Who Knew?

Ok. I’ve been doing Bikram yoga let’s say an average of 4 days a week for the last 2 years. It’s surprising to me that I still learn things. Especially something like how to stretch. I don’t think I was doing it right all this time.

We do a pose called locust where you put your arms under your body. You’re supposed to move the weight to your arms and shoulders and stretch your leg back. It’s not very comfortable, and I hate this pose mostly because I can’t do it. I’ve been trying all this time to move the weight to my arms, THEN stretch my legs back. It ends up with me just getting stuck. Turns out I have to do them both simultaneously. Then things just sort of fall into place. I had so much success in this pose, that I decided to apply this discovery to other poses. I was able to get deeper, and even lock my knee! A huge accomplishment for me. I just find it so odd that I can do the same thing week after week and still learn new things. We’ll see if I can remember this in my next class.

Tonight, pilates part 2. We’re focusing on the upper body. This could be bad. Yikes.

Whirlwind Weekend

Good news. The babysitting was a success. The baby survived and everything.

More good news. Danielle actually came to visit! It was a bit of a whirlwind. We went to Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, had a hot dog, split some fancy tea, and hung out at an Irish pub with some friends. It was exhausting but on fun. On Sunday Danielle got to experience the madness that is Penn Station.

The weekend left me pretty tired and I'm not feeling quite myself today, so I can't think of anything funny or witty to add. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon!

Ballerina Pilates

Good news. I can move today! I tried out a new pilates class yesterday and was very worried that I would be completely immobilized today. I tried out a new place near work called IMX Pilates. Here's a quick list of pros and cons:

Pros

• It was fast-paced. In a lot of pilates classes I feel like you spend a lot of time messing with equipment. All of our equipment messing was very brief.
• The class was small and intimate. And there was fun music!
• It was HARD. Squeezing something in your arms while doing something completely different with your legs. I was pretty close to quitting that one.
• I tried the Barre class. So we did some pilates then we got up and did lots of ballerina type stuff. I've always wanted to be a ballerina, so that was fun

Cons

• While the class was fun and fast, I felt like I wanted a little more help with my alignment. There wasn't a whole lot of that. Maybe no one was making any mistakes, or maybe that's not covered as much since it's an intermediate class, but either way, a little adjustment would have been nice.
• I COULD NOT find the door. I could see the studio above me, but it took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to get there. The address is on one street, but the entrance is on another. One of those weird New York things that I'll never understand.
• The layout of the studio was a little weird. Maybe I have to get used to it, but the locker room and the waiting area were weird.

So all in all, I say it was a pretty good experience. I have another class focussing on only the upper body. That should be....interesting...

Tonight's adventure- BABYSITTING...

Yesterday was very exciting. I bought new yoga shorts. I know that doesn't SOUND exciting, but I guess I'm easy to please. I was going to take a picture in them, but the term "shorts" is misleading since they're more like underwear. They're multi colored zigzags and they're awesome.

Tonight I'm going to this new pilates class. It's supposed to be a reformer and Ballet Barre class. We'll see how this goes. I've heard how hard most barre classes are. I'll let you know if I can stand up straight tomorrow.

A Night at the Opera

Well I’m a doofus. I’ve been doing this thing lately where I get so excited about something coming up, that I just assume that it’s happening sooner than it really is. So long story short, Danielle will be in town NEXT weekend. But I didn’t get the wrong date on the opera. So my friends and I had a classy time Friday night at Madame Butterfly.

Amy was getting her coat, so we might have to photoshop her in :)

I will be completely honest with you. The first half was beautiful to look at, but I didn’t see most of it because I was fighting to stay awake. I guess the whole falling in love stuff wasn’t very exciting to me. But the second act, where she was totally in anguish waiting for him to come back, was riveting. Her cries of “He has forgotten me!” sounded like an operatic punch in the stomach. It was pretty awesome. SPOILER ALERT At the end, she dies. (Someone dies in an opera? SHOCK!) It was sad, but very beautiful. The set had this hill where they would create a sunrise and sunset affect, and there was a mirror above the hill, so everything was reflected. Hard to explain, but very nice to look at.

Saturday was uneventful. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and made dinner. (I know. I live such an exciting life.) Sunday was the very first donation class for Team Happy Hippo in March, and I’m happy to report it was a totally packed class. That being said, there’s always room for more! So don’t forget to make time to come by either Wednesdays at 12:30 or Sundays at 4:30 in March. Classes are taught by the lovely Erik. I like his classes because he always knows when I’m holding back and he makes me try harder.

Up this week, I will continue my pre-marathon-training training. Finally getting to those pilates classes. I promise to report back.

Fancy Pants Lisa

Tonight, I'm going to be fancy. I'm going to go to the opera tonight. We're going to dress up, drink champagne and go see Madame Butterfly.

And if that's not awesome enough, my friend, Danielle is coming into town Saturday and we're going to galavant about town and have a jolly good time. I think it's going to be a classy weekend.

It's happening!

Ok people. This is happening. I know I said April, but I lied. In the month of March, take donation classes at Bikram Yoga Harlem and all proceeds go to the American Cancer Society, via Team Happy Hippo. The suggested donation is $10, but you can pay whatever you like.

Now I know there are some of you out there thinking, "I don't do yoga" or "I'm not flexible." And I know there are some that are thinking, "Gee, I just don't feel comfortable being sweaty in front of a group of strangers." Well let me just tell you. Bikram Yoga Harlem is practically my second home. It's a very welcoming environment to anyone and everyone, no matter your flexibility, shape, athleticism, orientation, whatever. We have a little bit of everything up in Harlem. No judgement. Really. I seriously recommend trying it at least once. Even if you can't do any of the poses, it doesn't matter. They always say the only bad yoga class is the one you don't go to. So you have no excuse. Go and be amazing!

And if you're thinking of going, MiMi and I will be there this Sunday at 4:30pm. We can all be sexy and sweaty together.