Is that a blog? FINALLY

I bet all three of you out there forgot about this blog. Thankfully you probably get RSS feed updates, otherwise checking back would have proven less than satisfying long ago . The reason for such a long absence was that I haven’t had any breathing room at work. I have been working long hours at an exhausting pace. I have been totally drained at the end of the day, and the only thing I wanted was to curl into the fetal position and not spend yet more time in front of my computer.

There are a couple pieces of news.

First, Lewis and I have finally got a wedding website together. Please visit us at www.marikoandjohn.com In addition to details about our wedding, you’ll also find music, and our engagement story.

Second, I have discovered the awesome power of wait for it ….wait for it ……

Spinach! I made a quinoa spinach soap that was plain and boring, but left me feeling amazing- more energy, happier,  stronger…Despite the good feelings it was hard to get down for the lack of pizazz. So I decided to add pizazz and by pizazz I mean chocolate. Hence the choco-spinach power shake. This swamp looking green-brown shake has spinach, quinoa, unadulterated chocolate powder, soy milk, water, agave, fat free plain Greek yogurt, a banana, and flax. The color is honestly pretty bad, but I like it. Most people would probably like it a bit sweeter than I do, but I like the elemental flavors of spinach and chocolate so keep the agave to a limit.

Third, I have re-discovered hot yoga. There is a yoga studio just down the street from my office, and I’m trying to go. The only problem is that making the class offerings is a bit difficult. One of my colleagues happens to be a yoga teacher who knows of the original teacher I began practicing yoga with years ago. Isn’t that odd? Plus, the kind of yoga I’ve re-discovered is the same as the style I originally began with. Isn’t that odd 2?

Fourth, Lewis and I went to the Renaissance Festival, which oddly is where we met the very first time (there was no romance then). The first time I went to the Ren Fest I was too overwhelmed by the whole thing- mainly white people walking around a fair ground in Maryland that is turned into medieval Europe. There are jousting, knight costumes, corset dresses bearing lots of cleavage, mead, hypnosis shows and more. This year I was able to concentrate more on what was surrounding me instead of just being overwhelmed by all of it. The most memorable part was a woman wearing tight jeans and a tight leather vest bearing her stomach. She was also wearing a fox tail and I swear there was a hole in her jeans. I’m no historian, but WTF does that outfit have to do with medieval Europe?

Fifth, I, like the rest of DC read The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. It was surprisingly twisted. I also watched the movie on Netflix.

Sixth, Lewis and I went camping again. Like the first time we went, it got really cold at night. However, this time we were prepared with sleeping bags and mats. We were in Vermont. It was awesome to see a sky FULL of stars, mull fresh apple cider, sit around the camp fire, and go hiking. The foliage was amazing too.

Seventh, since writing the last blog I have probably written near 1,000 pages of reports, training materials, etc. 400 of those pages were in Spanish.I have also developed two high profile presentations, two presentations for clients, participated on a panel discussion,  conducted 3 full days of training, participated in 3 full days of training, and experienced Ramadan in Palestine. Ramadan deserves its own post. I’m tired just thinking about that.

Eighth, I’ve actually had time to start going to the gym again. This is very exciting since I realized that my entire body was sore from lack of movement. When I first started going back to the gym, I wanted to ease in. However, that was leading to sub-par workouts. I didn’t know this about myself, but I prefer hard workouts to light ones. Walking on treadmill is only satisfying for me if I’m really tired. Instead I need to shock myself back into working out by challenging myself and making things fun.

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