Today was Mother's Day. I hope everyone had as beautiful a day as we had here in SD. I spent yesterday trying to scrabble together the appropriate gestures, or at least what passes for appropriate from me. As per our usual household protocol, I had been given guidelines on what was desired by the applicable parties. For my mom, fix her printer. For my wife, peace and quiet. And a digital camera. The latter was really for my daughter, but we do need a new camera, so my wife decided to sacrifice her option of a gift so that my oldest would have something she could learn to use for her school projects. I brought the camera home with me from work. I sat with my daughter and got it up and running and showed her a few things. I had to go to practice then so I told her to work her way through the rest of initial instructions on how to shoot pictures, review and erase them, etc. When I came back from practice a couple of hours later......., it didn't work anymore. GRRRRR. Wouldn't turn on, wouldn't turn off or anything else. Made a nice paperweight though. I dicked around with it for a while while they were swimming over at my mom's. Naturally, I dropped it on the sidewalk while pulling out my keys. It left a nice scratch that totally precluded me returning it for a full refund. Plus, I bent the door to the battery compartment. GRRR. GRRR. I was able to get the battery door working again. And later this evening, I tried a different pair of batteries than the other 5 or 6 pairs than I had tried previously and now it works fine. For now. GR.

Speaking of practice, today's class was the Sunday led first series class. It was quite warm. I was still working in the same mode as I was Friday morning, when the room was quite a bit cooler. Didn't work today. I started to wear out, in my arms and shoulders mainly, by the mid seated poses. I had been feeling pretty strong in my last few classes, so on my way to class I had envisioned new levels of focus and effort. Instead, I got up at my usual place (usually just after garbha pindasana) and went to the bathroom to get a quick drink from the sink and to try and get some semblance of steady ujjayi breath back. I do this knowing how weak I am for doing it. Yet, I indulge myself each time. Kind of like someone trying to diet, yet willfully choosing to have a sinful dessert or snack each day. It's a battle I'll fight another day.

We had a fair number of new faces today. I think maybe that's why Tim decided to play with us a little. Every class is different. Sometimes, it's a pretty straightforward class, varying little from the format that any ashtangi would recognize. On occasion, he is a little freer than usual with his witticisms and insights and will get us all laughing, sometimes out loud, sometimes internally. Other times, he will be more instructive, giving technique advice to the class thru the student he is helping. Once in a while, like today, he just plays with us a bit. In navasana, for the fifth rep, rather than counting out a five count, he decided we should all sing "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" for a while. While we sing it we're supposed to wave our arms back and forth as we "row" our navasanas. Hyuck, hyuck, geeze what a kidder. You want to talk about wheezy thin voices..., today's version was especially lame. Later, in urdhva dhanurasana, instead of counting the reps, we did it alphabetically, with each letter, A, B, C, etc meaning some Sanskrit term, as in "A, 'Atta', meaning 'now', so..., Go up! NOW!" Now, this is well and good and creative and all, but the people who have been to his improv classes know that when he does the letter method of counting, he often goes up to J or L. So, I was kind of wondering if he would try that here instead of the 5 or 6 reps the class is used to getting, but he had mercy: "F, as in Final...., Go up! Stay up, until someone comes by to help you to standing."

As is usually the case after a class that pushes me, savasana was nice today. We had some really nice music to listen and relax to. Tim will often play music in the background for savasana, although sometimes the CD player won't read because of the humidity from the condensed sweat. I know some people may not music like that, but I really do. The song he played today is wonderful for savasana. You sort of feel yourself drifting along with the slow rhythm of the chant, not to get too poetic or anything, but almost like a leaf on the surface of a pond or waving in a light breeze. I can't remember the name of the disc. I actually ordered it the first time I heard him play it, but I seem to have lost it before I was ever able to play it in my car. What's new?

I put up a coupla few pictures of me transmogrifying postures (over on the left there). I don't really have too many pictures of me doing stuff. I don't put these up for any reason other than to be able to see where I am right now. Well, actually, I'm better now, these actually show where I was a year or two ago. I know full well there's a lot of things I need to be doing better in most of them. Maybe my daughter will do a spread of the entire first series. Once we figure out how to work this Mother's Day gift, and how to keep it working.