Not Your Average Yoga Class

Me today at work:

Pull out chair at desk . . . ow
Sit down . . . ow
Roll forward to reach my desk . . . double ow
Turn on computer . . . little ow
Realize I have a meeting in 10 minutes that is upstairs and in a different wing . . . oh shit ow

No I am not "hitting the gym" extra hard to get my bod summer/swimsuit/cruise ready (feel free to laugh). No, no. I am doing something more challenging. I am bringing my spirit and my physical wellness to a whole new level by melding the two together in the form of downward dog and other various animal poses (including fire hydrant (and no I am not lying, and it IS ok to laugh)).

I joined Sunstone Yoga recently, and for 60 or 90 minutes (depending on if you want the strenuous "stretching and alignment" to be super intense, but for a shorter period of time, or not as intense, but for a kick-ass period of time), you work your way through various yoga poses in a room heated to 98.6 F with 60% humidity. Basically, you are paying $$ to work out in conditions similar to the average early July-ish summer day in Texas. HOT!

Old yoga, for me, used to conjure up images of light stretching and maybe some humming for good measure. In the few classes that I took, I would easily get bored, thinking that I would rather be spending time doing cardio or that I should be doing something more productive like cleaning my house instead of pretending to enjoy touching my toes. However, with classes called Fire 90 and Metal, Sunstone Yoga isn't your average yoga class. It's intense. The poses are designed to stretch your body and crank up your heart rate, giving you an all over toning workout without having to deal with all the skin-fried boys grunting with satisfaction at themselves at the local gym. At the end of class, a powerful exhaustion comes over me as I lay in savasana, and I have to say that it is the most wonderful sense of completeness and serenity that I can comprehend. Words cannot describe it, but I imagine it is similar to a runner's high.

Yesterday I took a particularly difficult Wood class which has more pilates (read ab strengthening exercises) than the average yoga class. It was fantastic! I slept like a baby last night. And today I am feeling the pain pretty much everywhere (but in such a good way!)

I plan on getting everyone I know hooked on hot yoga becaue it is just that awesome!

I Helped Save Someone's Life on Friday

So last weekend, I decided to head south to H-town for my mom's best friend's 60th birthday party (don't judge . . . because those ladies can drink and make fools of themselves with the best of them). Anyway, since I was in town, I decided that a meet up with two of my girlfriends from college was in order. Originally, we were going to hit up a Greek or pizza place for dinner, then head to a bar around Rice Village, but due to me just being plain lazy and tired from driving from Dallas, I convinced them to come to me instead in the suburbs. And good thing I did!

Because . . .

Oh, first let me tell you that I got to Lupe Tortilla's Mexican restaurant early to put our names on the list and promptly headed to the bar for a pre-fajita margarita. There I encountered some veeerrry friendly bartenders who insisted on giving me the "tequila special" which consisted of extra shots of tequila in my 'rita followed by bottomless frozen margaritas-no salt. Once my friends arrived, I introduced them to my bartender favorito, who was an equal opportunity flirt, and he made sure we were all taken care of. Soon after, our table was ready and we spent the next couple of hours gossiping, eating, and drinking (c/o Julian the bartender). All of a sudden, we heard a commotion behind us . . . (and this is where the "because" leaves off).

We turned around, and saw a father attempting to give his son the Heimlich maneuver over and over. The son was obviously choking on something. Being the helpful person that I am, I immediately turned to my friend Laura, aka, Nurse Margarita, and said, "you're a nurse! (duh), go help him!" Then I turned to the mother and said "my friend's a nurse!" Anyway, Nurse Margarita shooed everyone away and began giving this kid, who was about a foot taller than she was, the Heimlich maneuver. Now, unlike TV, this wasn't just once or twice boom it's over, this was over and over, to the point where I was like, "wow, maybe I should call 911 because this kid is not going cough up whatever he is choking on." But, my Florence Nightingale made it happen and eventually a red and white dinner mint shot out of the boy's throat, and he was ok. I was very proud of my friend for doing all of the hard work and saving the kid's life, but I was also equally proud of myself for being too lazy to drive into Houston and for insisting that we stay local and go to THIS restaurant. I mean, what if I had decided on sushi instead? I guess we will never know.

Anyway, after that, Julian came over once more for a complementary refill and said that we had earned all of our extra drinks. Heck yeah we did!