Obviously I need to take a yoga class

Not only is my throat chakra closed up tightly (I keep getting tongue-tied! Thighs and glutes not Glighs and thutes!), but THIS is what I feel the need to share with you this evening:

Sean Preston Federline closely resembles Turtle from "Entourage." SP is like a mini-Turtle. I defy you to deny me.

I heart Craigslist

For months I have been looking for a certain IKEA coffee table. My acquisition of this table was to be the domino that would allow for the completion of phase 2 of a minor reorganization of my living room. (CDs into storage bins in coffee table, freeing up bookshelf space for cookbooks, which are currently in a stack on the floor because of Winter Kitchen Reorg of January.) I was a little hinky about the money for a brand-new coffee table, and despite the allure of IKEA, I can always find a reason *not* to haul my hiney down to Renton. So I've been checking Craigslist furniture ads for months looking for this particular coffee table. Over the weekend, I found it--with photo, $50, in Bellevue. I pounced, with the (of course assumed) promise I'd pick up and I said I'd pay cash.

Tonight I went and picked it up. The girl selling it had had the table for six months; it had a few scratches, but I got this $99 dollar table for $50, and I didn't even have to put it together. And I only drove eight miles from my house!

I was apprehensive as to whether it would fit in my Coroller, having taken the measurements off the IKEA website and used a tape measure in my car's interior. But the friendly Craigslist user helped me carry it down from her apartment and it fit perfectly in the 'Roller's back seat! The beta endorphins from carrying the table down two flights of stairs, plus the joy of this stroke of luck, made us giddy! I thought we might hug, but she held out her hand so I shook it and wished her luck as she moved in with her boyfriend. (Hence the off-loading of the coffee table.)

So, to review: saved money, saved time, saved gas, saved work, brought me closer to my fellow woman! I heart Craigslist.

And now, because I used a favorite word, hiney, above, I thought I'd explore something 'Net wise. Ever been in a public restroom, zoning out as you let things take their course, and noticed the logo on the door latch? With a line drawing of a person behind a bathroom door, pants around ankles, and their eyes and single strand of curly-cue hair sticking up above the door? The name? HINEY HIDER!!! Well, it turns out it's HinyHider, and it's the most humorous legitimate name for a bathroom product since Honey Buckets. I finally found the HinyHider website (it was hiding, if you will, under that bogus spelling of hiney!) and friends, it did not disappoint. Not only is the HinyHider "the premier solid plastic toilet partition that revolutionized an industry," but these fine partitions are manufactured in the USA, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, home of the office in the NBC television program, "The Office!" It's too rich!

Back to my regularly scheduled yoga babble soon. Except I must say: teaching yoga in a hot room continues to take my morning sickness clean away!

So you don't think I'm obsessing about the toe

A momentous occasion today, as I went shopping for maternity clothes for the first time. I went to a consignment shop in Greenwood. They only had one rack, but I got a top and jeans. The maternity jeans actually fit me well now, they are just really stretchy. I'm dubious whether they're going to be stretchy enough for nine months--depends how I carry. But they are cooler than any of my current jeans, so I thought for $13 I'd better buy them!

The top is one of those giant tent-like sleeveless maternity blouses. I don't like it much, but it's black, so I suppose I'll wear it at some point. Maybe on our trip to Europe. I need to find some more form-fitting stuff. Not that I just want to show off the belly when it develops (which I do) but I like to wear close-fitting tops. So I don't see that changing just because I'm pregnant. Maybe I'll change my mind when it's 87 degrees out, but after spending most of last summer in South Florida, where it was hotter and OMG much more humid, I'm not sure the Seattle summer scares me.

I guess I wasn't quite honest--I did buy two tops at H&M in San Francisco last week, but they don't count because they're not "maternity." One is just super long, and the other one is one of the myriad tops in malls right now that look like maternity wear, but aren't, and only look flattering on Very Thin People. Everyone else, methinks they make one look...pregnant.

