My Favorite Coastal Beach Town: Manzanita!

Me... doing my favorite thing in my favorite house in my favorite beach town. 

Last October my husband and I took a four day trip to Manzanita Oregon, which is just south of Cannon Beach. We've vacationed in Cannon Beach many times but it always felt so crowded which is why we love Manzanita more. It's less touristy but still has everything I want: cute shops, good restaurants, a pub, two grocery stores, including a small Whole Foods, great pizza from Marzano's, a wine bar, even a golf course (though i don't golf). Oh... and the Cloud Leaf bookstore! Don't you just love when vacation towns have a bookstore? I always make a point to buy books while on vacation. On our last day the Bread and Ocean bakery next door to the bookstore served me the best latte I've ever had. Had I known earlier I would have been there every morning!

In Manzanita you come across folks of all ages, locals and tourists alike - cute construction/surfer guys with dreadlocks, families with young children, older couples stopping through on a long road trip. Everyone is so friendly. We had a great time watching the Seahawks/Panthers game (even though we ended up losing) sitting with fellow Washingtonians at the San Dune Pub. We always make it to the San Dune a couple of times when we visit and feel so welcomed.

On this trip we stayed at the Historic Reed House. The house recently went through an extensive remodel that took over a year. (I know because I followed it on Facebook.) It was worth the wait. This house could be on the HG Channel!

We already booked it for a whole week next October to stay with my brothers and their families.  I hope to make it an annual family get together.

I can't quite do justice to the Reed House with words alone or even photos. I did take many photos and here are some of my favorites. Later I can link a website here that show photos of the bedrooms (which are so nice!) too. I know it's cliche to say, but this place really feels like home away from home. (Ha! I say that even though we live in a little two bedroom condo. It's actually better!)

French doors from the main floor go outside to the wraparound deck. My husband is taking a photo of that amazing view.

Love these French doors to the wraparound deck

Moon shot from deck

View from the beach. Oops, just noticed i forgot to turn on one of the bedrooms lights! 

It's a big house! But here's the thing: it's not so big that you feel lost in it if you are just hanging out on the main floor. It's the right size whether you have two couples or eight couples. When you walk in right away you smell the new wood. The maple floors look original and are an important feature in the house. The owner is a designer and she did a fantastic job blending the old with the new, which lends to retaining the history and character and warmth of this home even with all its modern conveniences. At first I focused so much on the view and the main floor that it took me a couple of days before i noticed everything: a vintage phone booth (the phone works too!); schoolhouse lighting; a custom made rolling barn door to the master bathroom; three vintage movie theater seats in the upstairs TV room; farmhouse sinks and so much more.

Vacation Feet! I always take a photo of my feet. 

I love the eclectic furniture and sitting areas. They are comfortable too! 

Living room - you can't quite see how great that ocean view is from this photo. All of those windows open and have screens, the better to hear the ocean.  

I wish i had taken a better photo of this kitchen. I like cooking. This is my favorite vacation kitchen. Two dishwashers! Two ovens! And that fabulous kitchen island. (Can't wait to cook dinner here with my brother next year.) 

There are lost of interesting pieces of furniture and colorful rugs which make this large room feel so cozy and warm. 

My favorite little sitting corner.

The best equipped kitchen ever. Thanksgiving would be great here!

The photo doesn't show how large this master is. Best thing - the mattress was super comfortable and it's a king bed! 

This was taken downstairs where there is a pool table, ping pong table, living area and more bedrooms and a bathroom. I liked the look of this photo and those custom closet doors.

Taken on the walk back down the main street from the San Dune pub

Here are some town shots I took with my other little Coolpix camera when i went for a run. (I wished I had the nerve to ask the one cute dreadlocked guy with the surfboard on the top of his truck and the tools in the bed of it if I could take his photo.)

I'm sure this guy must be from out of state! 

I always get a kick out of folks taking photos with their iPad. With my increasingly bad eyes, i get it! 

Safety first! 

The end of the town's main street leads right to the beach.

There are so many cool houses in the little town. I really liked this red door and planter. 

