Challenge Accepted

I recently signed up for a 30-day yoga challenge with Moksha Yoga Calgary. A lot of things about this appealed to me: challenge, yoga, and being in the same city for 30 consecutive days for the first time in 6 months. How did it go, you ask?

Week 1:

I started during my last week of work at my old job, aka I had about 8 hours of work total that week, so my schedule was super flexible and it was no problem to get in a daily practice. My balance is slowly improving, but I have yet to really push my flexibility to ensure I can make it through the class without passing out. As far as meditation goes, this place isn't big on it so introspection is not occurring as much as hoped. Generally I am just more beat by the end of the day, which makes me nicely passive and accepting.

Week 2:
Despite a full work schedule with the new job, things are starting to get easier; I am working on isolating the muscle(s) that is(/are) supposed to be engaged while relaxing everything else. This has carried over to the rest of my day, making me realize how often I am unnecessarily tensing up something. I haven't actively attempted to push further, but have been focusing on technique, which actually has made me more flexible in a roundabout way.

Week 3:
Coming down with a chronic case of rhinorrhea (runny nose); hot yoga is nice for its humidity but I think the change from hot & humid to cold & dry once outside is getting to my system. It still feels good, and I'm trying to listen to my body to get the most from my practice. I ended the week feeling healthy, maybe the cause and solution? Or neither.

Week 4:
I started this last week off with the feeling that I am over the whole thing, knowing I can do the challenge and pretty certain not much would change either way. Towards the end of the week, however, my attitude changed. It wasn't so much the challenge I was concerned about, but the opportunity I had given myself to reflect, improve and strengthen. It is no longer a question of whether I will continue to practice regularly, but how.

My 30th class was yesterday. It was crazy busy, smelly, and hot, and I ate wayyy too much before showing up, but it was one of the simplest practices I have been to. Things I thought I struggled with were happening with ease. I think that's the biggest takeaway; there are a lot of blocks I put in my head that have nothing to do with physical capabilities. The more I relax, the stronger I can be.

Checking off my last day on the calendar with a "Chea", I got one "Good for you" from a passerby. With no further ado, I left the studio with a mini sense of freedom and accomplishment.

I could probably do this...

Sometimes, I'm an engineer

In honour of quitting my first post-grad job, I'd like to commemorate my favourite memory and outfit of the whole experience:

Yep, that is a pair of coveralls, appropriately named "Spare", rolled up on the sleeves ever so precisely to give me optimal coverage and dexterity, blue suede steel-toed boots, protective eye-wear OVER TOP of glasses, and an NOV hard hard, slightly a kilter to add a touch of whimsy to the entire ensemble. 

This outfit was pretty comfy, and I have to admit trying to "work it". Not that the drill strings I was assembling would have cared either way. The week I wore this, I was in Nisku, learning how to assemble the tools I was supposed to eventually provide customer support for. This never really happened since I found a more suitable job, but I did appreciate all the little engineer-y tools that I got to work with. It is clear how much of the assembly could be done manually, but over the years, someone has realized that with a simple mechanical addition, things could be more automated and thus more standardized and less likely to be faulty. I had a great appreciation for the design process. Is this how fashion designers think? Sure, these pants will serve the same purpose, but a new design will just brilliantly accentuate something something or function something somehow. Who knows. Probably designers.

(Still) Still Figuring It Out

One of the first fashion bloggers I have ever read is Tavi Gevinson, AKA Style Rookie, AKA prodigy child blogger. She started at 12, is currently in her sophomore year of high school, and has had an insane amount of success. I've generally enjoyed here eclectic style and usage of movies for clothing inspirations (see "The One"), but my respect from her went up exponentially when I found this TedTalk she did here.

The confidence and understanding she had in herself was very admirable, especially considering her age. My eight years of seniority has not proven to have gained me that much more insight, though I suppose her exposure and interaction with adults is similar to my own within each of our lifetimes.

The basic theme of the talk is that strong female leads are generally depicted as fairly one-dimensional, which is just not even close to the true case. Constant contradictions and reassessments fuel most people's lives, because no one (including men) has it all figured out.

This is a comforting thought. People may have a certain expectation of how I should portray myself, but I am still figuring it out. I am allowed to wear tights as pants, even after condemning them for years. I can write a post about my resistance to purses while looking for one. Opinions can change; sometimes reasoning for a decision will no longer hold merit. Frustrating for bystanders, I'm sure, but just be flexible and accept your surroundings. Change is good. Figuring things out is good. It sure beats outdated stubbornness.

The young lady of the hour, keeping it real

The Art of Shopping

Ask anyone around me and they will tell you that I have a few problems. The biggest being my lavish shopping habits. But did you know that August is my absolute favorite time of the year? August is my Christmas and the month when my credit card will hit its limit, get paid off and hit its limit again. August, my friends, is the best time of the year.

August and stretching into early September is the time when I buy my year's worth of clothes. I admit, the thought of going back to school may be enough for a massive retail therapy. However, like the lady in ‘The September Issue’ stated: “September is the January of fashion”; August is the end of the year in Fashion and the time of the month when smart fashionistas go to town with their credit cards.

Take my favorite store Aritzia for example; they have their “Private sale” at the beginning of July. Their private sale then goes public in two weeks. But don’t be fooled by these “sales” because in these sales, the maximum discount you will receive is around 30 percent off of their regular price. Which is good until you see the price of the same merchandise again, in August.  In August, their whole store will be on sale with most items marked down by 50 to 75 percent. The start of Aritzia sale is followed by the start of the end-of-season-sales at all retail locations. And that does not only limit to physical stores, online retail stores will also start their sales around the same time.

