I was going to title this 'Let's Get Physical' but I wasn't sure if you would all hear the humours rendition of Oliva Newton John going through my mind, "Let's get physical, physical... I wanna get physical..."

This is my physical post for the day... a much more life philosophy post brewing for later... I was worried mat space would be tight today so I got to the studio a few minutes early but, surprisingly, it wasn't bad... though it was hot. I own up to being interested in seeing how other people have been taught today... In the end, I was pretty into my own practice and didn't get to see much. I had a really, really nice practice today. It might have been the 800mg of Motrin I took at 7am or maybe it was the Starbucks Double Shot I had at 7:15 or maybe it was a combination of that, the fact that it was 9am instead of 7am and the room was hot but I just felt with it today. Tim was all over me about my pinky toe being on the floor in certain postures today. I hate to tell him, but my pinky toe, it doesn't go straight, it is bent in half and I don't think it will ever go onto the floor... it's not really even on the floor when I stand up straight. I have horrid toes. Hanumanasana rocked today. I could have stayed there forever. I'm having a huge problem lately with where to put my forehead or chin in forward bends... cranking the neck and putting my chin on the shin seems a bit uncomfortable but putting my forhead down I'm either unable to breathe or I'm not getting enough of an edge in the forward bend. I got a lovely adjustment in Dwi Pada to Supta K today and the Big Man Squash in Baddha Konasana. I know I even did a few correct Chatarungas today which is really, really cool... means my pec muscles might one day be normal again. Second series was good but I was a bit worried when I didn't get the Bhekasana adjustment because that really loosens up my back... Tim came over in Ustrasana and pushed my pinky toes down again... then he told me I have super flexible ankles. I said "Well, at least that's good for Janu Shirasana C!" I'm able to go down to my head in Laghu Vajrasana consistently now... the only thing is that I think I have some bend in my elbows if I hold onto my ankles... but I think today I finally figured out that this is a bend from my hyperextension/double jointedness... when I try to go down, my arm twists out and the only way to pull it back in is to have that sorta bend like I do in Downward Dogs. I wonder if this is incorrect given that I'm definitely on my ankles and my arms are, for all intents, straight, my arms just don't go straight normally. I did Kapotasana today on my own. I held it with my fingers just above my toes for 5 breaths... then I remembered what OKRGR said, that JMS said.... which is to just do it... and do it again.. and soon the fear will be gone... I mean, if you know you're gonna do it a bunch of times... where's the fear. I was having ALL KINDS of problems with cramping in my calves today... like I was even cramping really bad in Shalabasana and Dhanurasana... I knew I was gonna get some gnarly cramps coming out of Kapotasana and sure enough.. the cramp was bad enough that I couldn't straight out my feet. I wish I knew what is causing this level of cramping for me. So I setup to do Kapotasana again but this time I asked Tim for help. He said "You already did?" I said "Yes, but I need help." He said "Ah, you did incorrectly!" After I dropped back I was determined to find a way to breathe during the adjustment and I have to say it really really helped (duh)... I inhaled as he was drawing my hands further up my feet (or, in the very least, I had the intention of inhalation but somewhere the breath got caught up) and I was able to graze the bottom of my heels (so just above mid-foot)... man, if there was ever a time I cursed having Size 11 feet, it's trying to go far enough to grab the heels in Kapotasana ;) In the end, it was nearly as scary as it normally is but the cramps came on full bore when I was done. Backbends felt good today, dropbacks weren't scary or hard and neither was standing up... I loved my practice today.

But it is interesting to see how different people are taught and moved on.

My demo yesterday went really well. After a thread on the international legal listserv ended with two CIOs (including our own CIODude) really tooting my horn for me to thousands of people (I believe the words were something along the lines of "most talented programmers I know" and "uber programming goddess"). It's really fulfilling to see something you've worked so hard on excite the end user... solve some business problem they've faced for years.