The beach goes for miles. I ran every day on it while i was there.

Stay tuned.

 New fall season coming in September. I haven't given up blogging, just decided to take a hiatus. I actually keep coming up with ideas to write about but usually just post some on Facebook instead because I like reading the comments and I think blogging is not exactly a summer sport.

"What do you do?"

I was prompted to write about this subject because a friend on Facebook posted an article about this very thing. He added that he hated when someone asked him "What do you do?" when he met them, being a job.

This question can be a real conversation killer and shuts it all down before it can ever get started. I have to admit that i too do not like this question when someone asks me upon meeting. I also hate even more, the question "Where did you go to college?" The reason being for that one is because i did NOT go to college. (At least I've always had a job before.)

As far as the What Do You Do question, i always answered that i was a union secretary. I always emphasized the word 'secretary' because i never bought in to 'administrative assistant' sounding better. While i get why flight attendants don't want to be referred to as 'stewardesses' i never understood the aversion to the term 'secretary'. However, it is not a glamorous job and certainly working for a union isn't going to make folks admire you as they would....say a civil rights attorney, or a NASA engineer, or a Medivac pilot (something i used to like to introduce myself as when asked this question of strangers, though as a joke - i would own up to it later).

Sometimes i think i hate this question because often people will ask it because they want to tell YOU about where they work. Or they simply don't care enough and this is the most original small talk they are able to come up with.

Because my second ex-husband liked to pretend he had money and hung out with some fairly wealthy people, we were often at some hoity toity peoples' parties which i dreaded so much because i never knew what to wear and had no friend among the women to ask.  I detested most of the people on sight for the simple reason that I was 10 years younger, insecure at these events, and had nothing in common with them. Especially politically.  And I am not kidding when i say i ducked the racist comments (of which i am not proud of now).

Real estate developers, designers who owned their own business, restaurant owners, etc. and lived in big homes in Gig Harbor or somewhere else on the water were in attendance.  I was working as a waitress in a sports tavern and at the school district in the accounting office at the time.  A wife of one of those moguls (is that the right word?) asked me where i worked and i answered the school accounting office and she responded with "Oh, that sounds boring."  But you know what? I bet she is divorced now and i have a better credit rating than she does! I don't even think she had a job. (But she had new boobs, THAT i do remember.) Truth is, she was right. It was boring. That's why i got the union job! lol.

What do you do? I do my best. That's what I'm going to start answering.

18 Things I Think About While Doing Yoga

I actually have a better chance of being a professional football player than i do of ever becoming a 'yogi', but that doesn't mean I’ve given up!

This is my 4^th week – I’m working on going Monday, Wednesdays Fridays. So far, so good... at least for attendance and commitment.

I’m liking how I feel in the morning, but I doubt that I will ever get into the Namaste-ness of it at all.

Here is what I thinking about yesterday when I was supposed to be "letting go of my pain and struggles in our lives” which is how our Wednesday instructor always gets us started.  

1. I can't believe i bought a bottle of olive oil that was only 8.4 ounces and cost $34! (When i got it home I also noticed that the expiration was 2-2-2014.)

2. That must be some pretty fucking awesome olive oil...

3. Shit, at $4 an ounce that would make any salad I made cost about $12 a serving!  (Maybe $15 if I use yellow peppers and avocado and pine nuts.) 

4. I need to return that olive oil. Hope I still have the receipt. 

5. I wonder if the owner of the shop who sold me the very jar I bought is mad at me and did this on purpose? 

6. Naw, she is not passive aggressive like that. She's a nice person. And i always write checks there and they never bounce. 

7. Dammit, I wish this instructor would quit constantly telling us when to inhale and exhale. Wow, but some people are exhaling SO hard. I wonder if anyone has ever collapsed from a heart attack in yoga? 

8. Is our instructor gay?

9. Oh God, I hate how my butt looks in this mirror when doing downward facing dog or forward fold.  I don't think even Giselle would want to look at her ass in yoga pants from behind.

