Sunday, December 2, 2012

In the beginning, we begin - an overview




See? I worked in an office. I was fancy and stuff. 




So, a little background.  I was born in Folsom, California, on October 4, 1971.  Over the next 35 years or so, I got married, had a baby (not necessarily in that order), divorced, married again – and divorced again.  I lived, I worked, and I raised my son, all within a 20 mile radius of the location of my birth. I worked as a legal assistant for over twenty years, and my life consisted mostly of deadlines, suits, high heels, and the like. Your typical cubicle purgatory.  



In about 2004, somewhere amidst the stress and strain of working in the legal field and single parenting, I stumbled upon a cure for most of what ails me:  Yoga.  I had tried yoga two years prior, and left the class feeling confused and angry (It was hard! It was stupid! Teachers were mean!). Irregular heartbeats brought on by stress eventually forced me to reconsider the health benefits, and I was lucky enough to stumble upon a woman teaching at a local gym who quietly inspired me to continue on. Little did I know what sort of life-changing love affair that would become, as I eventually took teacher training and have been teaching, and learning, since 2009. (I might add that this has been a part-time gig; I have spent, and continue to spend, more money on iTunes, gas and training than I earn teaching. It is a labor of love, people.)

Eventually, with lots of help from my family (and zero help from his dad), I managed to raise my son. It was a struggle, as single parenting can often be.  We had a lot of pets around, and have always been animal lovers.  They made our house feel like a home, and more like an intact family unit.  Our menagerie included dogs, cats, rats, fish, and even a Bearded Dragon (Most of our family, in fact, draws stray, unwanted, defective-in-some-way, needy animals to our homes, much in the way a pile of fresh dung draws flies. Only these are better than flies. You get my point, I'm sure.)  We have loved every one of our pets like the family members they were.  I always thought someday, I might even like to have a little farm.  (As it turns out, the Universe heard that thought. But I digress, this is just a background -- more on the farm later.)

Um, sir, have you seen my little boy?

In February 2010, my son walked off into adulthood, by way of the Air Force’s Basic Military Training.  As I watched my 6’2” little boy walk off into the night carrying only a tiny black duffel bag with some toiletries and my heart inside, both our lives changed forever. 

Not long after this life-altering event, I reconnected (for the third time) with my long-lost soul mate, who had inexplicably relocated from California to live in the hellish heat of the desert and become some sort of cowboy (this, seriously, to my dismay). Cut to six months later I am residing in Chandler, Arizona. We have a huge cactus and lots of gravel for a front yard. Oh, and an acre of dirt. And two horses.  And six chickens, two dogs, and two cats.  

And that, friends, is how I came to be an inadvertent yoga farm girl. 

This blog is meant to be entertaining, funny, moving, and brimming with useful information. Okay, that last one might be overstating it; There won't be any Pinteresty-arts-and-crafts projects, for sure.  But, if you have a decent sense of humor, enjoy animals, maybe do some yoga (or have even heard of it), and aren't too politically correct or easily offended by a few swear words, you might like it.  We'll see.  


Cheers!

Joy