My first week in Oregon, I traveled with some very good friends. We flew into Portland, a very hip town, and visited the Columbia Gorge and visited some wineries then drove down the gorgeous Oregon coast. If you haven't been to Oregon... go! Well, in the summertime. I hear it gets pretty cold.
Unfortunately, by the time we got to the University of Oregon, where I'd be staying for the next four weeks, I had caught a cold.
By the middle of the second week I was feeling better so I bought this really cool pink beach cruiser to ride to Bikram class. There's a photo of it in front of the famous Hayward Field where some of the Olympic trials took place this summer.
What a wonderful place to ride a bike! Bike trails everywhere. The weather was so amazing. Bright sunshine, cool air, flowers of all different colors everywhere.Did you know that lavendar grows there? Try that in Florida. Then with less than a week of ownership, late on a Sunday night, the bike was S T O L E N. Less than a week and I had already grown so attached to that bike. Yes, I had a bike lock. But obviously, I didn't secure it properly. I know how, I lived in a university town for many years. But I was preoccupied thinking about a dinner at the director's house and what I was cooking that night. Squash southern-style, yum. Argh. I had been really good about my diet knowing that I'd be hitting the Bikram place soon. But after that, I just had to go to Bepe's with my new friends for a carb fest to drown my sorrows. Homemade fettucine to die for. I felt so low, I would have ordered dessert if I could have found the room. But I had stuffed myself on the pasta (and salad, and wine, and bread...)
I was informed that Eugene is one of top cities in the country for bike theft. So I began to reflect on the state of mind a person that goes around stealing bikes. You know that since it is part of their consciousness that they see other people differently. They see other people as plotting to do/take from them. They live in their own private hell while I got to see that there is goodness in the world when someone generously and graciously loaned me her bike. Which I double-locked during the day and took up to the dorm at night... thank you very much.
With the intense schedule at the summer institute, I wasn't able to go to Bikram as much as I had hoped. But I went and that was the main point. I just felt that it was very important to make the effort to keep the momentum going. Upon arriving, I was wondering how I was going to suffer and was surprised to find that I didn't. Could it be the lack of humidity in Eugene? Eugene has around 30% humidity while Florida has around, I don't know, 100%?! The dry vs wet heat was the difference between doing yoga in a sauna or a steam room. I didn't get enough sweat on my legs to wrap my legs around as much as I normally do for the eagle pose. So my toes didn't show.
Eugene is a very low-key place but they still care about the integrity of the yoga practice. So while there's no place like home, I enjoyed the difference.
I flew home on Saturday and got home very late at night. I decided that was a good time to start the nine-day colon cleanse. I ordered a colon cleanse kit from Blessed Herbs. Basically, I'm pouring a packet of clay/psyllium/ginger into a cup of organic apple juice 5x a day. I'm call it 'sand-juice'. Not to get graphic but if you click on the testimonials and look at the photos, well, that's what it looks like.
I started work on Monday. So travel-lag, time-lag, work-lag AND colon cleanse had me a bit preoccupied. However, the alarm is set and I plan to go to Bikram for an early morning SIX AM CLASS. Yes. Yes. Yes. I WILL DO IT. I AM BACK.
No comments:
Post a Comment