Long Time, No See. How Does an Awkward Hug Sound?

For regular readers of Season 4, you may recall that I pre-emptively broke up with Dahn Yoga (DY). No phone call. No "We need to talk" conversation at Burger King. I consider no call, no show the privilege of pre-paid membership. I was only staying in the relationship because of the tea and well, that's just not enough reason to continue seeing each other Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Saturday.

On Monday at lunch, I ran into one of the master yoga instructors on Boylston. Interestingly, running into an old yoga studio instructor follows the same pattern as bumping into a former flame:

1. To look ahead, go back the other way, or engage. Back in my college days, I wrote an article called the "Looks of Life" which chronicled the three look cycle found in the college dating world - the A-Smile, the Look Back, and the Look Ahead. The one sentence summary of that article is guy pursues girl after getting the "A-Smile," he "looks back" after a successful first date or hanging out and then "looks ahead" when things go sour. The "Look ahead" is the immature male response to completely ignoring the existence of someone who you wronged or wronged you. You see the person nearing you in the distance and then you never break "look ahead" stare. Yoga studios are like a small town - everyone knows everyone's business and I mean that literally. All the yoga instructors know where you work. Wearing a bright red jacket doesn't help things. Having crossed Boylston in front of Finagle, I spotted the instructor recruiting future tea-drinkers outside of Dahn Yoga. I was faced with looking ahead, going back the other way, or engaging. Now that I'm 30, the first two really aren't options any more so I will have to engage.

2. The obligatory "So good to see you" hug. Even though I haven't been to class in a good ten months, the instructor comes right up and hugs me. Whoever hugs tighter and closer to the body still has unresolved and conflicted feelings. Considering I'm 6 feet tall and she's 5 feet tall, I opted for the 45 degree angle hug so there would be no doubt about my future involvement with DY.

3. The "What are you doing?" pleasantry exchange. Read: Tell me anything besides you are engaged to a doctor or a world class gymnast, and I won't need to bring up that I ran into you with my friends. Or, with yoga studios, don't tell me you now offer tea both before class and after, and in fact, just invented a new kind of vanilla cinnamon flavor that will be introduced next session. That would be too cruel. This exchange proved that I'm still at City Year and DY added a new class to their mix of intestine excercise sessions. I think we can both live with that.

4. The "We should get together" parting line. No one really means that but seems like a fine way to end a conversation. Yes, you are right, I look forward to getting together with you the next time I make the mistake of entering the wrong side of Boylston Street. The instructor made the last ditch effort to talk me into coming to class to which I gave the vague response that "things are busy" and then she abruptly mentioned I can still do intestine and stomach exercises at home. So, she basically just proposed I do alone what we used to do together? Wow, talk about cruel.