Dad, Uncle Paul, Nellie and Mom.

Dad and Uncle Paul

Nellie and Mom.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you; Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want; Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. -Rumi

The Cailin Crusher

I have a cocktail named after me (Campari, Champagne, Club Soda...slice of orange and two green olives). I have a sushi roll named after me at Sushi Ocean View (zucchini tempura with spicy tuna on top). And now I have a crossfit named after me: the Cailin Crusher (named this because I crushed the shit outta this gnarly workout) is 10-1, which means you do 10 of each then 9 then 8, all the way til 1. You had to move through thrusters, kettle bell swings, and burpees. It was the most intense 16 minutes in my workout history for sure. Later that night all of the guys did the Cailin Crusher and it killed them. Yeeeeww I drank the Kool-Aid and I love it.

Summer Fun with the Serwatka's

Yesterday was a good day. I taught/hosted my first ever yoga party, then enjoyed a surf and some beach time with my friend Chris Paisley. After the beach we ate some food and I did a totally fucked up, intense and oddly amazing CrossFit WOD at Living Well in Northfield. I was home in time for dinner with my family which I was super grateful for. The sunset is so late right now that I was able to catch a sunset surf with Johnny DiGenni and Brooke (Serwatka...who drove down to the shore for a 24hr visit). The surf was perfect: waist high and clean, and just the three of us out. We hung at the Centennial Guest House afterwards (the DiGennis bed and breakfast in sea isle) and enjoyed wine, conversation, tomato and basil sliders and lots of laughs. Late to bed, early to rise- beach yoga at 7am and then a studio class at the OC Zen Den @ 9:30am. Both classes were great, and with 20 people at the Zen Den class the studio was packed with positivity. After class Brooke and her beautiful mama Lorraine came to the house to hang. Lorraine worked in the garden and we all enjoyed some swim time. After our swim we snacked poolside before saying our goodbyes. Tired...exhausted actually, but grateful for such a wonderful 24 hours.

Yoga Party

Today I hosted my first ever Yoga Party, and it was ammmmazing!!! MaryBeth has been coming to my yoga classes at the OC Zen Den since my very first class. For her 50th birthday she wanted to share her love for yoga and for my class with her closest friends and family. She loves pink, so that was part of the theme. She bought everyone pink yoga mats, and made everyone monogrammed (sweat) towels. Each mat got a pink rose and a cold bottle of Fiji water. Under each mat was a paper with 5 words that Marybeth would choose to describe you. After an hour and 15min yoga flow we enjoyed refreshments, fresh fruit, scones and Chai. It was such a spectacular experience, for such a wonderful woman. I'm feeling blessed to be a part of such an amazing event.

The Beautiful Birthday Girl.

180 South

The other day one of my students (Jess) told me that I reminded her of that guy from 180 South, and that hearing about my adventures and being around me made her want to "like climb mountains and crazy shit"! It was the best compliment that I have ever received. I've seen 180 South and I felt a parallel between Jeff and myself....a happiness in the simple celebration of life. 

Putzing cross country. Somewhere in Colorado.

180 South: Conquerors of the Useless follows Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. Along the way he gets shipwrecked off Easter Island, surfs the longest wave of his life - and prepares himself for a rare ascent of Cerro Corcovado. Jeff's life turns when he meets up in a rainy hut with Chouinard and Tompkins who, once driven purely by a love of climbing and surfing, now value above all the experience of raw nature - and have come to Patagonia to spend their fortunes to protect it.

Cailin Callahan

www.cailincallahan.blogspot.com

Yup.

I felt pretty nauseous after my crossfit workout, and then I realized that I'd done two yoga classes and a workout, and at 1pm in the afternoon I still hadn't eaten or drank anything. Stopped into the Asian Supermarket in Pleasantville and treated myself to some Vegetable Pho. MmMmMm Good! 

