Ohmigosh, heartbreakers, i am so lucky! I was able to do the 8 & 10 three days in a row! Whoohoo! Today was prolly the roughest of the three days but, all in all, each class has been awesome. Great teachers and great instructions have made the last three days so much fun. The cherry on my weekend sundae was today after my second class. i was packing up all my stuff and one of my friends from the 8 came back to the studio with a bag of pears and tomatoes—for me! She even stuck a sunflower in the bag to pretty up an already beautiful collection of homegrown fruit. Seriously, i felt like the luckiest guy in the world when she said “these are for you!” That was a really cool feeling. She said it was a thank you for all the apples and plums i’d brought in over the past couple of months. Now that i’m home, i’m also reminded that i now have one less thing to buy at the farmers market this wednesday! Whoohoo, the same gift keeps getting better! alright friends, let’s play tag and you’re it, today if you have two, give one! ~m

Awww, it’s the end of august, my birthday month. I guess i have to get back to work now, huh? Believe me, sista, i’m tryin! i’m tryin! In the meantime, there isn’t a better way to spend a sunday then at the 8 & 10 class. My knees were a little weak for the second class so i had trouble with the one-legged balancing series. My teacher ribbed me a little about it and that helped me get through it. i already had a smile on my face, but there was laughter behind it. Laughter, the natural relaxer! Okay friends, remember your prayers for our friends in the south. I actually talked to a woman at the studio today who has family in the evacuation process. That’s scary friends, a major city being evacuated. say your prayers and i hope to see you all tomorrow. ~m

I woke up early to a foggy morning today, it was beautiful! i pedaled to yoga in a thick mist, it was chilly! So much for august heat. So much for bikram heat too. I took the 8 this morning and only sweated because i was working so hard. The room wasn’t really warm, plus my teacher’s pace makes the class easy anyway. Afterwards, i was almost packed up and ready to go when my friend asked me why i wasn’t staying for the 10. Well, hmmmm. So i got back in my wet shorts (ooooh, cold!) and stayed for another class. I really wasn’t sure about my knees, they’ve been so weak lately because of all the new pedaling in my life. But i had a pretty good second class anyway! My whole body was a lot stonger than i thought it would be and the class flew by. It’s weird how the second class always seems so much shorter than the first class. At least for me anyway. Alright, kids, enjoy your day! ~m

Whoohoo! It’s the weekend heartbreakers! I feel so guilty enjoying such beautiful weather while my friends down south are dealing with another storm. That’s way worse than dealing with the occasional earthquake! Earthquakes don’t really last longer than 10 or 20 seconds, then they’re over. some people use earthquakes as an excuse to stay away from the golden state. i can’t imagine not living in california! Why would you? We have the best fruit, the best weather. Yes, it’s expensive, but worth it for the quality of living. I’d rather live small somewhere nice than live phat in crap. It’s kinda like how Bikram asks which you would rather have: 90 years of daily suffering or 90 minutes of suffering a day. That’s still my favorite saying in the world! Either that or treat yourself like your best friend. Anyway, what i was trying to get to, if you are lucky enough to live somewhere nice this weekend, say a prayer for our friends in the south. and the packers too, if you don’t mind. thanks! ~m

Wow, i felt prepared for class this morning, but i got my butt kicked! I was sweating before class started and our teacher, she was dripping so much sweat before we even got to the floor! I was pretty wiped out, but after my shower immersion, i felt so much better. Oh man, I actually sat on the shower floor and let the water run all over me. I was drained, but there’s something refreshing about cool water pouring all over your body. I really feel hydrated again after a good shower, it’s prolly just a placebo, but i think we must absorb water through our pores. If plants can absord water through their leaves and stems as well as through their roots, then why not? Okay friends, it’s another fun day dealing with my storage space, gotta run! love you guys, m

In the words of Coach Lombardi, what the hell is going on out there? Sounds like Long Beach, CA is going to hell in a handbasket! Last month, i found out that the oldest book store in town is closing. Last night, i found out that there is now talk of closing the main library! Oh man, if that isn’t a condemnation of a city then i don’t know what is. That city has no problem finding money to destroy graffiti and hassle harmless citizens, but they can’t find money to fix the roof on the library. great. Just keep building overpriced, eyesores that are unaffordable for anyone who actually lives in the city. Brill.

Meanwhile, our hardworking government has arrested the guy who leaked some guns ‘n’ roses songs on the internet! i din’t know having bad taste was a federal offense. Seriously though, i feel so much safer now. How much did that cost the u.s.? Money well spent, don’t you think? Working for millionaires, that’s how government works. Whether it’s on a city level, finding funding to help build overpriced condos or on a federal level, protecting the profits of mega dough corporations. Oh no, axl might not sell an extra 100 records! Remember what i said? i love our country, it’s the government i can’t stand.

