We built a mighty sail to carry forth this ship

)

The haps

Well, I'm sick as a dog. Big shocker, after attempting to be in 3 choirs, sub for Laura's yoga class, keep my own yoga practice up, and plan MBE's April fundraising parties during one of our busiest times at work. And I definitely haven't been getting enough sleep. I should have known this nonsense would eventually come back to bite me in the ass, buuuut somehow I still managed to get caught off guard. No worries though. I'm working from home and am fully stocked with tea and mac & cheese, so all is right in the world. 

So since I know you are all dying to hear about my super exciting life, here are a few things I've done in the last couple of weeks:

• Took a nice 9-hour drive to...Madison, Wisconsin. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of the midwestern United States, the trip from Minneapolis to Madison normally takes about four hours. Lucky for us, we decided to hit the road right around the time a semi jackknifed on I-94, shutting down the entire eastbound lane (thankfully, no one was hurt in the accident that I'm aware of). Anyway, all traffic was diverted onto a 2-lane highway through Menominee. It started snowing buckets, and long story short we finally rolled into our B&B at 11:45, having left home at 3pm. GOOD JOB.  On the plus side, we had a great time. The main purpose of our adventure was to see my favorite band, Cloud Cult, at the Barrymore. I'm going to miss their St Paul shows in April and hadn't yet gotten a chance to catch their acoustic set so we planned a special road trip to Madison. It was well worth it - probably the best show I have ever been to. I was on the verge of tears (in a good way) from the second they started playing. We made some lovely concert friends, AND we ran into a friend of Ben's from his hometown! Such a crazy random happenstance.

Ben and Meredith, reunited!

Just really pumped for Cloud Cult

Amazing, multitalented musicians

Craig Minowa

CC artwork 

• Last friday I went to a delightful hips & hamstrings class co-taught my by dear friends Shannon and Becka at CPY downtown. After class I went to Target to buy socks. I left Target with nail polish, earrings, a DVD, a new yoga strap, easter candy, and a tank top with a dinosaur on it. And no socks. 

typical

• In other news, I just discovered the #booksinyourpants hashtag. Endless entertainment.

last nights winner, after careful consideration and 2 glasses of wine

Time to drink some tea and watch New Girl. And do my yoga homework...sooo much yoga homework. So much.

Minnesota Opera's "The Dream of Valentino" - magical press and social media night!

Last Thursday, I was fortunate enough to be invited to Minnesota Opera's social media/press night for Dominick Argento's "The Dream of Valentino." Argento's hilarious "Casanova's Homecoming" remains one of my favorite operatic comedies, and I've sung many of his choral pieces over the years so as a fan of both Argento and opera (and of Argento's operas), I've been looking forward to this production for a while.

"Valentino" is the story of a man with a lofty dream, who loses both his way and his sense of self during his meteoric rise to fame. Valentino arrives in New York, an Italian immigrant "fresh off the boat" with big dreams of becoming a famous actor - a true artist. In the opening scene, we see Valentino trying to make ends meet as a "dance hall pimp," essentially a glorified male escort whose job it is to dance with women at the dance hall. Despite the somewhat degrading role, Valentino wants to dance with elegance and class. When one of the dance hall's female patrons tries to dance with him in a way he sees as lewd, he staunchly refuses explaining that he is an artist - "I will not dance like that with you."

Symbolically, the singer (Victoria Vargas) who plays the woman in the dance hall also sings the part of Natcha Rambova, one of the filmmakers who later lures Valentino away from his artistic vision and ultimately towards his downfall. The dancehall scene presents us with a microcosm of the entertainment industry Valentino is heading towards - one where he will be pulled and persuaded to give up his dream by those who have something else in mind for him.

Valentino's talent and natural charisma on screen, along with his dark and mysterious good looks, begin to garner attention and soon everyone wants a piece of his success. The actor finds himself pulled further and further away from his dream, starring in trashy films and wondering what has become of his dream - and his identity.

As usual, the Minnesota Opera blew me away with its visual presentation. The use of film effects, old photos and newspapers, and the slightly muted color scheme set the scene brilliantly, and along with the fantastic costumes helped to recall the era of silent film. But the lessons of "Valentino" are clearly not the lessons of the past - the story of a star built up by the media, only to be torn down as soon as it's convenient for those who effectively 'made' him in the first place, resonates perhaps even more strongly today.

Even more relevant than the familiar 'downfall of a celebrity' trajectory is the opera's exploration of identity and legacy. Clearly, Valentino presents a dark vision of human nature - nearly everyone in Valentino's world is using him to further their own ends. Even his mentor June Mathis (beautifully sung by my idol Brenda Harris) unintentionally hands him over to the wolves in a misguided attempt to help him stay true to his vision. Valentino underscores the importance of staying true to oneself, and of following your vision despite what everyone else thinks is best.


But 'Valentino' doesn't really give us an answer. How do we, in fact, maintain our integrity in a subversive and manipulative world? Is giving up our happiness worth the opportunity to attain immortality?

All the singers were wonderful, but Brenda Harris (June Mathis), Alan Held (the Mogul), were the evening's true standouts. Harris is always wonderful to watch, but Held's smarmy yet disturbingly visionary Mogul made for an excellent villan. Argento's through-composed score flows beautifully, and makes creative use of a variety of musical forms and instrumental accompaniments.

Ultimately though, I wished there had been more material here. While 'Valentino' raises a number of interesting questions, its under-two-hour running time barely provides enough time to scratch their surface. The characters could have been more fully fleshed out, the issues more deeply delved into. Evidently Argento's original score was much longer and I'm now extremely curious to hear the material that was cut. Overall this was a very well-executed production of an opera which, while very good, doesn't quite live up to its potential.

I'm seeing 'Valentino' again on Saturday with Ben, and am definitely excited to see it again from a different audience vantage point (and with an actual audience this time!). I did really enjoy the press screening - special shout-out to Tessa RJ for the invitation! I'm hoping to sign up for a few more of these evenings in the future, it's fun to get a behind-the-scenes look at the show prior to opening night.

This one is mostly about music.

This post is light on photos, long on tangential randomness. Hooray.

1) Opera

Ben and I went with my parents to see Arabella at MNOp last Saturday. The music was lovely (I have a soft spot for Strauss having sung a bunch of his art songs in college) and the singing was amazing. The opera itself was basically 1.5 acts of exposition, followed by 1 act of stuff happening. I have constructed a plot summary to save you some time; you can thank me later.

ARABELLA
ACT 1
- Girl sees boy, girl falls in love with boy
- Girl's sister is pretending to be a boy because...being a girl is expensive apparently?
- Boy sees photo of girl, falls in love with girl
- Father approves of boy because he is loaded
- Father arranges for girl and boy to meet at party later that evening
ACT 2
- They are at the party, yay!
- Girl and boy finally meet, fall madly in love, become engaged. Girl promises to meet boy at door with glasses of fresh water every day because he will own her now. Yay?
- Due to a giant misunderstanding based on things he overhears and never bothers to verify, boy becomes convinced girl is cheating on him, gets completely blasted and starts macking on other girls at the party.
ACT 3
- Boy confronts girl. Girl insists she is not cheating on boy, but boy is unconvinced. Hilarious hijinx ensue.
- Misunderstanding is eventually cleared up. Boy is embarassed, as he should be. Girl forgives him for some reason. Love songs and sexual innuendos about glasses of water ensue.

At least we clean up well!

2) Movies
We went to see Thor: The Dark World last Sunday and I super loved it a lot. Just straight up entertainment which was exactly what I needed after seeing the *very* well done but also incredibly difficult to watch 12 Years a Slave last weekend. Also I think Loki is now my favorite character in the Marvel universe - morally ambiguous loose cannon with a some sass thrown in for good measure? Sign me up.

3) I like running to sad music?
Some people run best to fast club music because it pumps them up. I, on the other hand, seem to need a sweeping string section and some emotional torment to get me going which is probably why I listened to this song at least eight times on my Tuesday six miler. I can't explain it...it's kind of emo and sounds like something I would have loved in college, but I seriously cannot stop listening to it.



4) I like running
Speaking of running - even though I seriously question my sanity when my alarm goes off at 5am, by the time I am outside watching the sun come up I'm just excited and grateful, and remember why I do this to myself three times a week. It is 100% worth it.

This is why I get up at 5am. Right here.

Thanksgiving is almost here!! Time to start decorating for Christmas, I just bought about 60 feet of pre-lit garland from Target and two boxes of Candy Cane tea. In choir, we've started rehearsing for our Christmas concert which features the Bach Magnificat in D this year. If this doesn't make you feel  full of joy and the Christmas spirit, then you are wrong:

The end! Hope you are having a great weekend.

May the best you've ever seen, be the worst you'll ever see

Fall has definitely arrived in St Paul - actually I think winter is well on its way to arriving. The trees haven't quite figured out what's going on yet, so some of them have already dropped their leaves and some are still green. It's very odd.

Anyway, it has been a fun and super full week over here! We finally started rehearsals for our Christmas concert/service; this year we're singing the Bach Magnificat in D. I first sang this piece a few years ago, also for Christmas I think and it remains one of my favorites largely because it has a rockin Soprano II part. I am selfish :)

Thursday I did my usual early AM run followed by coffee - I usually go to Rustica because it is sort of on the way to the office and they have AMAZING coffee.  They also have yogurt/fruit/granola cups with greek yogurt and their homemade granola...they are super good and I basically dream about them. Since it is usually pre 7am when I swing by, they may or may not have the yogurts out yet, so whenever they do have them I get irrationally excited.

A little bit of heaven in a cup

That night we went to a Laphroig event at the St Paul Hotel!! I have been looking forward to this for SO LONG. In case you were not aware Ben and I are both huge fans of single malt scotch whisky. Ben actually gave me a bottle of scotch as a wedding gift. What can I say, the man knows me well. Laphroig is actually the scotch that started it all for me. I first tasted it my senior year of college - my friend offered me a sip of his, so I took one and proclaimed "huh. This tastes like a cigar". And then I immediately demanded to know where I could get more. Thus began a beautiful friendship. I would not say it's my favorite anymore but it was definitely my 'gateway scotch'... I do not mess around.

So anyway when Ben got a notice in the mail from St Paul Grill that there was a Laphroig EVENT taking place with a legit Laprhoig rep from Scotland, he asked if I wanted to go and I responded YES ARE YOU KIDDING. And he was like dude settle down. Sometimes I think I scare him with my exuberance.

(p.s. I really hope this doesn't make me sound like an alcoholic. I actually do not drink much at all, and when I drink whisky it is only in very small amounts...hence why Thursday night was...ineresting.)

Bounty of gift bags!

I was Ben's 'plus one' ...for some reason I found this deeply amusing

Starting the evening off right with a cocktail!
This would have probably been fine, had it not been followed by six pours of whisky

Bagpipers to usher us in to dinner and to...set the mood I guess?

After we had all finished our cocktails and appetizers, we were herded by bagpipers (I am not kidding) into the dining room, where we were given more food (bread, cheese and some preserved meats/sausages/etc) and five varieties of Laphroig to taste while we listened to the presentation Simon, the Laphroig rep, tell us about the history of the distillery and the island of Islay.

From left to right: 10 year, Quarter Cask, 18 year, Cask Strength, and Triple Wood

After a cocktail and five scotches, I was feelin pretty good when SURPRISE they brought out a sixth scotch for us to taste. The Cairdeas was aged in bourbon and finished in a port cask for 15 months. Port  aged or finished are my favorite - it imparts a deep flavor and sweetness to the whisky that I really like.

