Misbehaving in Yoga class
My mom and I went to our first ever yoga class together. We set up our mats next to each other, facing the mirrored wall. After everyone introduced themselves, we went right into our first exercise, a simple breathing technique. I was watching my mom in the mirror which made me giggle. As the exercise went on, people were exhaling so loudly I couldn't believe it. How am I supposed to meditate when everyone sounds like they are sighing in relief from taking a big-ass dump? Between the sighs and my mom’s faces, I had to do all I could to control my laughter. It was the kind of church laugh where you are trying so hard not to make a sound, but everyone knows you are laughing b/c your shoulders keep jerking up and down, and then a couple of peeps squeeze out beyond your will. My mom saw me snickering, and naturally she started to laugh. It was one of those things where you just keep feeding off the other person's laughter. I turned to the side so that my back was facing my mom and I could not see her in the mirror. The instructor walked over to me, with a microphone on, and said, "Mary, face the front." I looked at her so helplessly, trying to hold in my laugh, and replied, "I can't," only to start my laughing fit again. A minute later, she said in her microphone, "Mother and daughter cannot stand next to each other." And then the inevitable happened: she separated us. I had to wait 26 years to be separated from someone in class, only this was yoga class, and that someone was my mother.


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