Ronni's Journal | Anything But Ordinary

Hey there, hi there, ho there! Thanks to the folks who entered my giveaway. The winners have been contacted and all is well.

So how goes it? I’m aware that it’s been a while (ten days, exactly) since I’ve posted a “what’s up” kinda post, but I had good reasons.

1. I was temping in an office for a few days, and then I was working a lot from home.

2. I FINALLY got some macarons. I’d been craving them for months.

3. I discovered that I love Luna bars. Certain varieties of them are soooo good. I know, I have a problem. I love BARS. Those Trader Joe’s “A Blueberry Walked Into a Bar” cereal bars. Quaker granola bars and Dipps. Cocoa Puffs Treats. They’re so easy to eat. Easy to carry around with me. But at least Luna bars are 70% organic and have lots of vitamins and nutrients, so I don’t have to feel *as* guilty for loving them so much.

4. Saturday, I got the pleasure of studying with master teacher Seane Corn (and she is 10000x amazing) and I attended a master teacher roundtable with her as well.

5. Sunday night, I went to the 2012 Kellogg’s Tour of Olympic Champions show with my silver VIP ticket. I attended the Chalk Talk (pre-show Q&A) and had 4th row seats for the actual show. I also got a souvenir gold medal. I bought a program, a pin, and a leotard but I don’t know if I am brave enough to post it here. Although if you do some digging, you’ll be able to find it…

In the meantime, take a look some girls who definitely look amazing in leotards. You might recognize a few of them….

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But there was one HUGE thing that pretty much consumed me. You see, I had my video review today. The video review is an important milestone in my yoga teacher training journey, and boy was I stressed out about it. Those of you who follow my personal facebook or my tumblr got to see firsthand my freakout sessions about it. The prep for it took a lot of time. Practicing, writing sequences, editing sequences, running the sequence out loud to myself in the shower, running it through my mind in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep and my bladder was constantly needing to be emptied and the cat was wailing outside the door. Yea, good times.

Because I wanted to do a good job. For numerous reasons. And so I got to the studio about 30 minutes before class started to help set up mats and props. People started arriving about 5-10 minutes before class. Those last ten minutes FLEW by. And then it was time for me to start. I taught the 30 minute opening sequence while Daren (my teacher) sat in the back taking notes on his laptop and Graham (one of my YTT classmates and Daren’s personal assistant) recorded us. There were three of us, 30 minutes each.

When I got to the front of the room, there were times when I just forgot myself. I forgot I was teaching. I just got in the zone. I stumbled over some words. Said some silly things. Used the word “just” wayyyy too much. But overall? HE SAID I WAS AWESOME. He said I exceeded his expectations. He gave me so many compliments, and the constructive feedback was very gentle. He has a really amazing way of delivering feedback that does not make you want to beat yourself up for messing up a cue or forgetting to do small things. I had on my Team USA leo under my shorts and Moksha tee-shirt, but only a few people knew it was there. I felt like it was a good luck charm. He told me that he thinks that teaching yoga is my dharma. (I plan to write a post on dharma sometime….)

At any rate, I PASSED MY VIDEO REVIEW, and now I get to teach eight karma/community classes to actual, paying customers. *gulp*

So… that’s what I’ve been up to these days. Now the the video review is done, I can let out a huge breath I’ve been holding, get a decent night’s sleep, and tackle my next to do list. Also, we’re going to Morton’s Arboretum this week. I’m super excited for that! Trees seem to be peaking so this will be awesome. Can’t wait to take lots of photos!

Til next time….

(Originally posted at http://anywhere-is.net. Comment here or there.)

At the beginning of August, I had the privilege of teaching a yoga class at Musecon, my favorite convention ever. It’s not a sci-fi con, it’s a con for more creative folks. The emphasis is on things like writing, knitting, art, photography.

Here are a few pictures from the class I taught (pictures from the Musecon photo gallery):

I got really good feedback. I think they want me to come back next year.

(Originally posted at http://anywhere-is.net. Comment here or there.)

Had a really cool week of yoga breakthroughs. Sunday, I taught a yoga class at Musecon and at the end of class, I went into my very first Supta Virasana (Reclining Hero Pose). Never thought I’d be able to do this because that pose typically hurts the top of my feet and my butt doesn’t really sit on the floor. Granted, I probably did it wrong, but it felt nice.

Wednesday, I did my first ever Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm Balance). OK, forearm balance is a challenge. Not going to lie. The prep for it is super challenging. BUT I did it, with some encouragement from the apprentice. How surprised was I when I floated up there?

Then yesterday, I got to take a workshop with Kathryn Budig, where I did my first ever Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana (Compass Pose). (How funny that the article highlighting this is written by her!). It was awesome!!!! I also did a variation of Visvamitrasana, and that was pretty sweet.

So, needless to say, I’m pretty tired today. So, you get a short and sweet entry.

Night!

(Originally posted at http://anywhere-is.net. Comment here or there.)