An End To Housekeeping

Housekeeping

Here are a few random things.

Yoga

One of the reasons I stopped going to yoga four months ago was because one of the teachers pissed me off. Here’s the thing: I hate when people try to pass themselves off as experts when they clearly have no idea what they’re talking about. (This particular yoga teacher tried to tell a student that the shoulder pain the student was experiencing that had been diagnosed as bone spurs could be “cured” if one had the proper alignment in the yoga pose. Which is bullshit. Which is potentially dangerous bullshit. I mean, c’mon: Yoga can dissolve bone spurs?) I was frustrated enough by this type of behavior that I gave up on her class and then gave up on yoga period.

I stopped going, then David and Judi stopped going. Kelly however, was a real trooper. She continued to go to yoga alone, week in and week out, for months. Soon after I left the yoga studio, Kelly joined the gym with me, promising to work out so long as I rejoined the yoga studio. She kept her promise, coming to the gym three or four times a week, but I hemmed and hawed and put off going back to yoga. About three weeks ago, after yet another plaintive entreatment from Kelly via email (“GOOOOOOO! I'm so lonely in yoga and I need a friend so GO! 1-2-3-GO. And go. To yoga. So see you there.“), Dave and I returned to yoga.

This time, we’re taking a class from the studio owner, which is fine for me, but which is problematic for Dave because she, the owner, has a big crush on Dave. Her treatment of him skirts the borders of inappropriate behavior and is embarrassing to Dave. In the past, she’s said things like, “Dave’s shoulders are yummy,” which is a big whatever. Maybe it’s a compliment and maybe it’s too much of a compliment for a teacher to hand out to a student. But Dave didn’t ever lose his cool over it until tonight, when she embarrassed him by having him demonstrate a pose, then announcing to the class, “Dave has a perfect body for yoga! Did you realize that you have the perfect yoga body, Dave?” Later, I mocked this, calling him “Mr. Perfect Yoga Body,” and teased him when he struggled with a pose at the end of class. For his part, Dave was kind of pissed at having been singled out that way.

That whole interaction brought up a lot of things.

From my perspective, I have to say that don’t know a single woman on this planet who hasn’t ever had to deal with some inappropriate remark about her body from some clueless idiot. I know I have, so I’m a bit sympathetic to Dave’s position. But also, to see a man in the hot seat, made uncomfortable, is interesting. At the same time, I think Dave’s standing up to the studio owner’s behavior is his own responsibility, so I refuse to get in the middle of that particular mess. And, too, I was a little pissed off that someone calling themselves a yoga teacher--and especially an Anusara yoga (the kind of yoga we practice) teacher--would announce that there is such a thing as The Perfect Yoga Body. One of the things that B.K.S. Iyengar (from whose principles Anusara yoga was derived) was about was the practice of yoga by anybody, not just The Perfect Body. And, too, telling a room full of people that there is such a thing as The Perfect Yoga Body really implies that everyone (with the exception of Dave apparently) is already at a disadvantage in yoga because they have imperfect bodies. I hate the perpetuation of that attitude.

John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, has this to say on his official website: “[. . . S}tudents of all levels of ability and yoga experience are honored for their unique differences, limitations, and talents. [. . . T]here is a strong emphasis on creative freedom and individuality [. . .] held together by everyone's implicit alliance to the spiritual principles of Anusara Yoga philosophy, such as celebrating beauty in all its diversity, truthfulness, and honoring the creative freedom of the Divine in all beings.”

So, hmmm....it may be time to find someone who actually teaches Anusara yoga.

Miss Spellings & Miss Pronunciations

In the seventh grade, I lost a spelling bee by misspelling the word "truly." I mistakenly spelled it as though spelling had some logic to it: "true" + "ly" = "truely"

There are certain words that I'm convinced that I'll never be able to spell without second-guessing myself: "Unnecessary," is one example. Certain words have given me trouble in the past but don’t any longer. "License" made me miserable for years (before I just relented and learned how to spell it), as did “tomorrow.”

I also spent years (mostly elementary and middle school years) spelling "their" as "thier." (I had no trouble differentiating among there, they're, and their, I just couldn't spell the last one.) I think I was derailed by the "i before e" rule, which loses traction in the middle of that common word. I finally got over it by thinking: "Their" starts with a "the."

When speaking, I sometimes have trouble with “etymology” (the study of word origins) and “entomology” (the study of insects). Oddly, “etiology” gives me no trouble.

Today at lunch with Kelly, Dave, and Zac, Kelly told us about being confused by the word “smorgasbord.” She had always pronounced it “smorgasborg.” Finally someone has asked her, “What are you saying?” and when she replied, “Smorgasborg,” they laughed and corrected her. Another word she’s had trouble with is “euphemism.” She’s always thought it’s “euphenism,” with an “n” in the middle.

In a previous job, Dave used to collect a coworker’s mispronunciations. The guy’s name was Donny, so Dave called them Donnyisms. Donny couldn’t pronounce the words “sphere” and “spherical.” He used to say “spere” and “sperical.” That was the famous one that started it all. Poor Donny. He also used to say “asidine” for “asinine.”

Remembrance of Things Past

A few years ago, Dave’s computer’s hard drive crashed and burned, taking with it about five years worth of digi-cam photos. A few of those photos only survived because I had posted them to another website, my even more anonymous blog. Then I let my membership to that blog’s site lapse, and the photos disappeared from view. Recently, however, I renewed my membership--yes, solely to get access to those pictures. Here are a couple of them:


Those are two photos from my university ID cards, with about a four year time difference between them.

This next photo is me with a pair of jeans that I was, after several weeks of dieting, happy to be able to squeeze into.


Things change, eh?