A guru event.

I really don’t like guru events.

They’re very long, people aren’t friendly to you if you’re not into it, and the air is stale and there’s just a bunch of people milling around the tables where you can buy stuff and take fliers in between and during events.

A friend from college had invited me to a “Yoga Rave” for a guru he’s into, and I was glad to go; they had rented out this giant nightclub downtown (a huge old church with at least 5 clubbing levels, including a dance floor that like four floors overlooked!) during early evening hours, and you paid $10 for the drug- and alcohol-free event, and there was a mixed bunch of people, mostly young but some older (Indian) people and (white) people, and they had free yoga and then guided meditations according to a CD put out by the guru and then a band playing sets of mantras (including Krishna chants) set to contemporary electronic-influenced rock music, for 4 hours.

At one point, they even dropped balloons on the dance floor.

At another point towards the very end, just before the raffle anouncement, they paraded out a few young (black) students who were taking meditation classes from their Indian teacher as part of public school (!).

Like 2.5 hours in, I ducked out into the sales area where they had info on classes, guru books and CDs, etc., and the air was stuffy too, so I went upstairs to piss and go to less crowded part and breathe, and the air was stuffy there as well, so I finally found my friend and told him I was going downstairs to get some air, out of the private event area his club had rented out.

The downstairs bar in the club was open, and some guru people were milling at one end, and then there were two older (white) women with these bright pink martinis, and then a slot at the end where I could sit...

On the other half of the first floor, which the guru people hadn't rented out, there was an early evening "Rat Pack" impersonator night, and so we kept hearing old Dean Martin tunes performed live, though we couldn't see the performers because of some well-placed curtain space dividers.

I ordered a beer and a glass of water, and wonder if I was a failure, because I couldn’t enjoy an alcohol-free event.

(The place also wouldn’t count for my project, if I didn’t have a drink there.)

Then, one of the older (white) women called out something to me, and I went down to join them.

It turns out that they were visiting psychiatrists from my home state in town for a professional conference, so we shot the shit and then I gave them a recommendation for a bar with cheap drinks and a great view of downtown, a map to which I even drew on the back of some large ticket one had in her purse.

Then, I realized that I really do like bars, and I wasn’t a failure because of it.