Between the shaky floors, loud music, and light pollution from the weight room and cardio area, it’s always been a fairly miserable experience: not to mention some of the teachers I've had have been suspect at best. Let's just put it this way, when a teacher instructs you to do deep backbends and twists within 15 minutes, hell, within 30 minutes of starting class [and class is started slowly WITHOUT heat inducing postures like sun salutations and yogic breathing], BE SKEPTICAL, VERY SKEPTICAL. But yesterday, with the storms raging, I decided I would give it another shot...The yoga experience wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either [I despise partner work and she had us do 3 series of it, ugh!].
The teacher started class by talking about how she had been speaking to someone about turning 30. He had made the comment that he had thought he was at his physical peak in his 20’s but by his 30’s he was reaching his emotional one. Nevermind the fact that I find both of these statements sad [because really, as I’ve blogged before, we should be striving to always be better, more complete, more whole, right?!], I withheld judgment and kept my ears open, thinking surely there was a nugget of wisdom about to come forth. The teacher commented, despite our anxieties, we should embrace the phases of our lives, all of the phases, because that’s what life is, it’s a moving through. She then simply stated, as if she had been reading my mind, or was aware of what I’ve been going through lately, “This is only a phase. Only a phase” and then she began instructing us through the postures. Well, I was on the brink of tears at this point: I felt my chin quiver and I offered a silent ‘thank you’ to God. I was where I needed to be.
[sidenote: I have this bad habit of leaving yoga classes early: I don’t know exactly why, I just do. Well, yesterday when I got up and committed to attending gym yoga I also committed to staying the entire time, not the entire time of moving postures but the ENTIRE TIME PERIOD. After feeling I got what I came for after the teacher’s intro wisdom I was tempted to leave class after about an hour. I made myself stay put. And am so glad I did.]
She ended class with a story. I don’t remember the specifics of it but I remember the main point. It was a tale of a student asking a master what he should inscribe the inside of his ring with. He wanted a saying that would lift him up when was sad and ground him when he was full of joy. The saying the master shared: “This too shall pass”…
This faithfulness to Matt Bernson brings to mind an April 24th blog post by professional triathlete Amanda Lovato. She's someone I see all over town. All the time. And I read her blog. Every day. She's wicked funny. Blunt, sarcastic, uninhibited. Anyhow, she blogged about how disturbing it is to hear about [tri]athletes accepting sponsorships because of the money or because they get free shit, not because they truly believe in the product or the company. I don't blame her one bit for her rant. I'm not a professional athlete but it bugs me too. People can be such leeches. I guess thats why I, despite my thankfulness, feel a little guilty about the Matt Bernson screw/sandal issue. I don't want to be seen as a leech. I did NOT contact them for a new pair of shoes: I contacted them for a screw...a screw I was planning on paying for. So, because they make beautiful sandals, and because they value their customers, AND because they are plain good guys, I can, and do, stand behind Matt Bernson shoes.
And no...they don't sponsor athletes...at least, not yet....
HI, MY NAME IS MEL and I AM A MATT BERNSON FAN FOR LIFE.
"Who is Matt Bernson?" you ask.
Matt Bernson is a shoe company.
And they ROCK.
Why?
1. Their sandals SUPER beautiful.
2. Their sandals are priced well.
3. Their customer service is TOP NOTCH.
I bought the above sandal at KickPleat here in Austin. I wore them every day for a week. People stopped me on the street, one man even stopped me in the FoodWhole: "Those," he drawled in a deep southern and far from baritone voice, "are grorgeous sandals."
I was LOVING these sandals. I wore them both days to the Final Four in San Antonio; We walked everywhere: I had neither foot discomfort nor new shoe blister issues. These shoes are not only out of this world gorgeous but also out of this world comfortable. They are also very lucky [remember, the Jayhawks won]. So imagine my sadness when I realized I was missing a screw on the top of one of them when I got home the next day... Oh the sadness, I didn't know what to do. It's not like I could've gone to the shoe repair man down the block to get a replacement screw: This is not an ordinary screw; These shoes are made in Brazil.
So I emailed the generic info@mattbernson.com.
From: mel_____@gmail.com Subject: replacement?! I lost a screw! Date: April 10, 2008 3:04:12 PM CDT To: info@mattbernson.com
hello hello hello! i purchased the ever lovely silver edin [mb1055] sandal. I LOVE THEM! i was so sad to notice yesterday that i lost a screw on the top of the left one: is there any way i could get a replacement screw? i know i know, it sounds like such a weird request, but i love the shoes [they are only a week old!] and am not super comfortable wearing them without that screw holding the leather in place!
i promise i will sing your praises and direct people to your website and to the other stores i know that sell your shoes: lets put it this way, if you send me a screw [or tell me where i can purchase one], i will be a committed mattbernson fan for life.
please feel free to give me a call @512 ---.---- if youd rather correspond via telephone :)
thanks
mel
and then I waited. And waited. And felt sad every time I looked at my sandal with the missing screw. I wanted to say "Screw it, I'll wear them anyway" but I just couldn't. It would've been like wearing a shirt with a missing middle button or something: No bueno!
