the roosting hour

So it seems my new habit is waking up at three every morning. or what some people call the "witching hour". (midnight is also called this in some cases.. who knows, i don't make the rules.) all i know is that i spring awake at this time every morning all "emily rose-esque" and cant seem to go back to sleep. what is one to do when they are the only one conscious on the entire planet? this morning I did laundry and watched Gypsy on TCM. After I finished pretending I was a burlesque dancer while folding my delicates, I googled "waking up at 3 am" and was disturbed with my findings. And I'm still completely clueless unless you count spirits trying to contact me and my wooden liver (are you kidding me?!)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about Chinese medicine and holistic healing, but I'm going to need some education on that one. So in the meantime I am very thankful for my dogs waking up to hang out with me. It seems whatever wakes me up is waking them up too.
During Duke's belly rub yesterday I noticed he was starting to acquire dog/man/boobs of a sort.

(who would've ever guessed such an active individual could acquire belly fat?)

 So I've decided to start running in the mornings again. (since it is finally a tolerable temperature outside *haaaaaaallelujaaaah!*) I haven't been in the habit of running in the morning since high school. Now that I'm thru with late night study sessions and paper writing, I expect it should be a a little easier to keep a schedule.
 So early Duke and I set off this morning around 5:30. If we leave at this time we get to watch the sunrise on our way back, which makes being up that early totally worth it. While trotting thru one of the surrounding neighborhoods a ROOSTER CROWED. Let me let you in on a little secret about me: I am terrified, TERRIFIED of birds. I won't get into this now, but just understand.. if it came between touching a bird or spider, I might actually hug the spider. So mid stride I have a slight panic attack and Duke may or may have not shadoopied in his pupperoos. I have to ask myself.. WHO in their right mind has a rooster in the middle of an extremely condensed neighborhood? Poor neighbors. My heart goes out to them. If any of my neighbors decide to invest in poultry of any type, we will be having a lovely chat. So I leave you this morning, thankful for my dogs to keep my company thru my insomnia  and that my neighbors don't have any mcnuggets running around their back yards.. what are you thankful for today?

business ventures

Now that I have signed the papers, written the checks and acquired the keys it is time to share with the entire world (or the two people that visit this blog) that I am opening a yoga studio! My intentions with this blog were to write daily, but now it seems I will be sharing when my job and renovation tasks allow me to do so. The location is a 2350 square foot store carcass that I am hacking, without much grace i might add, into what will hopefully become a serene oasis.. or at least a building with pretty wood floors. Today after contracting tetnus and mesothelioma it occured to me that I could apply yoga even in this process of the studio. Im sure I didnt look like the cover of yoga journal with my protective eyewear and crowbar in hand, but hey ill take what I can get. The point is, I enjoyed the work because I knew it was for such a great purpose. Also, it doesnt matter if youre in an adandoned closet in north east arkansas or an ashram in india.. you can always be in the moment. And be thankful for what you have. Two months ago if someone had told me that I would be opening my own business at twenty four I would have laughed in their face. Now when I tell people that is exactly what Im doing they laugh in my face, but that only makes my competetive butt work even harder. At least if I'm going to mess up my credit Im doing it while I'm young enough to fix it, right? ... I digress...
Today was my first demo project and I have to say... HOW LIBERATING. If i had the oportunity to rip apart a bunch of built in furniture every day I doubt I would have any stress related tension and some awesome triceps! Lord knows my arm balances could use the help, HA!
Its a little intimidating not working by the hour or knowing I'll be recieving a set yearly salary. I definitely take my work home with me and work long crazy hours for now. There is a  long road ahead but so far things are still falling into place. Im surrounded by so many supportive friends and family members. As long as they all decide to become dedicated yoga students I think Ill be in the clear. Lol!
Most of all I am so thankful to be given this opportunity. After graduating college I was beginning to slide into freak out mode thinking I didnt have a purpose and wasnt ever going to find a job. I clearly had no idea what was in store for me. But so far this seems to be perfect for my personality. My happiness depends so much on my ability to have a purpose. As long as I have something to work on and a to do list in hand I find it almost impossible to seriously complain about anything. I now have to do lists coming out of my ears and projects I havent even thought up yet, so it seems I will be content for a while :)
I will be posting before and after pictures soon. The contractors begin in two days and after that the floor will be put down. Better believe I'll be there camera in hand! For now I'm going to look at pinterest until i fall asleep drooling on my keyboard bed, but as I promised I have a question for you:

What are the things in your life that give you purpose? Your faith? Your friends and family? Your job? Remeber to appreciate these things and be thankful!

Renovation: Endings & Beginnings: In That Order



The time has come, as I have promised to the few friends that come here, for me to reclaim my place in the blogging world. I fell away from blogging while finishing my degree because, well lets face it: studying and eating only microwaveables and takeout just doesn't make for a very inspirational blog. So here I am, degree in hand and nothing but plans for the future. To catch up the few of you that I don't text on a secondly basis, lets review the past few months:

-In August I graduated from Arkansas State with my bachelors in Exercise Science.

-I enrolled in Yoga Teacher Training through the Yoga Circle Shala and am just starting to learn what yoga is really all about.That will be a whole post - or series of posts- of its own. I'm 50 hours into my 200 hour certification. 

-Thanks to a good but unexpected friend (that's where the best ones come from anyways huh?) I started tumbling over mildly bumpy terrain and feeling like a boss for it  mountain biking.

- Traveled to the Bahamas twice. Swam with sharks (wild ones, at night, at Treasure Cay. No amount of Shark Week will prepare you for that...).

- Went snowboarding a few times and can now confidently board a blue run. By myself, because my entire family refuses to get off the green and bunny slopes.

-Worked an internship in cardiac rehab and non invasive cardiology, which further proved to me that I need not bother applying for a clinical job. *Faints*

-Joined Pinterest. you might not think that qualifies as a big enough event to make the list, but if I'm honest about how much time i spend looking at all the random pretties, then yeah... i have to include it..

I'm sure there are many many things I'm forgetting but I'm not exactly a picture taker so my scrapbooking consists of me saying "hey remember that time we...?" 

Which brings me to why I am here. A lot of things are going to be changing in my life with my completion of college and leap into the real world. I want to keep my closest friends, who now live farther away from me than anyone, up to date. Also this will be a place for me to ask questions, rhetorical and to my readers, and coming back here will be a nice way to look back on the lessons we've learned. One of biggest ways yoga has changed my life is by teaching me to always live with inquiry, especially with an unbiased view point. Since I am so random I've decided to keep one occurring trend with this blog. With every entry I will ask a question, because as long as we keep asking we'll never stop learning. So keeping in fashion with today's thoughts, let me ask you: Why is it we do the the things we do? Is it because they make us happy? Are we mindful of our actions and do we perform them with purpose? Imagine how productive we can be if we can always act with purpose.