crazy pom-pom hat. in the parking lot today, post-bikram. this makes the debate between colour and black/white a hard one. is this photograph missing the cool mountain colours of the pom-poms? oh, this is a good reminder to double check your settings before taking a picture. i was in such a rush to catch up with this hat, i din’t bother to check my settings, convinced they were set they way i wanted them. i forgot about some night shots i attempted last night, so my iso was at 1600, in the daylight! well, it still came out alright, i like the high contrast look.

alright, that’s enough photo talk for one day. how about that hockey game? the united states is so cool, adding a little drama to the game by taking it into overtime. i was all about the lakers game on abc until i realized i could watch the hockey game on my computer at the same time. i turned it on right when the u.s. went to an empty net, just before they tied the game! good timing on my part, no doubt.

bad timing on my part, getting to bikram right as the door is about to get locked. heartbreakers, give yourself plenty of time to get to the studio. getting there right when class is about to start isn’t good enough. not only do you need a few minutes to change and put your mat down, it’s a courtesy to your fellow benders. i need to stop cutting it close like today, so, as with most diatribes, this reminder is aimed at me, not you. but it’s still a good reminder for you too. xo, m

santa cruz coast, today around 4pm. i took today off from bikram for a little body recovery. my muscles feel like they do a little bit of developing with a day off. instead of resting, i spent the day cleaning my studio and when i got bored with that, i went on a bike ride. after checking out the coast, i stopped downtown and ran into a drunken troubadour and his muse. good times indeed.

pacific cookie company in the background. their main bakery isn’t far from here, reject cookies are half-price and on the honor system. a nice treat for a poor boy on cold mountain. i’ll be back in the hot room tomorrow, see you then. ~m

the sun-kissed fields of route 1 farms, santa cruz. i love all the different greens. this is the street level view across the street from where i live. from here, it’s a quarter mile hike up cold mountain to my little birdhouse. thought i’d share another snap shot from yesterday to make my east coast friends jealous.

life in central california is pretty much like this all the time, except for today. amazing how it can go from blue sky to rain and wind in less than 24 hours. today i biked to bikram in 20-30 mile per hour winds with 55 mph gusts. i stopped 3 different times because i thought there was something wrong with my bike. “do i have a flat?” check both tires. no, the wind was so strong it felt like my bike could barely move. i was seriously worked by the time i got to bikram.

i think the rain started the same time we started the floor series, at least it sounded like loud downpours from outside. i don’t know why bikram was so crowded today, but it was. lots of first timers too. that always makes for an interesting class. what did our teacher say today? practise with intention. i think it was something like that, go into, maintain and release the pose with intention. i think you build strength in releasing the pose slowly, but i know you all do that already.

oh, that’s enough about bending. do you believe in ghosts? i do. my great-grandfather is a ghost. my last apartment, built in 1928, had ghosts living there. in fact, i think my middle kitty is a ghost there now. sometimes i think i see my oldest kitty walking around here. if it is my imagination, i definitely feel his presence, at times. all that being said, the other night i was *freaked* out over what i could only imagine were ghosts on cold mountain. i was watching a documentary about ghosts and as the show continued, i started hearing banging outside my wall and on the roof. oh man, just birds, i told myself. but it was so steady and sometimes would get louder. it was like that movie paranormal activity. then the banging switched walls and kept getting louder. oh my god, i was really freaking out, in bed, next to trixie, the two of looking at each other, like, what is going on. i was too scared to say anything to her. then the banging switched to the third wall of my house, right behind the tv! oh my god, you have no idea how scared i was and the banging got louder and louder! it din’t stop until the documentary was over. oh man, nothing actually happened, but that was my night on cold mountain. see you tomorrow ~m

cold mountain west. this is the other side of the property i live on. my studio doesn’t get this view, route 1 farms is across the street, if you can see it through the bamboo and bare trees. what was breakfast today? if you guessed freshly picked orange, you’re pretty observant!

this wasn’t how i started my morning, but it’s close. i actually started my morning even nicer than this. i was reading a 60 day challenge bikram blog and was surprised to see my name in print, well, the 21st century version of print. i gotta admit, on the surface, my life seems pretty enviable, well, no, not on the surface. i actually do have a pretty great life. i live in paradise, eat organic foods, practise bikram daily, ride my bike everywhere even to see and meet lee perry, i mean, how can i complain? look at where i got my breakfast this morning! i get bummed out that sweat isn’t where i’d like it to be, but, all in all, i have a pretty great life.

