YogaJournal Conference in San Fran

Back in September I went to Colorado for the YogaJournal's annual Colorado conference and it was awesome. Eric and Wes came and they went climbing while I went to one day of yoga and then I went climbing with them on Sunday and Monday. Now San Francisco's annual conference is coming up in January, so I applied for the Work Exchange program. If you get chosen for the work exchange program, you are required to volunteer 16 hours over the course of 5 days, and you monitor 4 or more class doors. After the class starts, you can join the class, and when you are not volunteering you can join classes that aren't full, which is awesome. You have to pay $300, $200 of which you get back after you're done and you do your job, so you really pay $100 for the whole conference! In case you haven't been able to tell yet, I got chosen for the Work Exchange Program for the SF conference in January :)
Eric bought me a plane ticket for Christmas to get to SF and I'm staying at the Grant Hotel, which is where Jess and I stayed when we went there for the Nike Women's 1/2 marathon, and also next door to a lululemon :) I'm soo excited and can't wait to go!

http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:PBKNrMrY22ahAM:http://www.yoga-nrg.com/yoga%2520kid%2520tree%2520pose%2520sillouette.JPG

Yoga with Steve Ross

Monika and I traveled to Brentwood yesterday for some yoga with well-known yogi, Steve Ross (he is/was on the Inhale on the oxygen network, and apparently celebrities go to his classes). Monika had been there before and loved it, so I figured I'd give it a go. Even though I checked out the studio's website, I still didn't quite know what to expect. We got there with plenty of time to spare, so we walked around the shopping center a little and then heard a scary rumor that Steve wasn't going to be there! We tried really hard not to get bummed out even though we'd traveled 45 minutes to take this class. So we waited...and waited...the room really started to fill up (with no recognizable celebrities) and then Monika says, "he's here!" and I look and sure enough, there's the Happy Yogi himself, all smiley and, well, happy. He walks in and says hi to people as he goes and connects his ipod. Then Chris Brown or 50 cent or somebody starts playing on the speakers and Steve starts the class, shouting commands over the music. And such was the entire class. It was definitely fun, but definitely not the type of yoga that I could do all the time. Sometimes I like to be able to think about the postures and things that I'm doing while I'm practicing yoga. I will say the hour and a half flew by! Before I knew it we were in floor postures and finally savasana. It was one of my best savasanas ever. I almost opened my eyes one time to see if anyone lese was still in the room. It was amazing. I'm definitely going to go back for another one of his classes sometime soon! Oh and the level 2/3 was perfect for me - it was more intermediate, less advanced than I expected, so besides already being a little sore from yoga with Paul the day before, it was just right. Now I have to try for day 3 in a row of yoga being all sore followed by a weekend of climbing...I'm hoping it will just work itself out :)

Gettin' the lead out...

I came to realize today that the "gettin' the lead out" doesn't just apply to running. You know how sometimes you go out for that run, maybe after resting a couple days from a previous hard run, or even if you just haven't ran for awhile, and the run just sucks? Well I've come to the conclusion that it applies to yoga as well. I have been off and on with my yoga practice lately and today I decided to start back full force. I went to a lunchtime flow with Paul DeSilva at YogaWorks and he was awesome. I, on the other hand, was dizzy and couldn't get my balance. Part of it could be due to the fact that I let myself get distracted by this lady next to me who was making a lot of noise with her movements, among other things. So much for the nonreactive, nonjudgmental thing I've been trying lately. So the class was a tough one. But regardless, I survived, I got all the negative crap out of my body that I have been carrying around for a couple weeks, so I expect my next class to be amazing :) The next class being a level 2/3 class in LA with Monika... do one thing every day that scares you, right???

Races in 2009?

I'm trying to decide what race(s) I might do in 2009, and have come up with a list of several potential 50Ks, and a couple possible 1/2 marathons. I'm thinking of doing a 50K instead of a marathon this year, but I'm not sure yet. I know I'd like to run the Twin Peaks 50K in 2010, and I'm not sure if I want that to be my first one or not. I'd also like to do a couple 1/2 marathons, but again, I don't know which ones. Here's the list I've come up with so far -

4/26/09 - La Jolla 1/2 in La Jolla
5/2/09 - Wild, Wild, West 50K in Lone Pine
5/9/09 - Santa Barbara Wine Country 1/2 in Santa Ynez
5/9/09 - Xterra Malibu 1/2 in Malibu
5/16/09 - Bishop High Sierra 50K in Bishop
5/30/09 - Shadow of the Giants 50K in Yosemite
6/14/09 - Holcomb Valley 50K in Big Bear Lake
8/8/09 - Mt. Disappointment 50K in Sierra Madre

Don't miss my previous post about my upcoming volunteer work in Cambodia!

Volunteering in Cambodia

I blogged about going to Cambodia with United Planet probably 6 months ago and never really mentioned it again, but I decided today that it's time to really get serious and think about this trip. I already pushed it back to July because I doubted that I would be able to get the funds together for this trip, but after a particularly inspiring goal setting clinic at the lululemon in Santa Monica last night, I realized that this is something that I am passionate about, and I put my intentions out there, it will happen. So I'm putting my intentions out there and by June 1, 2009 I am raising $3000.
Why volunteer? Why Cambodia? One of my passions in life is teaching & constantly learning, and another passion is helping those less fortunate than I. I chose to volunteer in Cambodia because 1. the mission of this particular country with the volunteer organization is to work in a community center and teach English and other skills, and 2. Cambodia will be a country that is nothing like I have ever seen or experienced. I will learn so much about the culture and lifestyle that I expect to learn much more from them than they will learn from me.
I have set up a fundraising website to make it easy for anyone to donate. I will reach my goal when 600 people donate just $5. That's just sacrificing one trip to Starbucks! So please, even if you can't donate, forward this to someone who might be able to. With this trip I'm "being the change" I want to see in the world, and I would love your support!

http://www.firstgiving.com/abbiemood

Life Lessons from the past week

My grandmother passed away earlier this week and so I've had a lot of time to think. Usually when someone passes away, the people affected decide that they need to start living in the moment and take advantage of their life, which can so easily slip away. I, on the otherhand, have never really been one to go all contemplative after something like this. I'm usually just really sad. But this time has been different.
On a conference call for lululemon Tuesday, Chip (the founder of lululemon) told us that the one thing he took from the workshop that we were discussing was to live in the moment - don't wait until a doctor tells you that you have 6 months to live. I thought it was quite a coincidence to hear that right after my grandmother had heard the same news, but only made it a few weeks. I realized that it's not soo important to worry about when I will get married, when I will get a house, when the bills will be finally paid off... It's important to be present and live in the moment now, taking care of things as they come. I'm not saying don't think about and plan for the future, but the future can't rule your life, and neither can the past. You can do things today to help tomorrow, but ultimately you have to worry about how you feel and what's happening right now.
Which leads to my next thought, which is that everyone does the best they can at that moment. I've been telling myself this everytime I start to get frustrated about something or frustrated with someone - they're just doing the best they can, and it's wrong of me to expect anything more.
So there's my one thoughtful post in all the time I've had this blog... don't get used to it, it shouldn't happen too often!