Let it snow!

I had an interesting yoga class last night. After a month or so off, I'm trying to get back into shape and regain the strength I lost. I arrived at the 7:00 class and the room was already warm. I changed clothes and swiped on a little deodorant - a free sample of some untested brand that I'd tossed in my gym bag. I unfurled my mat between 2 people: Valentina from Russia who is so flexible she could be her own circus act and a new guy who has a shaved head and a very fit looking body AND the longest mat I have ever seen. I commented on the size of his mat in my best imitation of Little Red Riding Hood, "Myyyyyy, what a long, black mat you have!"

Shaved Head Guy is doing a little warm up. Actually, what he is doing strikes me as showing off because he is doing all kinds of tricky yoga stuff that is great for impressing friends at parties and that I cannot do . So the teacher arrives and asks the new guy what kind of yoga experience he has. "OH, I used to do a lot of ashtanga but it's been a few years." Great, that means Jeff is going to ratchet the class up a bit to accommodate this guy and I'm really not up to that.

We start our practice and our body temps quickly rise with our exertion. The new guy's shaved head is covered in beads of sweat and his shirt is soaked. I'm having my own struggles trying to keep up with all the sun salutations. Plus the smell of this new deodorant is really starting to gag me. The more I sweat, the more it seems to engage and I begin to fear that everyone is smelling it. I glance at Shaved Head's mat and notice it is covered with mini sweat puddles. I look at my own yoga mat and notice there are tiny white deodorant balls all over it. I'm snowing deodorant balls from my arm pits. I think I'd rather have sweat puddles than deodorant snow.

I quivered and wobbled my way through the class and I have to say it feels DAMN good to be back in yoga again -- deodorant snow balls and all.