Spring - the Big Trickster, Yoga and eye infections.

Friday and Saturday was spent outside, walking in the sun (Friday) and rain (Saturday), and with this feeling that everything was warm and comfortable and spring was coming, and life was wonderful. I saw the year's first Coltsfoot (actually, more like a whole bunch of them), a girl was blowing soap bubbles by the town square and the snowy edges of the streets were starting to get black-greyish and to slowly melt away. Saturday was less idyllic, but it was still warm and nice out. I bought new jeans and a guitar strap, and life was great all in all.

Saturday evening was T's birthday, with beer and good company, and a friend who walked me home. I had some tea, a big glass of water and went to sleep. And I woke up with a cold, and almost unable to open my eye. It didn't feel that bad, though, and the day went by rather comfortably, I had a friend over, we watched Big Bang Theory and had tea, the eye seemed to be all fine after I had cleaned it earlier that morning and used some eye drops on it. I was ready for work the next morning. Or so I thought.

Monday morning, the cold had mutated into fever, a runny nose and BOTH of my eyes infected. I couldn't open one of them at all when I got up, and my vision was all blurry. As if to mock me, the sun was up all day, it looked lovely and warm out, there were birds chirping and tweeting, and people were probably having ice cream and wearing their sun glasses. I spent the day mostly sleeping, and then put on all my warm clothes and sat in the sun for an hour while having a warm cup of tea with honey. It wasn't all that bad. I've been worse, and all, I just hate not being able to go to work, and the eye infection also made it very hard to do any freelance paperwork at home.

Tuesday. I felt better, I was able to read a bit. I slept a lot. I kept my eyes from going dry with eye drops and stuff my mum gave me. And things were okay. I played the guitar. I threw away all my eye make-up (apparantly once you've gotten an eye infection you should never use the same make-up again). I still felt shabby, though.

And then today. I slept well, except for my eyes being gross and icky and glued together and EWW. Then I decided I had had it. I did not want to feel ill anymore. So I went out. I brought my freelance work to a café, where I had a cappuccino and sat down reading and being all effective and "good-at-what-I-do"-ish. I bought new eye make-up, and Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things (which I found used, but looking practically new, at a great price. The book, not the make-up). And then I went to my first yoga class. Yes, that's right, I haven't told you about the yoga, yet, have I?

Well, see. I decided I had troubles motivating myself to work-out properly. And I thought about how I'm not always good at focusing on myself and getting rid of stress and stuff. And I decided yoga sounded like a good way to combine those two issues. My experience with yoga beforehand was a few classes at the student gym ages ago (Poweryoga, mind you), where I really felt as though I wasn't good enough, and I wasn't able to do the poses right. I fell over, I felt silly. My ankles and wrists hurt. And the lady instructor went on about Greeting the Sun and doing the Sideways-Bent-Over Dog or the Happily Slanting Hare and whatnot. It wasn't... the best experience. But in theory, I still thought that yoga sounded like a good idea. And this class I signed up for this spring is a beginner's course, and a kind of yoga that focuses on movement, meditation, breathing and relaxation. It didn't sound as tough as the poweryoga. It was all about being in contact with yourself and your own body and well, I guess I just decided to go for it.

The first class was today, from four thirty to six this afternoon. The classes are in this lovely, old wooden house (actually the oldest in the city, from 1789) where there's a lot of light and calm colours. The instructor was nice and easy to talk to, and we were eight people taking the class. The waiting room is lovely, with comfortable seats and a bunch of books we could take home for a week at a time if we wanted to. And I absolutely loved the class. It was easy, it felt great, and all of a sudden I really understood the people who talk about all the benefits of yoga. The instructor talked us through both meditation and more active exercises, and taught us how to focus on our breathing, and when the whole thing was over, I felt like doing some more. And I managed to do ALL the poses, just as they were meant to be done. I didn't fall over once. I felt nimble and agile and calm and focused. And I feel as though I'm breathing better. It was great. And even though I still had a small remainder of a cold, I didn't have to blow my nose once, which is odd, since I usually tend to have a runny nose, and we were all breathing through our noses all the time, but I didn't even have to use the kleenex I brought. And now I actually feel as though the eye infection is better too. It doesn't itch as much, and my eyes aren't that runny. And I feel awake and relaxed at the same time. So yeah. Wow. Yoga, guys! It was amazing ♥

Oh, by the way! Got a new haircut a while ago, here are a few pics: