Why Modern Dating is hard, part 1

Before the advent of dating apps and the social network, people went on dates, but it was really hard to know more information about your significant other's previous dates. Sure, you may know their name, and you may have a friend of a friend who knows them and swears you're way better, but there was no way to instantly look them up and swipe through all the profile pictures. 

I was going to a party at my significant other's friend's house, and was looking through the event page, just to see what people had said. And I ran into a post by one of the girl's who my SO had dated. And yes, like the jealous, slightly insane person I am, I did look through her profile picture, to see the girl that had captured his attention for a few weeks. 

Do I feel better? No. Was it useful in any way? Definitely not. Could I have done this before Facebook? Nope. 

Now granted, before Facebook I wouldn't have known that she was also invited, and so I may have run into her at the party and had an awkward moment there (irrelevant in this case, since she couldn't make it, but still true). But the possibility of avoiding an awkward encounter doesn't make up for the fact that forever now when I get invited to another event hosted by this friend, I'll be scrolling through the guest list to see if she's there. 

Ignorance is truly bliss, folks. "They" weren't wrong. 

Silent Disco Yoga at a Winery

Before you roll your eyes at the title of this post and exclaim something about how this is the most millennial thing ever, I agree with you. It's very yuppie and it really misses what yoga is about. That being said, it was a great experience.

Yesterday, a friend and I went from work to Bluxome Winery, where Julie, from Outdoor Yoga SF (link here) was holding a silent disco yoga class. I had never been do a silent disco anything - all I knew about this was that there were headphones involved - so I didn't really know what to expect. Turns out, it's exactly what you would expect. You were given a pair of headphones as you walked in, and then you were free to put your yoga mat wherever there was room. I think there were probably around 40 people there, although I was at the front of the room (not by choice, I was late, and that was the only place in the room for two people), but the room wasn't crowded. I say room, but it was a very large open space, probably where there are normally tables and people drinking wine, exclaiming about the finish of a certain pinot noir.

The yoga itself was alright - it was a Vinyasa-style yoga, but I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I do other types of Vinyasa yoga (it focused a little too much on sun salutations, and not enough on other poses). That being said, I did enjoy having headphones. Having Biebs play at the end was kind of weird, but most of the time, we were listening to calm piano music. It also, weirdly enough, gave me a chance to really focus on myself, since the headphones also seemed to be noise-cancelling. Suddenly, I was no longer worrying about whether I was breathing too loudly. Instead, I was actually focusing on the poses, and seeing if I really could push myself deeper into a move. This, however, might also have to do with the fact that at work, I listen to music while trying to concentrate, so my brain thought that music time = concentrate on whatever you were doing time.

At the end of the 1 hr class, we did get one glass of wine each. I picked the Sauvignon Blanc, and it was actually really good. They were also giving out protein bars, so we grabbed those as well.  My friend and I ended up chatting on our mats, well after the lesson had ended, and so it was a nice end to the yoga class - most times, you're rushing out of the studio because there's another class coming in.

Overall, I enjoyed this experience. Would I do it again? Maybe. It was a little pricey, but for a yoga class and a glass of wine, it might be worth doing once in a while. 

[Interesting Idea] Plant trees to offset your carbon footprint!

While scrolling through Facebook this morning, I saw a post that Alex Honnold (climber extraordinaire) had posted about a company that he found interesting.


The company (or in it's own words, social enterprise) is called Mossy-Earth (https://mossy.earth/), and, in their own words, this is what they do:

Mossy Earth is a social enterprise whose main aim is, by planting trees, to deliver real environmental change and make a positive impact on the state of the planet's wildernesses and forests.

We plant trees on two fronts. Carbon Offsetting to fight climate change and Rewilding to enrich ecologically and socio economically impoverished areas to create wildernesses that flourish and job opportunities for rural communities.

I found this interesting - climate change is a topic that has been more and more discussed recently, and this company attempts to do something about that (to my knowledge) hasn't been done before. We ask people to recycle, carpool, consume less meat, but never have we asked people to donate money in this way. Which is interesting, given that we do this in other non-profit sectors - we don't always ask people to change their lifestyles, we ask people to donate money so that those who are well versed in those subjects can help bring about change that will make it easier to change whatever it is that non-profit is trying to change.


This is definitely something I'll be looking at the next time I take a flight (https://mossy.earth/collections/carbon-offsetting/products/offset-your-flights), and I wish them great success!