Sunday, January 27, 2008

yoga sundays and a life of routine

today is known in my world as "yoga sunday". whenever anyone asks me what i'm doing over the weekend my response is easy: "well...probably get some groceries...maybe do a bit of shopping on saturday, then yoga on sunday... i'll even go so far as to try and convince people to meet for drinks on friday rather than risk going out saturday and waking up sunday groggy, tired, or worse..hungover. i've actually become so addicted to this yoga class i had vacation days to use up and i actually scheduled them around it.

but that's another blog, on another day.

today i'm feeling a bit "grandma" because i'm such a creature of habit. and i'm really hoping i'm not alone...otherwise i'll just feel like more of a loser. which is fine...because while i like to think of myself as a rockstar...i know rockstars don't stay in on a saturday night making split pea soup and watching "miss america" on tlc...(which, side note, still sucked. re-vamped my ass. it was still lame. although "miss michigan" did take the crown...so at least michigan will finally be known as something more than "the state with the worst economy in the u.s." or, as it's referred to here in the draining pool of the midwest: "the state in which the devil was born" but that too, is a whole 'nother blog.)

i seriously thrive on routine. monday through friday i plan everything. my workouts, meals, tv shows...it's all planned out, schedule-style in my head. lord help me if i ever get truly organized or work my way up to blackberry-status at my company...i'd probably become so schedule/meeting happy i'd self-implode.

did i mention i even like to schedule my weekends?
take this weekend for example. it was wide open until friday morning...and then it became:

friday night: invite friend over, get indian food, watch sex and the city w/ bottle of wine.
saturday: meet friends at 11 am. get lunch at noon. go get new cell phone and ingredients for split pea soup. make split pea soup and watch miss america.
sunday: yoga at 10 am!!!! (i even set an alarm on sundays--8 am...gotta make sure my oatmeal can digest before my practice). meet friend to do shopping at sam's club. maybe clean.

my only diversion was yesterday. i found fresh, cored pineapple at the grocery store so i decided to do a bit of dehydrating as well.

is this the life of a 25 year old? i know it's damn near freezing out right now, so i try to pretend that's the real reason i'm such a loser. but in all honesty, even when it's the middle of july my life is equally as uneventful.
aren't these years supposed to be the time of my life?? shouldn't i be out partying all night long? bringing home random strangers? shouldn't i be living the life of sex and the city rather than watching old seasons on dvd in my sweatpants with a cat on my lap?

i feel as though i'm living the life of a married couple...minus the couple.

my life has become so routine, even my cat knows it. every morning, weekday or weekend, this is how it goes:
i wake up, throw on some sweats (if it's a weekday, i'll either go to the gym or do some yoga first) and stumble into the kitchen. usually i actually trip a couple of times because my cat is weaving figure eights in between my legs. i then satisfy his desperate hunger by feeding him and giving him a couple of these whiskas treats he goes all ape over. quick clean of the litter box, and he's happy. then i move on to my breakfast. always oatmeal. if it's a weekday, i literally time my oatmeal cooking w/ my lunch making (i always bring my lunch...i don't have patience or the bank balance to buy it at work every day). i eat so much oatmeal (every day for the past 3 years...no joke. unless it's too hot and i have cereal instead....which is rare) i even have the preparation down to a science. i vary the fruit based on my mood and season (crazy!) but the preparation never falters...here's my classic recipe:

1/2 cup whole rolled oats (not the quick cook kind...or the disgusting quaker oatmeal oats)
1 tbsp ground flax
little bit of ginger/little bit of cinnamon...depending on the fruit
milk/water combo...enough so that the oatmeal is swimming
--microwave on high for 2 min. 27 seconds--

while this is cooking i do one of the following:
make sandwich for lunch (monday-friday)
cut up grapefruit (if in season)
cut up apple for snack (monday-friday)
fix cup of tea

when the oatmeal is done cooking i add:
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
tiny bit more water
fruit of choice (unless it's an apple...then i add that at the beginning...it needs the cook time to soften)
--microwave on high for 1 min. 7 seconds--

while my oatmeal finishes i usually take a multitude of pills that include a mulitvitamin, ginger, and other herbal remedies i happened to read about that week.

once my oatmeal is done, i give it a quick stir, grab my tea and head into the living room. i then watch the "today show" while eating my breakfast.
let me interject here that i don't even like the today show. i loathe it, actually. i can't stand meredith, although she's better than matt (don't get me started about matt). i don't mind al so much, but i can't handle the part when he's doing his weather report and then passes it over to the local guy, and every day it goes:
al: "and let's see what's going on in your neck of the woods"
local guy: "well al, in our neck of the woods, it's going to be cold."
every. day. like they're old friends and this is their own person little sign-off.
and yet i still watch. i don't know why, but i do.
and i sit in the same corner as always, indian-style. because as soon as i sit down, my cat jumps up and starts to get comfortable. he usually turns around several times, hits me in the face with his tale, sniffs my oatmeal, and then stares at me, until i lose patience, tuck him under my elbow and start eating. 9 times out of 10 he'll squirm his way out, sit back up, and stick his face in my bowl.
this happens every morning.
on the weekends, he'll settle in for a while...during the week i kick him off after a five minute siesta.

i've become so encompassed by routine in my life that i literally require a good three hour advance notice should any of my friends wish to meet up for drinks/dinner on the weekends. because by 5 o'clock i've already planned out my dinner, my evening, and (usually) my bedtime. i always have a cup of low-carb hot chocolate before i go to bed. i find it unbelievably comforting. but once i have this cup of hot chocolate...whether it be 7 o'clock or 10 o'clock, i'm in for the night. heaven forbid someone calls after the ceremonious cup of hot chocolate. because the answer will always be "no".

this really can't be normal.

but i'm not like o.c.d. or anything extreme like that. i don't wander around my apartment turning lights on and off 27 times. although i do check to make sure that my flat iron is unplugged before i leave the house every day. but that's more because i'm terrified that i'll down my house.

i just don't understand why i've come to find such comfort in my ritualistic lifestyle. ironically, if i were to fill out one of those "about me" sections on a dating website (not that i haven't done that before) i'd mention how much i love to be spontaneous. how i love to take random trips to nowhere on a whim. because the truth is, i hate the routine. i hate mundane, unadventurous lifestyles. i feel suffocated and become seriously depressed when i'm faced with the same thing day in, day out. i love to travel and to try new things. the last time i've left the midwest was for work about two months ago...and i'm itching to get out again. so much so that i feel as though i'm crawling in my skin just for a trip anywhere. hell, i almost drove a half hour to the nearest steve and barry's yesterday to go check out bitten's spring line...just for something to do.

i'd love to live a nomadic lifestyle. traveling from place to place, learning new cultures, trying new foods. but i know it'd drive me nuts! i'd get so fed up with all the effort and the shlepping. i'd like to think i'd last longer than a week, but i know that'd be my limit. i'd get grumpy. i'd miss my yoga...my workouts. i'd start to crave random things like a bowl of oatmeal and a turkey sandwich. i got stuck in hong kong for work last summer for a week and a half. when i got into the u.s. i almost hugged the customs agent. if the hotel didn't have a gym and a starbucks, i don't think i would've survived.



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