Giving Up to Live It Up: 22 Days to Training!

 

First and foremost, I have a confession to make...I'm not going to finish the 30-Day Challenge.  I finally came to that realization when I was building a calendar on Monday of the seven doubles I would need to do over the next nine days, which isn't the worst thing in the world, as long as I can avoid back-to-back classes....but then my Board Meeting at Brava Theater (speaking of which, check out Oldest Profession if you haven't already, Paula Vogel & 3 aging "ladies of the night"? Song & dance? 80s era politics? Sign me up!) went WAY long, I missed another class, and it became eight doubles in nine days...and that same day one of my new FFBYTT facebook friends, Noemi, and I had been emailing back and forth about her brief potential stay in SF following training and she wrote "Don't worry about the challenge, it's maybe too much on your plate at the moment.....you'll have plenty of opportunities after TT to complete challenges..."  And you know what...she is exactly right.  It's not giving up...it's postponing!  Right!?  

Long story short, I shall follow the advice of a Mission yogi who shall remain nameless..."why are you doing a challenge? you'll have plenty of time to do yoga!  You should be LIVING it UP, man!"

Camel Pose, You've Got Me Feelin' Emotions

This topic has been coming up in recent yoga-related conversations, so I thought I might blog about it!  But first, a training preparation update:

Training Update

I am now FIVE classes behind in my challenge.  I KNOW.  Yesterday I skipped the 8:15pm class so I could work on my dialogue for Posture Clinic (Did I mention that Juicy and Steve23 meet with us every Tuesday night at 10pm to help with dialogue?  Despite the fact that Juicy is two months away from poppin' out a baby?  They are awesome.  Note to self: write "Yogis Who Inspire Me" post).  Here's what a typical Tuesday night looks like:

Me in my kitchen at 8pm:  "In other words, two shoulders should be in one line.  Kicking and stretching should be equal, simultaneous, 50/50. If you lose the balance, you're not kicking hard enough." (etc, finish dialogue strong and close to verbatim) (spontaneous, enthusiastic applause from roommates)

 Me on the podium at 10:30pm:  "In other words, two shoulders should be in one line.  Um...Stretch your - no.  ...Leg up...?" (string of expletives unsuitable for blog content) (etc, dialogue trails off disappointingly)

Lessons Learned in the 30-Day Challenge: Dialogue, Dentists, and Dumb Things to Do

Well hello there!  I'm very excited to have a somewhat expanded readership (but my original six-person readership will always be dear to my heart!).  Recent blog feedback and general positive reinforcement have been very much appreciated.  Please also feel free to tell me if I'm ramblin' on too long...commence the ramblin'!

I thought I'd take a moment to write about my first four days in the 30-Day Challenge, which started March 1st.  I've talked about these before; basically you pledge to do 30 classes in 30 days, and get to write your name up on a big piece of posterboard and put a shiny sticker next to your name for every class you take (like a chore chart when you're ten years old).  At the end of the challenge, there are prizes! and t-shirts!  

But this time around, I knew that signing up would not be wise.  First of all, I have a mere 42 days before training begins (I have a countdown gadget installed on my iGoogle homepage, so every time I come into the studio Steve23 asks "How many days?" and I know exactly.  I don't know if that keeps me focused and on task, or just gives me a mini panic attack every time I open Google).  My priorities over those 42 days are roughly: 

1) Meet all my deadlines and get the BBBSBA grants department nice and tidy for whomever my successor may be (know an awesome grant writer?  email me!)

2) Memorize as much dialogue as possible.

3) Get my shit together so I'm good and ready for training - build a realistic budget and sell all my stuff and have a plan and pay my taxes and all that kind of thing.

4) Do yoga. 

Bottom of the priority list, my friends.  I will be doing PLENTY of yoga for nine weeks, the last thing I need to do is cram a bunch of doubles in right beforehand.  But how could I NOT sign up?  That's like signing up for an Ironman competition and then saying to your running buddy "sorry, friend.  I would go running with you this weekend, but I'll be doing plenty of running in a few weeks, so..." I signed up.  Here's how the first four days went: