There’s something about being here that makes me gravitate towards tie dye, hot pink, lavender, flower prints, wearing yoga gear as regular clothes and, on occasion, wearing them all at the same time.

These are our very delicious leftovers from BLT Steak.

I dragged my butt out of bed at 7AM this morning to go to class at Kula.  I really like that place–particularly teachers Martin and Brigitte.  I was telling Ken that Brigitte makes you feel like she’s paying attention to you even if she doesn’t look at you or talk to you.  She’s really tall but there’s this gentleness that emanates from her.  It makes you want to cry.  That sounds bad but it’s not.

It wasn’t an old lady class.  It was in fact very hard.  Halfway through I had to stop and rest.  I had this fleeting thought:  why is it that despite doing yoga almost every day it’s still really hard to get through most classes.  I think it’s because I’m competitive and I forget to breathe.

After class we went to Lily Lotus for new yoga togs for me!  I wore a hole through my yoga pants.  K got me a top from Lululemon (which is great)  but I hate how their stuff looks so jock-ish. I prefer this:

That’s a t-shirt.  I like it so much.

As I was choosing stuff to try on, the Lily Lotus person would come and take my things and bring them to the dressing room.  After the third time I looked up and smiled at her and she crinkled her brow and said ‘did you take class with me?’  I totally didn’t recognize her so I said no. She said ‘I think you did…at Open Space’.  After a minute I figured out that Sarah and I had taken a class with her over a MONTH ago.  We came in 10 minutes late and it was a hard class.  We left without saying hi to the teacher, Laura.  That was her.  She remembered we came in late AND she remembered that Sarah and I were together though she thought she was my sister.

We talked for a little bit.  I said it was hard for me to find a class that didn’t make me worry about my bad knees while at the same time being a rigorous enough workout.  She suggested a Mysore class at Purple.  That I might be able to develop my own practice.  She said the owner, Cathy Louise, is from NY and if I wrote to her she could make suggestions for my knees.

She also satisfied my curiosity about the missing Yin Yoga class.  The woman Jaime Schrack who taught it at Open Space moved to the Big Island to study cranial-something-or-other.  That’s why all her classes disappeared from the online schedules.

I told her I’d been trying Bikram and that it was weird.  She laughed which was great that she knew what I meant.  She said there was a good teacher in Hawaii Kai.  Maybe one day I’ll go try it.   Laura was really nice.  I will definitely check out the Mysore class she assists at Purple.

Sarah joked that there were yoga teachers that every student has gone too–that I was going to be the student every yoga teacher has had.  Not a bad thing.

We had lunch in Kaimuki.

It was good but it was tooo much food.

Finally, I’m obsessed with these cookies.  Maybe because I’m drinking less coke.

Sarah and I took a yoga basics class at Open Space Yoga today.  It was GREAT.  The class was with a teacher named Murti who Brenda recommended.  He had really good energy and I learned a few new things.  He lead the class with a mixture of humor, spirituality, and knowledge.  It was a pleasure.  I felt relaxed and energized after class.  We signed up for the new student discount of unlimited classes for two weeks for $30.  We’re going to try to go everyday this week.

In the afternoon K and I went to Kaimuki to a little shop called Lily Lotus that specializes in yoga clothing and accessories.  I got a great mat bag and some new stuff to wear.