Thinking Out Loud

People here are crazy drivers! Everyone runs red lights, and I mean everyone! Sometimes I'll get to a light as it's turning yellow, and I'll kind of wonder whether I should go or stop. Usually, I go and get through the intersection right as it turns red. I start feeling guilty, but then I look in my rearview mirror and see two or three cars come behind me. It's insane! But everybody just accepts that that's the way it is. When your light turns green, you usually wait a good 5 seconds before going to avoid getting in a wreck. I think part of the reason might be that there are tons of lights and not many highways you can take to avoid them, but it still seems a little extreme to me.

Yoga is awesome! I've been going to a class at the U of I rec center on Saturday mornings for about a month now. It is seriously the hardest workout I've ever done. The day after a class, I am sore in places I didn't even know I had muscles! My main reason for wanting to do yoga was to improve my flexibility (which is horrible!). I think it's working. I can now touch my toes! (Yes, sadly, I have never been able to do this.) I don't really buy into the whole spiritual aspect of yoga, but the instructor does. At the end of class, we spend about 15 minutes doing relaxation exercises (which actually do work), but then she has us fold our hands in front of our hearts and thank ourselves for coming to class and thank our bodies for allowing us to practice yoga. I usually take the opportunity to thank God for creating my body and giving me the ability to exercise. Even though the instructor's a little New Age-y, she's really nice. If you are doing something wrong, she comes over and very gently corrects you. I hate it when teachers call people out in front of the whole class (bad memories from middle school), so her approach really works for me. And she never makes me feel bad that I'm the only one in the class who can't do a handstand. I think a lot of my problem is fear because there are these really thin little girls who are able to support themselves with only their arms. I'm not very strong, but I think I have more muscle than they do. I've been practicing some at home, so maybe I'll get it eventually.
If you haven't ever tried yoga, give it a shot. Believe me, if I can do it, anybody can. If you have cable, you might even be able to do it for free. I just found out about ExerciseTV on OnDemand cable. They have all sorts of exercise videos you can download to your TV for free, and they put up new ones every month. It's awesome! Plus, this will help me justify keeping cable even after our promotional year ends. "I have to have cable for my health." :)