10. Oh how I love to hate Giselle and her cheating husband Tom Brady.

11. I shouldn’t be thinking about hating on celebrities while doing yoga.

12. I really HATE downward facing dog. Can't wait to get to corpse pose.

13. Who comes up with these yoga terms anyway? Doesn't 'corpse pose' seem incongruent to yoga?

14. Am I using 'incongruent' correctly?

15. Oh crap, how did i get that bruise near my ankle? I hope it clears up before the wedding next weekend because it will show. and what's this one on my forearm? 

16. I am going to quit taking those baby aspirin in the summer. 

17. Ohhhh, FINALLY…. corpse pose. Love it. 

18. I really need to get my own mat. 

Note to Self: 

Longest plank: 3 minutes

Longest run this week: It will be todaywhen i run 5 miles to pick up my car which needed a new battery and alternator

Temperature: yesterday it was 80 degrees! First time putting on our air conditioner and it's not even June 1st

Book: You Couldn't Ignore Me if You Tried - about John Hughes and Cameron Crowe movies. Also loved The Splendid Things We Planned

Movie: Can't recommend high enough: Short Term - it's on the list of 23 Netflix Movies You Haven't Seen. 

Hillary... Grey's Anatomy...My Favorite Baby... A random jocucina post....

My Favorite Baby.

1. I have lost a bit of my mojo for politics since those Gumbo days. Part of the reason is because my activism comes out when i am totally against something (as in the Iraq war and Bush/Cheney regime) and i didn't have as much reason with my choice of president in the last few years.

Having said this, i do admit i like presidential politics when it's all new again. So i might get my mojo back. And the reason i might get it back is because Bernie Sanders is running against Hillary Clinton for the Democrat nomination. I don't think he has a chance in winning any more than i have a chance in being the next Pulitzer Prize winning author. HOWEVER, i like that he is in the game. He will make Hillary a better candidate.

2. I am making no promises to work on Hillary's campaign, but if we are stuck with Rand Paul and Ted Cruz i am totally in.

3. Re: the photo above.  My Favorite Baby. This is my favorite nephew's boy. Baby Brady.  I never had this urge to have children, even as i loved being around kids. I am so thankful that i have a way to be a surrogate grandmother in my life right now. I am in love with this little guy. And what is so cute is my husband is a drummer in a really good band and is living his dream. We talk about how he will teach Brady how to play someday if that's what Baby Brady wants.

4. I used to watch Grey's Anatomy .... When i first heard about it, i Netflixed the first season and binge watched about 4 or 5 episodes during the mornings of my vacation time in summer. I quit watching about two seasons ago right before Dr. Yang (Sandra Oh) left because i felt it 'jumped the shark' about 5 or 6 time  by that time and that was my limit. But two weeks ago they killed off McDreamy Derek, THE main character. So i've watched those last two episodes. And it got me thinking about how i would cope if I lost Brian in an accident like that. Meredith, the wife character ran away from it all, from her job, from her friends, from her home....and i sort of got that. I think i might do that too if it happened to me. Though i might have a friend come with me when i do it. I would have louie/Sarah and my sister in law Marie (Kylee/Modern Hippie's mom) come with me if that happened if their husbands wouldn't mind.

5. The reason i say this is because too often the grieving person ends up being the comforting person to the friend/family/co-worker/casual acquaintance person. (Don't we all know these folks? If you have a story about this you should vent it here!)  That so pisses me off when people think they need to cry to show you how much they care.

6. Yoga Update: I have been 6 times to yoga since i last posted. OMG, it was hard that first time, and it is still not easy, but i'm getting into a groove and rhythm. I think this is going to be a habit like running. I will not likely get the breathing down. I will probably ALWAYS open my eyes and look around, and i am pretty damn sure i will never clear my mind, especially if the teacher is so off base that he thinks the Beatles performed the 'Turn, Turn, Turn' song. But i love how it makes me stretch and work my muscles.

Namaste, jojo

Jo Goes To Yoga (Another True Story)

Even though i can run 4+ miles a few days a week, i am not fit. I
found out how much when i started babysitting Baby Brady and my hip flexors (didn't even know what those were before) kept giving me troubles because of how i carried him. Whenever i did anything that wasn't involving sitting or running, sleeping or eating, my muscles would picket the next day and let me know this wasn't in their job description. (Little union joke.) 

