Concepts in the Paradox

Answer: A $40 citation.

As one of my co-workers said to me, “They’ll get you sometime man, they’ll get you, I promise. A car in the city? They’ll find a way to nail you.”

I gave my typical defensive reply, “Yeah right, I’m more on the ball than that. I can beat the man. I’m not going to get a street sweeping ticket. I read the signs. I move my car in time.”

What did I find on my car this morning? A $40 citation from the city of San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic, labeled TC37C STREET CLEANING VIOLATION. Woops. I thought that sign said “Friday, 12noon – 2pm”, but it really said “Wednesday, 12noon – 2pm”.

It would seem that the city has given me a little new year’s gift of it’s own for my absent mindedness.

Tonight I decided to go on a “San Francisco adventure” and give yoga a try. On Second and Howard there is a place called Funky Door Yoga. It is heated yoga, which means that all 26 positions are done in a 105-110F room. The purpose of the heat is to help clean out the toxins in the system as well as make the muscles easier to stretch.

Upon walking into FDY, I was asked to take off my shoes and sign up for a membership. The employees were friendly, even suspiciously so. As it would turn out, the vast majority of the people that work there, mostly female it would seem, are volunteers. No volunteer is turned away, and they get free yoga in exchange for their services. The result is a facility that is friendly and clean, a far cry from 24 Hour Fitness.

I’ve always thought that these guys are girls doing yoga were hardly doing anything stressful or complicated. I would like to take this paragraph to say that I was very, very wrong. After only the second or third position, I was not feeling very well. Call it being unhealthy, blame the heat, or eating beforehand, but yoga is really challenging. I had to sit out numerous times to let the nausea wear off.

About halfway through the 90 minute session, I stopped noticing the heat and was able to actually get into what I was told to do. I watched what others did, had the instructor show me what I did wrong, and I started to get into this whole yoga thing. I started to get it, instead of thinking “Why the hell do I put myself through this torture?”. I think everyone knows why I put myself through torture, but that is a different topic.

I’m sore, spacey, and tired now, but in all I think it was a worthwhile experience. I’m going to try yoga a few more times, I see the benefits that it can give me, and sweating it out makes it all worth it by feeling so much better after the session is over.