Breakfast adventures...

[fajrdrako]

Because I was so happy with Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies with Sara Ivanhoe - whom I always want to call Susan Ivanova, for alliterative reasons - today I tried exercising with Yoga Weight-Loss Workout for Dummies with Chris Freytag.

A different kettle of fish. For one thing, Chris Freytag doesn't have the natural charm of Sara Ivanhoe. She has a fixed smile that I found rather terrifying at first, till I got used to it. It's a good DVD, but a type of yoga I'm not used to: lots and lots of aerobic movement, while I'm used to the static positions of the Iyengar style. It says on the back of the DVD not to be intimidated by it, but I confess, I was intimidated. Luckily my response to intimidation is attack-escape, and I got through it with only one set where I could only do two our of four reps, and filled in the difference by dancing in place. It's the only yoga programme I've done (either in class or on DVD) that didn't end with Savasana (also known as total relaxation, or Corpse Pose), though it did have the "namaste" that I always love.

My balance is still appalling, but I was able to do Virabhadrasana III, a.k.a. Standing Warrior Balance Pose. No, I didn't do it very well, and it didn't look like in that picture, but I did it. I love the Sanskrit names, which have a trip-off-the-tongue romance to me that the English translations don't keep. Though anything with "Warrior" in the title is by its very nature romantic, you can't do much romanticizing with "Standing Forward Bend", though the name "Uttanasana" delights me.

After yoga, I made breakfast. maaseru was going to join me, but there were no working elevators, and she's on the ninth floor. One elevator has been out for about a month, to much grumbling in the building - the management says they had to order parts from the States. Then with our only other elevator out of commission, it was walk or nothing. The people milling around the lobby talking about it looked hungrily at my plate of crepes and tea and I walked by; by the time I got up to the ninth floor on foot I was huffing and puffing, but I felt I'd earned a good breakfast.

Another triumph: I was able to fix the keyboard drawer for maaseru's computer, which has been stuck and unusable for months. I examined it carefully with a flashlight, used powers of deduction and observation, and then went for brute force. Which worked. I was proud.

So I'm in a good mood again this morning, after being overtired and out of sorts yesterday evening.

I had a bad dream in which I was trying to do too much for too many people, not getting any time to do what I really want to do, alone. I woke up thinking: there's a message in that.

I think I will have a Retreat Oct 17 and 18.

Do I have the strength of will to do what I need and want to do?

Of course I do.