Should i tell you what happened to me today? I better, if i want to end on a positive note! Before class today, this woman pulled me aside and very seriously told me that she wanted to tell me something. Immediately, i thought, oh no, what did i do now? But it wasn’t like that, she told me on her very first day at practise, i told her that this was a good place for her to be. Now, she thinks of that whenever she walks through the doors to the studio and it inspires her to keep coming! Heartbreakers, i was kinda floored! I had a really good practise because she shared that with me, it was very cool to hear. okay friends, gotta run! see you tomorrow! ~m

I’m in a weird mood today. There are so many great things going on in my life! I’ve met some incredible people that i love being around. I love being able to practise yoga daily! Simultaneously, there are a lot of bad things going on in my life. If i stop to think about them, i wanna throw up. i’m somewhere between bliss and despair, if you can imagine that. It’s an odd balance, but to help, i eat a balanced diet that always includes YOGA ORGANICS, ha ha! The M&D found this bag of rice at wal-mart for me. I thought you’d get a kick out of it. Enjoy your day friends! ~m

One of my fellow practisers had to savasana out most of her practise today. Afterwards, she said she was kicking herself because she wanted to enjoy our teacher’s instruction! I know that feeling, don’t you? It’s so frustrating, sometimes the mind is eager but the body is just not up for any kind of movement. The best thing to do when that happens is come back again tomorrow! At least that’s what i think. remember friends, i’m not a professional, just an eager enthusiast. Or maybe an avid amatuer? I’m happy with either label as long as i get to keep the alliteration! so my gem for today is a no-brainer, if you have a bad class, come back again tomorrow. That’s the main thing, just keep showing up on your mat everyday. Your diet and hydration are important too! That’s a whole other blog, huh? the main thing is to not feel defeated. That goes during your practise too. I swear I’m not paying attention, but sometimes i see people fall out of a pose and look so bummed. I try and smile at myself in the mirror when i fall out of a pose. If you start to feel defeated, you will be. i always *try* and keep it on the positive side. I get bummed too, for a brief instant, before i remind myself that it’s only yoga and i’ll get to hold the pose again tomorrow! alright, that’s enough from me today, see you tomorrow (with a smile). ~m

Friends, some people just don’t get it, do they? I heard someone in their “intro week” describe bikram yoga as “not really yoga, just stretching with some psuedo-yoga poses.” Wow! Psuedo-yoga poses? I bet once that intro week is done, we won’t be seeing him around anymore. Even people who come on a regular basis don’t get it sometimes! It was super crowded today and this woman refused to move her mat so someone could squeeze into her row! She was being so rude, it was gross. Then she started looking around the room for places that this person could move to because she wasn’t gonna move. Oh man, that negative nancy is such a poor example of what our yoga studio is like. I hope the owner of the oakland studio din’t see that exchange. He was visiting us today as part of a summer tour he is doing of bikram studios along the california coast! How fun would that be? I just hope he doesn’t report back that we’re a rude studio, because we really aren’t, I swear! it’s such a mellow, laid-back studio, honest! Okay heartbreakers, enjoy your sunday and stay away from negative nancies! ~m

Good morning friends! I had an interesting class today. The warm-up part of the series seemed to go on forever! After a while, i got back in the groove with the rest of class and before i knew it we were in the floor series! Class really seems to go by fast when i’m really focused and working hard. At the end of class, our teacher did the greatest relaxation dialogue for our final savasana! She started out by telling us to relax our toes and then worked all the way up the body, past the head, into an open heart! Her voice was so sing-songy, it was such a nice treat! I could have stayed in final savasana forever, but the m & d are here so i had to get up after a few minutes. What a great class though and that relaxation dialogue was such a nice way to end class! i’m all exclamation points today, thanks! ~m

Finally another palindrome day! The olympics were a blast, weren’t they? Sure, there was some controversy, but, all in all, it was a great event and the opening ceremony was awesome! If the chinese had taken a lesson from bikram and done things correctly from the beginning, there would not have been any age questions. Did you hear that some computer geek figured out how to access the cache of chinese computer servers and found government documents with the pre-olympics birthdays of the gymnasts? If the age-jing olympics have reminded me of one thing, it’s how much i love the united states! we have a kick-ass country! We’ve got great athletes to be proud of. How about Shawn Johnson’s parents, who mortgaged their house 3 times so their daughter could be a gymnast! Only in america! In china you wouldn’t have a choice, you’re picked and placed in a government training center. Sure, our government is pretty fucked up sometimes. I think it was T.S.O.L. who said “we love our country, it’s the government we can’t stand!” I know none of this has to do with yoga, but after today’s class, i’m feeling kinda done! Today i got all caught up in practise and kinda forgot where we were until my teacher reminded me. i always get so embarrassed when that happens to me! i gotta learn to let it go. I’ll get another chance to do it right tomorrow, see you then! ~m

