring cleaning the house, my knees and elbows look 100% better. 

#12) Entertain:  A few weeks ago, we hosted a little dinner party to celebrate Suzy’s new job.  I made asparagus and leek goat cheese soup, butternut squash and spinach lasagna, and salad.  This was the last meal for Sam and Suzy before they started a cleanse where they give up dairy, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, gluten.  Basically everything that makes life worth living.  For a month! 

Actually, I’m not that in to gluten.  If not for IPA and Trader Joes' whole wheat pitas I could probably do without it. 

I'm done entertaining for awhile because I'm tired of having my house clean all the time.  This means Zola's eighth birthday party is going to have to be at a restaurant or somewhere. 

#24) Start doing regular breast exams:  Okay, serious time.  I HATE this part.  Every now and then I’ll quickly feel myself up in the shower, but the truth is it makes me squeamish.  But this is the year to grow up and get over it.  At my last gyno exam, the doctor showed me how to do it correctly.  My takeaway is that it needs to be done at the end of every cycle, in a firm, circular patting motion.  Anything hard and pea-sized is a concern, but the fibrous tissue that’s there now is okay. 

Whew.  This makes me so nervous I was holding my breath the entire time I typed that paragraph.

I'm going to have to get up and do some handstands. 

#28) Finish A People’s History of the United States:  I’m 4% of the way through on my new Kindle.  Not 25% of the way through, like the calendar, but 4%.  Thanks, Kindle, for keeping me honest about my progress here.

#30) Give up Diet Coke:  Although my progress on #28 isn't going so well, check out his recycling box.  My Diet Coke to La Croix ratio is looking pretty good if I do say so myself: