Sunday Special, Vol. 15

Happy belated Turkey Day y’all! I am thankful to you for being here and reading the things that I write. I hope you enjoyed a tasty feast and some time with your loved ones.

I was hanging out with this crew all week while their parents were out of town:

Health

It was Thanksgiving, so I am not even going to go here… but my belly was happy and everything was delicious! (-)

Family

I missed my fam around the holiday, but I had looked up plane tickets to fly to see my mom in Savannah for Thanksgiving, and they were $860. No thanks! I’ll be looking forward to going home for Christmas. (-)

Friends

I got to experience my first LA Friendsgiving events and they were such a treat! I’m grateful to everyone who checked in on me to invite me to their homes or to make sure I had somewhere to go. I feel very taken care of. (+)

Mission/Work

I had a much needed small pause from teaching this week, because most of my usual classes were canceled at the gym. I did pick up a few subbing opportunities here and there, so I didn’t completely turn into a melted puddle of mush watching Netflix on the couch. There was just the right amount of balance. (+)

Finances

A financial tip for you: if you stay in your house every day nesting and resting, you are way less likely to spend money on stuff out in the world! That worked for me over the long weekend. However I was susceptible to some Black Friday/Cyber Monday email temptations. It feels like the deals have spread from one day into a two week shopping spree! Yikes! (+)

Adventure

Not too much, unless you count binge-watching a new show as an adventure… I did have some fun explorations going out in Hollywood during my time off, though. Glad for new friends who like going out on the town. (+)

Hobby

My crochet skills have progressed from bags to bathing suits and I made a cute little bikini with cactus appliqués. I don’t think it can be worn in the water, unfortunately, so it may just be a suit for show. (+)

Spirituality

As I get deeper into teaching and my schedule of classes has been filling in, I realize that it’s hard to practice yoga on your own when you’re also teaching 2-3 times a day! Especially when you’re teaching at different studios and driving all over the dang place. On Thanksgiving Day I went back to one of my favorite neighborhood studios (Namaste Highland Park) and took an amazing class that helped me to reconnect with my practice. It’s important for me to experience my own practice outside of teaching, and I am glad to have room in my life to do that. (+)

Emotion

Delighted! This week/weekend was the perfect amount of time to recharge, hang out with friends, enjoy yummy food, crochet, and chill. I feel prepared to be productive this week and (hopefully) to eat not quite so many carbs. (+)

Wake-up Call

In college, I knew a friend whose mom was about to take a new job in education after taking several years off from the working world. The week before her first day, she started setting her alarm earlier and earlier so that she could practice waking up on time. Back then, I thought she was being a little dramatic. I wondered, could it really be that hard to adjust to a pre-8 a.m. schedule?

After my first full week of 7:30 a.m. clock-ins, I don't wonder that anymore. Now that the school year is in full swing and we barely have time to get dressed, work, eat, exercise, and take care of all the adult business like laundry/groceries/keeping the roof tied down, just to do it all over again the next day, I find myself wanting to squeeze as much fun into the weekends as humanly possible.

Fortunately, this one contained enough music, friends, tostadas, and new stomps around familiar territories to keep my summer-jonesing heart fulfilled. 

Concrete Robot @ The Sahara Lounge

B played one of our favorite venues for the first time. I helped our sweet Nicole warm her adorable new home. Our lady Lacey turned 30 in the midst of house shows, slip-and-sliding, and chicken sh*t bingo (if you didn't know, well, now you know). We even got to flex our cultural sides with the eye-opening Elliott Erwitt photo exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center.

The very smooth Wild Toast @ Trevor's house

Oh, and there were biscuits (unphotographed due to lack of time), pinatas (unphotographed due to lack of sobriety), and turtles (photograph below). 

Turtles at the University of Texas Austin

I'm ending Sunday with a happy heart and an inspired soul. I hope you, too, had a weekend to make your long weekdays feel like no big thang at all.