Life on a JV budget

To recap: as a volunteer, I make about $400/month working full time. That breaks down to about $200 for rent, $100 personal, $85 for groceries, and $12 for transportation; my housemates all make the same and we have a shared bank account.

Before starting JVC I was really nervous about being able to afford fresh food with so little grocery money, and being able to do things on so little personal money.

Reality: From the beginning our house was in agreement that buying good (local and organic when possible) food was important to us. Though there have been weeks/months where money is more stressful than others, for the most part we've been able to have lot's of fun and eat better than I could have imagined :)

Take this weekend for example...

Friday after work I did yoga, came home and relaxed then Jen and I went to a concert of a local band that we've enjoyed for a while. Even though we were both pretty tired when we left our house, it turned into one of those spontaneously wonderful nights-- we ran into someone we know from Wednesday night dinner's at Casa Mariposa and one of Jen's co-workers. Since Jen and I both had a fair amount of our personal stipend left over, we even bought a few drinks at the bar!

Saturday, I did yoga again (got to love the work-trade deal!) and we went food shopping at the local food co-op, which we have affectionately nicknamed the food coop (like as in chicken coop). We've worked it out where we shop at the food coop every other week, flip flopping with Sunflower market, a local sort of Trader Joe's. The coop can be a little bit pricier, which is why we rotate, but even still we were able to do our week's shopping for about $70!

Saturday night was my night to cook, and I made one of my favorite dinners yet. I use favorite pretty loosely here... because basically any night one of us cooks is my favorite night. For example: Kaitlyn recently made a sweet potato curry, Jen made mujadara and homemade honey wheat bread, and Jeff is making a souffle tonight.

I've been on a veggie burger kick lately, and so on Saturday I decided to try out a new recipe: a lentil-barley burger. Okay, so the name sounds decently bland, but it is packed with spices and yumminess! I also decided to homemake the hamburger buns, and did an egg wash with shallots and black sesame seeds on top. For a side, I roasted some sweet potatoes with garlic, onion, sea salt and fennel seed.

[photos courtesy of Jeff]

After dinner, we headed to the MVS house for the night. I'm pretty sure nothing can beat a Saturday night at their house with a dance party and roof hang out included :) Sunday morning, Miriam, the ever incredible baker, made orange zest rolls... or as we started calling them, crack rolls, because none of us could stop eating them!

To cap the weekend off, we were invited to an Easter dinner by the Quigley's--an incredible family that has been super supportive of us all year! You know you live in Tucson when Mexican is the Easter dinner (I think technically it was because someone from out of town was visiting... but Mexican is a favorite anyway, so it was excellent!) Green corn tamales, tacos, salsas, and deserts a plenty! We left with handmade wooden pens, and delicious leftovers.

On our drive home, we were facing the sunset (another gorgeous one) and we agreed that we live in paradise. Where else could you have such an incredible weekend with such a beautiful backdrop?

[This photo also courtesy of Jeff. I had cut the collar of my shirt and Jen and I were posing for a picture with headbands made out of the collar when Jeff announced that our friend Meredith had just finished the Hunger Games and also didn't like the ending--Jen was psyched because so far she's been the only one to really hate the ending]

In conclusion: as corny as it sounds (word choice possibly influenced by the many application essays I've been writing lately), this year of living on a JV budget has felt like one of the richest years of my life.

Live music, dogs and mermaids- oh my!

I recently started doing a work-trade with a local yoga studio, Yoga Oasis.

After putting my name on the waiting list in January, I finally got a spot in March, and it is consistently the high of my week! Basically, I clean the studio one a week for an hour and get three free classes. It feels too good to be true--even cleaning the studio feels like a gift. I get the space to myself, to listen to music and clean; after a long week at work, the peacefulness that emanates from the studio is just what I need.

What is it that I love so much about yoga and Yoga Oasis (aka Yo)?

1. Yo teaches Anusara yoga: "Anusara means 'flowing with Grace,' 'flowing with Nature,' 'following your heart.' Founded by John Friend in 1997, Anusara yoga is a school of hatha yoga which unifies a life-affirming Tantric philosophy of intrinsic goodness with Universal Principles of Alignment"

2. During yoga classes, I simultaneously feel immersed in community and very alive internally. It is clear that the studio makes an effort to make yoga as accessible as possible--you don't need to pay to rent a mat, or to use a block, they have a punch card if you take the bus or ride your bike, and they will pack the studio so that as many people as possible can be in the class (see photo below from the Arizona Daily Star). Just last night, the teacher let someone bring their dog in because they were travelling and had no where else for the dog to go! Sometimes, as I watch people come into the studio, I feel a little like Jody Sawyer from Center Stage when she goes to the other dance studio; it's like people are coming home.

