Bikram, Day 67
Yup, still going… 67 consecutive days and counting.
So, Friday was a slight change of pace. I went to a different studio, with the owner of my usual studio, and took a class led by Rajashree, Bikram’s wife, who was in town for some events. It was interesting to take a class from her just for the sake of it being someone so closely connected to the origin and continuation of the practice but, at the end of the day, it was just another class.
Most of my friends know that my sense of history and such is pretty blank. These days, I get the benefit of saying I’m living in the now, rather than trying to relive my past or live out a projected future. But honestly? My memory has never been too on top of most things.
A friend just started taking Bikram at my studio, although we’ve never been in the same class yet (making two friends i got to go now, who both prefer evening classes, whereas I do at 9a or noon). He got really sore in class and says it wipes him out, and asked if that happened to me when I started. I said I didn’t recall being sore or anything, but then decided to send him the links to the first few days of my Bikram blogging. And, yeah, first class, references to being sore. So, it’s good i write stuff here, or else I’d never remember anything.
The owners of the yoga studio took me out to dinner on Friday night after Rajashree’s class. Initially, there was talk of doing something aorund North Beach, where the class was, so I just figured, ‘Eh? Bunch of Italian places there, T-shirt and pants will be fine.’ When I get to the studio, they tell me they have a reservation at Greens, which is this really high-end vegetarian place right on the bay, with an amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course, being in the land of tech millionaires, you can always dress like a slob and get away with anything. Walking past an open house for a $2.5M apartment, sweaty, on your way home from the gym? No problem, just walk in, they will show you around like you might be the future owner because, frankly, they can’t tell the millionaires from the dorm students. Got to love that aspect of the area.
Read “This Year You Write your Novel” by Walter Mosley, following my tradition of only reading books from people who have written multiple books. Another tight read of no bullshit advice. One thing that resonated was he considers reading the book a draft. So, write it… draft one. Read draft one… that’s draft two. Rewriting that text is draft three. Interesting idea.
The other thing I found is an online site, when Googling something entirely off-topic. But it was a list of 50 things to keep writers motivated. In the top ten was paying yourself a salary, not real money, but basically come up with an hourly rate and all of your leisure time comes out of that budget. So, no writing = no dining out, no movies, nothing. Interesting idea.
That’s about it, mainly wanted to check in with the Bikram stuff. At this point, I’d be hard-pressed to imagine how I wouldn’t do 90 classes in a row. May as well do 100, sounds nicer. I used to do to the gym every day, so this isn’t really new, except for the eating issues and the timing aspect for the classes. One guy I met at the Rajashree training also used to be over 300 pounds and lost a lot of his weight through diet and Bikram. He’s on a pattern now of doing doubles, although the thought of two of these classes in a day is pretty hard to fathom. More from a time standpoint than the actual practice. I may do a double one of these days, though, since I want to go to an amusement park, and want to get the yoga out of the way for more roller coaster time.
Went to Slanted door with family tonight, then watched the KFOG Ka-Boom Fireworks show over the bay. Good stuff. Amazing how well they synchronize the fireworks to the music.
