Saturday, September 29, 2012

Few things in this world...

...make me feel as happy and whole as a fantastic (and more often than not, terribly sad) book.

I spent most of the day today re-reading (for the millionth time) Radcliffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (instead of working on my stats homework).

It's my favorite book, with Lolita coming in a close second, and Stone Butch Blues following close behind that one.



I miss your face terribly, and I'm super jealous of your blossoming crochet skills. I'm knitting me a brain hat to help me cope. ;) Lots of love!



“Our love may be faithful even unto death and beyond–yet the world will call it unclean. We may harm no living creature by our love; we may grow more perfect in understanding and in charity because of our loving; but all this will not save you from the scourge of a world that will turn away its eyes from your noblest actions, finding only corruption and vileness in you. You will see men and women defiling each other, laying the burden of their sins upon their children. You will see unfaithfulness, lies and deceit among those whom the world views with approbation. You will find that many have grown hard of heart, have grown greedy, selfish, cruel and lustful; and then you will turn to me and will say: ‘You and I are more worthy of respect than these people. Why does the world persecute us, Stephen?’ And I shall answer: ‘Because in this world there is only toleration for the so-called normal’.”

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Tuesdays are for...

Biostats.

It's my theme of the day, every Tuesday.

...though I never really remember that.


Today I had a very long day at work, and as I punched out and skipped home I was looking forward to only one thing: the arrival of my new hula hoop. I couldn't wait. I'd been sitting on pins and needles for days. Pacing around. Refreshing the tracking information.

Waiting.
Interminable waiting.

But today I found it sitting on my doorstep, waiting for me.

I threw open the door, tossed all my things aside, and ripped into the box. I started looking around trying to figure out how much stuff I would have to move out of my way since it's such a large hoop, and that, THAT is when I saw it.

The giant red note I'd left myself on the mirror:
"Dear Me: DO YOUR DAMN BIOSTATISTICS HOMEWORK!!!
Also I love you, you're wonderful."

Curses!!

You're calling me! More on this later!

Monday, September 24, 2012

Well My Lovely,

time is sort of getting away from me more and more these days.

Thursday was family dinner for my sisters birthday. It was pretty lovely, much lovelier than last year anyway, though there were still issues with TOC's mouth. I suppose though, that that is to be expected at this point. Maybe dad's right, maybe 'that's just her personality', although that doesn't exactly bode well for her does it?

Anyway, it doesn't matter. It was a great night anyway.

Friday was chaos at work. R was out of town for the day, a fact that the boss man totally forgot and so I was left there all alone all day. I was in a pretty foul mood anyway, so really it was probably for the best. I went home, did my homework, took my tests, and fell asleep trying to finish Wuthering Heights. I woke up with my mood much improved.

Saturday I woke up waaaaaaaay before dawn to go fossil hunting. I came up around Picket Post Mountain just as the sun was coming up and it was the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time. I picked up V when her graveyard shift at the mine ended and we headed up the mountain. I haven't gotten out there nearly as often in the last six or so weeks as I would have liked to, and it was nice to be up there again. It's my favorite place in all the world. We hung out up there until the heat and lack of shade started to melt our skin off, and then we drove home. We stopped along the way to check out the lookout spot over the mine and V explained the process and told me what all the trucks are for. It was pretty awesome.

Sunday I woke up early and spent the day diligently avoiding my homework. The dog and I did all sorts of ridiculous things, none of which helped me prepare for my classes this week. It was the greatest show of procrastination I've put on in recent memory. Then, when I could procrastinate no longer, I went to sleep.

Today Dad brought me the dasher to my ice cream machine. I plan on making my first batch later this week, and I am pretty dang excited about it. R and I blew through the mountains of work we had from Friday and today and then I ate myself into a food coma. I came home and spent some more time avoiding my school work, then I read some Wuthering Heights in the bathtub, procrastinated a little more, and then read one of the two articles I have to lead the discussion on. Currently I'm trying to decide if I want to read the other one tonight, or wake up extra early in the morning and finish my prep work. Right about now the morning is looking pretty good...


