Day 3: And still not a single sun salutation

EAT:
Every time I go to a Thai place, I want to order the pad thai but then force myself to choose something more out of the ordinary. But I'm on vacation now so when I got the
Cafe Osha menu I barely glanced at the other options before deciding that the standard rules would not apply.

My pad thai arrived a little bit faster than it would seem possible to cook a dish. The presentation was exquisite. The portion was generous. All that was left was to taste it.

The bean sprouts were cold and crisp, contrasting with the warm, tangy noodles. The crushed peanuts and well-seasoned tofu added texture and complexity. But the prawns proved to be the weakest link. Not only were they bland, they were cold in a middle.

But not all was lost on eating today. I enjoyed a delicious home-cooked dinner at a college friend's house and brought desserts for us to enjoy from Tartine Bakery. The bananna creme tart was delicate and smooth. The chocolate chip cookies were crisp and buttery with nice chunks of chocolate. And the lone chocolate walnut cookie I treated myself to was moist on the inside and had a satisfying nutty crunch with each bite.


DRINK:
Two wine consultants were in attendance at the dinner party I was at. I drank very well but I can't tell you what it was.

YOGA:
The first yoga class I attended was a lunchtime flow at Satoria Yoga Studio. The teacher was petite, blonde, and had a chipper, high-pitched voice. In what I can only imagine was an attempt to prove that she was more fierce than her appearance otherwise suggested, she had a lion tattoo etched onto her upper arm. Perhaps not the most yogic of choices...

In her one-hour class she created a sweet, non-competitive atmosphere. This was a class designed to help people briefly escape from the tension and stress of the work day. And it nearly succeeded. We got all the way to savasana before someone sent a vase crashing to the wooden floor and cried "oh shit!" so loudly that it jarred us out of our peaceful stillness.

My second class was at Yoga Kula, an anusura-style studio. I have never practiced anusura before and so I didn't know at all what to expect. Did I sign myself for a rigorous, physically intense experience or was I going to sit in a circle with my eyes closed for an hour and half shining my heart to the sky?

Luckily the pendulum swung somewhere in the middle. The teacher started the class relaying a story that he read in the newspaper of a man who started off with a red paper clip and made exchanges with person after person after person - trading up with each interaction - until at the end he got what he was aiming for, a year in a palatial house. The teacher then related this to the yoga practice. How we start on the mat as red paper clips and have the opportunity to make exchanges with ourselves that will get us closer to the physical expression we are looking for.

This was the abstract theme of the class. The physical theme was on finding the internal spiraling of the thigh in various poses. We did a bunch of exercises that seemed like something straight out of a Lamaze class to access this movement. The teacher would check in to see if we were feeling a burning sensation in the thighs. My neighbors would nod knowingly, and I desperately wanted to join them, but after intense moments of concentration I would ultimately have to admit that I just didn't get it.

One of the last poses of the evening was half moon. My inability to balance was inspiring mental images of me falling over and toppling my fellow yogis like dominoes. But then the teacher encouraged us to rotate the inner thigh and suddenly it clicked. I found the subtle adjustment and everything about the pose became easier. There was lightness in one leg and steadiness in the other.

I had traded up.