Well, as much as i like drawing things for you, it looks like i might have to take a break for awhile—it seems the makers of m&ms are going to be raising their costs. Geesh, they’re already expensive enough! At Bongs, a small bag of m&ms is 89 cents, that’s already out of my price range. How much money does candy have to cost? Oh well, that’s why i’m trying to keep the prices down on the tank tops i’m offering to you. Hopefully they’re affordable enough! Okay heartbreakers, looks like i gotta bust my hustle out, see you tomorrow! ~m

Thanks to everyone who sent me well-wishes yesterday, it was so nice to hear from all of you! I had a rad day thank you very much. i treated myself to lunch *and* dinner! Eating out is a foreign luxury to me, so it was nice to indulge. I’ve also had about 2 dozen cookies in the last 36 hours! I’m a glutton, it’s so bad! It showed in my practise today though, so i need to watch myself. I was a little weak and one of my biggest inspirations up and left class after the standing series! I guess she wasn’t feeling it today, but i wasn’t either and then i started doubting myself, oh no. i kept it together though and made it through class. To keep my head in it, i concentrated on listening to my teacher’s voice and the words she was saying. When you focus on everything your teacher is saying, you don’t have time to doubt yourself! It works, you should try it sometime. Okay friends, time to head to the farmers market for some real food! see you tomorrow! ~m

Today was the kind of class i need more of. it was super humid and hard to stay focused. definitely a challenge, but that’s what i need! I can only imagine how hot it must be in teacher training. Those are the kind of conditions i want to start getting ready for. It was quite a difference from yesterday when i barely broke a sweat! Yesterday my yogitoes was so dry after practise that i almost din’t wash it. Today when i left the room, the sweat was dripping *through* my mat, which has only happened one other time! afterwards i treated myself to a burrito! i don’t often do that, but i’m living it up today!

My dad told me i should listen to some good music! I guess that means i should mention that yesterday was the 38th anniversary of one of the most important records of the 20th century. 38 years ago yesterday, the Stooges dropped “Fun House” on an unsuspecting world. Fun House is the record that has prolly damaged me the most in my life. Lots of other people too, like the ramones and the sex pistols. i first heard about Fun House when henry wrote about it in spin. The way he described, i couldn’t live without it, i had to go and buy it immediately. That record was an explosion of fuzzed guitar, wailing sax, iggy screaming, teenage decadence run amock. Before they were the Stooges, these guys used to get chased and beat up because they were the freaks in town. Now, finally, they’re getting chicks! When iggy sang “she got a t.v. eye on me” he wasn’t talking about television, this was a new Vibe alright. “Calling from the fun house with my song” Oh yeah, man, when i was 16, i used to listen to this record over and over again. It was inspirational, it made me feel good, it’s a roar of all that frustration finally being over and now it’s time to get stoned and rock. You can hear iggy hacking a lung in a “t.v. eye” outtake! Their road crew was around the studio to indulge them and it sounds like a party! Iggy sang “out of my mind on saturday night” in “1970.” Which was quite a difference from last year’s “1969”—“another year with nothing to do.” No, 1970 was gonna be a new decade, “i feel alright” iggy screams and he’s still screaming it when the band is well into the title track which is a groove that iggy can ride forever. he plays musical director to the rest of the band, telling them to bring it down and then when it’s time for the big free jazz sax solo he yells “blow steve!” and then when the whole band is going off he yells “blow everybody blow!” oh man, talk about good music. fuck yeah! thanks dad, i love you! ~m

I don’t know what it is about my teacher today, but whenever i take her class, i always find myself bending farther than i ever have before! Maybe it’s not even bending or stretching more, sometimes it’s just opening my body more, like in my chest and shoulders. Today it was in ustrasana, i felt like i was doing it right and my body felt soooo good. Oh man, i was all smiles, that’s how good it felt! I guess most people don’t smile during camel, but i couldn’t help it. The sequence of ardha-kurmasana to ustrasana to sasangasana feels really good in general and i think i was just super-enjoying it. I was feeling so good, i thought about staying for the noon, but i opted for writing to you sooner! ~m

