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I am on my 5th day of doing one thing at a time and not hurrying. It’s delightful. “Are you single-tasking?” The Cop asked this morning, as I read on the bed.

Yes! Yes, I am.

This morning, practice was relaxed and open. I had a glimpse of how I usually practice: with an eye toward the upcoming day at the office. A sense of urgency. I don’t know if it’s possible to get rid of this feeling (unless I win the lottery), but I want to minimize it.

All the usual ups and downs of intermediate. I’ve been doing prep poses ahead of kapotasana, to try to open up my shoulders and lengthen my triceps, etc. So I did all of those, then set up for kapotasana. MM came over to help out. Now, for a short digression. My hair is cut in layers and kind of crazy curly. I used to have it longer, and wore it tied back in pigtails, but then I got the bright idea that cutting it short would be useful for practice. Except, as it turns out, my crazy curly hair, when short, just goes berserk and stores up humidity and sweat. Basically it just expands like a rain cloud over the course of practice. Now I’m trying to grow it back out. In the meantime, I have lots of loose ends. So my solution is to put teeny pigtails in the back. But what about all the layers on top and on the side? I know! A stretchy headband! Yesterday I bought a bunch of headbands, just generic ones in subdued colors. Problem solved. Okay, back to kapotasana. I go back, MM helps me find my toes, then leans forward to press down on my elbows (getting them to the ground is one of our goals). At this point, I push into my legs more, my head slides closer to my feet, and the arch deepens. Except this morning, what I realize is that my headband is made of some kind of space age fabric that sticks like velcro to Manduka mats. Uh. I’m stuck.

I come out of the pose and MM looks perplexed. “It seemed like it was going to be really easy…” he says.

“My headband got stuck,” I tell him.

“What?”

“My headband got stuck.” I show him the headband. He tips his head like Waylon when he is confronted by an unfathomable situation.

“Uh, okay.” And off he goes.

Note to self: Take off headband before kapotasana. And consider greasing top of head somehow.

In eka pada sirsasana, I am happy to find myself able to look straight across the room (instead of curling down under the weight of my leg). Woohoo! MM comes over to adjust me. He pushes down on my shin. Down, down, down. I have one of my little instantaneous visions: my femur bending. Yup, like a chicken bone in science class, made flexible by soaking the bone in vinegar for a few days.

I guess that’s better than feeling it in the knee.