[Sidenote: I screen my phone calls. If I don't recognize a number, I don't pick up the phone, like almost always.]
So yesterday [can you see where this is going now?!] I notice a number with area code 212. New York City, that I knew. I didn't answer...and waited for the caller to leave a message [oh, thats another thing, I don't return a phone call unless the caller leaves a message]. The caller left a message.
"Hi Mel...
This is Bruce calling from Matt Bernson Designs. Give me a call back at the office when you get a chance...very sorry to hear about your missing screw and want to see what we can do about that. My number is 212---.----. Again my number is 212---.----. Thanks. Bye."
"Wow, " I thought "I'm getting a screw!" I called back...expecting him to tell me they were shipping me a replacement screw... I did not expect to hear that I would be getting a replacement pair of shoes..seriously. Talk about going above and beyond. I was floored. Of course, Bruce mentioned holding me to my end of the bargin, to be a Matt Bernson fan FOR LIFE. "Really?! That's all you want from me?" I thought.
That's all they want. And, of course, that is something I can do.
Did you know that Ronald Reagan removed the solar panels from the roof of the White House that Jimmy Carter had installed?
No? Neither did I...but, politics aside, this is one delicious nugget from a compelling piece that Michael Pollan wrote on why we should bother to GO GREEN. Pollan's piece is pretty spicy and he presents a pretty tasteful case...but his suggestion that we all start our own produce gardens is a bit more than I can swallow [no pun intended]...Why? I kill succulents. As romantic as the notion of subsisting on food I grew myself is, it would yield dire consequences, consequences more dire than those stemming from my most likely carbon heavy consumption of purchased [mostly local] organic produce. Dire consequences such as...like, well, I probably wouldn't eat. Why? Because my garden would probably have a very low yield: a low yield, that is, if ANYTHING grew at all....No, I'm not being fatalistic or defeatist, I'm being realistic. That said, there is a part of me that finds the challenge appealing...So I haven't ruled out the possibility of gardening. Never say never! For the time being, though, I think what Al Gore urges people to do at the end of 'An Inconvenient Truth' is more feasible... Change your light bulbs. That, that, I think we can all do...
I wear this bracelet as a constant reminder to be here. NOW.
I will be the first person to admit that I am always plotting, planning, pondering... I have a tickertape of people and places- and wants and wishes- passing through my consciousness at any given moment; Sometimes things line up just so and someone finds a note on their car, a forwarded article, a book or a sweet treat on their doorstep. Of course, none of these things are negative consequences of being a 'thinker' although, at times, being a thinker strips one of TODAY. For me, one of the stiffest challenges in life is being in the moment, being in the now, being present. In the past few months, I have consciously been working towards being more aware of what is going on around me, right then, in real time. When I find myself anxious about something in the past, something in the future, something I know I cannot directly control, I look. I pick a color, like red for example, and start counting all of the different shades of red I see around me at that moment. Seriously. I did it yesterday at a stop light: I counted 11 different shades of red at the intersection of S.Lamar and Riverside. It's a shifting of consciousness that helps pull me back into the present moment.
I am fully aware that there is a day in the very near future when my year will be more 'planned' out: I will have received my acceptance letter for grad school; I will have added structure to my running; and I will have finally booked that ticket to another foreign land I've never been...
No longer will I be floating through my days, picking up work where I can [and truthfully, I suppose, when I feel like it].
No longer will I be running just to run, wearing no HRM and paying no attention to pace.
and no longer will I be completely directionless...
...but for NOW, I am present and engaged in TODAY.
<'SIMERA' translates to 'TODAY' in Greek>
[for those that don't know, my father is 100% Greek]
I cannot BELIEVE I never posted after the Jayhawks won the national championship last week...
