A drunken monkey stung by a bee (Also: SYTYCD!!)

At the end of my practice on Thursday, all I could think of was Bikram's description of the "monkey mind":  "The human mind is like a drunken monkey... that's been stung by a bee..."  Yep!  That was me.  It happens.

Sometimes my own brain really is my downfall, especially in a dialogue-lite class.  In dialogue classes, I usually have no problem shutting my brain off and letting the teacher move my body.  That's how Bikram's classes are for me, and it's the BEST.  For 90 minutes, I don't have to think at all.  It's like he says - I don't have a brain anymore.  His brain, my body.  

But once the teacher starts to stray from the dialogue, my education and intelligence become my downfall, cause I end up constantly correcting, analyzing, debating the mechanics of the postures with myself.  At best, I just recite the dialogue to myself in my head.  But when I do any of those things, I'm just engaging my brain more instead of letting it go... so it's not the same.  And then my brain ends up just running off like a drunken monkey, so I have no focus at all!  WHOOPS.  Get it together, J!

But who am I kidding?  Yes, I would LOVE to be able to take great, technically precise, dialogue-driven classes every day, like I used to.  But at this point in the game, the baggage that I bring to class usually (maybe 90% of the time) has WAY more of an effect on my practice than anything the teacher does or doesn't say.

This week I was kinda stressed and my work was INCREDIBLY unproductive, and unsurprisingly, my practice was all over the map.  My body got kinda stiff and I couldn't focus for beans.

Today I had an awesome day and my practice went great!

So I can really only blame or thank myself.  Which is as it should be.  But some days, man, that monkey just don't want to sit still!  Another Bikram-ism: "My mind is like a little shrimp, jumping all over the place.  I have to grab onto him and say ASSHOLE, slow down!!!"  Haha... yep, that's me.

And now for something DIFFERENT, let me tell you about the things that made my day AWESOME.

1)  Signed the lease on the new house, paid the security deposit, and got the keys!

2)  Bought a fabulous queen-sized bed off craigslist and moved it into my new (master) bedroom!

3)  Spent like an hour in new house with very excited friend and roommate, planning out what we're going to do with the space.  We are going yard-sale hunting all day tomorrow starting at 8am, and yes it's past 1am now, but I'm kinda nocturnal and too wired up to sleep yet... house will be amazing!

4)  Went to In-N-Out at 11pm and got Neopolitan milkshakes - ENOUGH SAID.  (Gee, I wonder why I can't sleep...)

5)  Short story: a few months ago, it occurred to me that I live pretty close to LA, and Hollywood is part of LA, and lots of TV shows are filmed there, including my favorite summer TV show, So You Think You Can Dance.  (Or SYTYCD, for typing convenience.)  For those of you not familiar, it's basically like American Idol but for dance.  And with 500% more awesome.  So I went online and discovered a website where you can get on a waitlist to be in the studio audience for free.  So my sister and I both put our names in, and GUESS what we get in my email today - we are at top of the waitlist, just in time for the SEASON FINALE which is filming in LA on Tuesday.  We now have three free tickets (me, my sister, and another girl friend) to be in the studio audience of the finale of our favorite TV show next Tuesday night!!!  I can't believe it!  This NEVER happens to me.  And best of all, my sister was able to get all three on her pass, so I STILL have my spot on the waitlist and can probably use it at the beginning of next season!  Sweet.  I knew there was a reason I moved out here.

All in all... the weekend is off to a GOOD start.