Whoa. Been having a challenging couple of days. Aside from being physically exhausted, I have been emotionally exhausted as well. My truck was dying, my Dad has been out of it, and my mom has been sick. And Mom being sick is what threw me off. She's like (as one fellow friend/reader once said) Elmers glue around here - holding us all together. So when she was crying the other day and defeated, well - it shook me a bit. I taught two yoga classes this morning and left feeling powerful and amazing. I got done a list of things that needed doing, and even bought myself a new car, a Toyota Prius. Damn, I feel like a Yuppie. But the gas mileage is much much much MUCH better than my Toyota Tacomas was, that's for SURE. I even managed to squeeze in a (much-needed) session with Dr.Adonis and a short CrossFit workout with Chris Paisley. Came home and made my family some dinner, cleaned up the house, picked tomatoes from the garden, and have some design work and yoga planning to do before getting some sleep. Thanks to all of my students who keep me inspired and filled up with love and light - and thanks to all of our family and friends who have been helping out so much with my Dad. 

Beep Beep. I'm a yuppie. 

Garden Goodness

Yesterday, my student (and friend) Marie brought me some fresh blackberries that she picked from her garden.

Our melon patch.

Little baby watermelon. Pretty soon we'll be able to open up a melon stand we will have so many!

Eggplants!!

Super cute, super delicous yellow cherry tomatoes!

The Machine.

Patrick "The Machine" Majewski

Patrick has been coming to my Yin classes at Dr.Adonis's CrossFit center. I took off of work last night so that I could go support him for his title fight against Chris Fitzpatrick. Of course there was champagne and such before hand, so we were very excited when it finally came time for the fight! I went with the whole crossfit posse, and it was a blast! 

 

Middleweight Patrick Majewski , (19-1, 13 KOs) fighting out of Atlantic City since 2003, pleased his hometown fans with a 5th round TKO over Cleveland’s Chris Fitzpatick ( 15-2, 6 KOs). With the win, Majewski captured the vacant NABF title and the top 15 rating in the WBC that comes with it.

The CrossFit ladies...and me. Lisa, Sam + Erika.

Big Butts.

Amen.

Yoga + Chocolate

David Romanelli came to town and did a Yoga + Chocolate workshop at the Zen Den. Also known as "Yeah Dave", he is a super funny, down to earth, eat-chocolate-and-live-life kinda guy...right up my alley. It was a blast and I felt really blessed to be able to share the room with some of my favorite yogi friends. 

 

Vosges Chocolate : So Yummy.

Nicole and Collette...Chocolate Yoga Bliss.

Ari, Nicole, David, Brooke and Me.

Seven.Four

Yesterday was the first fourth of July that I have gotten to celebrate in a loooooooonggg time. I taught yoga in the morning and then hung out with my family for a bit before heading to Northfield to meet up with my friends. Erika, Chris, Luther, Adeana and I packed the coolers and headed to Margate for some proper beach July 4th celebration. Luther was the grill master - cooking up burgers and hot dogs, Chris Paisley was the unofficial mayor - talking to everyone in town, and us three ladies just held down the fort and enjoyed some cocktails. It felt good to be able to relax and take a full breath for a minute. Feeling Grateful for the amazing class I taught that morning, the quality time that I got to spend with my family, and for the time to just let loose and relax with good friends. 

Erika chowing on a burger.

Luther and Brandon talking about 'man' stuff over by the grill. 

The beautiful Adeana enjoying some champagne.

Beautiful Night. 

2am

It is now 2am as I wrap things up and get ready for bed. I left the house at 6:20am this morning (or i guess technically Yesterday morning) to teach my 7am yoga class on the beach. Fast forward to yoga class #2 (which was epic, kundalini goodness with 22 awesome yogis), some errands, giving a massage to the talented and amazing Jeannie, then straight to Sunset to waitress. Cooking began on the car ride home from waitressing as I planned out my station and plan of attack. Now im going to read some Osho before catching a short but sweet few hours of sleep. And then, it begins again....

Mom Says It Best....

Mom says it best, this is her latest email update:

