it's easier if you get it right the first time!

 Well, dating has gotten no easier since I last tried it. oy vey. I still make some of the same bad bad decisions that led me to stop trying to date over a year ago. It also reinforced my feeling that people I meet when I go tango dancing are (probably) not people to date. I guess that was no great surprise. Still, the attention was sort of nice, though I feel no better at handling a situation where the other person is much more interested in me than I am in them. (I have got a long long way to go here!) On a positive note, I got to hear some awesome music at the Metropolitan Museum: the Danish indie band Ekterklang.

Sometimes I truly envy my cousins, who are high school sweethearts..and still together, 20 years later. Seems so much simpler. Get it right the first time; stop wondering if there is something better lurking just around the corner, instead of focusing on what is right in front of you.

Back to the mat.

Those re-attempts at the bhuja and supta K exits, as well as the last bit of garbha, are just plain exhausting. Yesterday, I must have tried a dozen times to lift up into the last part of garbha. My attempts had been mostly mad roll/hops onto my hands..and sent me bouncing back to the floor almost immediately. By the end, I couldn't even lift and leave my knees on the ground; it was that bad.

Managed my first lift up at the end of garbha today. This time I lifted slowly, and that made all the difference. I could feel a bit of an arch in my upper back (same in uth pluthi) I also had a bit of a break before it, as I managed to beach myself twice before my teacher rescued me (and watched me as I beached myself one more time!). I also managed the exit from Supta K on the first go (no falling back on my butt which is my usual first exit attempt), which amazed me too. My feet still missed my mat, but I think they were close to it. I am getting a bit more that action of moving my chest forward as I send the feet back. I also realized today  that I can practice this every time I work on my jump (a.k.a. lift, drag and scramble) back. Moving the chest forward is scary; it feels like the last thing a sane person would want to do, but actually makes the jump possible. Getting stuck trying to hold myself up is a lot of extra effort, both in my practice on the mat..and off.