Love this photo

As it turns out, the appetizers and bread/cheese plate were not nearly enough food to soak up six scotches...plus fancy places make me somewhat uncomfortable so I demanded that we swing by Falafel King to even things out. Nothing rounds out a classy evening of appetizers and charcuterie quite like some fried chickpea deliciousness eaten on the couch while giggling uncontrollably.

The next morning I...did not feel awesome. Lucky for me, literally my entire team was on PTO (my entire team now being me, my manager and one other person and an open rec. Long story.) so I worked from home in my PJs for a couple of hours while drinking tons of water. At 9:30 or so, I decided I should probably wash my face and put on real clothes, and roll into the office for some afternoon meetings. P.S. how much do I love casual Friday...

Sorry corporate America, this is all you're getting from me today.

Don't worry, I put shoes on eventually

As I was heading out the door, I went to grab my favorite scarf only to find that it was already in use. This is what I get for leaving my hats and scarves on pretty much any flat surface in our house.

So, guess I am wearing a different scarf today.

After all meetings for the day had wrapped up I headed BACK home to finish a few things...it's kind of amazing how much you can get done when everyone you work with is out of the office. I heated up some leftover butternut squash soup for a late lunch (made from this recipe) and watched Pitch Perfect while I worked on a presentation.

Better than the office, fo sho

I still managed to make a hot yoga class in the evening, came home and quickly showered before heading to Overflow Cafe for a gig my friend Keith was playing with the band Flowerstalks. I had never been to Overflow before but I really like it! The space was big but still cozy, with a fireplace and tons of comfy couches, and a half second floor. They had great food and the coffee drinks looked delicious (I did not have one because if I drink coffee in the afternoon/evening I cannot sleep...).

Thai chicken wrap from Overflow

They also had board games so Ben and I played a round of Scrabble. I probably beat him ;)  

Anyway, moral of the story is don't drink on a Thursday. I will leave you with this lovely Scottish toast:

May the best you’ve ever seen

Be the worst you’ll ever see;

May a moose ne’er leave yer girnal

Wi’ a teardrop in his e’e.

May ye aye keep hale and hearty

Till ye’re auld enough tae dee,

May ye aye be just as happy

As I wish ye aye tae be.

Stripes 2: Revenge of the Stripes

So on Monday, I was planning on my normal routine of work --> latte and reading at Bull Run --> yoga --> sleeping. I blocked my free time during the day to finish up a presentation for Tuesday, so that I could easily get out of there by 5-5:30 with plenty of time to have a luxurious reading and coffee hour before class. As usual though, work had other plans and there was a dire emergency requiring me to write up several pages of training materials before 4pm. I whipped them together pretty quickly, but this still meant that the presentation I meant to start working on at 10am, was not started until 4:30.

I forced myself to stop working just in the nick of time, booked it out to my car only to remember that I was almost out of gas. But as we all know, Yoga > safe driving, so I rolled into Uptown 20 minutes later on fumes and the wings of angels, and miraculously made it to my 7pm class.

In other news, Lululemon keeps making stripey things. I saw this hoodie online and immediately knew I needed to have it. IT HAS STRIPES ON THE SLEEVES. AND THE HOOD. WHAT KIND OF SORCERY IS THIS.

This photo provides a better view of the hood

But this one has a great cameo by Mini in the bottom left, so I had to post it too
Also, I've decided that this phone case is totally an appropriate work accessory. If
people are going to judge me for having a phone case that looks like it
belongs to a 4-year old Japanese girl, they need to find better things
to do with their time.
End caption.

Stripes layered over EVEN MORE STRIPES
META STRIPES

Last night I subbed for my friend/teacher Laura's class, and thus have now taught my third class ever. I am still not certified.

[Sssshhhh.....]

So I sat down over the last couple of days to do some hardcore planning and sequencing, using YJ home practices, old notes, and an awesome book I'm borrowing from my teacher that includes basic cues for all of the major asanas.

