I've inadvertently outed myself. One of the teachers who fills in while Tim is out of town taught class today. She has read this blog because I got nailed a few times when I was slacking. She saw me futzing and wiggling around in Krounchasana, trying to get my hip just so before moving head toward knee. "Hey John, hurry up or you'll miss it" she announced while giving me one of her smiles that said, "I'm on to you." Later, I got up to get a drink while they were doing Parighasana, a pose I can do but not very well. I don't want to get up for any of the poses that come before that because I don't want to bail out for a rest break on a hard pose. I guess in my warped mind, it's less bad if you bail out in a pose that is do-able. I should have just stayed and done the stuff. I wasn't hurting that bad. Just old habits. So, I saunter out after a quick drink and a splash of water on my face and find that they're still on the first side. Hmm. As I tried to unobtrusively get back to my mat and down into the pose, she said, "We waited for you." and held the pose for a ten count, on both sides. Note to self: making everyone else have to hold poses for ten counts while you take a rest break is not a good way to make friends in the shala.

The woman next to me today pulled off Karandavasana. She's only the second woman I've ever seen do that pose. I've only seen three or four guys that can do it, maybe less. She looked as good in doing it as anyone I've seen. Smooth lower down into the pose, kept her hips up above the point of no return, didn't let her head dip down to the ground and did the push back up without any of the exertional histrionics that most of us inadvertently make, despite the fact that we're doing it assisted. As for me, well, I got my legs into lotus. That's about it. On my third try, I should add. I haven't done it enough to have a sense of the weight shifts that need to occur to get the folding of the hips and then to get the lowering into the state of the pose.

I got my first sunburn of the season today. After class, I went to my daughter's arena soccer game. That's where they play in an arena like in indoor soccer, but the arena is outside. They slaughtered the other team 17-2. That's with the coach making them attempt to do lots of passes and stuff first. I think the other team was a B team because they weren't even close skill-wise. After that we went to the Encinitas street fair and wandered around for a few hours. I can't believe how tired I get doing that. Something about shopping wears me out more than practicing. I took a 30 minute nap before getting ready for work tonight. I was lucky. If the phone hadn't rung, I could have been napping for a lot longer.

Tomorrow is the new moon, so no practice. I haven't looked ahead to my schedule this week so I have no idea if I get many chances or not. We'll take them as they come