Tycho Talk

Anyone want some free yoga?

My friend Pixie is going to teach a 6-week course on beginner's hatha yoga. It'll be at her home in far north Austin, once a week, most likely on Monday evenings around 7:30. The beginners' series is part of a training program she's doing. It'll be 6 classes, for free, starting in late July. No prerequisites, but bring your yoga mat. The class is intended for beginners and could be a nice way to reconnect to a yoga practice. At the end she'll ask attendees to fill out a short survey (that's optional).

If you're interested, let me know and I'll give you her contact information.

This head cold, verily it sucketh. I don't think I've had one this bad since the one I got right when we went to London. I stayed home from work yesterday and spent time with the Quil brothers (Ny and Day), and also with Threeve because we hadn't hung out in awhile and I was not sick enough to want to sleep all day, and was feeling bored and lonely. I also wanted to pick his brain about my drumming- but when I sat down at the set, I did a hell of a lot better than I had the day before. I'm not sure what was different- maybe my brain just needed a bit of time to wire up the neural pathways, but I was scoring at least 90% on just about every song I tried. On Easy, yeah, but this was only day two of this process so that's not too bad. He offered a couple of pointers, though, and we caught up and had a nice afternoon.

I thought about calling in sick for yoga- Pixie has been giving free yoga lessons for her teacher certification. I sacked up and went anyway,and I'm glad I did. I learned how many frogs I can do before my legs cry 'uncle'- 19. I tend to think I'm in bad shape because I'm generally such a lard-ass, but yoga makes me think I'm in better shape than I often assume. Maybe it's a high constitution. I don't know if I could fight off or outrun a grizzly bear, but you betcha I can do breath of fire for a long time.

I didn't sleep worth a damn, and the cold is trying to crawl down into my lungs. Bleh. There will be more drumming today.

Yesterday we got up early to make it to a beginner's hatha yoga class (hatha star). Eric had never been, so I picked one at a time that didn't conflict with other plans even though I didn't know this teacher. I regret that, because in my opinion she was not a very good teacher. She managed to sound shrill and bossy in that aerobics instructor way- for me this is the antithesis of yoga, and she was doing it even when she was telling us to just lie on the ground. Which leads to the other problem, that this class was way too easy. The hatha star class Rebecca teaches on Tuesday afternoons is easy but I still work up a sweat. This one was pretty much all done sitting. Sitting and twisting. Not a single downward dog. I know I've bitched about downward dog, but I'm used to doing at least a couple of Sun salutations, even if it's dumbed-down easy versions. So bleh.

I looked up Sun salutations, because I'd previously heard that they were something like these ancient forms that turn you into a solar energy collector and they help you become enlightened and cure acne and so on. Turns out they were invented in 1929 by a guy who wanted a warm-up for his wrestling team. Sort of the Indian version of 50 jumping jacks. Well, I still like 'em.

So I looked around online and found a dvd that has a whole bunch of yoga workout on it, and has this feature where you can piece together a routine that you can change up as much as you want. I might let my current class pass run out and just do yoga at home. But maybe not; like Wicca I tend to be more consistent when I'm working around other people, so maybe I'll do the classes and use the dvd for times when I'm not able to go walkies due to weather. When summer rolls around, that can be pretty often- the heat is a bitch unless you get up pretty early, which I don't tend to do.

I screwed around with the layout of my LiveJournal. None of them had exactly what I wanted, but I got pretty close.

We visited the Alamode to see the Reno 911 movie. It was 2 hours of the tv show with more boobies and un-bleeped cursing. That was fine, I wasn't expecting Schindler's List, and I laughed a lot. I also saw previews for the Simpsons movie, the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, and an ice-skating movie with Will Ferrell that actually looks kind of funny. It's nice to see Jon Heder getting post-Napoleon work.

I am weirdly between projects right this second. It seems like there have been things hanging over my head for months, but now that I've done them and there are no rituals coming up soon, that I'm sort of at a loss. I'm trying to decide if I want to take my car to Firestone, since it needs tire-like things, or to hang onto it and try to hit a yoga class later- which will not be possible if my car's in the shop getting new feet.

I let yoga slide when my yoga buddy Brenda got sick and stopped wanting to go, then moved to another city. I still have a few classes left on the last pass I bought. They expired awhile ago, but I know they'll be cool about it if I buy some more passes- then they'll just add on the unused ones. My favorite teacher has sadly stopped teaching at the location nearby, so it will be teacher roulette if I stick to it. The one I was looking at today has a guy teaching it. He looks 'extreme' and his bio refers to him as 'disciplined', these two impressions sort of rub me the wrong way, but it still might be worth giving him a shot.