Right now, I'm just working on sounding like I mean what I say. Also on not constantly mixing up left and right. Or 'leg' and 'arm'. It's a process.

Sequencing like a boss

Yesterday I discovered that Birthday Cake Oreos exist. Problem of how to fuel for 10 mile training runs = SOLVED.
OK I lied this was never a problem, but let's just pretend I have a deep and meaningful reason for eating these, because they taste like the laughter of baby unicorns and I am having a really hard time restraining myself from going to the pantry and inhaling the entire package.

BUY ME NOW AND EAT ME

And a final word for the day - Ben and I went to a free MNOrch concert on Saturday at the Lake Harriet Bandshell and it was very emotional. If you're not from Mpls or if you are not aware of the lockout and ensuing conflict that has developed between the musicians and management over the last year, go read up on it and then immediately donate to Save Our Symphony MN or Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra. They are planning to put on a fall concert series without the support of Orchestra Management and MNOrch and they need some financial help in order to do so. DO IT. We have a world class orchestra and I really hope we do not lose them.




That's all. It's Thursday and I have no plans after work other than dinner, cookies and binge watching season 2 of New Girl so I can start Season 3 ASAP. Have a wonderful day!!

Abide With Me

Somehow, I made it through 21 years of life and regular church-going with my parents without encountering Abide With Me.  We'll chalk it up to it being a Lutheran hymn and my attending a Presbyterian church. 

The first time I sang this piece was in my college choir during my senior year.  Our director Dr. Armstrong pulled out the absolutely transcendent Greg Jasperse arrangement for...I think it was our domestic tour.  I loved it immediately.  Something about it made me feel as though I was curling up in a warm, comfy blanket.  The melody is not innovative or complex.  The rhythm is straightforward.  But sometimes, simplicity speaks volumes.

As we were preparing for our concert, Dr. Armstrong's mother passed away.  Suddenly, the piece took on a new, very personal meaning.  Dr. A never said so directly, but every time we rehearsed Abide With Me, it was in homage to her.  We could see it written on his face, and we sang to lift him up.  All of this happened without anyone speaking a word to one another.  We just knew.

Singing at Carnegie Hall

A couple of weeks ago, a friend's mom contacted me about singing at her brother's funeral.  I really don't do the soloing "thing" anymore, but when a friend asks I will never say no.  Anyway, she chose one of the pieces (The Lord's Prayer), but left the other one up to me. 

I talked with my friend and he suggested the Pie Jesu from Faure's Requiem, but shockingly the organist did not know it (???seriously.  Dude, you are a church organist and you don't know this piece....how in the...ok that's neither here nor there) so we decided to just pick a hymn from the hymnal instead.

The organist suggested On Eagle's Wings which I immediately vetoed because: 1) it was already in the service as the second hymn, and 2) no.  I hadn't sung or even thought about Abide With Me in years, but I knew immediately that it was the right choice.

Singing in a funeral is kind of a surreal experience.  At a wedding, everyone is celebrating and even if you don't know the family personally, you just get dragged into the party.  At a funeral, you're part of the day but you are also necessarily an outsider.  I hoped I could help their family in some small way, but at the same time I felt incredibly pretentious for even thinking I could make a difference.  Who was I to even be there?

I have never felt so simultaneously honored and humbled in my life.  Honored that my friend had asked me to take part in remembering his uncle, humbled by the love I saw in front of me that day.

I'm not sure why that particular piece resonates with me to such a degree.  Part of it, I'm sure, is the emotionally charged circumstances under which I first sang it.  Part of it is also the fact that my time at St. Olaf was so treasured, and the tune takes me back to that time - but then so does every song I ever sang in college.

Honestly, I think it comes down to the last two lines of the second verse:

Change and decay in all around I see
O thou who changest not, abide with me

Whether you are Christian or not (I'll be perfectly honest - I am not.  And yet I sing in a church choir and go to church every Sunday.  That's another topic for another day), there's something to those lines.