" Wow, I almost wrote this a few days ago and I'm glad that I didn't have time. Starting Thursday ,Paul had a real downward slide.He was having a tough time communicating and generally was "out of it". At the same time he was very aware that things were not right.Had I written just that, and stopped there , I might have scared you guys as much as it scared me.
He recognized everyone when he saw them, and talked to them as best he could, but within an hour of them leaving he had NO recollection of them being there. The first example of this was that on Thursday evening. Brad and Rochelle came over and provided us with an incredible Fish Taco supper. While this was going on his sister Nellie and her son Matt arrived. It was the first time she had been here since coming up from Florida. Paul was happy to see them, but very tired and quiet. It was strange because he's been counting the days until Nellie arrived for at least 6 weeks. Anyway he went to bed early. The next morning he had NO memory of Anyone being here. I tried to remind him by telling him where we sat, what we ate, etc but nothing registered. I told him I had even let him have cake.Two different kinds in fact. I thought for sure that would jog his memory, but his only response to that was," If I don't remember it , then it doesn't count."
There were several other examples of this behavior. I called Joe King at one point, and he assured me that we had seen him bounce back many a time, so hang in.
The next day was even scarier. We talked about some major things from his past that he had no memory of at all.It was starting to upset him , so at that point I told him that the past was the past ,and we didn't need to worry about it anyway. We would just live directly in the moment. I also told him not to worry if he forgot me ,because I would never forget him, and I would take good care of him. These were not easy days. By Saturday night I thought that maybe adding another steroid would help. That has us up to 7mg a day.He kept apologizing for being "out of it". He apologized for having to ask me the same thing over and over. I told him if he asked me something a million times I would answer him a million times, so he could stop apologizing.
Saturday was when the crazy storm had knocked out most of the power in NJ. Thank God our house came through unscathed. I know it wouldn't have put me over the edge, but it would have got me close.So on Saturday Nellie and Matt came and spent the night. On Sunday morning I rolled over and looked at Paul and said, "Do you know who stayed here last night?" He replied Matt and Nellie and then told me what we had for dinner , which he followed with the announcement, "I'm back!" I called Joe and let him know our boy had BOUNCED again. Oh , Happy Day!!!
By Sunday Megan and family had thrown in the towel trying to live in the hot house, running their freezer with the neighbors generator ,and joined us. All of us ended up in the pool, even Paul. That night we dined on Megan's Spaghetti and Meatballs. Just as we were discussing where everyone was going to sleep, Meg got a call from her neighbor saying the power was on. So they high tailed it back to their own beds.
Nellie stayed again and took Paul out to lunch and ran errands for me so that I could get some work done.She took him to check on his boat. He told me he saw Mary Schmelzer and talked to her just fine. He was happy with his progress. Nellie really enjoyed having some one on one time with her brother. That evening, his brother Michael surprised us with a visit. It was great. The next morning they took him out for breakfast and bought him early birthday presents. Some XX shirts and some XL pants.He is going to be STYLING!!!! Michael also got us a new pool ladder to replace the broken one I had been using. He had a great morning with you two. I miss you guys already.
When I had some free time I called the PA Karen. We had to discuss what the next course of action is going to be. She said he still needs to take time off the Avastin so that the kidneys and blood pressure can stabilize. After awhile they might try a different chemo, but she did say that pretty much anything will hurt his kidneys, so we are sort of between a rock and a hard place. For now we are just hoping that this break gives him time to get healthy enough to withstand whatever they come up with next.There's not much to do, but do what we do. Its worked for us so far, so why mess with success. Stay with us people. Team Callahan has added a few new members,Candy, Fred , and Willie. The more the merrier.Pray, or whatever it is you do. Positivity is what this team is all about.
A special hope that everyone is keeping cool. That everyone has a fun and safe Fourth of July. Say some extra prayers for Gary Jost.He fought a tree and lost while on the job trying to save people's power. He's fine ,but pretty beat up. And pray Cailin finds a good car to buy soon with the help of Jim B.And thanks to Chris Paisley for helping out in so many ways.We sure do surround ourselves with some quality people. We are so blessed and lucky to have the friends we do.
That's it for now. I do believe I am done work for the day. How cool is that!!! love, Doreen

I have a favor to ask. If you forward these emails to anyone just let me know how many people you send it to. I'm trying to get a better picture of who else is on our side. My official email count is 152,but I know for a fact that so many of you forward this everywhere to everyone. And between my customers, Cailin's friends, customers, and blog readers,all the prayer groups we are on, etc we have enough of us to start our own country by now.
I do believe we are going to the beach tomorrow. The only thing that would keep us away would be bugs."

Although I may try to describe Love, 
When I experience it, I am speechless. 
-Rumi

Found this photo in the archives, this was the day after I got back from Asia and I recreated all of the asian dishes that I'd encountered along the way. One beautiful year ago <3