2026

I've been enjoying a quiet vacation, and had a relaxing NYE and NY. As in past years I spent NYE at yoga - the same place as last year in jp, and it was really nice. The class went from 10:15 - 12:05, with about an hour and 15 minutes of flow, half hour ish of restorative and then a meditation that started right before midnight. I really like the instructor alot and she doesn't take it easy just because it's late at night. So, the first part was pretty intense flow. I was so glad when she slowed it down and we did our restorative - I usually don't love restorative because you do kind of just lie there. But at 11:30 pm it works. During the meditation I thought about what a crazy year it's been around the world and felt grateful for everything that I have going for me. 

On NY day we had our fourth polar plunge at the lake. It was freezing - definitely one of the colder days we've had ever. The beach is completely frozen so we wound up doing it at the lower lake and having a little party in the woods after. The water is still around 35, so people weren't really hanging around for too long after going in. We had a bunch of new faces and waves of people. I kept my hands out of the water, but even so they were freezing. It was a tough on for sure. After I went home and felt cold for the rest of the day.

Today I went for another cross country ski. The place here that makes snow isn't as nice as it was going out in the woods, but it was super easy to get there, and it's good for me to get lots of practice. I bought a season pass for the year to force myself to keep working on my skills. The best part so far is when I'm on a trail that's a little downhill, so I can just glide. There is a circuit there, and I went around it 5 times which took me an hour - according to my watch I went 2.86 miles with 169 elevation gain, so again just a little slower than if I was walking :). Looking at my splits, I did get a little faster with each lap, so that's something. The ski area is convenient, inexpensive, and they make snow, which is really nice. But there are a lot of people there, which can be a pain. I had my first fall today because a woman stopped at the bottom of the hill (it's a small hill, but still a hill) and just stood there, in the tracks, because her friend fell. I was coming down and yelled to her, but of course she didn't move. And I can't stop that effectively so I had to fall to not hit her. The good news is that I was fine after, nothing bad happened, and I was able to get back up. So, I guess it was a good learning experience, even though I am still pissed about it.

The other thing that happened this year is that my garbage disposal died. It's been giving me issues for the last month or so, but yesterday I looked at the disposal and it was dripping water out the bottom, which just isn't a good thing for an electric appliance to do. I unplugged it and looking into replacing it - which is something I hate so much since repair people always charge a ton to women. I watched a bunch of youtubes about replacing your disposal and it didn't look that hard, so on the way back from skiing I stopped at the hardware store and bought a new one. And I replaced it myself! I feel so accomplished and adult (even though it wasn't that hard because I put in the same brand so I didn't have to do any of the difficult parts). The only really bad moment was at the end when I realized that the flange thing wasn't on, and I thought I was going to have to take the whole thing off. But then thankfully I realized that you just put it in from the top of the sink. Phew! I'm going to be watching for leaks for a while, but I'm super proud of myself.