yogi

so i did it. after years of hymning and hawing, i finally started taking yoga in hood river. by virtue of the area that i grew in and the people that surround me during the summer there is no reason it should have taken this long to get into it. despite julia's, my instructor's, insistence, it feels like i've started too late and i'm now at the point where i'm just jumping on the bandwagon and furthering my guilty pleasure of associating with the "active" lifestyle.

but here is where we reach a quandary. here is where the timeline of reality forks and an alternate universe is created, myself split between the diverging paths. as these two paths continue forward through time, they seem less and less interests and more and more lifestyles. during the moments of special agony, it feels like i must choose between the two.

the first is my outdoor self: the kid who wears flip flops and whatever else is comfortable (or less dirty than everything else on the floor), likes to hike and get grimy, can go without a tamed coif or shower for more than a day and takes the pleasures of a small town in with all of his heart. he'll drive 10 hours straight after work to sleep in the dirt in a parking lot in whistler just to ride his bike for a day only to get back to town only a couple hours before work. he's okay living out of a backpack. life, for him, is not a big concern: as long as he has the funds to support his activities and a place to store his gear, this elliott requires, actually, very little. just movement and the outdoors. he'd rather throw his cellphone away than have it get in the way of a good bike ride.

the second self is rooted in pure cosmopolitanism and fashion; this one wants skinny jeans, the tight t-shirts, hip shoes, the newest music, an obscure foreign film and only the finest beer. he'll only settle for the finest zegna suit and his shoes had very well goddamn match his belt. he might have a fast-burning fuse, god forbid the restaurant be filled up. things had better go his way, though with less of his actual input than he's capable of giving, or else. this is the mr. hyde.

however, and after that long tangent i'll hopefully be getting to the point right about now, perhaps this new yoga interest could be the connection. after the hour long class that i took yesterday, i felt better than i had in a long time. maybe it's just the new experience that is giving me the high (as that has been known to happen to me). maybe my chakras were aligned. whatever made it feel good, it doesn't matter. i'm going to stay with it. spencer's girlfriend, katie, took it for the first time yesterday as well and we actually were giggling quite a bit, akwardly enough (especially during "happy baby" pose).

yoga has been touted as connecting the mind and body. maybe the mind is my first personality, content with whatever path he is on as long as it satisfies his basic criteria of health and interest. perhaps the body is my second personality, more superficial, concerned with success and appearing successful and hip and all that crap. so here we are, perhaps at the two road's divergence still; perhaps at their convergence yet.

but, before anything else happens, i'm going to need a yoga mat.

-e