On the other hand, if I take the car to get new feet, I can walk home which will be exercise too. It looks like it's stopped raining, so I think that's what I'll do. Extreme Dude teaches a class tomorrow too.

Went to yoga with Brenda this morning... I haven't been going regularly, and it turns out they kept the teacher I like (Wendy at the Anderson location of Yoga Yoga, if you're keeping track) in the same time slot, but changed the class she was teaching from Hatha to 'Hatha Flow'. That means there's less time spent going into and out of poses, so it's a lot less contemplative and a lot more active. Not quite like aerobics, but closer that it was before. It kicked my ass initially, but fortunately she went from the thousand variants of Sun Salutations to sitting poses about 2/3 through, so we got to wind down a bit as we were being all twisty (a part I'm not too bad at, taking into account my shape not lending itself to some of the poses very well), then the usual 10-minute meditation-nap at the end that I've always loved.

Wendy came up to us after and asked us how we liked it. I groused a little at how much my ass got kicked, and she said "but y'all kept up!" She's always so positive. She's the first yoga teacher I've had, and my favorite by far. She's just very gentle and encouraging. She mentioned going to the hot-room yoga (Ashtanga, I think) and how that was too active for her... and even tried kickboxing, but had to quit because it made her feel too aggressive, like she wanted to punch people. Brenda and I later remarked in amazement at the idea of Wendy wanting to punch people. It's so not her! So she said Hatha Flow was more active and firey, but it's also more watery what with the flowing and all. I can see that, and I will try to stick with it. I'll just have to remember to ignore that inner coach that tries to get me to push so hard I almost pass out. I think I need to ease up before I get even close to that point. Let's face it, I'm not in great shape.

Eric had taken many photos of Gordon while we yogad. He wanted some nice pictures to send to distant friends and relatives to show off his weight loss. Anyway, Gordon offered to take us all out to lunch to pay Eric back. What a guy! Eric picked Taco Deli- not my favorite place, but at least I can eat healthy there. Brö came over for a bit, and now we're going to head over to River's place for a par-tay. It's clothing-optional, mainly because one of her friends just likes to stroll around naked, not for any specifically-planned activities with which to make the baby Jesus cry. Eric's making a loaf of bread for the pot luck. I should probably shower.

Well, I'm awake after 3-4 hours of sleep. And hot. I don't have a clue as to why; maybe perimenopause or some shit. Le sigh.

Yesterday was pretty cool. I woke up after not enough sleep when hub was getting ready to go to a garage sale thrown by a gaming geek he knew. I was hungry enough to want a little something to eat before yoga, so I had some cereal even though They tell you not to eat before yoga, dammit! I can see why; I almost got nauseous a couple of times; Brenda reminded me that dairy and yoga are mortal enemies and to have a banana next time instead.

We had a different teacher. She seemed a little ditzy and focused on breathing a lot more than our regular teacher does, but it was still a good session. I sweated my butt off. I had another one of those deep, almost out-of-body things during the relaxation part at the end, which may be nothing more than me falling asleep, but it feels different somehow. I don't know if doing this is aerobic (I kind of doubt it) but it's good for something.

I did some work on the pool when I got home, and had planned to get in the pool and do even more work but somehow hub and I ended up taking a fairly long nap together, which was ever so nice. Maybe I am getting old when naps are fun. Nap Strong!

The Full Moon ritual was really cool, and I finished Harry Potter 6. Thumbs up, much better than 5.

Wow, this weekend was really busy.

Before the House of Images thing, I went to yoga with Brenda. I bought myself a mat (expensive for just a rectangular piece of plastic, but oh well) and a pass for four classes. My new mat was a little slippery, so I had a hard time with a couple of poses when my sweaty appendages would start sliding in an inappropriate direction. And I did sweat my ass off. But I enjoyed myself, and going with Brenda makes it a lot more fun than it would be otherwise. I guess this is what folks mean when they talk about a 'work-out buddy'. I get it now. I had thought it was someone who would push you and give you someone to compete with, and that doesn't work for me at all. When the teacher asks us to do some especially twisty pose and I can look over at my buddy with incredulous disbelief and have her giving me the same look, well, that's fun. We still try, but laugh when we fall over on our butts. Yesterday it was the shoulder stand. Nooooot happening. Maybe someday.

The teacher talked about the Moon and how we could use the energy of the Full Moon to help us out. I can see why the Christian fundies get a rash about yoga. I enjoyed it thoroughly of course. The lady who teaches our class is so nice and gentle and anti-aerobics-instructor. We learned how to do Moon Salutations, which are like Sun Salutations (something even I in my copious yoga ignorance was familiar with) but, you know, more lunar.