In case you were wondering whether I'm just floating along in a sea of Pregnancy Stuff, I just finished an 870-page book: Citizens by Simon Schama. It is a chronicle of the French Revolution and it was a fascinating read. You may think that a bunch of hungry people got pissed off and overthrew the government--oh no no no it was not so simple! The author succeeds in pulling in many, many threads, but begins each section with a snapshot of one person's story, and in general describes the background and motivation of key characters, so you get what I think of as Juicy Bits. There's plenty of detail, but he effectively makes his points--that a cultural and social elite was a catalyst for the Revolution and in some respects led it, that the Revolution wrote checks no governmental body could cash so it was bound to disappoint the People it purported to lift up, and that wholesale, methodical violence was a logical consequence of violent language. The last part of the book in particular, which describes the counter-Revolution and the Terror, is far from light reading but frankly it's less disturbing than some of the pregnancy books I was reading a while ago. You read along, and it's all pony rides in May sunshine with the development of your fetus, and WHAM! There's a sidebar about molar pregnancy or some crap which affects like half of one percent of pregnancies. There is no good reason for me to read that kind of twoddle! If it happens, I will see a doctor, and it will suck BIGTIME but in the meantime to know of this possibility causes me stress! And guess who gets stressed out as soon as I do? THE LITTLE BUD IN MY BELLY! Nobody is benefited by my reading about these rare conditions and defects. I do not want to read about that crap so I've been proceeding in my pregnancy reading very gingerly.

And in case you forgot about the toe, I got some natural ointment stuff (pregnancy safe!) to speed healing of my toe. I taped Little Toe to his brother toe today. So far so good.

I just got a pregnancy yoga DVD in the mail. I'll report soon.

Breaking Toe Update

Get it? Breaking toe update? I crack myself up.

So, Tuesday morning I did not teach, I slept in, I elevated, I iced. I even took (regular! plain! for the knocked-up chicks!) Tylenol. The toe feels MUCH better. Didn't do much of anything this day except for go to the doctor and get a sexy new shoe. I also determined that I can drive (yay!) And the PA I saw convinced me that I really have to baby this toe to get it to heal in time for our trip to France and Scotland. Time will be short. I'm going to get some acupuncture and use some comfrey and arnica to speed healing.

This morning I taught, sitting in a chair, with my foot up on a ballet bar at the back of the room. At one point I caught sight of myself in the mirror (I almost NEVER do this because I am afraid I will start giggling--on a normal day, I mean) and I looked like the peg-leg pirate with my leg up and my bottle of grog. (Grog being the water in my Klean Kanteen.)

This afternoon I decided at 3:50 I'd go to the 4:00 Gentle Hatha yoga class at YogaLife. I hadn't practiced yoga in five days and particularly since the toe has limited my movement, the rest of the body is closing in like vultures... Now that studio is close to my house, but not that close. Especially when you can't hurry. This injury is actually the *perfect* teaching for me in three key ways:

1. I literally can't hurry on foot. I will have to PLAN to be on time and walk at a normal (or limpy) pace. As it was I scooted in after the teacher had started going around the room asking for intros/aches and pains

2. I have to ask for help. (I thought of this when I got up from the floor of the studio to fetch my props and a woman jumped up after me and kindly got them for me.) I am TERRIBLE at asking for help. Because if I ask for help, someone will point their giant finger at me and say YOU WHINY LITTLE WEAKLING!!! They will, you see. The same "they" who are all going to laugh at you. So, obviously I need some work THERE.

3. I can't push myself. The PA said if the toe is in pain, it's delaying healing.

The class was good. I was surprised at how much I could do without flexing my wee toe! Actually, my SI joint on the left side hurt MUCH more than my toe, and my toe just hurt at random times when I was trying to move here and there, not in the poses. I left my sexy shoe on during the class, of course. I was trying to get into a squatting pose, and the SI joint was just radiating pain, and I was grimacing.

"Amazing what a little toe can do," said the teacher, noticing my visible discomfort.
"Actually it's my SI joint," I grunted.
"Oh, well if you're really in pain, don't do this pose."

Um. Duh. Yeah. I'm a yoga teacher, supposedly. HOW many times have I told my students "you should not be in pain in yoga!" Do you THINK maybe I could heed my own advice? (See above, issue #3 where I have to push myself, but GEEZ!)