You’re not gonna believe what happened to me yesterday—my landlord got me a bike to use! It’s just my size and it works. I was flabbergasted to say the least! This morning, i took advantage of my new wheels and woke up not too early so i could do the 8 am class! I usually do the 10 am everyday and on saturday and sundays, i get to practise behind or next to my friend who usually does the 8, 10 and sometimes the 4 too! I've wanted to do the 8 & 10 with her for so long and today i finally got my chance! Being able to do a double on the weekend seems so daunting. There’s too many people, it’s either too hot or too humid, you know what it’s like. i knew i was ready for it though because i like those conditions. The first class was really humid! I sweated so much, it was ridiculous. After class i ran to the shower and stood under the water for a few minutes. I was prepared for the break between classes. I had an apple, some almonds plus a lot of water. To compare the two classes, the first was packed with lots of experienced practitioners and the second was a lot of beginners. Two first timers? One girl pretty much gave up during the warm-up and was on her mat for most of class. Another grabbed all her stuff and ran out! So many people were just lying on their mats, it was unbelievable! I was a little worried that without their energy, i would start losing my focus, but i really felt stronger as the class went on. By the time class was over, it din’t even feel like i had done two classes. I din’t feel drained at all! I think the chard is really helping my body out a lot. After class i had another apple and a friend gave me a banana. Since i had wheels, i decided to treat myself to an afternoon in the park! i bought a tamale at the bus station then pedaled to the park for the rest of my lunch. alright friends, enjoy your day! ~m

It’s nice to know that i’m not the only one swept up in the olympics. It was nice to hear one of my friends say, “it makes me so proud to be american.” Me too. But the late nights! ohmigosh! I took a break last night and went to bed at 11, can you believe that’s taking a break? Geez, the other night they din’t hand out medals until 1:15 in the morning! Where’s my dvr when i need it? While i’m complaining, who else is mad at netflix? They don’t ship movies for almost a week and to make up for it, they give a 15% credit? How generous. What about kicking down an extra movie, you cheap skates? As convenient as netflix is, their shipping system is totally wack. Netflix should be able to receive and ship a movie in the same day, but they don’t because their profit margin would be lower. grrr. i don’t know how i got to be so bitchy this afternoon, i had an awesome morning! Oh man, class was good today. It wasn’t as warm as it should have been, but the heat is a prop, right? well, it took my body a little while to loosen up, but what a class! It was very crowded, but there was lots of positive energy flowing, the mirror working in my favor today. Actually it was so crowded, one woman left before class even started. I think she got vibed out because she complained that people were taking up too much room. I’ve written before how people get territorial with “their” spots. Crab apples like that are missing the whole point of yoga! Okay, enough of me complaining about things, i’m taking the day off from olympics and going outside! I hope you’re having as nice a day in your town as i am having in mine. Don’t worry, i’ll be back to cheer on the eighth gold medal this evening. Why not? i saw all the others, i might as well see them all! ~m

Since i’ve started doing yoga, i’ve changed so much. My diet has been one of the most interesting changes. i can’t believe i eat a salad everyday now! I load it up with beans for energy and it tastes so good. i do miss all the burgers and chicken i used to eat, but my stomach has never felt better! even though i’ve been staying up late to watch the olympics, i still do okay throughout the day. i think it’s the chard that i started adding to my salads last week. Wow, chard is one of the healthiest things you can eat! i don’t want to bore you with all the health facts, but chard is overloaded with vitamins K, A and C. Chard also has a lot of magnesium, calcium and potassium, the three electrolytes added to smart water, so it’s a perfect addition to a bikram diet! I saw a piece on michael phelps’ diet—he gets to eat 12,000 calories a day! he eats 2 big bowls of spaghetti and meat sauce, they looked good on TV! Plus, a large pizza everyday! wow, i’ve been craving spaghetti, pizza and lasagne for so long. it was nice to see that my cravings may be what my body needs rather than what my mind wants. One thing about my diet that hasn’t changed is my interest in sushi. There is an amazing woman at our studio who does doubles almost everyday and almost every other day she brings our teachers amazingly beautiful plates of freshly made sushi. Today, my amazingly beautiful teacher offered me her plate! What do you do when a pretty girl offers you a plate of food that you don’t want? In the past, i would have taken it just because she’s pretty, but i really have changed. i din’t want such good food wasted on me. i’ve never even tried sushi, i wouldn’t know tasty from terrible. i kinda wanted to take it and try it, it was vegetarian plate even with avocado, rice and almonds. i was, maybe, a little interested, but someone else would have prolly appreciated it more, so i declined. hey, i think i’m eating wild with chard, i don’t wanna get crazy with sushi, you know what i mean? oh boy, my stomach is growling so loud right now, maybe i should have taken it. oh well, see you tomorrow! ~m

