IHOP Girl: August 2011

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Training

Today I was doing some training, and I thought - what the hey, I should show you some of what I practice with Torque. It's a little rough, and I wasn't sure if you could see/hear, but I hope you enjoy!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Closet Clean Out

I would just like to share my pride in the fact that I cleaned and reorganized my closet yesterday. It looks so neat I can't stand myself! Even Torque was involved! I absolutely love it!! I took the opportunity to get rid of some clothes that I will never/have never worn which also felt great. I know it's strange to post about one's closet, and even stranger to post pictures of the finished product, but I can't help myself. Perhaps I will inspire other closet overhauls!!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Anyone have some Advil?

This week has kicked my butt! In a good way of course. I joined the YMCA because the cute little yoga/zumba studio near me is moving - I know sad right. Well, I need Zumba, so the only other option was to join the Y. It's been very fun though. My friend Julia has been coming with me too, and we've found a great Vinyasa yoga class as well as some awesome Zumba classes. The Vinyasa is hard, I'm sore for a good day afterwards, and then with the Zumba mixed in too I've been in a perminant state of soreness all week. I'm thinking that I may need to add some pool time in just to relax my muscles. Yeah for cool Y classes! Also, I am having to be extra thoughtful about drinking added water with all this new muscle work. As if yoga and zumba weren't enough I also start my 6 week fencing class tonight - yeah!!! If you remember WAY back I did some fencing, so I'm taking the opportunity to get back into it. How fun! The only bad thing is that it kills your thighs. I'm not sure that I'll be able to walk at work tomorrow. I'm going to end up being excited for work tomorrow so that I'll have three days to rest and recoop before the workout week begins again ;p.

I'll let you know how it all pays off. They say that which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger...my only concern is that it may kill me!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Bored...

I have been sitting for two hours at the car dealer, waiting for my car repair to be done.

Unfortunately, I have to replace the brake caliper and pad on my left rear tire because the caliper froze. While better done than not, it still sucks to have to shovel out more money. I should go to mechanic's school after I finish culinary school, vet school, my masters, and my MBA. I'm very imaginative.

Oh. Can I just tell you how dumb I felt when one of our attendings this week was talking about he's schooling background. The genius is a biomedical engineer, then went to med school. WAY to many brain cells. I'm just saying. I don't really come close. You'd think he'd look like a nerd - oh no he's really good looking too. Some people have all the brains AND all the looks. However, I wouldn't trade. Who wants to go to school to spend 90% of your time working - ah not I. I prefer to be lazy. I also feel better now that I've shared.

I may never be rich, I actually may never come out even, BUT I'll enjoy life - it all gets thrown out when you die anyways!

The End....

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Stumbleupon...it'll be the death of me...

Oh my gosh...who wants to go with me!! It's like a fairytale castle!

By the way - there is this website called Stumbleupon. You sign up for free, and then given them some of your preferences as far as your interests in life goes, and then it finds random websites with stuff you might like on them. It's addicting!!!

Move!

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.