Saturday, August 21, 2010

Vinyasa

Today was a bit odd.

It started out great! I breezed through my morning volunteer shift at the Festival (I’m definitely perkier during the morning hours) and actually had a lot of fun!

I was assigned to monitor a classroom - DR’s classroom, in fact - but wasn’t allowed to sit in. Once the workshops were in session, I passed the time chatting with the other volunteers, playing around with adjustments, doing Sirsasana in the hallway and spying on DR as he taught a workshop on Mysore Style Astanga.

I have to admit, the Iyengar teacher in the other classroom was equally entertaining; lots of party favours (props) and they were doing some crazy, crazy stuff. Stuff that I want to try! The second floor is definitely a juicy volunteer assignment. We were all greatly entertained! :-D

After my shift ended, I had extra time before teaching, so I headed to the gym early and did a practice right in the middle of everything: weights, various contraptions and the swirl of activity. 70s pop was playing in the main gym and pounding house music was pouring out of the spinning room behind me creating a mixed caucophony. Maintaining focus and concentration was a challenge. Also, the spinning instructor enjoys yelling at people. A few times I actually startled, thinking “Is he talking to me?”

I recall Bindi mentioning that she sometimes does her practice at the gym because it attracts new students to her classes. I have often drawn questions from members as they observed my practice. It’s a good promotional tool. I may try to do it more often, at least on Saturdays. I really enjoyed my practice, even with all the distractions!

I didn’t do a full Primary, as I only had an hour. I practised half-Primary and skipped the vinyasas between sides of the seated poses to leave time for postures up to Garba Pindasana. Then I went right into backbends.

So far, I’ve only done dropbacks in three locations: the park, Shala North (during a workshop) and at home. I wondered how my brain would feel about doing dropbacks in a NEW place. I was surprised to discover that it wasn’t a big deal at all! I worked intensively for about 15 minutes and I was comfortable hanging back and dropping back. In fact, these were some of the deepest dropbacks I’ve ever done. I was landing my hands very close to my feet!

After I finished teaching, I started to bike home only to be caught in a downpour. That’s when my day started to get weird.

I paused in front of a building, still on the sidewalk, but taking shelter under an overhang. The rain was coming down in buckets! A crusty old security guard spotted me and came out. He aggressively told me to leave. It was a tense and confusing confrontation, given that I was standing on a public sidewalk! But I didn’t want to make a scene, so I left and was immediately drenched.

But Google made everything better!

I found another sheltered spot and pullled out my iPad. It took me less than a minute on Google to research the building’s management company. I wrote a quick email to their facilities department describing the incident. I did it right there! On the sidewalk! Dripping! Then I checked email as I waited for the showers to ease up and walked back to the building. I politely told the security guard that I had written to his employer and would be following up on Monday. He was nasty to me, but he also looked worried.

That was fun...I *love* technology!

But it left a residue on my day. By the time evening rolled around, I just wanted to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. Instead, I did some yoga-related retail therapy: I rode to Canadian Tire and bought a oil-filled radiator to use during my morning home practice. There is a delicious irony in buying a space heater on a warm, humid day in August. I was getting some extremely perplexed looks while waiting in the lineup with my heater.

The guy behind me finally couldn’t stop himself, he asked: “Was it on SALE?!!

“No,” I told him honestly, “I’m buying it to warm my apartment!”

His eyes widened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week’s State-of-the-Backbend was taken on Thursday, during the course of my regular backbending practice.

I think this was pre-dropbacks.

Meh. Looks the same as last week!

7 comments:

Boodiba said...

Did you take the guard's picture? That'd be funny. Remember me screaming at those Con Ed guys and chasing them around w/ my camera like some sort of rabid banshee?

Kaivalya said...

@Boodi
Nope - no camera on my iPad. It's my only complaint about the device. I love it otherwise!

I *do* remember you and the Con Ed guys. That totally made my day. I remember thinking, "That Boodiba is a little spitfire!!" Boy, you were PISSED! :-D

Boodiba said...

I'll bite yer legs off!

I'm staying up soooooo late with this moon day eve. Am back from the silly movie & I feel like another glass of wine & I CAN! So funny. I feel liberated staying up past 11 on an any night of the week.

Kaivalya said...

@Boodi
I’m surprised the Con Ed guys got away from you unscathed!

I'm up late too, though I'll probably practice tomorrow anyway - just later. I don't teach until the evening. It's fun being up late, but I'm yawning!

My mother is flying in late afternoon tomorrow. Yikes...

Boodiba said...

Oh no! A parental visit!!!! Get out the white sage smudge stick :) Kidding.

I can't practice later cause I've gotta go to work, but I don't mind taking a moon day. I ought to work a tinge harder when I'm actually on the mat, but....

Kaivalya said...

You get the garlic, I'll sharpen the stakes...ha,ha.

It's not SO bad. I found a B&B for her to stay at nearby and then we're driving up to Montreal for a few days. I'm practising at a shala up there, which will be fun.

It will be interesting to negotiate the food thing. She's really unhappy that I'm a vegan again. I was a vegan when we travelled to Charleston in '96 and she chipped away at me the entire week, complaining about how 'difficult' I was being.

Were going to a baseball game tomorrow night and she's already sighing over my refusal to eat a hot dog. It could be a VERY long week.

Boodiba said...

Oh so you ARE vegan now. You'd been moving in that direction.

I have to admit that I eat vegan whenever I feel the need to clean house a bit, but just for a day or two at a time. I will never, ever give up cheese & butter though, not full time :)