Tip for Teachers: If your toe gets broke

If you suspect, based on reliable medical advice over the phone, that your toe is broken, and the reliable medical adviser tells you to stay off it, ice 20 min. per hour, and elevate it above your heart, you should probably cancel the yoga class you're supposed to teach that evening and do those things. Because otherwise, it will swell up significantly, and you will be in even more pain. Trust me. I have learned something, because I called and told them I can't teach tomorrow morning. Supposedly it takes 4-6 weeks for a broken toe to heal. Send me some healing thoughts, because I am leaving for Europe in 6 weeks, and doing a 7-day meditation retreat (at a quasi-rustic retreat facility in the forest) in the intervening time.

No yoga lately

Color me lazy. I was in San Francisco last week, I teach in the afternoons on the weekends and don't have the juice to make it to a morning class. This morning I was planning to go to the 8:30 Purna yoga again, but I overslept, and woke at 9:20. I tried to race down to the 9:30 at my home studio, but didn't make it in time. I was going to come home and do a video, but after I checked my email, I was too damned hungry!

In short: woulda, shoulda, coulda.

Then at 3:15, I broke my little toe! I stubbed it on this concrete corner of a wall in the basement. Where I'd stubbed it five hours before. Maybe this is the part of my pregnancy where I'm clumsy and whack parts of my body into things. Anyway, we'll see how much yoga I can do with a bum toe. I'm teaching tonight and planning to do it sitting down with my toe elevated!

Seattle Yoga Studio Sampler: Maple Leaf Community Yoga

Maple Leaf Community Yoga is a small studio located in the Maple Leaf neighborhood. (No way!) Mondays right now they have a 90-minute Gentle yoga class that starts at 8:30. I am always looking for a morning yoga class that lets me begin the rest of my day prior to 11:15!

There are two teachers at the studio, and they teach Purna Yoga, which the teacher this morning described as alignment-based. She also went out of her way to emphasize that the pose should be tailored to each practitioner's needs, and that everyone's body and hence pose, is different. I always appreciate when teachers empahsize this; it's very, very important for people to hear, especially those new to yoga, to get them out of a monkey-see, monkey-do; achievement-oriented, get a good grade mindset.

The studio is in a converted small studio apartment, ground floor. It's a very simple, informal, but peaceful space. We began with a seated centering exercise, with eyes closed, quasi-meditative, and three Oms. For some reason as soon as I sat down in Virasana (a kneeling position with the feet out to the side of the hips, sitting on cushions) I started to feel very peaceful. This I took as a very good sign for how the class would go for me. Then we did a "morning series" to wake up the back. It did--I felt great after this. The rest of the class she emphasized opening up the shoulders--one of my "problem areas." The poses she had us do all involved movement, and for this reason and the fact one of the shoulder openers was the same as one Sue uses, the class reminded me of the Molokai retreat I went on in January. The shoulder openers were INCREDIBLE. I could feel my shoulder blades literally moving apart and the muscles between relaxing. This is so unlike my body's natural tendency that it was emotionally moving! We ended with Savasana and three Oms.

I really enjoyed the teacher, her presentation was very natural, we were free to ask questions and she really brought out the relaxation element when demonstration by saying "aah!" at times. :)

There was a man in the class for whom this morning was his first encounter with yoga. I always feel privileged to be in on someone's yoga debut. He'd heard about the benefits of yoga from a book by Russell Simmons. After the morning series he exclaimed "I've never felt so relaxed in my life!" and after class said he just felt wonderful. I love to hear that. My first experience with yoga was a PM Yoga video by Patricia Walden in about 1998 and I remember feeling an intense, pleasant natural high afterward.

The classes are small (the space is small) at Maple Leaf Community Yoga, so if you want to drop in, they like it if you call ahead. They encourage registering for a series. The series format is excellent for the student and I'm sure better sustains the studio. I'm planning to register for as much of the rest of the Monday morning series (runs through the end of June) as I can.

Tip for Teachers: Saying No

Despite the new "rule" I'd set for myself that I wasn't going to teach two classes in one day, since I've lacked stamina and gained nausea during this first trimester of pregnancy, I taught four classes in 26 hours Wednesday and Thursday. Two of those were "special favors" for a studio where the usual teacher of those classes has been sick and is losing her voice. By the fourth class, *I* was starting to lose my voice. I guess I've lost some voice stamina, too.

