Comfort Words

I walk into Shannon's studio, after having e-mailed her and checked her schedule, "Hey, you're Shannon, right? I'm Mona- I sent you an e-mail, but I though I would come by.."

And the corners of her mouth pull down as she grieves, "We're closing!".

"I'm so sorry," I say. We talk about it for a little bit, brainstorm ideas for a dance space/studio she could rent. Then she says, I'm exhausted. I've been teaching since 7 AM- can I comp you a class for tomorrow?
Sure, I say.

I head over to the 9 PM and catch Tamara's Baptiste-style hot vinyasa at 38th st. Afterwards, we chat, and she asks me some question to which I might have given a slightly snippy answers- snippy, not snappy, so not mean, just brief. Intuitively, "I don't want to talk about how things are because I am unemployed and I feel desperate and rejected and I think that's negative/ a complaint, I wouldn't want to meet you that way". So I snip.

Tamara must be awful clever because she picks up on, and so we talk about finding yoga work in the city.

And it's hard, she says. It's really, really hard, and it takes a long time, but it will happen. She went through me step by step her own experience and I couldn't be more grateful. It is so nice to actually hear the nitty gritty reality of fuck, having to look for work in the city. In the midst of a recession like this one, it's amazing how much 'looking for work' is a topic that people rarely talk about. How amazing is that?

Prana Power Yoga

I got a two week membership at Prana. I have missed hot yoga so much. So very much. I don't know how I did without it. I mean, I've been doing hot vinyasa at 38th st, but with only an hour for each class, I rarely fall into a meditative trance unless I go twice.

There is something about those extra fifteen minutes that is so much better. Also, Prana's classes are 'flowier', we must have done at least 6 sun salutation A's and B's. And half moon, which is my favorite pose.

YTTP hot yoga

The YTTP hot studio is my frequently courted beloved, but since every yoga experience is different (particularly the one I'm about to describe), here goes;

A little background information:

4 drinks last night, a seemingly unremarkable quantity, but more than I've had in ages, that's for sure.
I've kept my contacts in for three days.
I had perhaps a bloody mary and a half while still drunk, a tremendous amount of salt.
A tremendous amount of sugar (but let's be real here, can that really have dire consequences? Especially if it was the most beautiful, sparkly fair trade organic brown sugar? I mean, really?).
Potentially not enough air, or overly dry air. Although I would love to blame it on that, I think it was the contacts.

Anyway, I just got this pounding headache. And not just a headache. An overall oh-shit-am-I-dying-can-I-breathe-through-this-fuck-don't-think-all-thought-hurt-stop-thinking-stop-thinking. And the rest of my body followed suit as well. Last time this happened to me was at a YTTP retreat, though it wasn't as bad. I was really happy that Emalia was teaching, because although all the YTTP teachers are amazing, Emalia has this "Oh, I'll take care of you, you're totally safe here" quality about her (maternal projection, much?).

I was shaking throughout practice, and took many and many a child's pose, but when I was done, my headache was gone.

I swear, yoga cures everything. Apart from being late to class.