Well Dear Friend, that's about all that I know. I'm sorry that your phone is broken and I miss having you around, you know, either via text or your blogs or Facebook. It's strange, very strange, not having you around all the time. But I miss you terribly, I hope things are looking up for you there in the land of mist and fog, and I'm excited to start working on our project.

Lots of love.







Today

I'm always in the mood for a good love song. <3

Sunday

Saturday

Every time I hear this song, I think it's going to be ABBA. But it's not, and that makes me sad. XD

Friday

Thursday

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Updates

I feel like I owe you an update post. There's so much going on, and for whatever reason, whenever you ask me 'what's new?' my mind just blanks out. XP So here's a real quick run down of things in my life.

School goes on. It's a little chaotic, and I'm still working on finding a good rhythm, but it's improving all the time. I still hate my biostats class. I am still subjected to really poor writing in my lit class. And chatty 'type A' freshmen in my seminar class are still monopolizing the majority of class time. I am however enjoying discussing books with other people, I forgot exactly how badly I missed that. (I really need to join a book club.) I did find a good partner for my tandem debate paper, so I'm very pleased about that. I'm just humming along this semester.

I took up hula hooping/hoop dancing earlier this semester. I don't think I told you that? I haven't really said anything about it to anyone, except my other friends who hula hoop. Anyway, I did. It's lots of fun and it keeps my stress level way down. (And it's rapidly turning into one of those obsessive interests). Today I ordered my first 'official' weighted dance hoop, instead of the one I made myself, so I'm pretty dang excited about that one. It should be here at the end of next week.

My banjo playing is improving dramatically. I finally got finger picks, which made a massive difference (duh). Plus I have time alone now to work on it without someone watching/listening to me, which is also a huge help.

I filled my prescription for a weighted blanket this week and it is AMAZING. I am so mellow and relaxed and I sleep like a baby. (No more waking up at 3 am! Yay!) I wish I had known about them sooner. I got one that's weighted with super fine river rocks instead of poly fill so it's less...puffy? and it stays cooler. I just can't say enough good things about it.

Um, what else? Today is my sister's birthday, so family dinner tonight. Hopefully it will go smoother than the one last year, lol. But really, it couldn't possibly be worse. At any rate, I'm not worried. I'm really looking forward to it, actually.

This weekend I'm going to try out a new fossil site with some friends of mine. (I'm also applying for a permit to do some work on a vertebrate site this coming year, so with a little luck I'll be digging up pleistocene megafauna by summer. *squeeee*) I'm pretty psyched about the new site. It's inverts, since that's all I can collect without a permit here, but they're really pretty corals and sponges preserved in red chert. I'm such a sucker for red chert.

That's about it, I think. Or at least that's all I can think of. I miss your face terribly, but I love that I can talk to you more now. I'm super excited to see you this winter, and to get to work on the book. Plus, you know, you and I, we're hysterical together.

<3 Lots of love Dear Friend. Lots of love. <3


SOTD!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

You can always count on your friends.

Friends are marvelous things.
Really marvelous, magical creatures.

Or at least good friends are.

I am incredibly blessed in that respect, to have friends as good as mine are (and mine are clearly the best). And do you know what makes my friends so awesome? Well I do. And it's a great many things. Too many perhaps to list here.

But what I like best about them is that as well as they understand me, as capable as they are of cheering me up when I'm sad, as much fun as we have when we're together, we all have our own lives. My best friends are marvelous creatures. Creatures who don't need me all of the time. Who have fun in their own lives and aren't wounded when I have fun in mine. That's a fantastically rare quality, as simple and perhaps obvious as it seems.

