Indy Ashtanga, Dad and Radiation

Briefly (all posts are brief these days, although my regular readership knows that when I mean brief, I really don't mean anything and will often write my usual few pages here),

The Indy ashtanga scene seems to be authentically growing into something remarkable. When I began teaching in 2007, classes were 1-2 students for me and maybe as many as 8 for Carol (who is my teacher here and who remains the root of Indy ashtanga). If one of us hit double digits, it was some weird one-off miracle.

There were for a while, four of us that practiced regularly. FOUR. Two of those people are now either in their post-yoga phase or their vinyasa yoga phase.

But on Saturday in a led most-of-Primary, Carol had TWENTY SIX people. I can't even tell you how unheard of that is. The popular classes here, and by that I mean the MOST POPULAR of the whole week, get like 22, 24 people. An ASHTANGA class, getting twenty six??? UN HEARD OF. Like, seeing a UFO unheard of. Seeing a ghost unheard of.

But certainly welcome.

And then today I had 18. EIGHTEEN! And I haven't had anything but double digits since February, with the exception of one single week. This month alone, with one vinyasa class sub and three ashtanga subs, I taught 82 people.

So this is pretty amazing. I don't know if the practice is catching on, or if people are sampling around based on Groupon and LivingSocial coupons, or if a vinyasa teacher who is something of a devotee of mine is starting her own ashtanga cult over there across town (she'll be with Timiji this summer for two weeks while I'm down in Austin TX with Swenson; exact same two weeks, too; pretty interesting).

But as we're welcoming Kino here on May 7-8, this is all pretty cool.

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Ok, a progress report, finally: my dad began radiation on Thursday, and so far, he is fine and he's not getting the characteristic chemo exhaustion and so on. He's an extrovert to the bone (as I am), and so we think that it's actually energizing for him to be around so many people, with all those consultations and exams and procedures, and nurses, and extended family driving him in and out. He loves it. He riffs on the town he grew up in, with nurses from there, and it's hilarious. He tells stories about his kids, his youth, anything that'll do for conversation. And he's empowered by all of it. When we talk on the phone, it's more delicious than it's been since college. We're people who know each other fairly well, don't ask invasive questions, and who profoundly get along. Something about the distance (geographically) between us guarantees this, and in a way I look forward to going to see them with the kid at the end of May.

There is also no spreading to either his bladder or liver (whoohooo) although they're going to check the pancreas this week and that'll be done on Wednesday, they think. So we have good news so far and good energy. Hello springtime.

And that's that.