Today I wore sandals to work for the first time this year. At one point I slipped my feet out of my sandals at my desk and looked at the bottom of my foot. There was a strange light blue semi-circle on the bottom of my foot. I peeled it off and it took me a minute to realize what it was. Then I figured it out... it was a contact lens!
Last night I was in the shower and I decided that the next morning I would start a new pack of contact lenses. So I took my contacts out while I was in the shower to let them run down the drain. But it seems one got stuck to the bottom of my foot. It lasted through that shower, all night in bed, walking around the house and taking the dogs for a walk the next morning, a morning shower (where I obviously didn't wash the bottom of my foot LOL), and getting ready and driving to work. That is one sticky contact lens. :)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
I'm all for appreciating other cultures but.....
This is going to sound racist but I think I have a valid point. Enough with the "Native Awareness Weeks" already!
In the last 2 months there have been:
My question is, at what point is enough enough? I am "aware" of the natives. Having spent many of my school years in this area I've been to my share of drumming ceremonies, round dances, and the like. It gets to a point where it feels shoved down my throat.
When do I get to celebrate my own heritage? There are a lot of English immigrants in Canada.... when do we get to have "British Awareness Week"? Tea, scones, and yorkshire puddings all around. We can wear crowns like the royal family and play polo. Then we can go to a pub to drink Guiness and sing football anthems. I'd sign up for that!
In the last 2 months there have been:
- A Native Awareness Week put on by the University including pow-wows, speakers, etc.
- A Native Awareness Week put on by the city with more pow-wows, speakers, arts & crafts for the kiddies, etc.
- U of L convocation with native elements in the ceremonies (drumming and songs).
- A native symposium (lectures, dancing demonstrations, etc) held in the university atrium.
My question is, at what point is enough enough? I am "aware" of the natives. Having spent many of my school years in this area I've been to my share of drumming ceremonies, round dances, and the like. It gets to a point where it feels shoved down my throat.
When do I get to celebrate my own heritage? There are a lot of English immigrants in Canada.... when do we get to have "British Awareness Week"? Tea, scones, and yorkshire puddings all around. We can wear crowns like the royal family and play polo. Then we can go to a pub to drink Guiness and sing football anthems. I'd sign up for that!
Monday, June 01, 2009
Yoga Workshop
This past weekend I went to a yoga workshop. It was not the experience that I was expecting. I figured we'd do a total of 10 hours (in a 48 hour period) of yoga but instead it was broken down into some yoga, some meditation (also not at all as I pictured it), some chanting (ummmm, okay), and some qi-gong (kind of like tai-chi).
The yoga was challenging but at no point painful which was a surprise. My experiences in the past with yoga have often involved holding poses so long that I lose circulation and have excrutiating pain. But at the workshop I didn't have any pain like that so YAY! Poses weren't held very long and the instructor fostered a very permissive environment where any modifications needed (due to injuries or whatever) were encouraged.
The qi-gong I found to be very similar to yoga so they went well together. All movements were very slow and controlled and required a surprising amount of strength. I'd recommend it for some variety in a workout routine.
The chanting was a little bizarre. I tried to get into it but I never really was able to. I'd do it again and it was a nice break from the yoga but it's not something that came naturally to me.
The meditation was my favorite part. It was very relaxing. We would lie down or sit in a specific position with our eyes closed while the instructor read to us a story or asked us to picture something in our minds. After a few minutes we would finish and talk about what we saw or experienced. Some people got nothing and some had specific images come to their minds.
During one meditation I saw some salmon jumping/swimming upstream, then a shipwreck, then a fire. I was very calm and peaceful while seeing these images which, to me, was odd given that each image involved a lot of activity. So afterwards I mentioned what I saw to the instructor and she said I was probably seeing images from past lives. I had no idea what to say to that as I have never given much thought to reincarnation and it was a bit of a shock to have someone tell me that I had past lives when I hadn't decided if I even believed in them. It was a bizarre and unique experience for sure but one that I am happy to have had.
The yoga was challenging but at no point painful which was a surprise. My experiences in the past with yoga have often involved holding poses so long that I lose circulation and have excrutiating pain. But at the workshop I didn't have any pain like that so YAY! Poses weren't held very long and the instructor fostered a very permissive environment where any modifications needed (due to injuries or whatever) were encouraged.
The qi-gong I found to be very similar to yoga so they went well together. All movements were very slow and controlled and required a surprising amount of strength. I'd recommend it for some variety in a workout routine.
The chanting was a little bizarre. I tried to get into it but I never really was able to. I'd do it again and it was a nice break from the yoga but it's not something that came naturally to me.
The meditation was my favorite part. It was very relaxing. We would lie down or sit in a specific position with our eyes closed while the instructor read to us a story or asked us to picture something in our minds. After a few minutes we would finish and talk about what we saw or experienced. Some people got nothing and some had specific images come to their minds.
During one meditation I saw some salmon jumping/swimming upstream, then a shipwreck, then a fire. I was very calm and peaceful while seeing these images which, to me, was odd given that each image involved a lot of activity. So afterwards I mentioned what I saw to the instructor and she said I was probably seeing images from past lives. I had no idea what to say to that as I have never given much thought to reincarnation and it was a bit of a shock to have someone tell me that I had past lives when I hadn't decided if I even believed in them. It was a bizarre and unique experience for sure but one that I am happy to have had.
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