Downward Dog

I realized today that two of my favorite things in the world have to do with Dogs.  Well, sort of.

Yoga, a practice that I have only started less than a year ago (think Downward and Upward facing dog) and I have great love of my dog Sammy, and my surrogate dogs Lucky and Emmie, who live in SF with my sister Diana.

Being on my blessed stay-cation is allowing me to spend time and really enjoy both things.  This morning, I woke up at my 18th street Mission apartment and walked the two blocks to the San Francisco location of my yoga studio Laughing Lotus .  This is a little haven in the center of the City chaos, walking in you feel a calm, cool, vibe and the people are relaxed and friendly and remember your name. I paid the $16 for a drop in rate + mat rental.  The studio is large and cool and projects a cleansing and relaxing atmosphere with skylights that allow you to see the sunshine or rain.  I love this yoga studio, I first started practicing yoga in the NYC location of Laughing Lotus on 19th Street at 6th avenue.  My favorite yoga instructor there is Jen G, and in SF, it’s a tie between Astrud and Keith.

This morning I had Keith.  After leading us through some mantras and meditation, we started the level 2 class.  It was challenging and Keith did a great job helping with adjustments and guiding us through poses with his voice.  After, the class, I felt sweaty, tired, limber, and calm all at the same time and looked forward to tomorrow’s lesson.

Later today, I took all the puppies to Dolores Park in the Mission (also two blocks from my apt).  This is a great park, spanning across multiple streets and it is generally clean and extremely dog friendly.  Walking up towards the corner of the park near 20th and Church, there is an area dedicated to puppies to run off leash.  I took the puppies up there today and they were greeted by about 7-8 small dogs, mostly of the rescue variety, running around and frolicking in the sunshine.  The owners sit around sipping coffee out of their re-usable tumblers and talking about resturants, dog digestive systems, and questioning why some dogs like to hump each other so much.  Who knows why?  It’s a dog’s life.