Awkward Sub Experience

Last night, I got an e-mail from Golden Bridge Yoga, asking for a sub for tomorrow morning. I quickly replied back, and called, and then proceeded to check my phone every single minute for an hour.

I kid you not.

Enthusiasm.

Anyway, so no one got back to me. So I wake up nice and early and call the study, and lo and behold, I am teaching. So I get psyched and ready, arrive nice and early so I can stretch out. The classroom I am supposed to be teaching at wasn't empty, yet there was no one waiting for class in the lobby. I was confused by this as it slowly dawned on me that no one was going to come. This is really surprising- such a proud studio in the prime of soho- empty. It was a community class- $12- (extraordinarily high for a community class), but at lunch hour there should be plenty of stressed soho-ers.

I asked the two administrators people-in-charge if I could play my music, they said sure. They said I could go up to the third floor once the prenatal group got out, about 12:09, 10, something.

Sitting there, I noticed this beautiful velvet trimmed painting on the left wall and proceeded to rotate my 'teaching space' so students could use it for a concentration point. But there where no students.

So, eventually, I just decided to practice teaching, sequencing, and proceeded to do yoga for a while. I felt like it would be somehow unprofessional to just leave. I listened to the kundulini class happening below.

I thought about pretending there were students, and that they were all embodied through me, alive in my own actions. I got into quite a zone and played with sequencing ;)

When I got out, it occurred to me that I'm probably supposed to ask for compensation, but I also felt silly doing so. Maybe I thought someone would come up to me and acknowledge the situation saying "Oh, I'm so sorry! That happens sometimes, thank you so much for taking the time to come down. I hope you understand, we pay teachers on a per-head basis...."

But no one said anything of the sort so I thought I would be creative, and say "Oh, does this sort of thing happen often?" And they said yes, and I sent out my empathy to the teacher whose class it regularly is. Then I asked if, as an exchange, it might be possible for me to attend a workshop I saw posted. (It was about the power of words, and one day I would like to teach workshops on verbal self-defense at yoga studios!) They said no, so I said, ok, thanks, well, I can sub for you anytime, et cetera. And I left, feeling a bit awkward. But also, high from my excellent yoga session with my self.

Later, it occurred to me that I didn't really like the way I was treated, and I probably should have at least made it a point to say "Oh, I understand if you can't compensate me..." just to acknowledge that I was there to sub.

After the yoga high wore off, the story started annoying me. As I got dinner, I sort of wished I was in yoga class (ironically, the class I usually go to at 6:30 Tuesdays was canceled!), my mind was a bit off-kilter. I put it off as being really tired, because there was no logical reason I should be upset over an empty class. It's not even my class! There's nothing to take personally! And I'm not suggesting that an empty class is something to take personally- I go back and forth on that- it is certainly a sign something isn't working, it could be price, location, weather, or an element of your teaching- anyway- it's not even my class!

Looking back over this post, I realized that this is the sort of story, that although I try to shrug off, would disturb me if it happened to a friend of mine. (This is a good way to stick up for yourself in general). Hmmm. I'm done with this rant. On to a much more amusing post about Go and Lilia.