A tree car
A bumper sticker that speaks much truth
Category: Hawaii
Me. What is a Yoga head?
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.
Cutie Truck
We planned something special for tomorrow. Above is our adorable cohort. It turns out the people behind Kon Tiki are younger than I imagined. Despite this JP, the owner, has responded the most professionally of all the places we’ve called. We’ll see what happens at the end of business tomorrow.
UPDATE: It seems to have gone well:
Who we went to see today.
As I am
This past Saturday we went to Carnival at Punahou. It felt like we were there for a long time but maybe it just seemed that way because of all the things we did. When I told Sarah that we got our faces painted (me with a unicorn, K with a panda bear) she said that was pretty hardcore–and she’s a Punahou alum. Only then did I think that maybe I approached Carnival with a little too much fervor. It was a lot of fun. Not really for adults but fun nonetheless.
What is this?
Hot!
Well. It took me a total of three hours but I walked to Kailua Shopping Center to take a yoga class at Bikram Yoga Kailua. It wasn’t bad. The sky is gray today so I can imagine that on a sunnier day the walk would be pleasant. But I didn’t mind–the street wasn’t busy and I caught up on my Left, Right, and Center podcast.
In all my time doing yoga I’ve always steered clear of Bikram (hot) yoga. I tend to overheat quickly and I thought the style would be bad for my knees. Surprisingly, I felt stronger after class. My knees felt less sore or tender. I don’t know that that’s one of the benefits of Bikram. For example, Iyengar yoga is meant to be more rehabilitative and good for the injured. Bikram, like Ashtanga, always seemed similar in that their suited for people in tip top shape. Contrary to all of that, being hot made my joints more supple. The class pace is slow and not very intense (except for the sweat pouring off you). I liked it. I signed up for the new student offer 30 days for $30. That’s even better than Open Space!
The format for class is a little weird. The room is small. The teacher talks you through the class sometimes demonstrating if you’re having trouble. But the weird thing is that she uses a headset–as in a microphone. Like Madonna. It was funny but it makes sense. You shouldn’t be struggling to hear the teacher. The other thing is that you face a full wall mirror the whole time. I was wary at first but then I liked being able to make adjustments based on how I looked and not just how I felt.
Last night Sarah and i took class at Manoa Yoga Center. My picture makes it look like a prison complex but Manoa is so lovely. A very picturesque residential area. We took class with Ray, one of the owners. He’s certainly the most experienced teacher I’ve had class with here in Hawaii. I think we’ll go back again, mainly to take a more intermediate class.
Sarah showed me Punahou School where she, Sean (and Obama!) went to highschool. There’s a carnival coming up at the school organized by the junior class and staffed by students, alum, and parents. It sounds so fun- food and rides in Manoa!
Ink
I’ve been thinking about getting a 4th tattoo for 2 years now. I’ve been waiting for something to hit me. It occurred to me today what I want. Now it’s all about who’s going to do it. I caught an episode of Ancient Ink on the History Channel yesterday. They did a segment on Polynesian Tribal tattoo. It was very interesting though I’m sure more painful than I’m capable of enduring. The tatoo artist they interviewed and featured has a place on Oahu. His name is Aisea Toetuu. I’d really like to get one here in Hawaii to mark our time here. But based on the artists on the show, aesthetically I prefer Zulu of Zulu Tattoo.
Ground and Pound
The Skirt that was a Teddybear
When I was in highschool I used to call very good days ‘love’ days in my journal. As in, ‘Today was a love day’. Today was not that for me but in the same spirit I would call today a Sun Day. K’s job isn’t a normal 9-5 job. Sometimes he has to leave very early in the morning. Sometimes not until mid-afternoon. In a way it’s nice because everyday can be different somehow. But the suburban in me longs for routines and schedules you can count on. This morning felt like a day that could be someone’s routine. K was driving into town and the timing worked out that he could drop me off at yoga class. We were even able to do some early morning grocery shopping before heading downtown. It was a very lite FM kind of morning.
I loved it.
After two weeks of dedicated attendance ( 11 of 14 days) Sarah and I came to the the end of our new student discount at Open Space Yoga. The sadness is that we’ve been able to go to an unlimited amount of classes for only $30. We saved over $100. We’ll definitely go back for classes with Murti and to try the Yin Yoga class which we didn’t get to do. But next week we’re moving on to a new place. More than likely Manoa Yoga Center.
Sarah and I were going to try lunch at Mix afterwards because neither of us had been. It was really crowded and I suggested we go back to Nuuanu and eat at Indigo. We’d passed it on the way and Sarah said it was a buffet style lunch that was rather good. And it smelled good! So we splurged and had a little bit of a fancier lunch.
Yum!
It was a very decadent day.
Sometimes talking to Sarah is like a Master Class on Hawaii for me. She drove me back home to Kailua and on the way she was telling me about Mu’u mu’u Heaven–a little shop in Kailua that carries dresses and apparel made out of vintage mu’u mu’u’s. The store is tucked in behind Foodland. Its’ so awesome that I’ve passed the turn countless times and never knew it was there.
So many lovely things– dresses, skirts, tops, jewelry, bags… When Obama was last here he donated his Toot’s mu’u mu’us to the store and the designer made a bow tie and cummerbund for him out of the material. I pulled a post-Holly Hobbie/ Laura Ingalls type skirt off the rack and told Sarah that I loved it so much that I could feel it in my stomach but that I would never wear it. Rather I’d sleep with it every night like a teddy bear forever.
Shortly after Sarah dropped me off I got a call on my cell from an unfamiliar Long Island telephone number. I tentatively answered assuming that it was a wrong number. Turned out to be a friend of someone that K and I both know back in NY. We got a message that this woman was going to be in town and didn’t know anyone aside from the friend she was staying with and that friend was going to be working much of the time she was here. I very off-handedly sent a message saying she could call me and I’d meet her if I could.
I answered and she said she was at the beach (which is right across the street) did I have time to come out. My instinct was to say I couldn’t because I was tired and had alot of writing I wanted to do. But I told her to come over and after I had some time to change we could go to the beach and swim.
It was unexpectedly a very relaxing and pleasant afternoon. Sunah was very nice. We ended up spending a long time bobbing in the water and talking about all types of things. I’m really glad that I behaved counter intuitively and met up with her. Maybe there’s hope for my Aloha spirit afterall!
These are the cookies she left behind:
Three One Nine 