Folks, I gotta tell ya, my short term memory has been REALLY bad lately, like REALLY bad. I was asked last night, tuesday, what I did this past weekend and I COULD NOT REMEMBER. Seriously. Ridiculous...Of course, now I remember that I had a brick workout saturday am which consisted of a ride in the crazy wind followed by 50 minute run. Then I played art critic with my dear friend alabama john [aka 'bama] at Art City Austin [the rebranded Austin Art Festival]. Sunday included a gym workout and then tracking IM Austinites in AZ, followed by dinner at Galaxy with 'bama and JLa: Our conversation included such topics as 'Rob and Big' on MTV, 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' on E!, and a proposal for a colorado trip involving climbing a 14'er in the VERY near future... Anyhow... Of course, I can remember what I did LAST weekend. I won't ever forget!! I attended the Final Four in San Antonio. The entire family came down, significant others included. Seeing my cousins and my brothers with their boyfriends and girlfriends made me feel like an old hag, for sure...but whatever, I had my friend and favorite t-shirt printer, East End Dan, with me and he was fantastic company...not to mention, he bought my father a huge chocolate chip cookie* with no prompting what-so-ever and, from that point forward, secured his reputation as an all around class-act. So, in case you've been living under a rock for the past week, the Jayhawks beat Memphis [ESPN commentators and KU haters, EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT]. My mother cried. I have witnessed my mother shed tears TWICE in my 27 years and BOTH times involved Jayhawk basketball. The next time I witness tears I have a feeling white dresses and tuxedos or babies will be involved...but until then, and thankfully so, KU basketball will be the source of those tears; ROCK CHALK!
*for evidence of how deep my fathers chocolate chip cookie obsession is please read the ancient blog [via myspace] entries below: I was on a vacation alone with my parents: the entries below are tales of sweets in Venice and Vienna...
Sunday, May 21, 2006
italy...it aint h...
Current mood: cynical venice. my mother has turned into my father. my father is satisfied with the chocolate here because he has found chocolate gelato. my mother however is not satisfied with 5/6 of the gelato she sees. we walked by 6 places yesterday before we found a place that had gelato that looked good enough for her to eat. i knew i was particular but i never imagined my parents would be more so. now i know where i get it! too bad im conditionally discriminating... fortunately, its not held against me. although i fear the baggage ive accumulated will be. 11:03 AM
----- Friday, May 19, 2006 desperation, it tastes like s°°°
my father is obsessed with chocolate. seriously. we walked through the streets of vienna in search of °good° chocolate. we would pass a pastry shop, my father would go in, buy a slice or a piece or a portion of something or somethings to take away. we would walk out of the shop, turn a corner, he would take a bite, and exclaim °this chocolate is shit° everywhere we went. all day.
until we happened upon a starbucks. my father was desperate, you could see the longing, the need for real good chocolate, in his eyes. i thought he was kidding when he wanted to go in. we had passed three already. wen He went in, bought a cookie [well 6] and a brownie to take away, as 'taking away' was his new routine. we turned the corner...and he took a bite: °oh my god, marybeth (my mother) it tastes just like home° i didnt know whether to laugh or to cry. desperation, people do crazy things in desperation. 9:24 AM
[obviously being on a gluten free, soy free, and dairy free diet presents it's share of challenges when it comes to fueling quickly between workouts: I could've grabbed an energy bar [most larabars have the 4:1 ratio] but today I had this little number [in the 20 minutes I had to spare between a weight workout at the gym and a 2hr endurance [ie agenda free] bike ride]] instead...]
6 frozen cubes of chocolate [pacific foods] almond milk
a few splashes of original [rice dream] rice milk
a few splashes of water
2 tbs of [nutiva] hemp protein powder
1/2 tbs of [nutribiotic] brown rice protein powder
1 tbs of raw cacao nibs [oh my goodness, i am a 'texture' person: and these little crunchy nuggets of antioxidant goodness rock my socks off when blended in smoothies. they are also an INCREDIBLE source of iron and magnesium]
1 tsp of powdered calcium
it ended up tasting like a milkshake, an icier, crunchier version of one, but definitely can see myself making this in the future: the chocolate almond milk is de.lish!
On another note: Congrats to James Bonney and Terra Castro for their strong showing at IM Arizona!! James, dude...You made me proud to be an Austinite today...And Terra, ditto, even though it wasn't the race you were hoping for...I can't wait to hear and read about how things settle up.
I know I know, I've blogged about organic food before. Heck, I've even posted 5 ways to green your grocery cart [or as i like to say, 'BOO' you: buying organic only] already but I stumbled upon a more comprehensive list of 12...
Did you know that celery has no protective skin, which makes it damn near impossible to wash off the 21 different chemicals that are typically used on conventional crops?!? One could say virtually the same thing about grapes: sure they have a skin but it doesn't help if its permeable!
...something caught in my chest. its right below my throat, just above my heart. its as if i need to cough to clear my throat. i dont know if these are words stuck or i'm getting sick. everyone, that is, everyone BUT ME, has gotten sick at one point or another in the past 3 or 4 months, and im hoping its NOT that. ugh. it cant be. nope. no way. no how. not me. not now. NO!
SAN ANTONIO | The lasting image happened in the final seconds, when Roy Williams stood on the sideline, and Kansas fans chanted “Rock Chalk.” It was the first time as a head basketball coach that Williams heard that chant from the losing bench. There had to be some strange emotions rumbling inside the man.
He would not talk about those emotions afterward. No. He said the things he always said in such moments, after his team had been outplayed and out-toughed in the NCAA Tournament. He said that he apologized to his players for letting them down. He said that he’s proud as all get-out. He talked about how he coaches such good kids.
