Today was steamy from the start.

Vani and I met at the subway bright and early this morning to head up to midtown for my first ever hot yoga class! Despite really wanting to love yoga, I’ve definitely always had a like-hate relationship with it. Until today, I had never taken a class at an official studio — just at various gyms and from yogadownload.com. I had afternoon plans, so Vani and I chose the morning 60-minute class (most of the regular Bikram classes are 90 minutes) which happened to be a hot Vinyasa class. I could tell I loved the place the second I walked in. The studio was so pretty with the hardwood floors, natural light, and colorful mats!



I tried my best I’m serious about yoga pose.



Yup, mostly scary. I know.

Anyway, I loved the class!! Vani and I agreed that the instructor was excellent right up until the last 15 minutes or so when her voice inexplicably changed from a pleasantly gentle encouraging tone to more of a jarring barky commanding tone, but I can overlook that. I love how I felt like I was doing something good for my body — inside and out, organs, joints, the whole thing — and felt like I was getting an excellent workout at the same time since I worked up such a sweat with the 100 degrees. I’m even inspired to go buy actual non-cotton workout attire so that I can continue … and you know the class was good if it put me in the mood to spend money!

I came back home briefly after yoga for a quick shower, change, and breakfast … at noon. I didn’t eat anything (except for a teeny spoonful of peanut butter) before I left this morning because I had been advised (thanks, Amanda!) not to eat for two hours before the class. I ate at least two days worth of food yesterday anyway, so holding off a few hours on breakfast was no biggie 🙂



Breakfast’s main course involved 1/2 cup leftover cooked brown rice and triticale berries, 1/3 cup unsweetened soymilk, cinnamon, cardamom, and berries.



Photographs of berries might get old to you, but they don’t get old to me. So I am going to show another.



On the side, I had a bit of chopped apple and pineapple with hulled hemp seed and cardamom.



Another pang of hunger hit as I walked out the door at 1:30, so I filled a baggie with more fruit to accompany me on my walk to the subway.



As soon as I stepped on the train, I spotted Kate. How convenient! We were both heading down to Marine Park to hang out with Gina. Kate lives three stops before me, and we luckily ended up on the same train and the same car for the journey! Thirty minutes or so later, we reached our destination and got collected by Gina … who inquired whether we might be up for some Mister Softee!! You should know that I consider Mister Softee my husband. I once had him make an office call when I had a serious craving at my old job. I actually called Mister Softee HQ and spoke to a man there who understood my urgent need and connected me to the dispatcher who very kindly connected me to the Mister Softee driver himself. From there, Mister Softee and I continued making arrangements directly until he had pulled up safely right outside the building. He even stood up to Bed-Stuy policeman wrath for pulling over in a no standing zone, shouting Just let the girl get her ice cream!

Anyway, after all that, the truck Gina had seen was a generic impostor.



Regardless, we all had ice cream on the brain by that point and forged ahead with the plan. I got a vanilla cone with chocolate dip and rainbow jimmies.



From there, we walked back to Gina’s house to hang out for a bit until her husband arrived with the car, a key component of our afternoon plans. While waiting, we nibbled on some carrot cake leftovers.



There’s a story behind this carrot cake. In fact, Gina and I have had an email chain going back and forth between us for weeks with the subject line, “Carrot cake!” The chain includes such gems as, “Sarah, I have carrot cake, but I’ll be out of town this weekend! Should I bring it to work so you can swing by my office and get it?” and “Gina, can you put a slice in the freezer for me until we find a time for me to collect?” and “How about you come over this weekend for a trip to the beach so that you can pick it up?” We’re serious about our carrot cake. This cake is even more special because Gina’s mother-in-law, Pat Shannon, is reputed to make the best carrot cake this side of the universe. The fates have been conspiring against me for ages because I have been out of town for every single party the carrot cake has graced since Gina and her husband got together five years ago. Finally, Gina scored some cake for me at a party couple weeks back, providing inspiration for all this fervent carrot cake plotting. My frozen slice is safely stashed in my freezer now, but the picture above is from the leftovers Gina still had in her fridge. It only took the three of us about 30 seconds to polish it off completely.

I also discovered a cup of leftover Easter chocolate on Gina’s desk.



I had a field day with these dark chocolate Nestle crunch eggs with caramel. I didn’t even know these existed, but they were amazing! Salty sweet is always the way to go.

Chris arrived back with the car shortly after the chocolate discovery, and the three of us girls were off to the waves!



It was late in the afternoon and not quite warm enough for actual bikini sunbathing, but we passed a very pleasant two hours chatting and napping on the sand at the water’s edge.



Today included the ideal sequence of events. Every Saturday should involve hot yoga, Mister Softee (or impostor in a pinch), and beachy naps. Perhaps that should be my goal for the summer.

What are your summer goals?