But who's counting?

Apparently it is now Day 60 of this 101 Day Yoga Challenge thingie.  Who knew?!  I've been mindlessly updating my little counter on the side of the page, but time has sort of been flying past me lately.

If I haven't been counting UP to the yoga challenge, maybe it's because I've finally started counting DOWN to teacher training.  Back in October, when I decided to go in the Spring, teacher training was just a blurry blob on the horizon, "about six months away."  Now the blur has started to take on a shape and an outline, and I woke up yesterday knowing that orientation was exactly seven weeks away.  I was in a cranky mood all morning, feeling totally pissed off about the existence of those seven unnecessary weeks, until I took myself out for brunch and read a hilarious book, which made me feel much better.

Today was the first day of March, which also means that teacher training is next month (and starts in six weeks and six days.)  Holy guacamole, Batman!

Today was also a nice, yoga-filled day.  I drove down to L.A. before 7am (go me!), took the 9am class, and spent an hour across the street at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf trying to help my friend Balwan learn his dialogue.  He's an awesome dude, and I'm really excited that we're going to the same training.  He's also going to be the absolute DEATH of me, but at least I'll die laughing.  We concluded today that he has trouble learning the dialogue because he is too LAZY.  He's also easily distracted; he'll stop me in the middle of a posture because he needs to ask me a question about the meaning of life.  Amazing.  Also, I think we are becoming the best source of Monday morning entertainment on La Cienega Blvd, since we've been doing our dialogue practice (complete with postures) right out in front of the Coffee Bean.  Today while Balwan was giving me the dialogue for backbending (or trying to), a man came out of the McDonald's and started asking us about what we were doing, because he'd been thinking about starting some kind of exercise program and liked the look of what we were doing.  We pointed at the big blue BIKRAM YOGA COLLEGE OF INDIA sign right across the street and told him the class schedule.  He was quite interested - he said that since his dad has gotten older and started walking with a cane, he's gotten more concerned about his own health.  I told him that many of the symptoms of aging are really just the results of physical inactivity, and that he should totally come to class!  I might as well walk about with a sign on my back that says, "Ask me about Bikram Yoga!'

We then went back across the street just in time for the 12:15 advanced class (not led by Emmy, since she's in Barcelona!), which was fast paced and fun.  I didn't impress myself, but it always feels good to roll through my full range of motion.  Must try to get back there more often!  According to my counter, I've made it to 5 advanced classes in the last 8 weeks, which is less frequent than I'd like, but a lot more frequent than last fall!  And then I met up with another friend who wanted to help me with my dialogue, and she was actually super helpful, because she basically said, "cool, you know the dialogue" (for standing series), and then helped me work on phrasing, tone, and breathing.  Sweet.

So today, I loved my life.  I drove for 4 hours (augh ow), practiced yoga for 3 hours (plus change), worked on dialogue for 3 hours (counting the practice I did in the car - multitasking!), and saw a seriously amazing pink and purple sunset on the drive home.

And there are 48 days left until teacher training...