Day 141: Class 130: Uncontrollable Laughter

Today was 530 with Roberta.  Toni Jo taught the class before and when it let out, sweaty red faced yogis staggered out with war torn looks on their faces.   Reggi and I looked at each other and didn't even have to say anything.  An already hot room + Roberta = PAIN.  As we are sitting on the benches, catching up, in comes "wild Bill".  One of the regulars, we call him wild Bill because he cracks us up.  He gets very angry when conditions are too hot, too painful and makes no bones about speaking up or just leaving.  He was signing in on the clipboard and Reggi snaps her fingers at him "Bill, you've got to set up by Michelle and I " and she points to the side of the room where we are at.  He walks over and her and I are laughing because we want him near us purely for the comedy.  We already know it's going to be ugly in there and that he will get angry and we want to witness it close up.  He goes in to set up and comes back out saying he put his mat as far away from us as he could.  We were bummed.

We get in the room 5 mins before class, and there he is, parked a row behind Reggi and I , right in between us with a shit eatin' grin on his face.  Another nice surprise was my coworker.  He came for the first time a few weeks back, did a one week pass and was back tonight having bought a package.  Yes! Another convert.  He parked himself on our side of the room , back row.  He did pretty good!  In fact, he razzed me in the parking lot saying "I think you took more breaks than I did tonight!".  I rolled my eyes, laughed and said "You'll get your turn in the barrel Duane!".  

Class did not disappoint.  The heat and humidity were cranked up, people were dripping by awkward and I was exhausted by eagle already.  Uh-oh!  I fell out of standing bow over and over, could not hold balancing stick and crashed to my knees during triangle.  Roberta called me out "Get up Michelle, I know you can do it!".  I did get up but I was seeing spots.  Triangle is pretty interesting when you are seeing spots!  Bill also did not disappoint. He left once during the standing series, came back, made alot of faces, alot of noise and was clearly suffering.  Then during the floor series he leaves and never comes back.  We are about to go into full locust when he leaves and Reggi and I take one look at each other and that was it.  We both are laying on our tummies in savasana, backs heaving with laughter.  I look over at Roberta, she sees Reggi and I trying to contain ourselves and she smiles, trying to hold in laughter as well.  Then as I am about to go into the posture I try to get serious.  Doesn't work.  Laughter is bubbling up and spilling out and I'm in the posture giggling quietly.  I can hear Reggi, she's having the same problem.  Finally the muscles start to burn and I am forced to focus on my breath to stay in the posture and the laughter finally stops.  Oh it felt good though!  That burst of laughter DURING class.  I've smiled, chuckled, giggled during class, but never belly laughter like this.  It was a blast. 

The rest of class was pretty uneventful with the exception of camel.   Camel swooped in like a dementor and sucked the last bit of energy out of me.  The remaining postures I literally felt like a ragdoll, no energy, no stamina, it was all gone....all sucked out.  I would've just lay down, spent, but I was afraid the class would go by too slow or that I would actually close my eyes and go to sleep.  It was that bad!  

This weekend I plan on trying Moksha yoga.  I blogged about it a few days ago, it's another form of hot yoga and others that have tried it say it really works your upper body, that my shoulders and back will be sore.  Looking forward to it!