Cupcake Craving

Last night I was on my way home from yoga when I had the sudden urge for a chocolate cupcake.  I’m NOT a huge cake person, so I figured that if I had such a random craving, I should indulge it.  But where is one to find cupcakes in Lower Merion at 9:30 at night?  Unfortunately not at a bakery.  Enter… WAWA!

(not my picture, but my wawa!)

Besides Wawa, another Philadelphia staple is a Tastykake.  I’ve never really been the biggest fan of the sugary treats, but look – a craving is a craving.  I sprinted into Wawa and came out with this:

Ahh sweet sugary relief… Wawa + Tastykake = 24 hours of cupcake!

In other news, I took my third yoga class at Dana Hot Yoga yesterday.  My second class last week was ehh – the teacher was too quick (so many chatarungas without stopping!)  But last night I took Jeff’s class, and he was slow and deliberate and made sure to explain and demonstrate the poses.  (Often times at Dana it’s too crowded for the instructor to also do the yoga.  Strangely enough I enjoy it when it’s crowded – it’s cozy and I love seeing 45 other people who are taking steps for their health.) 

Last week I spent a lot of time in child’s pose, but this week I went to class with the intention of spending a lot of time upside down, and I succeeded!  I attempted to go into crow and headstand (and failed) but I was still upside down.  It was a great way to clear my head… as silly as it sounds, I imagined all my crazy thoughts falling out of my ears and I left clear headed and not stressed.  During the whole class I felt strong, instead of rushed and flustered from not being able to keep up with the moves.  It was a good class.

I also found another friend  from both SJU and the firm where I used to work… blog, meet Julia! 

Ok so that’s a really old, bad picture… but you get the idea.  I love that I run into so many friends at the yoga studio.  And I love that we all have time to go to yoga on a weeknight now that we’re not working Busy Season anymore

Does anyone have advice for getting into crow or headstand?  I think I’m strong enough, I just think I have the wrong positioning!

March Madness!

I love March.  March means the first day of Spring, the daffodils are popping up all over… and college basketball teams square off in March Madness.  I’m a huge college basketball fan – not just of my beloved Hawks but of the sport in general.  There’s too much ego in the NBA, but in college basketball, you can just feel the heart these kids have for the game and it makes it so fun to watch.

When I started college, I didn’t know much about college basketball – but I was learning.  Facebook had just come out, and that March they started the Facebook Bracket Challenge.  With no background on any of the teams – I was left to come up with my own rules.  Now I can make a pretty serious bracket, but I still follow these rules on at least one bracket when March comes around. 

Cassie’s Rules for March Madness

1) First and foremost: if Saint Joe’s is in the tournament – no matter what they are seeded – THEY WIN THE TOURNAMENT.  No questions asked.

2) Secondly, and just as importantly – Villanova and Temple always lose in the first round.  Always.

2a) If for whatever reason, Temple and Villanova play each other in the first round… Villanova loses.  Period.

3) Always have pride for your fellow Atlantic 10 league schools.  If SJU isn’t in the tournament, pick an A-10 team to win the tournament.  (Unless it’s Temple.  See rule 2.)

4) Similarly, have pride for the fellow Jesuit schools in the tournament.  Best case scenario – if SJU isn’t in the tourney, and Xavier is in the tournament… pick X to win.  A-10 pride + Jesuit pride = double whammy.

5) If a family member’s or a friend’s alma mater is in the tournament, make sure they do well.  The level of friendship with the friend determines how well their team does.  For example – one year my MOH’s alma mater – Cal Berkeley was in the tournament.  I’m pretty sure I remember taking them to the finals that year.  But if it’s simply a friendly acquaintance from high school, only take their team as far as they can go before they meet another team that fulfills one of the requirements above.

6) There is another girl out there who has the exact same first name and last name as I do.  She graduated from the University of Illinois.  While I’ve never met the other Cassie, her school gets decent rank in my bracket. 

7) I was born in Missouri, and raised in New Jersey.  If Mizzou (or any other Missouri) school is in the tournament, that gives them some weight.  The same can be said with Princeton, or any other Jersey school.  (well except Rutgers.  I’m not a huge fan of Rutgers.)

I’m also a big fan of Cinderella teams – aka underdog teams that make a great run in the tournament.  Of course, no one can predict a Cinderella team before the start of the tournament, so if there is a team that has made a fairy tale run in the tournament in the past few years, I tend to favor them as well.  (i.e. George Mason and Butler)

9) If all else fails, follow your gut.  There are some games that don’t follow any of the criteria above, but just go with your first guess!

So what does a bracket that follows these rules look like after the first 3 rounds?

After this past week, my bracket is pretty dead (as you can see) but it was still so fun to put it together.  I look forward to it every year, and miss the days of the Facebook Bracket Challenge!  I might not have much left for the next few rounds, but that doesn’t mean it’s not exciting!

Do you make a bracket?  How do you choose your teams?  Besides this bracket – I also pick a “real” one… although Villanova still lost in the first round – and that seemed to be a good prediction on my part!