The world is really full of mediocre people. People without any drive, or goals, or opinions, who always want to do what you want to do so long as they never have to be alone, and that's really...lame. I'm super grateful for the handful of really astoundingly spectacular people in my life who constantly remind me how awesome life is by just letting me live mine on my own terms. That's such a cool gift.


On a similar note, today a Dear Friend took the time to remind me of all the 'shiesty bitches' we've encountered in our years together. We reminisced and laughed, and talked about all the messed up things we put up with from other people for a good long while. And then she gently reminded me to be extra vigilant while I'm out being the social butterfly. Because where there are butterflies, there are shiesty bitches, looking to catch them. (And to remind me that if anyone messes with me, she'll flay them.) I've never felt more loved.



P.S. Speaking of shiesty bitches, Mr. Archer, one of the girls in my yoga class knows you in passing. Can you guess who she's best-y best friends with? ;) Love you!



Monday

Sunday

Saturday

Friday

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Today

Today I cleaned the house. Really, really cleaned it.

I removed every item from every surface in the house and dusted under it. This really made me wish I had less stuff, but when I was done and everything was clean and smelled lovely it totally seemed worth it.

Allergy season is in full swing here in the desert, so I'm extra concerned with the house being clean. I'm allergic to the cats, as I'm sure you know, and as long as the house is kept reasonably clean I don't really notice it much. However, during allergy season when I'm already itchy and miserable it becomes a real problem if the house isn't immaculate all of the days.

Outside allergies + inside allergies = misery.

In other news, I bought a whole bunch of Halloween decorations. Okay, maybe not a whole bunch, but a lot for me! Ahahaha.

Anyway. Among them I got a whole bunch of purple fairy lights. (Because, really, who doesn't need purple fairy lights?) Well, I went home and tried to figure out what I was going to do with them when genius struck: I would fill my room with them.

I know, I know, you're thinking aren't you maybe just a little too old for this? And you could be right. Perhaps I am. But you know what? The last five years of my life have been soooooo serious. So full of terrible grown up decisions and constantly being the oldest person in the room, and acting my age, and working hard all the freaking time, and now I just want a little space for me that is just pure whimsey.

So that's my goal. My bedroom is now on its way to being a magical place. One that is full of whimsey and fun and all things LittleFoot. I've earned that.

I covered the ceiling in purple fairy lights.

I converted the double fish tank stand (it was built to hold 2 125 gallon tanks and is 2.5x7ft) into a two tiered fortress. The bottom half is my permanent blanket fort. I am working on covering/padding the bottom surface of it, but for now it's just full of pillows. The top half is my reading corner. I put the gaming chair up there along with a small table with a reading lamp and some fuzzy blankets and fluffy pillows. It makes me pretty happy. I may or may not build a ladder for it, I haven't quite decided yet.

I also bought a series of coat hangers/hooks today, with the intention of hanging up my hat collection so that they weren't just stacked precariously atop one glass head any longer, but that didn't work out so much. I have a lot of felt cloche hats, and they really need more of a hat rack, they just slip right off the coat hooks. I did manufacture a solution to this by making some ribbon loops and pinning them to the inside of the hats, but then decided that this process defeated the simplicity of the hat hooks in the first place. Instead I've hung them at various heights near the door for purses, scarves, and coats, as well as in the hall and in the bathroom for, you know, whatever. I'm pretty happy about all that.

Oh! I also (finally) cleaned out my old kerosene lamp and filled it with scented oil instead. It smells very lovely. Much better than kerosene.

That's all I know Dear Friend. I miss you terribly, and I wish you were here.

Lots of love.

Ah Saturdays.

This was a particularly lovely weekend Dear Friend, and I dare say I'm almost back to my normal ol' self again.

Yesterday I spent literally the whole day with my Dad working on motors.

I almost got killed on the way there by some j*ck*ss who I'm assuming was texting when he flew out of the Fry's parking lot, drove straight at me, and caused me to swerve across two lanes and onto the sidewalk. Thanks a lot. So if you drive a dark green car, and were driving like a jerk-faced moron in Mesa on Saturday, don't worry, I didn't die. Also, please pay better attention when you're driving. You almost T-boned me. Thanks.

