Achey

First, for the general diary stuff. I went to class today. I was supposed to have a private last night with Christopher but we ended up blowing each other off, for various reasons. He wanted me to meet him up on Mars at like 5 instead of 5:30 downtown. Uh, dude, I have a JOB! So I said, you know what, I'm moving on Tuesday so I'm a little nuts anyway so let's push it back to next Thursday. Cool.

Practice today was tough. I practiced Sunday then Wednesday and Wednesday was, well, pitiful. So I really haven't done much this week at all. My practice space in the living room keeps getting smaller and smaller due to boxes and bins and such. Therefore, I was REALLY stiff today. My right knee gave me that tiny warning pain it gives on the inside of the knee when my hip is too stiff to be doing what I'm doing. If that makes any sense. My knee is like my early warning signal. Any nagging pain on the inside and I know my hip is stiff. There's also something going on in my left leg, it's hard to explain. Right up under my bumcheek, my hamstring is quite sensitive and painful. Forward bending has been difficult all week since last Sunday. Then in the front there is a nasty tightness that turns into pain whenever it is stretched. I managed to lumber my way through the whole primary today though, so that's something. And three decent but tight backbends. Actually, given how tight I was, I'm surprised I could backbend at all. At this point I actually have the ability to THINK when I get up there so on the third one I tried to breath into the hip flexors to help them lengthen. I'm not sure if it really worked but it was cool that I had the presence of mind to do it! Slow and steady progress, as always.

I keep thinking of good 'substantive' blog topics when I'm offline. I have such a hard time remembering my ideas when I'm online! Moving on Tuesday and nothing is done in the house. Scary!

Seriously....

It's Sunday and G is back so I went to Not So Anonymous Shala for class. It was good to see him, he seemed full of energy and extra cheerful. So, I figured after yesterday's BRUTAL Laughing Lotus class I would be really sore and stiff but not so! Actually, I've found that I have the best Sunday practice if I do some sort of ultra-criminal class on Saturday. Anyhoo, there is some soreness in my front ribs, which Anna thinks is the result of the MULTIPLE vasistasanas. How did she manage to get me to go to the class that REPEATEDLY did the one pose I hate? I'd go again though. I did a little bit of R&D before I got started, pigeon, firelog etc. I did 4 A's and 4 B's (very unlike me, I hate the B's). I was so tuned in during padahastasana that I missed G going to the front of the room for chanting and bolted upright during Om. Oh well. Standing poses were pretty good, I feel like I'm really making progress. No help in UHP, whatever. I need to learn to do it on my own anyway. New perspective on Janu A from G, that was interesting. Assists in Marichy A, B and C from the assistant, I just love her. I notice that C is coming along. I got my upper arm in front of my knee and managed to get my wrist wrapped around my ankle so that my hand was behind, all on my own. Wow! It actually kind of startled me, the assistant laughed. The navasana was still pitiful, perhaps I should do more of them during practice. I'll try that. After Navasana, I looked up to find G because we had discussed me doing bhujapidasana. It was two weeks ago, I didn't expect him to remember. I caught his eye and he said 'oh, it's the look'. LOL. I asked if I should keep going and he said 'yeah, sure' with moderate enthusiasm so I did the whole thing except setu bandhasana.

Here's where it gets dicey. I lay down on my back to do the chakrasana after supta padangustasana, rolled my feet over my head and farted. Um, unfortunately somewhat loudly. It totally came out of nowhere and I was mortified BUT I didn't lose my cool, I managed to execute the best chakrasana I ever have and just kept on going like nothing happened. To my fellow anonymouse shala-mates, I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean it. It happens, I guess. Moving on, I did my three backbends (with restasana between, need to work on that), five breaths each (longer breaths than last time). Then I did my baby dropbacks and saw the floor again, yikes! I also managed to remember paschimatanasana.

So I moved to the back of the room for finishing and that was pretty good too. I actually managed to gather up my legs and do a half-headstand with bent knees for about four breaths. Now, I know that doesn't sound like much to long-time headstanders but I seriously am afraid of headstand and rarely can do it without the wall, especially in a room full of people.

All in all, it was a fantastic practice, even with the flatulence.

In other news, we just got back from seeing The Incredible Hulk movie. Seriously, I really liked it. And, much to the chagrin of the men of the house, I really hate action movies. This one was good, even if Liv Tyler was a bit much with the pouty face and big sad eyes. Definitely better than Iron Man. If you have older kids who can handle it, definitely go see it.