Hey, it’s my dad’s birthday today! i always get excited because it means my birthday isn’t that far away! Seriously, though, i always thought my dad was the greatest, so i like celebrating his birthday. i still do not eat pickles because of a little joke my dad played on me once! my dad was cool. Not only was he in a james brown soul style band before i was born, but he even put out a single! I used to play that record all the time when i was a little kid. That record and my oscar the grouch record were all i used to listen to! When i was 4 my dad brought home an elton john record for me. that may sound lame now, but this was 1974, the ramones were barely forming, so step back! Seriously, there was one good song on that record—a ’50s rave-up called “crocodile rock,” i played that song to death! it’s my dad’s fault i became a rock and roll obsessed nerd at such a young age, always listening to music! My dad’s been more than that though. He’s also been a good example of how hard you have to work if you want to succeed. When my dad was my age he had a 20 year old son (me), to say he started our family on the young side is an understatement. He worked at night and went to college during the day. Most people in his family sit around drinking beer and listening to music, so this was quite a change for my dad. Despite the odds, he managed to make it out of the ghetto to the deluxe apartment in the sky. well, he has to live in BFE, but he’s got a job at least! Seriously, it was a good work ethic to follow and helped me a lot. Well, friends, if you see your dad today, give him a big hug for me and tell him i love him. ~m

I’m not sure why i set my mat in the front row today. Maybe it was habit, maybe it was wanting to be in between friends, I’m not sure. All i know is that i was up late last night doing some olympic watching and i woke up early this morning to get to the 8 am morning class. i know ardha-kurmasana is supposed to put some rest in the bank for us, but i think i’m overdrawn because i was tired this morning! Once class started, I musta forgot about all that though! I had one of the most exciting classes i’ve ever had! oh my gosh, during dandayamana-janushirasana, i was actually able to look down at my knee! “never done nothing like that before!” i couldn’t get my forehead to my knee and i fell out pretty quickly as soon as i looked down during the first set, but it was the start of the rest of the pose! Wow, it felt so cool, i had a big smile on my face after each set! Then, during the second set of dandayamana-dhanurasana—my foot was rising above my head so high! wow, that was exciting! i din’t think i had that much more stretch in my legs! seriously, my foot was going up so high, it was very exciting! After class, my teacher told me how much i’ve improved since i started practising! Wow, she said so many kind words about my practise, it left me flustered and giddy. I told her it was my the teachers that have made my practise possible. Seriously, my practise would be nowhere without my teachers. The studio here has so many really good ones and each of them has helped me so much! Honestly, i feel incredibly blessed to have so many skilled yoginis to learn from! Not just learn from, but to practise with! okay, it's wednesday, farmers market today! i love you guys, namaste ~m

Yesterday i mentioned that i thought going to teacher training would be neat because everyone would be so dedicated and committed to their practise. Imagine my surprise today when one teacher told me that in her training the paramedics were being called almost everyday because someone had passed out. My other teacher told me people in her training would go and tan themselves, get burned and then try practising! wow. my teacher modeling the tanks on the homepage told me vomiting was pretty much an everyday occurance at her training! Maybe it’s not the paradise i think it is. But then again, like jimmy says, i mean come on, i’m practising twice a day, i don’t have to walk two miles to get there, i’m in the same room as Bikram *and* my food is taken care of! Plus i get to live in a hotel room for over two months! Oh man, when i write it out loud, it sounds awesome. The only drawback for me is all the learning stuff you gotta do and not being around my cats for 2 months. I’m okay with bending, but book smarts isn’t really my bag (as you can tell by my writing). do people fail teacher training? i think i’m dumb, or maybe just happy, but that part scares me. i’d want to be a good all-around student. I have to say, the idea of not having to walk very far for practise sounds amazing and combine that with not having to cook! Taking care of yourself before class is just as important as taking care of yourself in class. in the studio, they tell you to go slow and not hurt yourself, but most people don’t have that discipline outside of class. Maybe you shouldn’t drink alcohol the night before you practise. Or maybe shouldn’t stay up super late watching television. Or maybe you don't eat very well. There are so many variables outside class that really affect you in class. that might be why i like bikram yoga so much. once you become serious about your practise, you start rethinking everything you do. or at least you should. the other day i din’t make it through class, but what did i expect? i was up late the night before and ate way too much of a bad pie. i was asking for a rough class the next day, but what can i tell you? the olympics were on and the pie was warm at least. i only bring this up because it’s been two days in a row now that we din’t finish with all the people we started with. that’s kinda scary, i don’t think people take this class as serious as they should. some people take it too serious, but i can’t blog about myself all day! ha ha. sorry friends, i’ll let you get back to work, see you tomorrow! ~m

