Lights, camera, ACTION!!!

Well...sort of.

Not quite filming a movie, but I do have some semi-thrilling NEWS to report!

So remember Keri? The blog queen that started a massive pink slip movement? Well, guess who made the front page of The Seattle Times yesterday? Ms. Housepants herself.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009471899_leisure15m.html

I stopped reading the paper when I went away to training so my boyfriend came running into the house shouting, "Hey babe - look who made the cover? Your friend, Keri!" I was so excited!

You see, since I was a little girl, I have always been fascinated with celebrities. Even the ones on the B list. When I was 11, I signed up for a subscription to People magazine. Back then we didn't have Access Hollywood so you had to pay for juicy celebrity gossip. When my first edition of People arrived, my heart was pounding as I snatched it out of the mailbox. It was gonna be a good one, nice and thick, full of hearty gossip! My parents didn't know I had ordered a subscription so I hid the magazine underneath my shirt and quickly snuck back into my room. I would turn each page very slowly - I didn't want the magazine to end! I suppose being consumed by famous people's lives allowed me to escape my own life. To this day, I'm perplexed at how I kept getting magazine after magazine...without paying a dime (um, I had curfew at 3:30pm. How could I possibly make money?)

I'm going to get Keri's autograph because she is blowin' up! She was on KOMO news, countless websites, Seattle Times...pretty soon, I'll be watching her in the hot seat with Larry King.

AND because of Keri's exposure, a writer from The Seattle Times (Pacific Magazine) contacted me and interviewed me for an article on unemployment! It's going to be published on Labor Day - great timing, eh? I never ever ever thought I would get exposure for being jobless in house pants.

I'm a pretty private person so I'm surprised at myself when I get excited about being in the spotlight. I guess I have a secret craving to be in People. :)

I taught my first class!

In training, they tell you that the "full circle" is completed when you teach your first class. In 9 weeks, we learn each posture individually, one set only (there's two sets to each posture). So we never practice teaching the entire series as if it was a real class. You are also on your own to learn the breathing exercises, 2nd sets, sit ups and transitions. It always puzzled me why we never got to teach a mock class. So that's why I was a bit worried before teaching my first class on Thursday -I was scheduled for the first Thursday after flying back home!

When I re-visited the postures, I felt like I was looking at them for the first time! YIKES This was going to be tough...oh, and did I mention that I was sooooo incredibly exhausted that I snoozed for 20 total hours on Monday?! Hibernating bears don't even sleep that long! Boy did my body feel like a used piece of meat. My body was craving Zzzzz's. So re-studying dialogue was on the bottom of my list!

My studio manager helped me snap back into reality and I knew I had to get my butt in gear. During my practice session, I only made it through 1st part of Awkward (2nd posture). There was no way I was going to be spewing out all 26 postures! I almost chickened out and contacted the studio owner to ask for more days to study...but I decided to just go for it. I went home and studied, recorded myself and crammed as much into my brain as I could.

So there I was, 6:15pm on a Thursday standing outside of the room I was about to teach. There were 24 students! EEEEK! It was in the '80's and I wished that more people would've skipped yoga and played in the sun. I had to do a few breathing exercises and got a pep talk from one of the instructors. She reminded me that it's all about the students and to have the yoga speak through me. I was merely the messenger so there's no need to be nervous. Oh and to imagine that a mini Bikram was standing on my right shoulder, guiding me along in his black spandex bikini. I took a deeeep breath and walked into the classroom. I thought, "Here I go - sink or swim!!"

Overall, it went ok. I got my rights and lefts mixed up and forgot a posture and a second set of a posture...but I made it out alive (or should I say, the students made it out alive!) My first reaction was, "That was HARD!" I found my dialogue during the standing series but lost most of it during the floor series. But you find 'normal' words to get the students in and out of the postures. WHEW - was it a BIG relief to get the first class over with! Thank goodness the students are all so understanding and didn't hang me. I was so relieved that I practiced the 8:30pm class afterwards...the first class since training!

Since then I've taught one more class. This time only 6 students. I find that I still need to work alot on my dialogue and mix it up so that i don't sound like a broken record. But they say it comes with time so I will trust that. I'm still in shock that I've survived two classes!

*Pic of me behind the desk checking in students before class!