After that near death experience, the rest of the day seemed extra awesome.

We took TONS of pictures, none of them particularly flattering, but all of them showing me and Dad having an awesome time. As of yet, I have not figured out how to get them from my phone to this website. I can get them to Facebook, so you might have to have Sierra show them to you (sorry!).

Anywho, we built a 1937 Maytag washing machine gas powered motor. Dad painted it and I put it together, though Dad did adjust the points for me. He also built the stand the night before. We put reprints of the original decals on it, filled it up with fuel and got it running. It's soooooo awesome.

Dad also got me an ice cream maker. It's a little 2 quart one, (which is a really uncommon size) from 1922. It's my new favorite thing. I'll try and post some pictures of it here for you soon. I'll also post pictures the first time I make ice cream in it. I can't wait!

Friday, September 14, 2012

So Relieved...

...that it's Friday.

Today was simultaneously better and worse than the days preceding it.

I'm still a hot mess of compound emotions. (Sorrowful-hyper, anxious-happy, etc.)

I've been listening to the same song on repeat for just over 3 days now. I think it might be driving everyone around me a little mad, but not me.

I've been drowning in sorrow
Chasing tomorrow,
Running away
Now you're crossing the border
See no tomorrow
But you're not afraid

OooOooh Sinéad,
For the first time
Life is gonna turn around
I'm telling you
You will like it, I know
(I know, I know, I know, I know, I know)


I've been singing with reckless abandon and doing my best to adapt the photosynthesis interpretive dance to it so, in theory, it hasn't been a total waste of time. :P

I spent a good deal of this evening trying to muck my way through Bird's Philosophy of Science while listening to Wuthering Heights on audio book with limited success. Perhaps those aren't the best two things to attempt to do simultaneously, no?

'Loons and I are now exhausted and are lying in the empty bath tub with our blankets writing to you.

And that, that, Dear Friend, is all that I know.

Love and stuff.
Talk to you soon.
<3 Me.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Burnout.

I'm still up to my eyeballs in social burnout.

I'm still feeling hypersensitive.

Today it was the sound of water moving in the fish tanks. And the way R's shoes squeak when he walks. (In addition to the sound of the animals licking anything, that one's always a problem.)

I'm also really wrapped around the axle about politics. Mostly that I hate them, particularly right now just before an election. Everyone is at their worst. They're all battling to prove the other guy is the most hateful. But you know what? All that hate stuff just crushes my soul.

It's so weird.

It's just like weight, so much weight just comes pouring out of the computer and onto my chest and I can't breathe. I caught myself today wondering if election season was a 'survivable event', which is kind of my cue to shut down any and all sources of political discussion or information.

I was going to follow your lead and deactivate my Facebook, but my ASD groups on there are soooooooo wonderful and helpful I just couldn't do it. Instead I've just blocked nearly everyone's feed. :P

When I read this, it sounds so sad and mournful, but it's not meant to. I'm really fine, just overstimulated and socially overwhelmed. I'll feel much better once I've had the weekend to myself. I just need some time to regenerate.

Saturday my dad and I are going to get to work on some of our projects. I believe we're working on the 1933 gas powered washing machine, but we might be building the cart for our gas powered ice cream machine. (It combines a 1922 ice cream machine, an early gas engine, and a cart into one device that makes ice cream as it wheels itself around, it's basically amazing. We're super excited about it.)

That's all I know Dear Friend. I miss your face. <3

Song of the Day for Yesterday!

Climb the ladder, you're my courage
Jump the river, you're my hope

Gypsy eyes
Heart strung with sterling silver
Sister Blue
Ruby red blood running through you
Sister Blue
I know there's a Heaven made for you






I really, really, really just love Tattle Tale. Such a fantastic little band.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Uh-oh.