I couldn't get a buddy to commit just yet so i venture out to the YMCA all by myself. I haven't been to the Y for probably 8 months though we've been paying for it. (In other words, we donate to the YMCA and regular attendance was another thing i promised to keep up with in retirement and failed to do.) 

I got my yoga mat, my shoes are off. I am ready for Gentle Yoga. 

Oh good, the instructor is late. Like 10 minutes late. (Is this allowed in yoga?) Everyone is here and ready and get this, I am probably the next the youngest person in the room of 14 people. One woman came in with a walker! 

Finally he arrives in a rush. (Hmm, there is no rushing in yoga,  is there? Also i am the third youngest person in the room now. But that's a good thing in an instructor right?) 

And then he starts us in a stand up pose, eyes closed, arms loose and palms out. I like the nice music. He's talking to us about relaxing and NOT being in a rush, he's talking about breathing. He's talking about waves at the oean. He's talking about breathing. He's telling us to feel our toes and our fingers. He's talking about breathing. Now relax your neck he says and think about the beautiful place we live. And then the breathing again. 

(FOR GOD's sake.... I am breathing! How long are we going to keep doing this? It seems like 5 minutes have gone by already, i sneak a look at the clock, yep it's a quarter to 11:00)

He's back to the seasons, I'm breathing. Inhale and exhale, ( though like like Zumba, i have it backwards every time). Also i noticed every single person has their eyes closed when i peeked at the clock. 

I'm breathing, he's still talking about the season, then he say something like this: "spring will be melting into summer, you know like that song "Turn, Turn Turn" by the Beatles."

WHAT???? By the Beatles? I open my eyes again to see if anyone caught that. Nobody. Then i keep thinking. Who does that song anyway? Why can't i remember? I know for sure it's not the Beatles and i would bet all my Jeopardy money on that, but who is it? The Turtles? No, that doesn't sound right at all. Yes! This is what is going through my head for the rest of the time. It's making me crazy i can't think of the band. 

Finally we are done just the standing and we do some more stuff that involves a chair. If you're good, you don't need the chair. After about a minute in that pose, i got a chair. 

So far, so good though. Wow, these stretches are pretty easy. Gentle Yoga is maybe TOO gentle. I only need to work on the breathing but i'm good at this! We do balance on one leg, one arm extended, pretty good at that too ...especially if i lean my hip against the mirror. (When he comes around I don't do that though. He never saw me.) 

He helps me get my back flat when i have one leg extended balanced on the chair and one arm straight out. But he had to help others too, not just me, the newbie.

It was all pretty gentle actually. Finally we are done. That was a fast hour, well, 50 minutes. Not sure this is going to be enough yoga for me I'm thinking. I'm going to check the schedule for a different yoga class. 

hahahahahahaha...... It's now the next morning as i write this. My shoulders, butt, backs of my legs, even my arms are screaming! They are not only picketing, they already went on strike! 

They lied! (Is lying in yoga allowed?) If this is Gentle Yoga, what is the other yoga going to be like? Thank goodness our instructor was 10 minutes late! 

So I'm going to keep going. Besides those new muscles which have been on permanent L&I for years, i need to work on my breathing and yes, my judgement!

Besides, where else can you go at 58 years old you and be nearly the youngest person in the room? 

Oh yeah, and right as I am pulling out of the parking lot of the Y it came to me: Turn Turn Turn is by The Byrds! I should have known that immediately but it's one of those kinds of things that usually keep me up in the middle of the night. So maybe yoga can help me with my memory too! That would be the best!

The opposite of Blog Slog... More like Blog Sloth

I need to change this but because of our wood floors being refinished we couldn't put back our area rugs for six weeks (as I was told). And so we couldn't put our nice ergonomic rolling chair in our computer guest bedroom. I hate changing this blog on the iPad.....

 in the words of the Terminator... I'll Be Back.