Thought #1:
We went to Sunday morning Mysore Ashtanga class with Steve Dwelley at Santa Barbara Yoga Center this past weekend, and that room was just packed to the brim with eager, engaged yoga students. As we have discussed several times here on our blog, Steve Dwelley & Michele Nichols ran the Ashtanga Yoga Shala on lower State Street for seven years before closing their studio and moving their classes to SBYC just about a month ago. The big question on everyone’s minds through this transition has been: what will Steve & Michele’s class sizes be like in the new venue?
The theory about changing locations had always been that because the Yoga Shala was a rather isolated, small location off on its own down a dark hallway by the freeway, its class size had tended to dwindle over the years as current students moved out of town or otherwise away from Ashtanga, but relatively few new students arrived to replace them. And so the all-important balance of students leaving vs. students arriving was off. But the theory went that if Steve & Michele moved to a larger, bustling yoga studio, this venue would provide a constant stream of newly-interested Ashtanga students, and this crucial balance would be restored.
Well, if Sunday morning was any indicator, this theory has proven sound. Sunday’s class was a mix of many familiar, long-time Ashtanga students, plus a significant amount of newbies to the practice. We would have to observe that at this point – a month into Steve & Michele’s venture – classes are filling up and the energy of Ashtanga in SB is newly vibrant. 
Thought #2:
We really enjoyed this article in The New Yorker by Louis Menand entitled, Thumbspeak: Is Texting Here to Stay? Here’s a quick excerpt:
There is no socially accepted excuse for being without your cell phone. “I didn’t have my phone”: that just does not sound believable. Either you are lying or you are depressed or you have something to hide. If you receive a text, therefore, you are obliged instantaneously to reply to it, if only to confirm that you are not one of those people who can be without a phone. The most common text message must be “k.” It means “I have nothing to say, but God forbid that you should think that I am ignoring your message.”
