Serendipity

Led class was pretty full, but you can't tell as much, now that the room has been reconstructed. There was a flood at the Scottsdale Starbucks of Yoga, which meant Saturday led class was in the teeny room at the Phoenix branch for a few months. For the first class in Phoenix, we practiced on an unfinished floor (mostly concrete and concrete dust) and no door, just a curtain between us and the racks of clothes in the boutique. Don't get me started on the boutiques.

Anyhow, today was back in the old room, which is now larger, because when the owners had to make major repairs after the flood, they decided to expand the room, too. Good call. The room was full, but we had at least a good 4 inches of space between mats. It was nice to practice with people again. Of course, I practice with The Cop on Tuesdays, and he counts as a person--though I like to think of him more as a representative of the aggressive, potty-mouthed side of our shared partnership. He completes me ;-)

Practice was good. Volleyball Guy keeps a very constant count: his five count is almost always exactly eight of my breaths. No matter where he is in the room or what he's doing, he manages the nice constant count. Hanumanasana on the first side pissed me off (oops, channeling The Cop) because it hurts and reminds me that there's something going on with the right hamstring insert again. Left over from the year of insert pain, maybe--or, more frighteningly, maybe something new. The jumpbacks still involve a foot touch, but the motion is easy now, and consistent and smooth. I'm not going to push much, but just wait and see where it goes with persistent practice.

Supta kurmasana feels good: the bind is tighter and tighter, and today it even felt like some room is opening up for me to slide my shoulders under more. At this point all I can do is put my feet together, but the ankle cross isn't that far off. Biggest issue was baddha konasana--I'm used to putting a sandbag on my back and taking extra breaths to get my head to the floor, but there isn't time for that sort of thing in led, so I had to let it go.

We get to the vinyasa after setu bandhasana, and I hear Volleyball Guy say, "Pasasana!" Woohoo! How psyched am I?!?! We went along through laghuvajrasana, which is the absolute last pose for me when I'm being crim. He called for kapotasana, but I decided to be a tourist for that one: practicing to my right was the Serene One, who has freakishly melty backbends, so I just sat and watched her execute a gorgeous, heel-grabbing kapotasana. Lovely!

On to urdhva dhanurasanas, then closing, then some chanting. Volleyball Guy did a call and response chant, and after we chanted a phrase back, he'd ask Sanskrit Scholar to translate and chant it in English. Very humorous, hearing her chant back in English, with the extra syllables kind of thrown in there and the translation going on in her head, and the trying to sing it back in the same melody. What an astounding challenge!

Got to hang out a little bit afterwards with Returning Guy, Sanskrit Scholar and The British Director. Good to see everyone. I was happy to be there.