Ah, escapism…

When I left my house yesterday morning, I half-expected the city to be at a standstill. Not the case however, as my street was entirely void of renegade garbage bags. Business seems to continue as usual (for now?). The repercussions of the strike perhaps have yet to set in, although the trashcans are ominously taped over – visually signaling the stand-off between the city and its CUPE locals 416 & 79 workers.

I put my tendency to wallow in political systems that I can’t control on hold the moment I dead-bolted my front door and faced this city, because there’s no better pick me up than gallivanting around TO. This city – I really love it. It’s turned into an elaborate playground for me lately because of Passport to Prana. This card is a license to yoga at 50 (and counting!) yoga studios across the GTA. The pass ($30) get’s you into one class at each yoga studio associated with Passport to Prana.

I’m an adventurer at heart; I love the idea of picking a studio at random, jumping on my bike and ending up who-knows-where. It’s been an education in yoga basics as I try different classes, teachers, styles… Besides that, I’m getting a yogic-tour of the city, ending up in nooks I’ve never seen before. A great addition to summertime in TO.

I’m about 10 studios in and the lingering muscle-soreness in my legs and lower back reminded me that I wanted to talk about Bikram Yoga on Bloor. The class was incredibly challenging. The mental and physical exertion – I don’t know how I made it through, but I did and frankly feel awesome about it. The class was small enough that the instructor could keep his eyes on everyone, catering his instructions to the range of levels. The pace was quick and the teacher’s enthusiasm and motivation certainly helped combat the heat-induced lethargy that started to set in nearing the end of the 1.5 hr class.

A yoga rookie, I didn’t anticipate the hot room (smart girl…), and walked home DRENCHED in my own sweat. The thought of walking through the Annex in that condition was troubling and I opted for the subway. Not a 9-5er myself (and suffering from a terminal lack of foresight), I overlooked the fact that Toronto’s rush-hour stretches into the 6pm range. My fellow Toronto populace: I apologize for the profuse amount of sweat you were subjected to yesterday on the Bloor-line westbound.

That night, checked out The Standard Pizza and Pasta Bar on College with some friends. The service was awesome – a huge selling point to me. The food is pretty dang cheap. The favorite at my table was the Linguine ai Frutti de Mare, although I cast my vote for the delicious sangria. It’s funny how the gravity of a city on strike seems to melt away on a day like this… I wonder when and how this will first become glaringly obvious.

Another beautiful day, you can barely feel the strike though the Globe has an awesome spread which lines up the key parties at play. As for me, I’m spending the day gearing up for Fringe TO! It’s almost upon us! My agenda is a mess, this is worse than my attempt to schedule my TIFF schedule last September…