Week 163: The Yoga Barre & Diamonds
- elenalilamartin
- Feb 21
- 3 min read
Week 163: February 15th-21st, 2026
This week was full of birthdays! My mom, my friend Jackson, my friend Amanda's boyfriend, and my friend Alicia all celebrated birthdays this week.
Alicia planned an unconventional birthday celebration: a private group class at The Yoga Barre in Del Mar. This was the first time I've taken a barre class. In the past, I've taken yoga classes, Pilates classes, etc. but never barre, so I was excited to check it out. I think it was a great idea for Alicia to encourage a different type of group activity and it was a fun space to share with just friends.
A lot of people who came to celebrate Alicia's birthday were her friends from high school and college, but I knew a few of them from past celebrations. It was amazing to see what a group of Type-A, content-creator women and gays could do. There were coordinated decorations (all lavender themed), multiple cakes, desserts, charcuterie cups, and flowers. There were even goody bags to take home with mini sweat towels, lip gloss, and energy drinks. It was a whole production, with many cooks in the kitchen. The set-up went quickly, the class ran smoothly, and the clean-up was easy.
The class itself was actually a great workout. I sweat a lot, and I was sore for a few days afterwards. If Katrina's body is any indication of what regular yoga and barre can do, I'm a convert. A tiny waist, strong arms, incredible balance, and great posture are just the beginning. All of us in the class were in awe of Katrina's ability to whip us into shape, do the workouts alongside us, and not seem to get winded at all, while we were huffing and puffing.
Here is The Yoga Barre's Yelp Page if you want to check them out. I recommend Katrina as an instructor because she did a bit of an "untraditional" barre class with more yoga and strength, but I'm sure any of them are good. I want to redeem my free class and return to their studio soon. I've realized I may need to start doing more class-based workouts because my self-motivation in the gym isn't as high anymore. Simply going to the gym and doing a workout isn't getting me the results or satisfaction that I used to get, mainly because I'm so easily distracted. Having an instructor and the consciousness that comes with being in a class means my workouts might get better. I'm not sure if The Yoga Barre is the place I'll stick with, but maybe I'll try ClassPass or something.
In other news, my boyfriend got me a Diamond Dotz diamond painting kit for Valentine's Day and its been a fun new hobby! Even after a few hours, I'm barely halfway through the canvas, so it is pretty slow progress, but its relaxing and easy. You pick up small little resin rhinestones AKA "diamonds" and place them on a sticky canvas. The design I'm working on is an aurora borealis.
It's been a nice activity to do while I am in long meetings at work and don't have to present, or even after work as a way to wind down and do a non-screen-based hobby. I would love to create my own designs. Since they are based on a grid, similar to cross-stitch, it couldn't be that hard. If I figure out how to get a canvas sticky like that, maybe I'll get into it more and frame them for gifts. I always love a good craft alongside a good video game.
The key-based grid getting slowly filled out is fun to see. I've found a couple rogue diamonds stuck to my arm or in the carpet near where I'm working, but hopefully the kit comes with more than enough for each color... if not, well I hope I've found all the rogue rhinestones.
Bonus: Claudia the weird pink tiger finally moved out of my island in Animal Crossing, so I was fully prepared for a long hunt on some Nook Miles Islands to find a new replacement. I want Tangy or Stitches, but I actually found Sherb on the FIRST island in my hunt! I was convinced it was fate. This little blue goat is so cute!
See you next week.
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