Back in NYC

On Saturday afternoon I waved goodbye to my spouse and my cute, little doggy (who in my absence has apparently taken to doing even more incredibly cute things like trying to climb up slides to chase birds) and got on the first of three planes that would take me back down to and then across the lower 48. I had an evening flight from Anchorage to Seattle, a red eye from Seattle to Cleveland (wtf, Priceline?!?), and then a morning flight from Cleveland to New York. Fortunately, I was able to catch about 4 hours of sleep between the three flights, so I wasn't completely dead on my feet by the time I got off the M60 bus and arrived at the apartment where I'm staying. I took a quick shower and a teeny cat nap and then got up to find some lunch, which included a sea salt and caramel cupcake from Crumbs that I thought was actually rather too salty. Fortified by iced coffee and frosting, I spent a few hours doing some more exploring around Morningside Heights and Central Park.

 Bailey being ridiculous. I stole this photo from M.  

This morning I got up relatively early to find coffee and a light breakfast before attending my first yoga class at a studio in over two years. The class was an open Vinyasa session at Life in Balance Yoga. It was a pretty challenging class that involved a number of warriors, standing splits, and headstand work. I was a bit out of my league. However, I used it as an opportunity to  assess what kind of yoga shape I'm in right now - noting exactly where I had lost flexibility and strength and stamina - and told myself that I could always take a modification if necessary or rest in child's pose or puppy if I needed to do so. Even though it was tough, it made me remember why I loved going to yoga during my grad school days and further reaffirmed my commitment to do a couple more classes this month.

After yoga, I got cleaned up and headed down to Bryant Park to have some lunch and then to the reading room of the New York Public Library. I got a couple of hours of solid work in on a manuscript, but I was regretting my decision not to bring a cardigan with me as I was getting quite chilly in the air conditioned room. I decided to call it a day and do a little shopping on my way back to the apartment. (This is entirely justified as our stuff still has not shipped from the Midwest....) I bought the most amazing jacket ever and am sure I'll get lots of wear out of it once I'm back in Alaska.

Do you go to a yoga studio? If so, how frequently do you attend classes? Are you ready for cooler temps and jackets?