Yin & Yang

As an ASS (academic support specialist) at WWU, PP by all osmosis expectations, should be an expert in the basics of yin and yang. But yet. She is woefully clueless about even its most basic tenants. Why, she even has the Brilliant Tomoko Murakami as her student, whose Master’s Thesis expounds upon the elements of light and dark, spirit and body, life and death in eloquent glory. (Check her out at: http://www.mayu-art.com &/ or email her at: yusaifu@earthlink.net)


So, you’d think that when the Shivering Post-Cold Shower woman entered Utopia, announcing to the group of heaterized women that she was there to warm up after her freezing shower( “That shower needed more Yang!”) that PP would know what the hell she was talking about.

No, she didn’t. Yang? A shower with Yang? Like is that some sort of.... what? Why, PP is even sitting in her office here at WWU, trying to soak up the spirit of Yang and it’s not working.

So she asks Yang Shower Woman, like the Chinese Clueless Culture Moron that she is, what Yang has to do with the showers.

Yang Shower Woman looks at her for a moment, perplexed. She has to explain such a simple concept? DL is across Utopia trying not to look at PP or she’ll burst out laughing. Hah. Easy for her to giggle. She knows what Yang is all about. Or maybe not. Yin is more her cup of tea.

So to speak.

But more on that later.

For now, Yang Shower Woman explains to PP how a shower needs a balance. Both Yin and Yang. And PP remembers Tomoko’s thesis. Of course. Opposites. That complement. Or is that compliment?

Shower woman explains how Yin is female and Yang is male.

So now, PP is really confused. More Yang in the women’s showers? Well, she wouldn’t mind, but maybe all that Yang might be a little disconcerting to many of the Yin in the locker room.

Later, when PP and DL trudge up the stairs, the Y now closed and quiet so that PP can drag DL over to view the now beautifully peaceful and empty pool, (the Serene Yin to PP’s earlier Crowded Yang experience), DL gets that little smile on her face and then tells a story. How she used to have a ‘friend’ who worked at the Santa Cruz YMCA, who’d she go “workout” with after hours. Say round 2 a.m.


Their workouts were, no doubt, full of much Yin and Yin.

PP adores this story! And thinks that she needs to find her own “workout” buddy here at the Oakland Y so she could swim in the pool when it’s completely Yinned out!

Round 2 a.m. would suit her just fine.

Maybe the beautiful Tibetan Woman?

Way too much Yin for PP to handle.

Maybe in her next life.

Now, if only the brilliant Tomoko can send her the necessary spirit Qi to get there!