Wedding Wednesday: Pre Cana

I’ve always wanted to get married in a Church.  I’ve never been that big of a Church-goer, but God and I have always been homies.  But there just seemed to be something magical about that walk down the aisle that I’ve been thinking about since I was like 7.  Luckily I have the most understanding fiance ever, and so it was decreed that we’d get married in a Church.  (see our Church here!)

Of course, we always knew that getting married in the Catholic Church would mean that we had to go to Pre-Cana, but in our heads it wasn’t real.  I mean going to talk about your relationship in front of a priest?  AWKWARD.  But alas, we came to a point (umm February, aka 2 months before our wedding!) where we couldn’t put it off any longer, so we signed up for the one session in a place where we would at least feel at home… Saint Joseph’s University!  (Go Hawks!)

SJU Campus Ministry runs a one-day program for couples about to be wed, and I am so glad that we approached Pre-Cana in this way.  First of all, one session meant only having to dread going ONCE.  Not every week for six weeks.  (That would be a lot of dread!)  Second of all, since the program was on a college campus, a lot of the couples who ran the program were professors at the university… aka they were great at public speaking and discussing topics with a younger crowd.  (Robert and I actually recognized a lot of the couples from our undergrad classes, so they were mostly around our age.)  Time passed quickly, and I actually left Pre-Cana feeling awesome about our relationship.

Decision Making:

We first started talking about how to make decisions, and the best way to fight in an argument.  The couple presenting was lively, and they brought up a few excellent ways to approach things.  First, they mentioned that in decision making, you should reframe the situation so both the husband and wife were on the same side of the decision.  This way, the husband and wife are a TEAM, and not individual players trying to win.  (This might have been why Charlie Sheen’s marriages didn’t work out.  #winning.) 

The couple gave an example of when they were debating whether or not to buy a boat.  “it’s a lot of money,” said the wife.  “but it’s a great deal!” said the husband.  “maybe we can buy it in a few years,” said the wife.  And around and around they went… until one of them brought up the subject of the kids.  With only a few more years until their oldest went to college, they realized that there wasn’t much more time to spend as a whole family on the boat.  And once they were on the same side of the argument (the “it would be a great way to make memories” side), it was an easy decision.

The couple also discussed how to properly fight, and gave good suggestions such as:

• make physical contact with each other while you’re fighting.  fight the urge to push the other away.
• don’t go talking to third parties about your issues.  resolve it with the person who matters – your husband (or wife, or boyfriend, or fiance, whatever!)
• figure out what scares your partner.  this could help you figure out why they fight with you.  maybe your spouse comes from a broken family, and they are just afraid you are going to leave them like they were left before.  take this into consideration when you fight.
• don’t bring up anything in the past.  focus only on the matter at hand – not how many times that issue has come up before, or any unrelated issues that you think will help you “win.” 
• it’s not about winning!  really.  listen to each other instead of trying to formulate your next point while the other person is talking. 

Natural Family Planning:

One word: ugh.  You guys, I really tried to go into this one with an open mind.  I think I even said to Robert that this might be an option for us to try once we were ready to have kids.  (AKA in approx a bazillion years, for those of you keeping track.)  Then the couple started talking. 

First – I have to say, that both the husband and wife were doctors.  I.E. not college professors, and therefore they were not in the least engaging.  They were very preachy, and for someone who was talking about Sex and Intimacy, they were too shy and uncomfortable, which made everyone else uncomfortable.

Second – once they started discussing NFP, they mentioned how they were kind of… surprised… by their first child.  A real poster couple for how NFP really works, right?  They then went on to discuss the process of NFP, and words like cervical mucus were involved.  After I finished vomming, I really didn’t want to hear much more.  I think I’ll be on the birth control pill forever.  (TMI?  Sorry.)

(Something tells me that NFP isn’t all rainbows and star power as seen above.)

Hot Topics:

 The last segment of the day was hot topic-type issues such as budget, children, where to live when we get married, family, friends, and more.  We did a lot of exercises individually and together to see where each other stood on things.  This was very helpful, as it showed us how in sync Robert and I truly are.  (Barf, I know.)  But I’m serious guys, we rocked all those quizzes.  Go team!

Anyway, guys, Pre-Cana wasn’t all that bad (minus the NFP section… oh and the terrible, long Mass at the end!)  Ultimately we were happily surprised, and walked away feeling warm and fuzzy, and super in love.  (Barf again, right?)  And in the process, I feel like I learned a few more things about my religion.  (here are a few, in case you wanted to learn too!)

• Priests can’t because your family is supposed to be your highest priority.  And if your highest priority is your family, how will you take care of your church?  
• The church believes that marriage is meant for procreation.  And if you’re in a homosexual relationship, you won’t be able to procreate, and therefore the Church isn’t so keen on gay marriage. 

Do I agree with these stances?  Not necessarily!  But it was nice to learn about why the Church has the rules that it does. 

Anyway, Pre-Cana turned out to be a great experience, and provided us with lessons that actually seemed applicable in life – not just in the church! 

Did/would you do pre-marital counseling of any sort?  If so – what was your experience like?