Muffin HQ

Yes, that’s correct. Bikram yoga is better than sex. Here is the evidence:

One class lasts 90 minutes and you can take a class more than once a day.
No one will give you a hard time for just laying there.
People clap when you take your first class. 
Big sweat, hard work. Burns alot of calories!
Even though you are doing the same routine for every class, its always different because your body is different. You will never get bored.
Instant feedback and encouragement from teachers.
No talking in class.
No need for social lubricants like alcohol and drugs.
Not scandalous! No one will ever accuse you of doing the walk of shame from a yoga studio.
If you fart in class, lots of people to take the blame.
You are encouraged to yoga often. With different teachers!
Ladies wearing very little. Dudes in speedos. Does it get any better?

This post is dedicated to Miss Mei Ng while she is sworn to celibacy between October 4th to Dec 5th during Bikram Yoga Teacher Training. Buy a t-shirt! Read her blog!

Monday was my birthday, I turned the big three five. Yeah, I am old, older than dirt. Salaud was kind enough to coordinate his trip to fly in the day before my birthday and spend his week here in Portland before going back to the east coast and starting year two of law school. Sunday was fun, we had a bunch of friends at the house, catching up, hearing stories about the chinese toilet and I was showing off my standing bow pulling pose. My pose does not look as good as the link, but you all get the idea right? Monday, we ran around town in the evening, going to two different Mac stores, which conveniently placed us inside the mall. I hate the mall, but I love their Sanrio store. Salaud bought me to get my some stickers, a nail file (don’t ask, just know its cute) and temporary tattoos. Wearing the Hello Kitty tattoo makes me want to get a real one! Wednesday night, I played softball with the same group that I’ve been playing with these last couple of years. Sacha was so sweet, she made some delicious zucchini bread and brought me a Hello Kitty candy. Serhan and Seden brought a box of voodoo donuts. I don’t think the donuts were birthday related but it didn’t cut into my enjoyment of a jelly donut. During thursday’s class, we sang Happy Birthday during triangle for Candace, a fellow bikram yogi. Chai also revealed to us that her birthday was last week. I guess the Leos like it hot.

So generally speaking, its been a mellow, easy week. Went to yoga class everyday except wednesday. Can’t remember why I skipped? Oh and for anyone who wonders why I don’t like my birthday (though I am softening in my old age), when I was a teen to 20’s, the transition between summer and fall was always very traumatic. When I think of all the craziness in my life, growing up in NYC, I was usually having a tough time with life around this time of year. Every year without fail, something would be going on that posed challenges to my peace. My inclination is to hide. I think I am learning to cope better as I get older. Big three five. That is old.

Here is a photo of the tattoo, Hello Kitty in a geisha outfit, flowers in the background. What do you think? Tattoo? Hello Kitty tattoo? I love nerds tattoo? Its all good.

I’ve noticed a little trend recently. I blogged about my legs being sore and tight and the next day it goes back to “normal”. In the last two weeks, I also realize that it is softball that is tweaking my legs and that yoga before and after game nights helps tremendously. Like washing the slate clean.

A few blog posts back, I complained about a lady in my studio who would not quit talking to me, especially before class starts when I am laying in savasana. After the public rant fest, she stopped talking to me. She hasn’t stopped *talking*, I see her harass other bikram practitioners before and after class, but for whatever reason, she is leaving me alone.

So here is my wisdom for this weekend. Complain, complain, complain, cuz the universe will hear you and things will fall back into place from your whining.

I was inspired to write a little about my legs, mostly because of Sweat’s awesome blog where he asked about classes and I complained about my legs. I post my story so that maybe some of you all can weigh in and shed some light on my leggy issue.

I have found in the last two weeks, my balance is worse than ever and my knees are “tight”. Last time I was having knee issues, my chiropractor aka magician, tweaked my knees, legs and back muscles. I walked out of her clinic with the knees of a new born baby. Wow, what a difference. I also demonstrated a few poses for her and got some great bio-mechanical advice that only a pro chiropractor/structural expert can give. For example, I learned that my feet were too far apart in awkward pose, and possibly contributing to my previous knee issue. This was a few months ago. Fast forward to the last two weeks. My balance is terrible, knees are tight, but not terrible, hamstrings and leg/thigh muscles are fine, feet and ankles are tight and some yoga poses are really intense.

So looking at what else is going on in my life….biking daily, now more because I don’t have a job and not tied to desk (thanks Obama!). Playing softball once a week, it requires some sprinting from base to base and bending cuz I play catcher. I must admit, I really enjoy cycling and softball and I am not going to stop either activity.

Back to my legs, not sure what to make of it all. No sharp pains, just feeling like there is *something* happening and I can only hope that it is good movement and I am not making it worse. I have terribly flat feet and I know that is part of the balance issue. I’ve never had great balance, even out of the studio, I am bit clutzy.

One more thing about the ankle, I fractured my right ankle back in 2003 from a bike accident. It was a small fracture and it healed quickly. I know some of the ankle tightness is from that and generally weak ankles. Fixed firm is wonderful and hard for my ankles.

Anyway, not sure what I am looking for when I put this all out there. maybe somehow the universe will hear my rant and go easy on my body.

Its been a hot week. Really hot. Stores were closing early because of the heat and lack of foot traffic. Sounds similar to what we experienced back in December with all the snow. I had to be reminded to not demonize the heat.

I found the heat to be more tolerable than previous years and I want to credit the yoga. I kept up a daily practice this week and biked all over town like I any other day. I did consider taking the bus tuesday evening to yoga class, but ended up using the “wet t-shirt” trick. Basics are, you soak a long sleeve cotton t-shirt with cold water and then put it on. It kept me cool, too cool, I barely broke a sweat. Also keeps the sun off your skin and no need to put chemical sunscreen on your body. It is absolutely brilliant.

Yoga, hmmm, its been a mixed bag this week. I had awesome/strong/focused classes on Monday (6am), Wednesday (9:30am) and Friday (6:30pm). Had awful/distracted classes on Tuesday (6:30pm) and Thursday (4:30pm). Friday was the best class of the week, getting compliments and making improvements on some of the postures. I felt so strong and flexible. Sometimes I consider going every other day, may try it one week soon. But for now, I am loving the daily practice. Oh, and in regards to the heat, it is easier to take a class when the temperatures inside and outside are the same. I find that the hardest, can’t deal with the heat classes are the evening classes where the outside temps are in the 90’s and the humidity has gotten higher as the day progressed. Don’t be afraid to do yoga or any activity in the heat, just stay well hydrated! My advice for everything!

During this week’s softball game (in 106 degree temps, no shade), I realized that my mild left wrist tweak is probably from softball. I know locust pose is helping with the wrist injury, and the yoga totally makes a difference in soreness and game performance. During my volunteer shift at Brooklyn Community Acupuncture clinic this morning, the acupuncturist working there placed 4 needles on my arm. Hopefully, there will be some noticable healing this evening. Oh and my neck? I woke up Sunday morning with awful neck pain. Got an acupuncture treatment Sunday and Monday from Maria at BCA and my neck is almost 90% back to normal. So awesome.

So excited! Jessica, a friend/ex-coworker of mine will be visiting Portland for the Oregon Brewers Fest. She will be staying with me (including Stephanie, a friend of hers). I haven’t seen Jessica in a while, she is also funemployed. Main reason for sharing this and my excitement is because Jessica was the first person to tell me about Bikram yoga. The last time she was visiting, probably two years ago for the Brewer’s fest, she was going to bikram yoga regularly and we talked about this yoga in detail. I remember thinking, why do you want to do this yoga when you are on vacation? You are on vacation! Two years later, now I get it.

After she was laid off, she moved back home to live with her parents. In her small Colorado town, there is no bikram yoga studio. No yoga at all! I feel so lucky to be able to practice regularly and I’ve scored a free week pass for her to use while she is here. I am hoping that her friend Stephanie will also be receptive to trying bikram yoga while she is visiting Portland. Jessica was the one that inspired me to check it out and my aunt in NYC was the one that pushed me try it and to go back the next day. It’s important to remember these events and people, if it wasn’t for Jessica wanting to do bikram yoga while on vacation two years ago, I would not be doing this yoga regularly.

Today’s 9:30am class was so crowded and so hot. Must’ve been the hottest morning class I’ve ever experienced. The recent string of Portland 90+ degrees is not allowing the studio to cool down at night and I think too many people trying to get their yoga in before a big weekend all contributes to a hot hot class.

I don’t want to complain about the heat, I promised myself a few weeks ago that I’d stop complaining about the heat which is completely out of my control. I will complain about something else…. There is this lady in my studio and she’s starting to bug me. I see her maybe once a week, she loves to talk. I am in the changing room, I am laying down in savasana (with my eyes closed), in the middle of something, whatever that something is, she’s got something to tell me. Usually she wants to tell me how much weight I’ve lost and how good I look. Every single time. Nothing new. Really. She’s offered to wipe me down (which freaked me out), she invited me over for dinner (no thanks), offered to drive me to the busstop (only five short blocks away) and has walked me to my bike to keep talking about something. I know this seems so dumb and this should indicate to you how few problems I really have, but seriously people, she’s disturbing my peace.

On the positive side of things. I invited her to check out the Multnomah County Bike Fair last week. When I told her about the fair, I didn’t expect her to show up. She drives the nine short blocks to and from the yoga studio. Yes, she can walk it but doesn’t. Anyways, she actually came to the bike fair! Caught her eating a hot dog on the grass, not sure what her impressions were of the fair, but she was there.

I am not looking for advice or anything, just wanted to vent. One, about the heat and two, this lady.

I haven’t posted in a long long time. Even worse are the moderated comments have not been looked at for a long long time. I am not a good blog human.

Other personal updates. Still unemployed. Still in Portland. Still using my bike for everything. Not drinking alcohol regularly, like one drink every one to two weeks. Limiting my drinky drink has helped with my little liver. I’ve had it “looked” at a bunch of times and it is quite happy. Don’t ask me to go into details cuz you will think I am crazy. 

What else can I tell you about? Oh yes, the yoga. Doing bikram yoga pretty much everyday. I’ve lost a few pounds, skin is looking pretty good and my brain is pretty clear. I think? I started right after Thanksgiving. I’ve done two 30+ day challenges and a bunch of back to back classes. Two in a row is hard my friends, but oh so much fun.

One last thought. If you are living in Portland, you will agree…this part of the country is really blessed with AWESOME produce. The local food culture here is really strong and my mom is crazy to question if I am eating well in this city. Another food thought, I’ve got a variety of garlic growing in my front yard for Sunroot Gardens CSA . If you get the chance to try garlic fresh, before it is field cured/dried, please try it. It is so delicious and garlicy sweet. You can eat whole cloves with no sting or burn. Prolly kills your breath the same way. Kisses!