I may have overdone the social butterfly bit this summer Dear Friend.

It all seemed like such a good idea at the time.
I had such lofty goals.
Dreams even.

Dreams of getting out of the house.
Of doing all sorts of lovely things outside my comfort zone.
Of being uncomfortable.
Of growing.

I did many of these things. I made a great many friends. I went lots of places. I saw lots of things. I had stupid amounts of fun.

And that was all well and good.

But like all things, moderation is the key, and the key to moderation is knowing your own limits.




Now, with summer nearly gone and fall closing in on me, I found myself today just totally and completely overwhelmed by the amount of people around me.

They are always there. Clawing at me. At my mind. At my organs. At my time. At my money.

'Come hang out with us!' they call.
'Come have lunch'
'Come to karaoke'
'Come have coffee'
'Come hiking'
'Come dancing'
'Come drive into the mountains'
'Come play dress up'

Exhausted and overwhelmed I want only to stay home by myself. To have a couple of days to regenerate myself.

But the phone rings endlessly. There are text messages. Facebook posts. Comments.

'What are you doing right now'
'Where are you'
They read.

'What are you thinking'
'Why aren't you answering me'
'Are you dead'
'Hello...'


I found myself today needing rest. Really, really needing it. I was wandering around on the verge of tears, watching the text messages pile up. I could feel my organs panicking over the possibility of any more social interaction. Of having to do anything.

I went home and spent hours crying over articles about dead babies, stillbirths, and animals who refused to leave the side of other dead or dying animals, hoping, praying even, that it would ameliorate the stress/anxiety building inside of me.

Instead I found myself stressed, anxious, and sad, which was not my intention.

In my intensely distressed state, all of my senses heightened which caused me to hyper-focus on things that annoy me. The sound of the dog or the cats licking things has been driving me crazy all day. Nervous break-down crazy. It doesn't matter where in the house they are. The second the stick their tongues out it's like they're licking my brain. I found myself reasoning with the dog, pleading her to stop smacking her lips. To stop licking her nose. 'If you love me at all, you'll stop licking things' I kept whining, pacing around trying to get away from the sound.

Smells kept finding their way into my nose. Smells that were irritating and offensive. I dismantled the house in search of them. I took apart and scrubbed down the inside parts of the washing machine with bleach. I fixed all the plumbing issues in the house, including the garbage disposal/sink drainage issues in the kitchen (HUGE victory, for the record). I crawled around sniffing the carpet looking for spots that didn't smell right, trying to eliminate anything that might irritate me.

All the while my phone continued to go off. All sorts of people were needing all sorts of different things from me. Small talk. Comfort. Companionship. Fun. An end to boredom. Entertainment. The list goes on.

I couldn't handle it.

I need like three weeks of quiet solitude. Three weeks with the shades drawn and the lights and music turned off to just reflect on the miraculous couple of months I've had without interruption from the world.

I just need time.
(and space)

So I did what any reasonable person would do.


I locked my phone in my fire safe.


I don't know how long it's going to stay there, but I do know that I suddenly feel better.

People are exhausting. Their existence is loud and constant and it makes me itch when I don't have time alone to center myself. I need, on average, about twice as much time alone as I spend with others in order to function. When that doesn't happen, I have days like today.

Hopefully tomorrow brings better things. Hopefully this next week is much more quiet. Lots of love to you Dear Friend. I miss you terribly. Even on days when I hate all things.

Love and Stuff,
Me.


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Swing.

She came to and her
Whole life was how she remembered it
She had a mouth full of fur
And she was laughing


Meh. So I'm back. These past couple of weeks have been chaos. I'd try to catch you up, but it seems that every time I promise to do that I never do. *le sigh*. Instead I'm just going to ramble and you'll have to make due with the stuff that falls out of my mouth/hands/whathaveyou.

