Thursday, December 2, 2010
Thursday musings
Monday, November 29, 2010
Mysore week with David Keil
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Safari in Florida
Anyway, let me tell you about safari we went to on our last day in Florida. We did not have very high expectations for a twenty-dollar trip without a guide (well, we were given a CD as a guide) in the middle of nowhere. But surprisingly, we had a couple of adrenalin rush moments. Go figure!
So we started our trip after a stern admonition not to roll down the window at any moment and not to run down anyone. Saw lots of birds and animals, mostly horned variety:
Passed lions, which was not very exciting, because they were behind an additional fence. Then this creature appeared in front of the car:
Little thing, with crooked horns, who knew it would cause so much trouble? Anyway, it was slowly and calmly walking in front of the car, making us crawl behind. If you look at the picture carefully, you will see rubber bands, stretched in the gates between the zones. So supposedly, they were holding the animals inside. Not very effective, let me tell you. This little creature crossed it in 3 seconds, only jumping up once in panic, when one of rubber bands touched it. Perhaps it was not quite as calm about a huge car behind it, but anyway. It just continued its calm walking in a new zone, which was African planes.
We slowly drove behind, because the stupid thing was walking right in the middle of the road. We saw a herd of zebras far ahead and thought "hey, move faster, we want to see zebras!". Well, in a moment all zebras stopped eating and looked at us kind of scarily. My friend said "One might think they have never seen a car before" and at this moment, all zebras started running towards us. 40 or 60 of them. All at the same time. We stopped the car and tried to remember if our rental car insurance covered trampling by zebras. At the very last moment the herd divided and run on both sides of the car:
Turns out they were not after us, but after the trespasser. The stupid thing was a third of a zebra side, why they felt so threatened? No idea. Anyway, the zebras are now running around in great agitation, and I think the stupid thing escaped into its own zone. At least I hope so.
So having escaped the zebras, we moved a little further and discovered that a bunch of rhinos abandoned their mud baths and came out to see what the commotion was all about:
Let me tell you, this was really scary. Five or six of them piled up on the road, blocking the car. Each of them the same size as the car, if not bigger. All of them turning the head from side to side, which felt very sinister. And the CD guide is droning at the very moment: "please do not stop your car close to the rhinoceros, because they are very aggressive". Having heard that we silently tried to remember if our rental car insurance covered bodily harm. Luckily, one of the safari workers saw our predicament and started unloading his zebra-striped truck with rhino's food. Rhinos thought about it for a moment and decided that having a snack would be merrier than trampling our car and slowly moved toward the food. Phew!
The rest of the trip was not quite as exciting. Just a couple of more pictures:
Cute giraffe:
And the ugliest bird on Earth:Monday, November 8, 2010
It is practically a vacation.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
I am still alive. Kinda.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Two days in a row of really good practice (knock-knock-knock, spit-spit-spit). I even got bakasana today. Well, did not really get. I was going through my regularly scheduled supta vajrasana suffering and asked David in frustration if I was going to get stuck in this pose forever. I really did not mean to ask for a pose, but he readily gave me bakasana. Since being nice is not really in David's nature, he added that is did not matter if I was going to get stuck in SV or bakasana, because I would get stuck there for sure. Such a typical David! Still love him. :)
I think I did not mention my hip problems here. I got a bursitis of the hip joint due to my sucky jump through. I used to land heavily on the outside of my right foot every time I jumped through, felt the jolt in my hip and thought to myself "oh, this is not good". It really was not good in the end, when the outside bursa inflamed, with pain spreading to the butt and to the knee through the IT band. Massage and acupuncture are slowly making things better. Meanwhile I thought that my jumpback improved, because I no longer felt the jolt in the right hip. But today the realization struck me - I just learned to land not on my right foot, but left one instead! I am listening attentively to my left hip now and planning a weekend marathon reading of Gimmli's archives on learning how to jump back and through.
My new work keeps me just as busy as my old one. For some reason it seems a little more meaningful, so I do not feel drained and unhappy. It would be good to have some time to write and to read blogs, though.
Monday, August 9, 2010
On yoga and running.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Teaching yoga is dangerous.