3. Yoga is the best stress reliever, meditation, work out--all around complement to life that I've found for myself this year. Throughout the day I end up putting the stress of the day in my body, and while my bike ride home can help me relieve some of that, it is when I'm in yoga that I find the most peace.

4. The teachers are incredible... and that's probably an understatement. Darren Rhodes, the studio director and student of John Friend (the founder of Anusara yoga), is down to earth and so talented. The Arizona Daily Star called him "one of the most visible anusara yogis in the world", and in 2008 Yoga Journal named him "one of the top 21 yoga teachers under 40 who are shaping the future of yoga". He made the below poster, in which he performed every asana in the Anusara syllabus in two days. It can be purchased at Yo, or at this point really anywhere in the world. Thousands of people of bought and millions have viewed it. In the below video you can see a clip from the making of the poster.

Tanutara: Making of the Anusara Syllabus Poster from Ross Evans on Vimeo.

And this guy teaches two classes a week at my studio.

5. I have nights like last night, which gave the name to this post! When I got home I was very tempted to stay and hang out with my housemate Jen who was baking a delicious loaf of bread (have I mentioned living in community spoils you? or has at least spoiled me?). Nevertheless, after wavering a bit, I went to class. The day was already going well, and yoga ended up being the icing on the metaphorical cupcake (the actual cupcake, Jen's friend had sent us and I had after class). There was a dog, Darren taught, the class closed with some live music, and I was able to get deeper into a lot of my poses than I have before--I even did the mermaid. Okay, so there weren't live mermaids as my title may have mislead you to believe, but how fun is it that a pose is called the mermaid?

It's Friday and I'm going to class again tonight- can you say awesome end to the week? I'll close with the infamous words of Rachel Black, "fun, fun, fun, fun, looking forward to the weekend".

"I'm pretty sure this is what life is supposed to be like"

This weekend my Casa and I went to Puerto Penasco, Mexico (aka Rocky Point) this weekend, to enjoy some ocean. Despite the rain and cool weather back in Tucson, our little seaside escape had sunshine with a side of sun :)

Begin roadtrip! Note Kaitlyn's Oregon love "window cling" (who knew these things weren't just called bumper stickers? certainly not me!)

A short 4ish hours later, we arrived, at our idyllic beach side casita. After dropping off our things we immediately all got ready for some swimming!

So technically we only had one part of this place, but since no one else was staying there this weekend, we had all the deck and beach to ourselves!

This picture was taken in between swims. Our first swim was cut a little short by the seemingly never ending rock layer just a few feet into the water ("so that's why it's called Rocky Point!").

Jen and I each got scraped up and were close to giving up on the water entirely until Jeff discovered a section that wasn't rocky--and so we had plenty of water frolicking time.

After some great beach time, we went into town to sample the local food and tried some margaritas too. Needless to say, both were delicious.

Later that night (after the obligatory sunset pose) we settled down to play some spades, during which Jen declared "I'm pretty sure this is what life is supposed to be like". Who could disagree? Sunshine, friends, ocean-- the recipe for a wonderful weekend.

In like a lion, out like a lamb?

March was a busy month! Who knows if it was actually lion-ish or lamb-ish, but for sure it was full :)

To name a few highlights: Caitlin and Elise came to visit--we hiked Picacho Peak--we became obsessed with Gates Pass (a great place to see the sunset)--Jeff and Stevie turned a year older, and we celebrated--ate brunch (many delicious times)--Tucson got hot again--March Madness came...and went (tear)--we all read the Hunger Games, often staying up far past our bedtimes to do so--it rained twice--My housemates all decided to do a second year of JVC in Washington state--I fell off my bike, "filleted" (as someone at work put it) my knee and recovered--I started reading some Wendell Berry and fell in love with his writing--my job description changed (I'm now at one location all week instead of moving around a lot)--Ginny came to visit--I started a work-trade deal at a yoga stuido (I clean for an hour and get 3 free classes a week!)--Jen had a birthday (and became a vegetarian!)--played battleship at a bar--we celebrated Jen and Audra's birthday--my brother came to visit

Unfortunately, I forgot to take very many pictures (not a single one during Ginny's whole visit!)... and I apologize for the lack of variety (did I mention we became obsessed with Gates Pass?) But here's a quick look at what I've been up to:

"Be joyful because it is humanly possible."

--Wendell Berry