"Change and decay" is not, I don't think, a negative thing.  It's the natural state of the world.  Everything changes, everything eventually dies. Desiree Rumbaugh said something really insightful the other week at her workshop (well, she said many insightful things, this is just one of them) - that the world as it is, is the world we were meant to be born into.  Wars, poverty, hunger and all.  This is the world we were meant to live in, and our challenge is learning to be steadfast.

I love and believe in the idea that there is something abiding and constant in the world.  Whether it is God, another higher power, your soul, the nature of the world we live in, or something else entirely is (I think) up for discussion, but it's what Abide With Me is all about.

Delicious

Well, I hate to speak too soon as it's only 1pm, but today has just been an awesome day.  This is in contrast to yesterday, which found me texting my friend at 5:30pm that I wasn't going to make happy hour because a) I had more work to do and b) "if I don't get some yoga I might die."  No one ever said I lacked a flair for the dramatic. 

12 hour days...they are so fun though.  Anyway, part of my work-related stress (which you've been hearing a lot about lately...sorry...) is related to my ongoing...um, normal job... but a significant chunk was also coming from an additional project I've been working on (still at work just out of the scope of my daily activities), which has been a huge pain in my ass lately.

Essentially, the assignment was: "This product appears to suck.  You are to please figure out why this is and what we should do about it."  There was also a pretty tight deadline and a fair amount of visibility.

I would not say things started out execptionally well.  I spent several weeks digging through reams of reporting, requesting more data, going levels deeper into the data I already had, and finding nothing.  So basically I was sitting on a looming deadline and no answer. 

THEN...about a week and a half ago I got that one, key piece of information that unlocked the whole issue, everything just fell into place and I knew exactly what I needed to do.  Unfortunately, "exactly what I needed to do" was complex and involved a ton of work, and the looming deadline was still just as looming, so it's pretty much been balls to the wall for the past two weeks to get this thing finished and presentation-ready.  Plus, you know, the rest of my job.

Then on Tuesday, my boss mentioned that hey, this is great but it would be really cool if you built a product value model too.  So last night I did not go to happy hour because I instead was busy messing around in excel to finish the aforementioned value model.

Point being, I presented my work today so that beast is FINALLY done with.  Plus, even more to the point, it went really  really well and both my boss and my boss' boss said it was great.  Phew.

Oh, and we also ran out of time and didn't get to the value model during the meeting.  So...there's that.  Vegas Lounge, I passed you up for naught.  Except not actually, because even though I didn't actually present the model I (or someone else) will probably end up using it in the future.

So yes - good day!  And then I ate a delicious salad for lunch - baby spinach, arugala, grilled tempeh and apple, with homemade maple mustard vinegrette.  Normally I like the apple pieces much smaller, but this is what happens when you have to slice an apple with a janky plastic cafeteria knife - ginormous apple chunks.  I also usually put warm roasted butternut squash on this baby, which is pretty much the best part...but sadly I have not had time to roast a squash :(   Poor me, my life, wah, etc etc.

Yum

Anyways it looks like we are FINALLY going to have a nice weekend!  MN has been in an unfortunate pattern of being gorgeous during the week and then raining all weekend, so I'm excited to actually be outside during the day.  Miracle of miracles. 

Tonight Ben and I are attending not one, but two musical events - a performance by a friend of mine from choir (Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire to be exact and anyone who knows what I am talking about will hopefully be as pumped as I am.  This thing never gets performed live!), and then the Mayfly Rooks CD release show at the 331! 

We've also decided that tomorrow we are doing absolutely nothing.  Maybe going to Target and yoga, but other than that we have big plans for the couch, Punch pizza, wine and old movies.  I'm hoping for a marathon of Rear Window, To Catch a Theif and the Apartment, but we shall see.

Happy FRIDAY!!

Weeeelp...