“I wouldn’t trade teams because of the character our guys have,” Williams said after it ended. And, as usual, he caught himself.
“That’s not a slight to Kansas,” he said.
The speech was as familiar as Thanksgiving turkey, and yet … it sounded strange to hear it from the other side. Kansas manhandled North Carolina on Saturday. There’s no mistaking that. Kansas beat North Carolina 84-66. It was a knockout.
Many had come into Saturday’s game expecting to see North Carolina run free, score at will, put up 90 points, maybe 100; the Tar Heels were the first team in years to score 100 points in each of their first two NCAA Tournament games. Kansas, many figured, would get washed away.
Then something happened. Old sportswriters tell a great story about the first time Muhammad Ali — Cassius Clay then — fought against Sonny Liston. Leading up to the fight, everyone portrayed Liston as this blood-thirsty monster who could not be stopped, could not be hurt — people literally were worried that Liston would kill Clay.
Then the two men stepped in the ring for the fight, and a few sportswriters noticed during the pre-fight introductions that Clay was actually bigger than Liston. And they realized they had been duped. And Clay battered Liston into submission.
Same thing here. Outsiders may have expected North Carolina to score furiously, but just minutes into the game, they also realized that they had been duped. Kansas can play defense with any team in the country. This is what Bill Self has been instilling in Kansas basketball ever since he arrived five years ago. He admires Roy Williams’ coaching, but he does not agree with it. He wants his players in their players’ faces.
From the start, they were in the faces of those North Carolina players. And they didn’t like it. Well, nobody really does, but Williams’ teams may like it less.
Sure, Roy Williams said that he tried to warn his players, tried to prepare them. He explained afterward that he had told his players all those things coaches say when facing a great defensive team: Don’t take quick shots. Be strong with the ball. Meet the pass. Guards, don’t try and dribble between two defenders. Don’t dribble in traffic. And so on.
But those are just principles. In the end, it’s hard for high-scoring teams to believe that they can be stopped by anybody.
It was pretty clear that was the Tar Heels’ whole attitude coming into this game. They came prepared for a track meet and, instead, found themselves in a tough-man contest. They got knocked out early. Kansas led 7-2, then 15-8, then 23-10, then 32-10, then 40-12 — it was incredible, ridiculous, nobody could believe what was happening.
“This is not over,” CBS’ Billy Packer told the national audience, the same time Roy Williams was saying that to his players, the same time that analysts and coaches all over the Alamodome were saying that to each other. No, it was not over, not exactly, because big leads, like money, youth and weekends, disappear faster than you think — especially against those high-scoring Roy Williams teams. Who could forget the furious comeback his 1997 Kansas team had against Arizona after trailing by 13 with three and a half minutes to go?
But that comeback, like most furious comebacks, fell short. And Saturday, while North Carolina did manage to cut Kansas’ lead to four in the second half, they had nothing left for the finish, and the Jayhawks mercilessly put them away. It might be right to say North Carolina threw a scare into the Jayhawks. But it would not be right to say the game was close.
With about a minute left, Roy Williams heard the “Rock Chalk” chant. Williams would say after the game that he never really thought about playing his old school, not after the game began. That might be true. But it had to be strange for him to hear that familiar chant, the one that ended most of his Kansas victories, the one that had for so many years sounded like a Christmas carol, something that made him feel good.
It definitely felt strange for us to hear him say all those things we had heard him say after the heartbreaking Jayhawks tournament losses. There he was saying again and again that his players were good kids, that his players had character, that his players were hurting — and from the other side you certainly could take all that to mean that Kansas doesn’t have kids as good, or players with as much character, and that losing hurts at North Carolina more than anywhere else.
You could take it that way, but I’d prefer not to. That’s just Roy being Roy. He’s an emotional guy. He gets carried away. He’s also one heck of a basketball coach, and his teams play fun and thrilling basketball, and North Carolina will keep winning year after year for as long as Roy’s there.
Then again, Kansas is going to the national-championship game. Kansas was the tougher team on Saturday. It was no accident: Bill Self coached them that way.
amazing how quickly things stop shaking around so much when i am still;
not thinking about who and what i cant control,
but thinking about what is passing in front of my eyes.
its not about falling into or out of place,
or placing into our taking out of.
things, people, life: all in a constant state of flux,
of 'becoming' not 'being';
of 'becoming', yet 'present'
of this moment,
NOW.
[I will be less obtuse later, promise. I realize I've been quite mum lately: And surely those who know me well know that, at times, I do shut down [and out] until I have steady footing. I know I am not alone in this approach to life. Of late, due to the rain or otherwise, my footing has felt less than steady; But the sun is shining this afternoon, mud's drying out, and all is well. Corner turned.]