oh boy, i had a good class today, i like guest teachers! it was another extra-humid day in the torture chamber, it may have even been crowded, but i was focused today. although during the floor series, i had to laugh when we set up for bhujangasana. the girl in front of me drew a smiley face in the foggy mirror in front of her! it was extra funny because she’s usually so focused. she gives her all in every pose and it shows by the steam she generates in the mirror. that’s what i call working! it’s inspiring to see. i like practising behind people like that because it helps me with my practise i think. it also makes me want to practise more than i already do! it would be so cool to go to teacher training just to practise yoga twice a day with bikram and some of his best teachers! that sounds like a dream world. okay friends, it’s time for the real world where i need to get back on the apple pie horse, see you tomorrow! ~m

Gee, nbc olympics coverage is a little weak, don’t you think? I’ve missed all the boxing preliminary bouts so far. I’ll admit, womens beach volleyball was pretty nice on the eyes. There was even one pretty good back-and-forth session between the americans and japanese that was pretty fun to watch. during the men’s gymnastics, they had a short segment on that raj guy—he practises bikram yoga! they had footage of him in class, in a few different poses. I think more athletes should take up bikram yoga, mainly for the discipline, more than anything else. I had a great class today, it was a familiar teacher to some, but new to me. The last time that happened my teacher challenged me to reach farther during our first backbend and i did! Today i was challenged to reach farther during utkatasana and i did! That little extra push, early in practise, kinda sets the tone for the rest of my poses. Well, i’m wore out now, so time to take a little break. Look for some new stuff this week friends! ~m

Did anyone watch the opening ceremony last night? Wow, it was a spectacle, wasn’t it? The opening fireworks were almost too much. The strobe drumming went over the top and i started feeling nauseated. i don’t know what it was, but i had to look away from the screen for awhile. it was a pretty cool show, though. the chinese invented paper and printing. Hmmmm, we invented rock and roll and prolly some other things too, like, maybe, peanut butter. Was that ours? I don’t know, third base. ha ha. I enjoyed the olympics a little too much last night because during practise i started to feel nauseated again. There weren’t strobe lights in the studio, i think it was too much apple pie from last night! oh, but it was, well, i was gonna say it was good last night, but it was actually pretty bad. it was my first apple pie and i used my plum pie recipe using apples instead of plums. Maybe that had something to do with it? i don’t know, third base. can you tell i’ve been enjoying abbott and costello movies lately? well, the apple pie was a bust, but i’ll try it again. okay friends, enjoy yr day! ~m

what an awesome class! i was a little nervous, not having my morning emergen-c and i even felt dehydrated on my walk. Not a good way to go into a bikram yoga class, so i drank a smart water before class. it was a pretty crowded class today and very humid, but our teacher worked the room so well that practise was a breeze. After the warm-up part of the standing series, our teacher said “that was awful!” We all started laughing, she was joking, of course, and her timing couldn’t have been better. after garurasana, people are so eager to reach for their water, sometimes they even sit down before we go into the one-legged balancing part of the practise! seriously, a lot of people act like they’re exhausted after the warm-up and today’s joke, i think, broke people out of their routine a little. she also ran the fan twice during class, not for very long, but just enough to break the humidity. it was exactly what i needed to keep going and i’m sure a lot of other people felt the same way! not only did she go easy on us, but we also got a great demonstration of tuladandasana! i don't think i’ve held my arms correctly at the start before! i need to keep them back behind my head instead of on the side, which is what i had been doing. i love the chance to improve my form! all in all, a great class today, i was lucky to be there! and after practise, a friend bought me a croissant from the bakery behind the studio! i haven’t had one of those in almost a year, i forgot how good they are! i’m used to the bland costco ones that people bring into the workplace, so this one was extra yummy! and it was free, which made it taste even better! enjoy your day heartbreakers! ~m