Sooo...now that it's this weekend, I should probably get up to speed on what I did last weekend.  Not exactly punctual, but let's face it the weekend is the only part of my life that's interesting, anyways.  My weekdays mostly involve spreadsheets, more spreadsheets, powerpoints, meetings, walking the dog, yoga and/or choir, and sleeping. 

When we last left off, I was chugging coffee in hopes of making it up past 12:30 so I could see my friends' band play a gig at Mayslacks.  Well, I am pleased to report that three cups of coffee more than did the trick.  Coffee may have also been supplemented with tequila.  Oops?

Tequila?

 Anyway, 12:30 ended up being 12:45 but we made it through the whole set, and I'm really glad I we went.  These guys are awesome - I will shamelessly plug them to anyone, anytime.  Did I mention their album comes out THIS FRIDAY May 11?  Also they are having a CD release show on Friday so if you're in the Twin Cities and are looking for something fun to do on Friday I highly recommend checking this out.

The band is basically comprised of three MBA grads and, as my friend Judd describes them, three total hippies.  Somehow this combination = magic. 

Judd and Abby

Keith (the 3rd MBA) and Rocky

Saturday was a bit cloudy, and I basically went to yoga, read books and did laundry all day.  Very exciting.   I even got outside a bit, although the weekends have been kind of cloudy and rainy lately.  Not the weekdays mind you, just the weekends. What's up with that weather?  Get it together.

Cloudy...whyyyyy....

Saturday night I met my friend Amanda for dinner at Ghandi Mahal in Minneapolis.  We'd been planning on a picnic lunch at Lake Calhoun earlier in the day, but what with the cold/rain that clearly wasn't happening so we decided to satisfy our craving for chai and indian food instead.

Boots and sweaters, still necessary.
...just ignore the makeup on the floor...it's fine...

I think Ghandi Mahal may now be my favorite Indian food in the cities.  The atmosphere is really fun, and the food is just perfectly spiced.  I ordered the veg Thali, which came with two small portions of curry (veg curry and saag paneer), rice and pakora.  The pakora was amaaaazing... it had whole fennel seeds.  Yum.

So much delicious

Possibly my favorite thing about Ghandi Mahal was the chai - real, authentic chai poured from...a teapot shaped like an elephant.  I just about died when I saw it, and decided I must own one immediately.  Unfortunately our server informed us that their teapots came from Bangladesh.  Fortunately, I was able to track down a nearly identical teapot at Pier One the very next day for $12.00.  Success!

Just about awesome

AND it only gets better because we now own not only an elephant teapot, but also an elephant teapot COVER that Ben brought home from India.  SO MUCH TEA.  SO MUCH ELEPHANT.

so meta

Sunday we went to church in the AM and sang a concert in the afternoon, and then met my parents and Ben's parents for dinner at the Happy Gnome to celebrate Ben's mom's birthday!

I'm very picky about my burgers so I rarely order them unless I'm fairly confident it's going to be high quality.  The Gnome almost never disappoints, although I think they might have changed their fries recently so...sorry Happy Gnome, your fries are no longer my favorite in St. Paul.  Still a great burger, and a great evening with family :)

parents - drink responsibly

Family!

Anyways, this weekend I'm taking a yoga workshop.  I love these weekends because they give me a chance to really just immerse myself in my practice for two straight days, plus I get to hang out with my yoga buddies who are just awesome people.  Every time, I manage to forget how much these workshops shift my energy, and I tend to make grandiose evening plans only to cancel them later in favor of sitting on the couch with a glass of wine, reflecting on life.  Or um, watching Battlestar Galactica.

Sid has been inspired by my yoga moves and is very committed to his own practice.  His favorite pose is flop-on-couchasana.

This is a very hard pose

He's tried to rope Mini into some Yogaglo podcasts but she's just to spazzy.  Sid tells me that he thinks her vata is imbalanced and she needs to drink some warm tea and chill the fuck out.  I think he is probably right.

Ayurvedic expert

Have a great weekend!