that was the attitude i had as i walked to bikram today, taking pictures all along the way. as i was about to turn the corner to the bikram studio, this crazy-eyed homeless guy asks me, “is that a digital camera? will you take my picture and e-mail it to me?” are you fucking kidding me, i thought, “i wanna send it to my dad, he hasn’t seen me in 5 years.” usually i’m asking to take a picture, not the other way around, but i think when you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, good things happen to you.

oh yeah, bikram was awesome today. the room wasn’t a scorcher so it was easy to practise without water again. i’m feeling almost recovered from my back injury, but i’m still holding back a little in standing head to knee, which is where i hurt myself. i don’t know if the twinge i’m feeling as i start to bend forward is mental or physical. am i scared to go forward or am i playing it safe? only i know for sure and i’m not in a rush to find out. no one’s judging right? alright, heartbreakers, that’s enough of my glam life and i din’t even get to talk about all the stuff that happened *after* bikram! see you tomorrow ~m

steamer lane, santa cruz. after bikram, would you like to go see some world class surfing? life in surf city, it’s not that far from the studio! super love the spray of the wave caused by the surfboard—you can see where he was hundredths of a second ago.

i’ve noticed that when i’m in bed, on my back, i like to cross my left leg over my right. to do this, i have to hunch in my right hip a little, where i’m already tight! my body is always trying to find a way to get comfortable, but this usually means bad alignment. i notice a similar hunch in my hip when i’m sitting down to eat. it’s a constant battle to stay in good alignment. as your body realigns itself, pay attention to the shifts within and make sure you’re not overcompensating in another part of your body.

nice to see @conanobrien on twitter! like @dalailama yesterday, you could sit on his page, hit refresh and watch his follower count grow. i had @jayleno & @conanobrien’s pages up at the same time, in one minute-long span, jay added one follower while coco added over 1,000! makes one wonder how many people watched conan online, away from nielsen rating boxes? i know i did.

oh my gosh, i’ve blahhed so much about coco and how my body likes to sabotage all the work i do in bikram, i never actually got to write about my class. still balancing that line of “don’t wanna go too far” but feeling really good. good to see jules in class too, welcome back! see you tomorrow ~m

interior, golden buddha, soquel, california. the interior is a nice mix of natural wood and stereotypical chinese restaurant decor.

one of my tweeps din’t feel like going to yoga today. she was stressing about mom stuff, wife stuff and life stuff. i told her she needed to go to yoga so she could forget about that stuff for 90 minutes. no matter how bad the world is pressing down on me, it never seems that hard after bikram.

gotta be honest, heartbreakers, i don’t always feel like going to yoga, but i’m never disappointed that i went. today, i felt like going, but my lower back wasn’t on board with the program. during this morning’s pranayama, i was really feeling sore in my lower right back. with bikram yoga, you learn how to fine-tune your body. i told myself to breathe, concentrate my breath on my lower back and strengthen up in my abs. you protect your lower spine by pulling in your abs. it worked, by the time we got to the floor series, i wanted to do the sit-ups! it’s nice to be able to figure out what was wrong with my body and what i needed to do to fix it. hooray for bikram! see you tomorrow ~m

in the shadow of giants. i love the reflection of the trees in the background. no matter where you go in this town, there’s big trees.

how was your monday, heartbreakers? i know some of you had snow. my california dream was all beautiful sunshine. like, bikram laundry tanning, kinda sunshine, oh, it was nice. too nice, i was enjoying the sun so much, i barely made it to bikram. i hate that rushed feeling, but pranayama erases all of that. time to lock your knees and begin breathing in through the nose, out the mouth.

one of my tweeps took her first bikram class today. she said she couldn’t concentrate! you’re not supposed to concentrate, beautiful, just listen to the instructions, do what the teacher says and don’t think about it, just breathe! i hope she gives it another try. i love bikram so much, sometimes i don’t understand how people could not like it. i say that now, but, in the hot room, i think it’s kinda easy to see why you might want to run screaming.

alright, for my first state of sweat address, i’ll be honest and say that the first two years selling tank tops to get to teacher training have not gone so well. i super appreciate all the support everyone has shown me—in tank top sales, kombucha donations, gifts & well-wishes—y’all rule my world! but it’s time to take it up a notch. since doing things right hasn’t worked so far, i’m gonna try left. you’ll see what i mean in a few days, but for now, believe it when i say that i’m going to teacher training in spring 2011. there, i said it. now, watch friends, if you put it out there, it will grow and next year, this time, i’ll be studying dialogue. i promise. see you tomorrow ~m