I have a confession to make—i’ve been stealing a lot lately. It’s not like me, but i can’t help myself. it all started last sunday, i saw this suspicious-looking mom and son couple standing outside of the farm across the street from my place. She looked guilty and he looked like he was having fun, so i knew they were up to no good. Sure enough, outside of the farm is a huge blackberry bush—they were stealing blackberries! heartbreakers, i’m a city kitty, i din’t know what a blackberry bush even looked like. The next day on the way to yoga i noticed that along my river-side walk there’s prolly a 50 yard long stretch of blackberry bushes! for the past few days i’ve been sneaking down the river bank and picking blackberries. For being wild and unmaintained, they’re not too bad. they get even better though if you’re eating them on a 2 mile walk after practising bikram yoga! Today after yoga i went a little overboard and took a bag with me and picked a lot. i hate to see food go to waste, so i might as well enjoy them. They’re a luxury for me, so i feel like i’m getting away with one. i gorged on a ton today because i was exhausted. i always talk about being prepared for class, but today i wasn’t. i stayed up late to watch the gymnastics practise from beijing! last night i thought it was worth it, but today in class i had a little trouble hanging. just when i was getting overwhelmed, my teacher opened the door to the studio and a wave of cool, calming air came crashing into our humid torture chamber. how do you spell relief? o-p-e-n d-o-o-r, ha ha. the free blackberries today made my walk a lot easier! don’t forget, tomorrow is the opening ceremonies, go u.s.a.! luv, m

oh my gosh, what an embarrassing moment for me during practise today—I got lost! i dunno, i guess i got caught up in trikanasana and, instead of listening to the instructions, i absentmindedly set up for it a third set. i got so flustered and felt so confused for a few seconds. i was in the front row too, i hate setting a bad example! ugh. i sat on my knees for the first half of the first set. it was doubly frustrating! firstly frustrating, because dandayamana-bibhaktapada-janushirasana is one of my favorites and i just wanted to be in it! But i was also frustrated because it was really humid and i was sweating so much that i thought, “water would be nice right now.” But i couldn’t do it, i just sat on my knees. i was anxious to join the class for the second half of that first set, just so i could get back to focus! wow, can the mind wander. when i’m bending, i don’t think about the sweat too much. when i stop bending is when i notice it. i remember when i first started practising, how distracting the sweating was! once i got my mind away from the sweat and the heat and started thinking about god, my practise changed. it’s been great, but it’s still so easy to get distracted. that’s why i don’t rely on god to get me through practise. i still eat healthy everyday, no matter what. i’m lucky that i’ve been able to take advantage of all the free fruit on the property the birdhouse is on. it gets better than that though! On my way home today i deliberately walked on the opposite side of the street so i wouldn’t see the cart of satsuma plums that my neighbor is selling. these plums are so sweet and delicious, i can’t resist them! But i can’t buy plums when i have an even better plum at home! plus, it’s the last of them, so i want to be able to enjoy each and every one. i almost made it past the cart today when my neighbor called out for me! well, after eating a few plums while we talked about the trees and the land and the river, not only did he send me home with a bunch of plums, but he also gave me a big bag of galvestein apples! That’s god’s way of making sure i get through practise. i still gotta do my part and pay attention to the instructions, but, hey, one step at a time, right? ~m

I keep a fortune cookie fortune on my bathroom mirror, so i can remind myself daily that “he who hurries cannot walk with dignity.” I like that fortune a lot. It makes me think of “You Can’t Hurry Love” by the Concretes. It’s also good to think about in the yoga studio too. It was on my mind in practise today. If you’re rushing to get into a pose, you miss the set-up and the form, which make-up the foundation for your pose. They make it easier to balance, so you’re not struggling to hold a pose. I dunno, am i right? i think you could just change some of the words and have a great yoga fortune: “he who hurries cannot bend with grace.” aww, but what do i know? sorry, i’ll be quiet for now. ~m