One tip for shopping sales; keep an open mind, if the item is not exactly how you like it, see if alteration can be done to fix it. For example, I bought a 200-dollar snake-printed faux leather trench coat from Zara for 50 dollars. The only reason why it was not flying off the rack other than the daring print was that the jacket ends way pass the knee; from the back, it looked like you are wearing a snake-printed leather dress. However, a 20 dollar trip to the tailor yield a fantastic bold trench coat that still cost me less than half of the regular price.

But to say that I only shop once a year is a lie. Throughout the year, I continue to hit the sale sections in the mall and good Winners locations (where I once scored a Mackage studded leather jacket for 200 dollars). Or buy second hand items on ebay and kijiji. At times, I do splurge on things when they feel right. Like Pam’s friend Mary, you will know when the clothes feel right. It’s that feeling you get when you meet the love of your life as your heart skips a beat and you forget to breath. 

"The One"

A couple of weekends ago, my best friend Mary took her bridesmaids and family (myself included) wedding dress shopping. It was, surprisingly, one of the most efficient shopping experiences of my life.

Mary is blessed with what I will call a bride's body. She is very beautiful, but also very real, happy and so lovable that you just know she is actually getting married. Not like the brides in the magazines, bent over in some couture way. There's only one Victoria Beckham, and she already got married, so why are we still advertising for her?

I digress. My main point is that virtually every dress she tried on could have been "The One". And she seriously considered one or two at the beginning. However, once she tried on the seventh dress of the day, she knew, without a doubt, that it was The "The One". You could tell just by looking at her in it that she never wanted to take it off. All dresses in comparison were repulsive to her, and she mourned the idea of only wearing it once. 30 minutes of admiration, a few tears of joy, and plenty of excitement later, she literally walked out of the shop with her wedding dress.

It was really a great thing to see. I cannot say I've had any "The One" moments with clothes... I've had "This could work", "I can pull this off", "This is kind of like what I've dreamt up" and "Pretty damn close" moments, but never the breathtaking "This is it. How did I live without this?" moments. Sure, it's a materialistic thing, but it's a way of expressing yourself. It's kind of a moment you've stepped a bit further into yourself.

I've talked to Chenlu about this, and she's admitted having a few of these moments herself. I think she has a better idea of what she wants than I have ever had. My desires in clothes are usually some abstract feeling or concept, based on some movie or Lady Gaga design, that I don't even know if it exists (in my price range) yet.

For example, ever since seeing "Almost Famous", I have been on a quest for Kate Hudson's furry coat:

I have made at least two thrift-store purchases of coats that never quite fit me but had a hint of what I wanted. Anything remotely similar with a better fit was outrageously expensive. Nothing has ever been right, and honestly, even if I had the exact coat of my dreams on, I probably would have found something not quite right about it. It could never live up to the concept. Maybe I actually just wanted to be Penny Lane.

So I think that's what it really takes to find "The One" when shopping; you have to know who you are,  and who you are trying to show through your attire to really get any sort of connection. Chenlu wants to be a fabulous bitch; she finds that with wicked Mackage studded jackets. Mary is going to be a breathtaking bride; she found the dress to do it. What do I want to be? Will I find the clothes to tell me, or will I be doomed to indecision until a moment of personal clarity strikes?

If nothing else, I'm sure I will continue to be the girl who dresses like she doesn't take herself too seriously. So for now, I'll stick to my "I can pull this off" moments. I'll keep you posted if I ever get "The One".

The beauty of functionality

I have never been one to carry a purse. If it is an event I'd rather not bring a backpack to, I rely on pockets, boots, bras, belts, and other's pockets and purses to carry my belongings.  This usually isn't much of an challenge, since my belongings are generally just keys, cards and a phone.

These belongings, however, have started to grow. Maybe I want a snack? Or a decent camera to capture something? Maybe I should actually put an effort into my face and bring makeup for touch ups?Could all of these fit in my makeshift storage areas?

There have been a few inconvenient nights due to my stubbornness of refusing a purse. This refusal spawns from a deep resolve not to be constrained to a bag all night, not to dance around it on the ground of a dance floor, and not to be constantly hitching it back on my shoulder the way I have seen countless ladies do before.

The solution? Why, I'd like to say I found it, but it found me, browsing the aisles of Value Village. Priced at $2.99, I could't say no:

Before there's talk of the 90's, your great uncle, hipsters, or any other stigma that's attached to them, let me get right to it: fanny packs are so practical. They are hands-free, well sized, easy access, comfortable, and not nearly as unflattering as I once suspected. Maybe I'm in denial of their lameness due to finding such an awesome solution to my outing predicament, but damn: I am totally OK with people wearing fanny packs. In fact, I will high-five anyone who does.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

With the end of summer fast approaching, I feel it is only appropriate for me to share with you one of my favorite books from my summer reads. Behold! Behind the Beautiful Forevers.

This book talks about the everyday struggles faced by people living in a Mumbia slum. The author, Katherine Boo, spent two years living among these people in order to document every detail in their everyday lives and to listen to their stories. What she created with her two years of hard work is a masterpiece. The stories, described in vivid details, are truly touching and inspiring.

My mother grew up in a small,underprivileged village in China and she takes me back whenever we can. With every visit, I am reminded of how privileged I am to live the life I live and it makes me value everything I have just a little bit more. The stories told in this book, no matter how outrageous they seem, are true and it reminds me of similar stories told by my mom and grandparents.

This book is an eye opener and I finished it in three days. I was so emotionally connected to these characters that I felt their anger, fear, sadness and hope.