Well, I did one of my classic Homer Simpson moves this past Sunday, Mother's Day. Way back a ways, I picked up a call for Sunday evening. The call that was available was a 24 hour shift but I opted to only pick up the second half of it. It was Mother's Day after all. Plus, then I could go to whichever of the two Sunday morning classes I wanted too. Sounds intelligent so far. So when my final schedule came out a couple of months ago, it had me on call at this hospital from 8 PM till 8 AM. Again, the normal shift is 8 AM till 8 AM the next morning. So, not paying attention, I write in that I'm on call from 8 till 8, like I usually do. Come time to check my schedule for the week coming up, "Oh look, I'm on call on Mother's Day. That sucks. Okay, so we can do Mom stuff the day before. Besides, I need the work with all the various bills coming up." So, I stroll into work at 8 AM, bright eyed and bushy tailed. I see the guy I think I'm supposed to be replacing. He gives me a weird look and says, "What are you doing here? You're not on call for the day are you?" Then he quickly adds, "But, if you want to work it, I really don't want to. I've been trying to give up this call for weeks." Turns out he was the one whose call I took half of. He was scheduled to be there in the day and I wasn't due in till that evening. Doh! Since I was there and did need the money, I sent him off to surprise his wife. I had missed the second series class anyway, so why not? He probably laughed at me the whole way home.

Monday I went to the mid-day class. It's a shorter version of the first series. The teacher occasionally throws in some other things as well. Monday's class was pretty straight forward, which I had hoped it would be. I've got to do that stuff regularly or I lose it in some poses. After we did our back bends before the closing sequence, she had us do some drops backs. "If you want to, otherwise do some more back bends" is kind of how she put it. I was already standing up, I had gotten up on my last two back bends reps. With her standing right there to help me, it was the perfect opportunity to at least try to do the drop back approach she had suggested to me, right? So, I of course just sat down and did another couple of back bends. I'm nothing if not consistent. Consistently finding ways to avoid the edge, I am.

My teacher left town for a two week East coast sojourn. He left earlier than he had to. Maybe he wanted to have some fun with the family in NYC. When I found out he was already gone, it changed my mood about practice this week. I had made some switches in my work schedule on Thursday to get to the 7:00 class, thinking he might lead that before going to the airport for his trip. I had also intended to go to the Wednesday night class, which he also leads. I hadn't made it to any of his classes lately, so I was looking forward to a couple of them in a row. Not to be.

With Tim gone, I decided to break the rules and do two practices today. I went to the noon Improv class and also went to the evening led First Series class. I was able to go to the day time class by virtue of having worked last night. I had a relatively straight forward night so I felt I had enough rest to do both classes.

The noon class was a fun class, not too out there. It flowed well, which is sometimes a problem in Improv classes. We did stuff I need to do, though there's really not much I don't need. I was surprised to get to do Viparita Salabasana again, including the prep pose against the wall. That's a good pose, I like it. Can't do it, but I like to try it. The prep pose inverted against the wall is a great upper back stretch. We also did Hanumanasana, twice. The first time came where it is typically inserted, after the Prasaritas. Then, we did a bunch of groin stretches culminating in a second round of Hanumanasana. The teacher asked the group, "Doesn't it feel so much better doing it the second time?" Not to me it didn't unfortunately. I need more of that stuff. I can sometimes get all the way down to the ground when my left leg is forward but not when the right is forward. That right side is definitely the "bad" side. It's closer than it ever has been though. Same old story though. If I don't do that pose for another week or so, I won't be able to get either side down to the ground. While I have made encouraging progress in all of the splits, it has been glacial.

I lost some of my motivation to do two classes in one day as I rested in Savasana. I hemmed and hawed a bit through the afternoon but ended up going after all. The room was a bit more crowded than usual. I don't think they all knew Tim was out of town. Some seemed a little surprised when the teacher announced he was filling in for Tim. There were a couple of bendy boyz set up across the room from me. I glad they opted to go there and not next to me. Had they been closer, I would have probably tried to see if I could stay up with them. It would have been a futile waste of effort and energy since they were both well out of my league.

I was next to a woman visiting from Germany. She told me she is vacationing in our area. She is a climber and plans to go to several of the climbing spots in our general area, like Joshua Tree, etc. Having heard that she was a climber, I made some assumptions about what aspects of the First Series she would be good at and what she would have a harder time with. She didn't follow my expectations though. I figured she had to have tight shoulders and groins. She could easily put her hands on the ground in Prasarita C. I didn't think to look over during Baddha Konasana, but I don't recall her struggling with any aspect of the series. I think she had to be helped into Marichyasana D, but so do most people. From what glimpses I could get, I thought she had a really nice practice, which is doubly impressive since she's a climber. She's from Munich. I should have asked her if she knows Alan Little, a person I've come to know through the various ashtanga bulletin boards and from his own web site. I couldn't remember if he was still in Germany, and if so what city. I figured they had to know each other if he was still there. They're both climbers and ashtangi's. If I see her again, I'll ask. That would be pretty cool if they did know each other. If so, that would be the second person I would have met who knows Alan, a guy who lives in Europe that I know and like but have never met. Odds on that?

I had planned on going to class tomorrow too. For some reason, I'm even less motivated to do that class than I was today's evening class. Hopefully a night's sleep will re-empower my drive to go but I may end up blowing it off and taking the kids to school. If I do that though, I'll catch endless crap from the better half