Hurry up and wait

Or hurry up and rest, rather. That was my experience this afternoon: the laser-focused absolute drive to finish work in time to get to four o'clock yoga class. A last-minute analysis had me working down to the wire, and five minutes overtime. It doesn't sound like much, but that five minutes combined with Friday afternoon LA traffic can mean the difference between making it and being fatally late for class.

At 3:18, I jump into my car. There's a long traffic light at Frampton: I change out of my jeans and into my yoga pants. A medium-long light at Sepulveda: I braid my hair. A stupidly, mind-boggingly, we should have gone twice already, I actually park my car and hit the pedestrian crossing button just to give the light another incentiv

e to turn green for me: I put in my contacts. Take no prisoners on the freeway, use the super secret ninja route along the side. Make it to yoga with three minutes to spare.

Unroll my mat on an open piece of floor, then I lay myself down and try to unwind the frantic physical tension of the previous two hours.

Had a really good class--I'm glad I was able to attend. My hamstrings are still very sore from all the downward-facing dogs we did on Wednesday afternoon, so thankfully we did nothing of the sort today. A lot more focus on the hip and the front of the leg, with some starter handstands thrown in. Here's a question to all you long-term yoga practitioners: does it ever get easier to have one's head in an inverted position? When my head is upside-down for too long and all the blood rushes to it, it gets incredibly painful. My head actually limits my ability to be in certain positions more than my muscles ever do. I'm hoping that my body will adjust and be more accepting.

In the past week, two people have touted the merits of chocolate milk as a post-workout recovery drink. Today I'm pretending that a glass of soymilk and a few tiny chocolate chip cookies will have the same effect. That highly season-appropriate mug? The first thing I could reach, one-handed, in the cupboard. I'm really loving my post-yoga hair right now.