First up, I finished my bikram crucible! Hooray! I missed two days out of the 14 due to circumstances beyond my control, but overall I'm super proud of myself. I'm working on getting the money together for the 10 week challenge, so hopefully that will start soon.

The first two classes, as discussed earlier, were ridiculous and challenging and all sorts of other things. Then, on the third day, something magical happened: I found my center. I'd been listening to the instructors tell me over and over again that it was all a head game, that this was really a 90 minute moving meditation in a challenging environment, that I just needed to find my space and listen to the sound of my breath. And you know what? They were totally right.

Day three was really the most magical of all the days. I moved through the postures without issue, I touched my toes without wanting to die for the first time in memorable history, and I really didn't even notice the heat. This day, however, was a bit of an exception. Since then there have been good and bad days.

Some days I have no balance. Some days my right hip just refuses to stay in the socket during triangle. Some days I can't grab my toes. Some days I still get nauseous coming out of camel. Some days (like yesterday) the humidity really kicks my ass. But overall, every day I leave feeling better. More centered. More positive. And less arthritic. So I'd call that a substantial victory.

She parked her hearse
Across three spaces posted for motorcycles only
And jumped out, shouting
"What the cus could make a nice girl
Like us feel so lonely?"


I'm still struggling to really get into the swing of the semester. I have not been able to settle into a good rhythm of work, school, homework, housework, but I'm slowly making progress. Clawing my way toward some semblance of order. I'm pretty proud of that.

Are you weary as water
In a faucet left dripping
With an incessant sadness
Like a sad record skipping

And an ugly and ornery
And shadowy dread
Lurking like a troll under the bridge
Between your heart and your head


My grandmother passed away last week, which was bittersweet. She's been suffering for years and years now, alternating between being crippled by Parkinsons and being plagued by hallucinations brought on by the Parkinsons treatment. The last six or so months have been really unbearable. So while I know that Dad is heartbroken to have buried his last remaining parent, he is also really relieved that this last leg of her journey is over. He came back home to us feeling better and more at peace with the whole process, which makes me happy.

Please dumb blind kind sir
Lend little miss listless a bit of Christmas
She's been a real good girl
But now she's stuck here


Sleep issues have been plaguing me since the start of the semester. I fall asleep easy enough, but no mater what time I go to sleep, whether it's early or late, I systematically wake up at 3:11 am. It is super annoying. Today I'm going to start taking Magnesium supplements and I am going to turn the clock around and see if I can't reset my internal clock. I don't feel tired during the day, but I know that lack of sleep is going to add up and then when it finally gets to me I am going to be a totally unreasonable, raving monster.

The world is so little and still
Mysterious and ominous as ever before
Like an unmarked bottle full of pills
On the shelf right next to the ting
You were reaching for


I blew through Frankenstein this week, and then watched several lectures on different ways people have analyzed the plot. It was pretty fantastic. I'm actually really sad that this is my last semester, and that I didn't take more totally useless classes during my time in school. I mean, I took a LOT of useless classes, but they were always like molecular biology, or organic chemistry, or whatever. Classes that were simultaneously useless and serious. (I mean useless in relation to my degree, not in terms of inherent value, obviously) I did not take a lot of light-hearted art/lit classes this go-around, and clearly I should have.

Swing the groove 'round here
Where I can reach it
When I get my ass back on track
I'm gonna need it

Swing shift 'til I get the money
To buy me and my baby a moon full of honey
Then I'm gonna turn on the nagging voices
Inside my head

That follow me to bed and say
You suck, blah, blah, blah


I love you Dear Friend. I miss you terribly, as I'm sure you're aware by now. It seems somehow unfair that there is so much...geography...between there and here. One day I'll be able to solve that, you'll see. Just snip out all the middle bits. Take care. Lovelovelove.

Are you weary as water
In a faucet left dripping
With an incessant sadness
Like a sad record skipping

And an ugly and ornery
And shadowy dread
Lurking like a troll under the bridge
Between your heart and your head


Song of the Day is Swing, obviously.

