We made it to savasana...

I'm on Day 2 of Three Days of Teaching. I hope one of my friends has a partridge waiting for me at the end of Day 3.

I started off today practicing with another teacher to gear myself up after a somewhat unsatisfying Day 1. I felt tentative while teaching that class, like I was tripping over the words. I didn't have all that much to say and running out of words is not a good feeling. During my morning practice, I paid close attention to what the teacher did. She did a lot of streeeetching out of words, set a theme for the day and then continued with it throughout class. Great teachers really are incredible wordsmiths.

It was all in preparation for my largest class to date: five students at my friend Angie's condo clubhouse in Bellevue. My big experiment was adding music to class. Until now, I've taught in silence. Some people say music is a crutch. I get that. But I really love a good song to add energy through the flow of warrior poses and twists or to motivate for core strengthening.

I zipped through my ipod before class and threw together a playlist with a couple of energetic songs from Hercules and Love Affair, added a dash of Krishna Das for some of his solemn, soothing chords and mixed in a song by The Weepies because it's cute and I haven't listened to it in awhile.

What I learned in real time is songs go really fast once you turn them on. Also, it helps to remember to turn the music off or else Krishna Das will be playing before you know it and not during final rest. All of which leads to today's note to self: Have more than four songs on the playlist. Yeah.

Today's class also verged on comical. People kept coming in and out of the clubhouse with holiday decorations. At one point, a woman waved me over. "Do you live here?" No. "You can't use this clubhouse." My friend lives here. "You're supposed to sign up to use the clubhouse." OK. I went back to teaching. Five minutes later, she came back again. "A lot of us would love to have a yoga class here, and we'd love to have you teach. Would you consider teaching a class here?" I don't know, I'm in the middle of a class. She told me to call the management company. (I probably won't. Shh.)

It's always a relief to get to final rest. I got the class to savasana, but not before I accidentally blasted them with some Krishna Das as they were settling in. (Another note: check the volume.) But they didn't seem to mind, and I think the head massages while lying on the floor helped. Then Angie rewarded us with some hard-earned homemade croissant bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. Mmm, I can't imagine a better end to Day 2. Thanks Angie!