"In the spring, a young woman's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of shoes."

I hope ol' Alfred, Lord Tennyson, doesn't mind my paraphrasing here.

I have been on a mini shoe-buying frenzy. I have bought four pairs of shoes from Zappos this weekend - a pair of Converse low-tops, some Kenneth Cole Reaction beaded pewter thong sandals, and two pairs of Keds print skimmers - one in a frog print and one in a parrot print that's a Mary Jane. I probably won't keep both pairs of Keds, though. Gotta love the zappos free shipping and returns!

Practice yesterday was great! Four of us from the Foundations workshop were there plus just two other women - so everyone got lots of adjustments. As I thought, it was not the entire primary. We did everything to uttita hasta - in prasarita padott... C, John came over and pushed my clasped hands down toward the floor until I thought I was going to have to shout "uncle"! For uttita hasta, we only did a modified D, with hands under the thighs, but for ten looonnngg breaths.

Then we did everything else to trianga mukha (which we skipped), with vinyasas between postures, not sides, then the janus, then Mari a, b and c. Then five navasanas, which lasted a couple of days, then bhujapidasana, in which I can begin to cross my feet before falling on my butt.

Then we skipped way ahead to bridge pose, then two backbends if we wanted (or two more bridges). I did the first bridge, then a backbend, and then wanted to do a second backbend, but I had moved my yogitoes off to the side and my hands were slipping, so I came back down and did another bridge. I still can't work out the mat/yogitoes thing. I hate to stop and move the thing off and on my mat. Until I work up a good sweat, the yogitoes isn't grippy enough....but just a little bit of sweat and my hands begin to slip on my mat.

Anyway....paschimottanasana...John came and leaned on me and my face was waaaay flat on my shins. Then shoulderstand, plow, karnapidasana. Then urdva padmasana, which I had never done before. I've either skipped it when doing my DVD, or modified, or something. Anyway, very wierd feeling to be balancing on my shoulders, but I did it. Then pindasana in sarvangasana, in which I could only touch my fingers together with John's help before rolling down. Then matsyasana, uttana padasana, then sirsasana. I told John when I got there that I had been practicing at home, but that I was still scared of falling so could not keep my legs up. So as soon as we got to sirsasana, John was by my mat waiting for me. I got my legs up briefly and he held them there but I had to come down quickly. I tried again several times... I can get my legs up halfway (bent, not piked) and can hold them there longer each time I try...so I know it is coming....slowly. I practiced a few more times when I got home, and I told Michael that I couldn't hold my legs up because I was scared of falling. He said "mommy, why don't you think about NOT falling?" DUH!! What a great idea from an eight year old. I probably amd going to fall if I think I am.

After that....child's pose, then savasana. I felt GREAT. Though I have something going on with my left hip....any tight twisting pose, and I feel pain in the very inner part, like deep inside the hip crease. This has been going on since I started Bikram...in final spinal, I really feel it. In primary, I feel it in the Maris when I have to twist to the left. The top of my left thigh is also sore to the touch...I'm not sure what that's from....my lotus foot? Then why is my right thigh not sore also? My left thigh seems to be perpetually sore, though not visibly bruised. I'm not sure what's going on.

My chatarangas are slowly improving....my (noisy) jumpbacks and jump ups are too, though jump throughs are ages and ages away...and I absolutely love how, in the later vinyasas, my down dogs feel extremely deep and stretchy.

For dinner last night we had a big crock pot of chicken and black bean chili, which rocked....I ate three bowls. So much for leftovers.

Today is another holiday from school....the boys are awake and listening to some Talking Heads song at full volume and playing the drums....it's the song that goes "Baby baby, please let me hold you, I wanna make you stay up all night! "