Day Thirty OneNot Another Iron In The Fire

CLASSES:
Movement: We had a nice long warmup. I had a weird sensation in my upper chest and back, feeling like severe muscle cramps were about to set in. We were rolling back and forth on from our butt to upper backs, using our spine like a rocker. Straight, then to the sides so we were rolling from butt to shoulder blade. I normally like this exercise, since it tends to free up the huge muscular tension I carry around the shoulder blades. This is the one where things popped once a month or so back, as muscles unknotted, and I let out a startled yelp, only to find it felt great. This time I felt my mobility degraded and the working those upper areas made me feel quite nauseous. Pissed me off.

We did some more work, and things finally started loosening, but over the next few days the recurrent discomfort has me thinking I was dealing with a mild viral thing. I wonder if I would have noticed in the past. We finished with an exercise where we were on the ground legs and arms straight out, and flipping from belly to back, vice versa, then doing full rolls, then one and a half's in different directions. We all ended up on our bellies and George said "Lift your bodies off the ground." After some struggle and visualization I popped myself maybe an inch off the ground.

George started yelling "Yeah! Go Scott!" I took it as George being funny, but it turns out he really was excited. I was working the problem flopping randomly trying to figure out how to get this to work despite my good sized belly. It actually turns out I was the only one to do it. Pretty much surprised me, as I had been working on how to do it stronger. It looked silly, felt silly, and gave me a sense of accomplishment.

Next we did "the game of the stone" etudes we'd prepared for the class. Our group of three became two, because of an injured ankle. Bummer as we'd changed from a line to a circle and back and to a triangle (which is subtly different from a circle for three people -- yeah sure you say). In the move to pick up the stone I remember specifically stretching my reach up and out with enjoyment as we transitioned back. George commented on how I was again taking good advantage of my size to fill the space. That has been a hard thing for me in the past, and it is at least one place where I get in my own way in which I seem to be getting past.

We finished the class with more of the prop exercises. I was the first to go a week ago, and while it is nice being done, it would also be nice to incorporate the feedback from the subsequent folks.

Combat: Reviewed sword play, finishing Quase's (sp?). Geof encouraged us to do more homework. I really think most people are. I experienced a little epiphany in remembering the quadrants. Instead of thinking this side for 1,4, and 7, and that side for 2, 3, 6, and 8 I think sword side. Duh. 2, 3, 6, and 8 are defined as being on the predominate side, where the sword is held. So, thinking in terms of the sword puts you in the right frame when working with a leftie, and it is somehow easier for me anyhow.

Speech: More detail work, doing lots of warm-up exercises from the Dudley Wright handout. Then reading a Mark Twain quote, working for detail and fluidity. Then working with the same partner, going through the same quote sound by sound in IPA. It is pretty interesting, and helped me realize my 'oi' sound moves forward/up more than usual. The soft i sound as we were taught in grade school (the IPA symbol looks like 'I', only it is the height of a lower case letter like 'e'), is the second vowel in that diphthong. Saying the diphthong followed by that soft i sound told me they weren't the same sound. I had thought so in the past, but wasn't sure.

Jack does a great job of making this stuff fun.

OBSERVATIONS/CLICKS:
I'm feeling overwhelmed by assignments. I think all the instructors but Jack are giving us last bits to work on as the classes for this term approach an end. One of the other students was talking about how they couldn't handle it, and get everything done well. It got me a little angry. Hearing someone with a much easier schedule go on like that is hard, and makes it harder for me to stay positive. Something I need to keep in mind. I was thinking it is like my spatial perception and tech abilities, and talking about how tricky something is to someone who has to work harder than I at those kind of tasks.