Best things ever

Well, right now the best thing ever is "Matcha Green Tea Mist" from Jamba Juice. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'm not a huge smoothie fan, but this stuff rocks. I just googled matcha tea, and it's a powdered green tea--the same stuff used for tea ceremonies. Yes, tea ceremony. The beautiful, centuries old art. The exquisite zen practice. Or you can mix the powdered tea with soymilk and dairy base (whatever that is) in loud blenders in a brightly painted Jamba Juice establishment with blaring background music and pour it into styrofoam cups and call it Matcha Green Tea Mist. Same same. Artful and chock full of cultural significance :-)

What also rocks is doing a little afternoon errand-running with My Gift. Oil change for her car, and then a look through the Victoria's Secret super-sale. Where I found great cotton capris for $9.99. Is it wrong that I find yogawear in Victoria's Secret? And then a turn through Barnes and Noble, where I found a book called "Getting Stoned with Savages." I love travel adventure books like this! And My Gift got "Kafka on the Shore," by Haruki Murakami, who is my very favorite contemporary writer. It's so cool that My Gift is old enough to read and enjoy the same books that I love. We can share clothes and books.

Okay, last "best thing" for today: led practice this morning. Great to hang out and chat with everyone. And the class was less full--apparently other people were as put off by the heat and the crowd as I've been. I went back today, though, and thank goodness, we were a reasonably sized group. I got to practice near the door (ah, cool air!), between Sanskrit Scholar and Returning Guy. The British Director was there, and Crim Girl. Who had chai with her again. Apparently she has such an amusing life these days that she needs extra hydration and perhaps a little caffeine to keep her awake after all the late nights ;-)

Most fun pose of the day: garbha pindasana. I don't bother trying to push my arms through in Mysore or self-practice, because I am not usually sweaty enough, and I'm too lazy to keep track of a spray bottle. Led class, though, is the perfect opportunity to try out the pose. At this point, there's no problem getting my arms all the way through and my chin in my hands. The rolling part is a little lame (my control isn't great), but good enough, and the roll up into kukkutasana is a-okay. Fun to do--in part because I don't do the full pose on a day to day basis.

Tomorrow, a day off. My Gift and I travel together to her college orientation in the evening. Monday and Tuesday, we'll be in Flagstaff. Should be fun. My Gift's a pleasure to spend time with. Another "best thing ever"!