Bikram, Days 10-12
Less observable stuff happens as the class goes on. The stuff that does crop up, well, it’s hard to tell when something is new because I was unable to do it before, or new because I never noticed it before. Today, when I was bent over, I noticed that the end of the string used to fasten my shorts, which is fastened at the end like a shoelace, was pouring drop after drop directly onto the towel on top of my yoga mat. The interesting bit being that it is suspende din the air, which means all of the string had to be thoroughly soaked, but also that somewhere above that everything was so wet it was providing a continual salty stream downward, so that the constant dripping never let up. So wet.
When we do the second series of poses, which are leaning from side to side without bending elbows or knees, when my arms are raised up, they don’t seem to bow out anymore, and continue a perfect line up from my torso. I know they didn’t do that before, but it’s fuzzy whether that is just improved form or something that was difficult to do prior.
The mindset is the most beautiful part. There is a lot of smiling in yoga for me. It is the ultimate reality. When i can’t do a pose, there is nothing to do but accept my balance isn’t there today, or that I just can’t lock my knee out. but everything is about that moment. Cardio, on the other hand, was always about putting in the time so that I could have a skinny future. It’s so much nicer to be present in the moment.
So, after 9 a.m. yoga today (Sunday, Day 12), I went to a brunch at a friend’s, which was being held in advance of the big anti-war rally in town. I made sure in advance that it was Ok for me to show up, seeing as when it came time for the group to head to the rally, I’d be peeling off. So, I did, and coming in a bit sweaty from yoga made small talk pretty easy, since everyone wanted to hear about Bikram Yoga. There were a lot of misconceptions that I was able to clear up, mostly that it is an “intense” class, which is something that comes up often. I mean, sure, there is a huge physical obstacle with the high temperature, but I find it to be fluid and graceful far more than intense. When you think of everything you do in 90 minutes, I would never correct someone and say it wasn’t intense, but not in the way people seem to think. I mean, there is no downward dog, no inversions, the teachers are all very quick to offer modifications for people of all skill level. It is far more healing than anything else.
After brunch, which didn’t have a lot of vegan options, I popped in to Dosa (a restaurant names after its Indian signature dish). I never went there before since, it is two doors down from Herbivore, which I adore, and it seemed expensive for what is essentially a crepe. I didn’t think it would fill me up. So, on a day where I wasn’t quite full, it seemed to be a good choice. I found the food to be very good, but the flow didn’t really work for me, I got the Spring Dosa, which is veggies in a rice-lentil flour crepe, which you dip into a lentil stew, and you have a coconut chutney as well as a, hmm, tomato-based chutney(?) to add to the mix. It was all tasty, but about $4-5 more for the full-on meal than Herbivore, which is more filling. But, any place with interesting stuff and vegan options is always fine by me.
Later in the day, I went downtown and did some shopping. Far more shopping than buying. I tried (C)Ross Dress for Less, Loehmann’s, a ew discounters, but couldn’t find what I wanted. Finally, I caved and just went to Niketown.
I was looking for running shorts, because being so close to naked in yoga class already, I want to push the edge a bit further. No, actually, all the shorts I wear to the gym go down to my knee, so I’m constantly breaking posture to tug them up my thigh to give me “slack” for the movement. So, running shorts avoid that problem by not having much to them at all. They are seriously short, with just a little built-in mesh undergarment to keep the boys happy. So, that will be the likely fous of the Day 13 blog. It will be nice to not have to break concentration to deal with that issue, though.
After that, I went to the Castro to meet Chris and Tawn. It’s a bit strange, because I’ve been reading Chris’s blog for months now, since it is about him living in Bangkok, teaching English, learning Thai, etc. I’ve no clue how I found it, but I don’t know if I had forgotten or ever knew that he is from SF. So, a few days ago, he mentioned he and Tawn were coming to the U.S. for a quick trip, and to save time, they would be hanging out at a dessert shop in the Castro from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sunday. So, this place is like 4-5 blocks from my apartment, which seemed completely out of the blue seeing as how I didn’t recall/knew he was from SF at all. When I read that, I figured I had to break silence and say hi, so I wrote Chris a quick e-mail, and he wrote back, but that was it. So, out of nowhere, I just sort of showed up to meet them in person. And it was surreal, since I’ve been reading his blog for a while now, so I know a lot about him and Tawn, but literally Chris found out I existed two days ago, and Tawn possibly had no clue. And the weird part.. it wasn’t that weird. Nice guys, so I’ll definitely visit them when I visit and/or move to Bangkok again.
