(no subject)

[mamadeb]

Today was insanely active, as it turned out.

I had pakua at ten. Got there late; Master Katie got there later. We let the class run past the hour to adjust. It was, you see, just me.

So. I'm kicking higher. I'm spreading my legs wider for splits (which means spreading my legs as far as I can, while keeping my feet flat, and touching the floor with my finger tips. The goal is to eventually be able to do this on my *heels* only.) I'm getting a lot more flow into my movements. I can feel it myself. I'm pretty pleased. There will be evaluations this coming May. We'll see. I *might* get a yellow belt. More likely, yellow stripes on my white belt. This is just fine by me.

Got on the bus to go to my physical therapy session. Yes, physical therapy *after* martial arts. There was method to my madness. I got there early, so they put me to work early. We're still working on the tendonitis. They had me doing the pulley first. That means they put me in the gym, sat me on a chair under a pulley with two long cords, and told me to use it. Pull down as far as I can with one hand, pulling the other as high as I can go, hold for a count of five, release and repeat on the other side. I did that for about five-ten minutes. Then I used the wall ladder. Ths is a wooden strip on the wall with little steps, about 1 an inch apart that you "climb" with your fingers. I do fifteen reps facing and fifteen at right angles. But Tuesday, I strapped a one pound weight to my wrist. Today, it was two pounds.

My shoulder was just fine. My *fingers* hurt from the weight. Then I did therabands - long strips of rubber in various weights, all color coded. It's rather clever, because what they imitate is a *pulley*. You take the strip and put a knot in it center. With this, you can anchor it in a door by slipping it in the hinge side (door has to open away from you.) and closing the door firmly. And then you wrap the ends around your fingers and pull according to the exercises prescribed. I have two bands right now - a red one, to use in the way I just described, and a yellow one. I used to use the yellow one that way, but now I'm standing on one end and pulling the other in prescribed motions diagonally across my body. One is rather cool - I pretend my right thumb is a sword in a sheathe at my waist. I draw the "sword" across my body, raising it above my head, point upwards, and looking at it. The other is a simple punch. He's trying to use my martial arts training.

Then he spent about twenty minutes massaging my arm. This was *weird*. He's not a bad-looking man, and I'm sitting there with my arm resting across his chest or whatever - the angle's wrong and I can't see. But he's warm and I'm conscious he's male and while it hurts too much to feel anything else, it's still very odd for me.

I am, however, making real progress here, too. He's very pleased.

And I'm off for the next two weeks - no pakua, no therapy.

So, I've just had 90 minutes of rather strenuous exercise. I stop at a sub shop for lunch - I've been wanting a cold cut sub for weeks now, and then walked to a Staples to finally get a new deskpad. The one I'm using now is a shredded calendar deskpad, still showing December. Not good, and ugly. This one is pretty and useful.

The gas stations by me are offering "Passover detailing" for cars. :)

I walk home, I do some stuff on the computer and read my new Laurel K. Hamilton, and then I go shopping. I get what I need - lots of matzah - in a half hour, but it takes longer than that to check out. The woman ahead of me had two overflowing carts. I chatted with her and read Hornblower.

Hornblower pretty.

I got my stuff delivered, except for the handmade matzah. That I had to carry. I also stopped at a bakery (well, not a bakery, quite. It's a series of connected places - a fast food restaurant, a white tablecloth Chinese restaurant and a take out food place that also sells bakery goods and fresh meat. The takeout section is now all kosher for passover, so they took a section of the Chinese restaurant and are selling the bakery goods there. ) I bought a whole wheat challah for Shabbat. This means I walked home with matzah in one hand and challah in the other.

I collapsed at home. I'd intended to trashout the kitchen, but I collapsed instead. I even got dizzy and jittery, even though I'd had water. After the order was delivered, I just...read. And then.

I...well, I can't talk about the rest of the evening, but I did get myself a real dinner, which helped. I'm just waiting for Jonathan to come home.

Comments

Passover Detailing!!

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

The gas stations by me are offering "Passover detailing" for cars. :)

That is the coolest thing ever. Well, maybe not THE coolest, but it's really ranking up there for me right now! Sigh. I'm definitely jealous.

[reginagiraffe]

I do some stuff on the computer and read my new Laurel K. Hamilton

Tonight I'm going to a book-signing to get my copy autographed. She was here last year at about this time, too.