(Song is currently refusing to upload, so use your imagination for now, I'll fix it later. More love!)




Friday, September 7, 2012

Dorothy Mae

Born Nov 12, 1925 departed this world September 4, 2012.


Posts may continue to be patchy for a few days.

Lots of love.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Why Hello There, September!

Dear Friend! It's been a crazy and chaotic start to the semester, believe you me. So many (totally irrelevant and mostly uninteresting) things have been happening around these parts. I'll try to address them in blocks.

First and foremost I started bikram! It's pretty awesome. It's actually been a bit of an experience.

Last Tuesday I went in and bought a two week unlimited pass at the discounted rate for new students and committed myself to doing everything in my power to go every day for the two weeks.

Tuesday Sweet Lady J and I went for the first time. The instructor was super nice and gave us the run down on what to expect for the first day. No talking in the room, not feeling well is normal for the first few classes, don't push yourself, all that sort of stuff. He also set our mats up for us in the 'new student' corner in the back of the room.

And then he said this:

"Remember ladies, your goal for today is to just stay in the room".

And that, Dear Friend, that is when we really began to grasp exactly what it is we had gotten ourselves into.

The room was hot. Like walking into a wet wall of heat hot. You sweat almost immediately. It drips into your eyes, up your nose, fills your ears. There is no fighting it. The class consists of twenty six postures with two sets each. On day one I attempted the first half of them, and had to lie down for the second half for fear of passing out or throwing up.

In hind site, I now know that there were two big issues for me on that first day. The first was that I was pushing myself way too hard when I should have been adjusting to the heat and the flow of class. The second was that I was thinking too much about the postures and whether or not I was doing them correctly instead of making sure I was remembering to breathe normally. As a result I was out of breath, dizzy and nauseous for most of the class. But I did make it to the end of class, so that was a pretty big victory for me.

On the second day we were allowed to choose our own places in class. We got there a little later than I would have liked and so we had less places to choose from. However, there was a big open spot in the back right hand corner so that's where we set up.

This was a bad decision. More on that later.

I was still slightly nauseous from class the day before. I hadn't gotten a chance to eat all day because I was still trying to adjust to my new work/school schedule and had instead, resorted to eating bananas in the car on the way to class. In addition to this poor decision, I was also poorly hydrated and hadn't slept much the day before. It was not going to be pretty.

It seemed much hotter this day than it had the day before. We were drenched to the bone before class even began, and it seemed as though we were standing on the surface of the sun. As we moved into our first backwards bend I looked up and to the back, as you do when you're bending backwards, and that's when I saw it.

Right, directly above us.
The heating device/humidifier.

I stared at Lady J in disbelief, mouth agape, finger pointed up at the mouth of 'the dragon'. It was official. We were going to die.

By the time we were nearing the end of the first fifty minutes, the sick pickle-y feeling in my gut was growing. The room was spinning, and it was time to leave. Staying would only have resulted in some sort of catastrophic yoga injury (the likes of which the world has never seen).

I curled up in the locker room and waited for my stomach to stop flipping. Lady J joined me shortly there after.

One of the nice girls who worked there brought us some coconut water (which for the record, is basically inedible. Yuck). We drank it through gritted teeth, hoping it would make us feel better, and you know what? It actually did. (Even if it was just awful). Lady J went back in and finished up the class. I did not. No thank you. I was not about to have to leave the room twice in one class. That would be unacceptable.

It turns out that back corner is empty for a reason. It's 3-4 degrees hotter back there and much more humid. While that doesn't sound like a big difference, when you remember the rest of the room is already a toasty 104 degrees with 40% humidity, that means that back corner is approaching the 110 degree mark. Yuck.

But even if it was terrible, we learned two valuable lessons: Stay away from the mouth of the dragon, and if everybody in the class is avoiding an area, there's probably a reason for that.

To be continued....

Song of the Day: