Day After

Helpful hint: If you need to practice with a hangover, make it a sake hangover. I'm not advocating hungover Ashtanga, but we did have sake at the ceremony yesterday, and I had to drink almost all of it, because The Cop is not a sake fan. The tradition is to have the groom take a sip from the cup, then the bride, then the groom. That's round one. Round two goes bride-groom-bride. And round three (at this point, apparently, The Frenchman leaned over to My Gift and asked, "How much are they going to drink?!" and The Cop leaned over to me and said, "I feel all warm and tingly inside") goes groom-bride-groom. Being a good helper, I did the bulk of the drinking. And then there was more sake at the sushi place we went to for the post-ceremony celebration.

So practice this morning included seeing stars and feeling dread about the handstands after utkatasana and navasana, and especially the handstand after eka pada bakasana, which isn't really a handstand so much as Volleyball Guy heaving my dead weight into the air. Eka pada bakasana is too asymmetrical for me to figure out the handstand part. This morning I realized I've kind of given up on trying to work this transition. Mostly I just spend my time dreading its approach and hoping that Volleyball Guy will be off looking after someone else when I get to it. Uncannily, though, he never misses it! I must get on the ball, and try to work this out on my own at home. It's unfair to expect him to pick me up every morning. I wonder if he thinks about that, too ;-)

Okay, so sake is a good hangover. It all stays in your head. No stomach repercussions. File that info away in case you ever need it.

Why did I even go to yoga early in the morning of the day after my wedding? That's the question normal people ask. But it was quite simple: my energy was all dispersed from the lovely day we had yesterday. It was like all my boundaries had dissolved. Which was perfect for a day of pledging to love The Cop forever. But I kind of had to gather it all back up again so I could get back to regular life.

I worked my way through practice and got the bind on both marichy Ds again. It is astoundingly ugly on the outside, but very satisfying on the inside ;-) I have plenty of time to make it better. For kurmasana, Volleyball Guy tucked sandbags under my feet. I was pretty passive: I think the current hamstring pain was likely caused by my enthusiastic heel lifting--so I didn't even try to pick them up today.

All in all, a nice practice.

And to return to wedding thoughts: it's been interesting to note how many people have "admitted" to me that they had small weddings that they loved. It's as if it's something you have to keep secret--that you didn't go along with the usual program. It's been quite delightful hearing people's stories about how they had intimate weddings. Everyone seems to feel like they were very selfish--but they knew it was important, and what they really wanted.

And to share a little gift with you all, here's the URL of my current favorite blogger, Mimi Smartypants. She is a terrific writer, hysterically funny, and has the best stories about her little girl, Nora.