It's important as a teacher to know the limits of your body, your mind, your energy. Everyone's limits are different, but once you've become aware of them, respect them. It's not like a desk job where you can do it for eight hours a day, five days a week. Studio owners trying to get classes covered aren't necessarily looking out for you or your health; they're looking to cover the classes because that's what they need to keep their business running. Don't let studio owners guilt or manipulate you into overworking yourself.

For the most part I thought I taught good classes, but last night and into today I have been bone tired. And I don't use that term lightly--I mean my bones and joints are heavy and achy.

This is mostly a letter to myself--probably more than most I want to receive approval (especially from those in authority) and make everybody happy. This is a recipe to make myself unhappy. You can't be of best benefit to others if you are physically and mentally depleted. As my teacher says, you must have compassion for yourself in order to have compassion for others.

Not-Quite-A-Studio-Sampler

Tuesday I went to my first pre-natal yoga class, at Yogalife Green Lake.

THAT'S RIGHT--I'm with child. Knocked up. Preggers. Sweet!!!

I've been to Yogalife before, and had been meaning to try this class for a few weeks. I felt "behind" because I hadn't added a specifically pre-natal class to my weekly yoga routine. But I was by far the least pregnant woman there (meaning I am at ten weeks; all the other 14 or so women were 20 weeks or more.)

The class started out with guided deep relaxation, propped up on blocks and bolsters so my spine was at a 45-degree angle. It was great. I'd never been in a class that *began* with relaxation. After that we did postures and some "exercises" ie leg-lifts. It was nice, but I think I'll appreciate it more when I'm in my late second and my third trimesters. All the same, I think I'll keep going from time to time because I really liked the teacher (she is also a doula) and I *loved* being in a room with a bunch of pregnant women. From the day after I found out I was pregnant, I have felt this strong connection with, and desire to connect with, other women who are pregnant. So hopefully I can make some friends in this class or at my midwives' office. :)

We heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time yesterday. It was SO amazing. By far, it was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. I know that is a very odd thing to say, but it's completely true. MSH and I were completely blown away. I wanted to listen to it ALL DAY. Next time we're going to record it so we can play it whenever we want. (Which won't be for another five weeks!) The heartbeat was at a healthy rate, and we left the appointment grinning and laughing.

Virginia Beach

Every calendar year, I have to do something with Jimmy as "continuing education" to keep my Barkan Method certification. There are a variety of options (sit in on part of the next Level I training, attend Level II training, or attend a weekend workshop.) Since he and his graduates are mostly on the East Coast, I knew I would probably have to travel far, and I decided to get it out of the way early in the year.

I went last weekend to Jimmy's workshop at Hot House Yoga in Virginia Beach, VA. If you live in the area, I highly, highly recommend visiting the studio. It is in a strip mall in between a used book store and a check-cashing place, but inside is a beautiful yoga sanctuary! It has private toilets and showers, a dressing room like one at a cushy spa (towels complimentary) and more importantly, the studio space is incredible. Mirrors on three walls, ceiling painted to look like the sky with clouds, and a serene mural painted on the back wall. The heat is perfect--they have a commercial humidifier built right onto the heating system--I was sweating optimally; it was so nice and hot but I felt GREAT because the sweat was cooling me off so efficiently.

The studio is owned by three brothers and a sister. Two brothers and the sister are teachers there. The two brothers visited, taught, and helped clinic at my training last summer, and they are wonderful teachers. (Jimmy had raved about them and their studio, which is part of the reason I picked this workshop.)

Friday evening was a Barkan method class. Oh, how I've missed it! To the casual observer, the differences on paper between Barkan and Bikram might appear minor at first glance, but when you're practicing, they make a huge difference. Saturday and Sunday sessions there was a lecture on the history of yoga, followed by a clinic and a class (all classes led by Jimmy.) Saturday was a Vinyasa class ie Level II. Most of the attendees were students at the studio, and the room was full (40+ people) and full of good energy.

I stayed the weekend with a teacher I trained with last summer, which was really nice--got to fix my own meals and chill out when I wasn't at the studio. Saturday night a bunch of us went out to dinner with Jimmy and it was a lot of fun. I've found for the most part yoga peeps are a great bunch!

So: I had a very good weekend. :)