Oh wow, Morgan Freeman was in a car accident earlier. I din’t know he was from mississippi! He owns a blues club, Ground Zero, named as such because it’s in Clarksdale, Mississippi, home to Muddy Waters, prolly the single most important man of the 20th century. (I’ll argue that ’til the day i day, so don’t bother.) Can you believe Morgan Freeman was on “Herman’s Head?” In hindsight, that was a pretty talented cast. He’s an american treasure, Morgan Freeman. Speaking of american treasure, are you getting excited for the olympics? Frankly, i’m not. I’d rather see the games in a free country, but that’s me, i’m a weirdo. i like being able to say or do whatever i want. Despite being hosted in a government-controlled country, i’m still gonna totally support our athletes! I’m actually looking forward to olympic boxing as well as basketball and, of course, gymnastics. What do you think about having yoga in the olympics? A lot of people argue that yoga isn’t supposed to be about competition. I dunno, i feel like i’m competing with myself everyday, prolly the same way a weightlifter keeps trying to get better. If kids were exposed to yoga the same way they are exposed to gymnastics, there would be more interest in bending at an earlier age. Think about how impressive it is to see the combination of a beautiful dandayamana-janushirasana followed by a beautiful dandayamana-dhanurasana! Or how about a beautiful dhanurasana? To see someone holding that pose with perfect form and in perfect stillness, well, i bet that’d be amazing to see, inspirational even. Can you imagine what kind of impact that would have on a young mind? i have the 26 poses as my screensaver, so a lot of times, i just sit and watch my computer as it flashes the images of each pose in sequence. The poses are so beautiful, i can never look at them enough! Lately i’ve been pretty focused in my practise, but today i looked at everybody in the mirror and fell out of my standing bow because it was so neat to see! i was in between a teacher and a very practised yogini and all i could see where really high feet over heads, oh boy, it was so cool! seriously, it was impressive to me and i’m a jaded old man. Yoga in the olympics? why not? Shooting is an olympic sport, why not yoga? They both require incredible focus and concentration. Holding the asanas in stillness not only requires strength and endurance, like any other olympic sport, but it also requires balance and flexibility like in gymnastics. Honestly, i’m not sure why it has taken so long for someone to say something about yoga being a part of the olympics. i wonder if that means in 20 years i’ll be arguing for Bikram Choudhury as the most important man of the 20th century? i’ve never been able to imagine a near-60 me, but now that i’ve been doing yoga, i sort of have. weird. see you tomorrow. ~m

Another crowded sunday class, packed with lots of good energy today! I musta lost a pound, i sweated so much. I felt super good though! With all those energizing sit-ups, sometimes it’s hard to lie in savasana at the end of class. It was another one of those days when i feel all bottled up and go! I attribute this mostly to my diet. Yesterday was another gorge fest of epic proportions! It all started with an eggstra special, uneggspected delivery. The other day, my landlord brought me some eggs and yesterday i tried one. I’m not a farm boy, so this was the first time i’ve ever known the chicken that layed the egg i ate. it was a trip and a half! Just knowing that egg came from one of those chickens that i see all the time was so weird. i don’t even wanna get into the animal life issue, but you can imagine all the thoughts that were running through my head, being a nonpractising vegan, after all. So despite all that, i need to tell you that i had the best tasting egg sandwich ever! That was just the start of the feast! Later on i had plum pie, my daily bean salad and 2 plates of fruit. Not only that, but netflix sent me a cinema classic yesterday, so, i indulged myself. While watching “Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein,” i had a bag of popcorn and a reese’s peanut butter cup. anybody that knows me knows this is my all-time favorite candy. they just don’t make anything better than that. well, i stand corrected, now they sell them with caramel! Oh my gosh, longs had a buy 1 get 1 on them the other day—what a decadent treat! but you wanna know what? i do bikram yoga everyday, my body can handle it. plus i had a second plate of fruit to balance out all the junk. I was afraid the bad food might affect my practise today, but i felt great even with the eggstra (ha ha) bodies practising with us today! after practising for awhile now, i think the foundation for your practise is what you eat and how much water you drink. well, those two things and listening to instructions, but that’s another blog! okay friends, see you tomorrow! ~m

Another palindrome day! I wish people would drop the extra zero when they write the year, but, hey, that’s just me. and, yes, to answer your question, it drives me crazy when people say “oh-eight!” That’s a zero, not an O. I know you all can’t be as perfect as me, so that’s why i share some of these hard-hitting life-facts with you, ha ha. Oh, wait, i actually do have a good tip for you today! When you are getting set-up for utkatasana, the instructions are to stand with your feet 6 inches apart. Well, a dollar bill (this only works in america) is just a shade longer than 6 inches. So when you get into your set-up, just imagine a dollar bill between your feet. Okay, maybe you already knew that, but that’s all i got for you today. Enjoy your saturday friends! ~m

Happy august heartbreakers! can you believe summer is almost over? i had another humid class today. wow, it’s incredible how much one little boy can sweat! I’m so lucky that i’ve finally hipped up to eating right. Fresh fruit and homegrown vegetables do a body good. Even on days like today, when i leave huge sweat puddles on the both sides of my mat, after class i feel so good, energized! i might be a little lagging on my walk home but after some r&r in the birdhouse, it’s like the walk never happened. i attribute this to my incredibly long eating sessions of late where i am constantly eating an enormous amount of fruit and a big salad with beans. This isn’t to say that i still don’t get wiped out sometimes. i don’t eat like that every day, but when i do, it shows up in my practise. Like today, when i shoulda been a puddle on my mat! see you tomorrow, ~m