So no, I did not practice today. Because yesterday I got a mighty kick into the eye from a student getting into a handstand. I subbed a very lovely class of rather advanced students and tried to introduce a trick from David kyle' workshop - doing a handstand with one hand on a block (kind of a prep for a one-handed handstand). It feels very weird trying to get into the pose and the students were having problems with it. I was running around, helping to get up. So I leaned forward over this student and in a moment was flying backwards, stars in my eyes. Her heel drove my glasses into a socket of the eye, creating a gush - not very long, but reaching the bone. Blood was pouring down like I was beheaded or something. Good thing it was close to the end of the class, so we settled pretty soon into savasana, with me holding the bag of ice on top of my eye and trying to sooth everybody to let go of the stress of this yoga class.
Monday, May 3, 2010
I wonder if I broke my neck a little.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Press into your feet and unclench your butt. Then hang freely back and catch your heels. Yeah.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Supta vajrasana.
A combination of being fat and having T.Rex-like arms is not conducive for successful supta vajrasana. I need at least 3 additional inches of the arm length. Or lose 14-20 pounds. It seems that former is easier somehow.
Still no time to blog or read, but there is light in the end of the tunnel. And boy, it is beautiful outside! Trees are blooming, birds are chirping. We survived the winter!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
New toy.
Anyway, back to the composing an exam. I hope you are all doing well!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Dropback challenge, continued.
Still, nothing earth-shattering, just a little progress. Twice - 5 dropbacks at a time, then once - 3 dropbacks (13 in total). Needed rest in between the batches. Obvious lack of stamina, but it should improve as I continue practicing. I got a glimpse of what Grimmly was talking about - a sense of rhythm and meditative quality of the whole thing. Just a glimpse of what to look forward to, but enough for motivation.
On the other note, we just endured a pretty nice snow storm. It is very pretty outside! Need to go and dig out my car. It will be fun trying to find it - they all look like big white lumps. If only I remembered where I parked on Friday...
Happy Sunday!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Dropback challenge
On the second - I can see that practicing kapotasana increased the flexibility of my hips, which improved my UD a little:
So this is today and two years ago:
The difference is really microscopic and mostly in the hips (knees are a little straighter), but oh well, I'll take it. Maybe upper back, too?
It is snowing out here. I hope this is the last of winter we see this season.
Happy weekend!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
I am grateful...
Just a quick note to keep this blog alive.
Being busy is nothing new for any of us, but it feels like I have never been busier in my life. Well, last year at the same time, when I started teaching immunology for the first time, it felt close. This year the teaching is a little easier, since it is a second time around and I insisted on having fewer students. But the day-work stuff picked up both speed and volume tremendously. The lab I am working in is transitioning to a different institution, which means we need urgently to tie up loose ends and fulfill all our obligations to collaborators. There is so much to do that sometimes I can't even start in the morning, just trying to decide which problem to tackle first.
But I still practice yoga every single day (Thank you, Kaivalya!). I also made a pact with myself not to skip any poses during my practice (my favorite skipped ones - dropbacks, because "me tired...") - thank you, Grimmly! Being a part of a blogosphere not only gave me lots of new friends, both virtual and "real", but also taught new things and provided with amazing inspiration. Thank you, everyone! Ugh, it all sounds like I am saying goodbye, which I am not. Just needed to express my gratitude.
Anyway, I think I figured out how to start my work day, so I bid you all to have a wonderful day!
Monday, January 4, 2010
First week of the year.
So far so good. Yoga every day. Even twice on Sunday - mysore and a vinyasa class I teach. I made a list of poses for my home practice, mostly to clean-up poses I do not do well (such as sloppy jump-backs and throughs, lifting into Upavista konasana B, and so on); also kicks into handstand and samakonasana stretches. It is a little eclectic, but after sun salutations it seems to work OK. I also need to add at least 30 minutes to my night sleep, this part did not work yet.
Also on the agenda - keep the food logged into chronometer, do not go over 2000 cal - still good, too. At the moment 80% raw, 20% cooked; 100% vegetarian.
I love the energy of the new beginnings. New Year is my favorite holiday because of that. Only wish this energy could sustain a little longer than it normally does. Oh well, whatever. I will enjoy it while it lasts.
Things are picking up at work, keeping me really busy. My boss is leaving for another institutions, and most of the lab are going with her, including me, sometime within next 6 months. Which means we need to wrap up all the projects we can finish and publish, publish, publish. It is also time for my side job to kick-in - teaching immunology this semester. Thank God for my New Year jolt of energy, without it I would just die in anticipation of the time crunch. So far, though, a feeling of invincibility and unlimited power is hovering on the back of my mind, keeping my step light and me - smiling.
On unrelated note - I have this strange urge to see Avatar again. I liked the movie a lot, but did not expect the desire to see it again. Weird.
Have a great day, everyone!
:)