Many Happy (?) Returns

A funny thing happened yesterday afternoon. The phone rang--and no, that's not the funny thing, although it is a rare occurrence here at Chez Boeckman-Walker since we're antisocial folks, save the boy--and on the other end of the line was a clerk from a local women's sports apparel boutique. She was calling to let me know that I'd put my contact info on the store's sign-up sheet (last October) to be alerted when Nike finally released the Nike Sportsband v2.0.

Remember the Nike sportsband, Gentle Reader? Bought my first one on July 26. Had to return it and the replacement I was given for my original in August. Was told by the folks at Bettysport that Nike planned to have an improved unit out in time for the holidays--and never saw word one about it. Gave up on the damn thing in January and switched to the Nike+ iPod attachment.

Well, it's back. In a limited quantity to, in the words of the Bettysport clerk, raise interest in the product. Hah! More like make the initial buyers (suckers) beta testers to determine if v2.0 actually is more moisture-resistant. Anywho, the store's sister store, Rogue Running, was generously given 18 of the 55 total (she seemed to recall) distributed for sale in Texas. If I hurried, I could get one for the same price I'd paid for my original one a year ago.

Yeah, thanks but no thanks. Sure, v2.0 has, according to CNET, "a welded seal to improve water resistance" and "a screen with a white background to enhance visibility," but I'm just not going to a buyer. For starters, I don't need it since I use the iPod-based version of Nike's tracking system (and I've learned to live with the limitations of that system). More importantly, I've been burned twice now by being an "early adopter" (aka, paying beta tester), and I'm not going to go through that rigmarole again. I'm still carting around my iPod shuffle that's largely unusable because the damn earphone controls have konked out, leaving me unable to adjust the volume, pause playback or skip songs--functions that are all must-haves when running in a gym that often has the bad music cranked up and the obnoxious fitness instructor screaming into her microphone with her music blaring and the classroom doors wide open.

Oh, and the new sportsband colors are fugly. Pink and grey? Yellow and grey? Sure, there's red and grey, but...meh. Not my thing.

Speaking of Things Happening 9 Months Later....
I returned to yoga today. After a nine-month sabbatical, I teaching yoga again. And at Gold's to boot!

Why didn't I return to Yoga Yoga, you ask, Gentle Reader? For a few reasons. After so much time away, I didn't think I'd get a slot on the schedule at a time when I wanted to teach. Its teacher training program is churning out teachers every six or nine months, I think, and so many of them wind up teaching there, so I didn't think a long-absent teacher stood a candle of a chance against long-time instructors and new, excited, dedicated ones.

I think, though, the big reason for not returning to YoYo is that...the place has changed. It's not the same cozy community I enjoyed once. It's become fragmented, even more erratic (you'd think there'd be more cohesion since this is a business, after all, about yoga--union) and, well, just too big and with too many dreams and too little follow through. Maybe I just feel that way because I was one of the few teachers who worked fulltime elsewhere. Perhaps if I taught and worked the front desk or managed one of the studios or did some other "regular employee" work, maybe I wouldn't have felt unattached and disregarded. But even when I was able to spend more time at the studios and I was teaching several classes, I still felt some...left out.

Of course, Gentle Reader, all those feelings are somewhat ironic considering I'm now working for an organization that's adopted a tremendous corporate culture and doesn't really give a rat's ass about its yoga teachers. And y'know what? I knew that already, and I'm totally fine with that. I can teach at Gold's because there's no veneer of cozy, intimate community. There's no sham anyone's attempting to perpetrate.

Returning to Gold's to return to teaching is, in a way, returning me to my beginnings. I started doing yoga there. I started teaching there. Going back and bringing everything I've learned to a lot of folks who would probably be too intimidated to set foot in a yoga studio is something I want to do because those people need yoga just as much as the folks who go to the studios. So, I guess...

Welcome hOMe!