Half the Rice: I Know What I Hate, and I Don't Hate Yoga: A PhotoEssay

I've always had an uneasy relationship with yoga. I want to like it. I do, but an unsettling amount of "coordination" and "quieting your mind" required. I took my first yoga class at a hippie-studio in Iowa City, where they made us mediate and flush our nostrils with salt water. I was not impressed.

Since then I've dabbled with yoga, but I have very little ability to use my mind to make one particular body part go where the instructor says it should go. I don't do aerobics classes or Zumba classes for this reason, and when I am training with Gwyn, I often have think for a moment when she tells me to change legs or move my arms at the same time.

All that changed when I found Jen! Jen is fabulous. She teaches yoga twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays at 5:45, in her studio beneath T-Graphix.

From the outside, it doesn't look like much.

But, it's close to her husband's bike shop, Beaverdale Bicycles (more on that in the future).

And, if you need a rain barrel, well, that's down there too.

Once you get inside the yoga studio though, it's a whole different story. The space is set up for "functional fitness" in the morning, and yoga at night. It's dark and serene and well-heated.

Here's Lexi signing in. Lexi got me started with Jen's class. Thanks Lex.

The name for the yoga studio is still in flux. Every time I got to class, it seems, there's a new name on the marker board. First, it was "Fitness Co-op," then "B-Yoga," and now, "Grass Roots Yoga." (Notice the very competitive pricing!). Which do you prefer?

Jen's really nice. Every time I go to yoga class she gives me a hug and tells me how happy she is to see me. Isn't that nice? I knew she wouldn't mind really posing for a picture.

And, then, yoga class happens. I can't take pictures, because I am working hard. Jen teaches the class so that each person (and all types of folks go) can make it as hard or as easy as they like. There's plenty of plank and cobra, along with some death-defying poses like the "crow" and some ab poses. It's challenging, and unlike some yoga, it feels like a workout.

There was a moment on Wednesday, when we finished some downward dog-plank-leg lift stuff, and when I stood up, I actually felt taller. Then, at the end of the day, we get to lay out on our backs in the "corpse" pose and just have a little quiet time, like you used to do in elementary school during nap time. Afterwards I am left feeling wrung out like a damp rag and very happy. The world just seems nicer.

Then, I drive home, past this tree. Isn't it pretty?

At home, I see, that the White Tiger has wrangled the coffee cups out of his car and lined them up neatly on the front-porch sofa. No more trying to drink coffee out of a cupped palm. Whoo-hoo.

Then, the White Tiger himself appears. He's been enjoying some beer while wearing his new vest. He likes to look snappy, even when he's just hanging out with the puppy.