006: The Yoga Class That Almost Killed Me

It has been a busy week. 

I didn’t sleep well Monday night… so the gym didn’t happen Tuesday morning… booooo… :E

Work was decent. Ended up going to the gym after work, so that part of my to-do list got salvaged. Yaaaaay! : D

One of Ox’s ex’s came over unannounced Tuesday night, so that was… interesting. It seems like she is doing well. She wanted to pay me back part of the money she owes me. It wasn’t a bad visit, but the unscheduled social interaction threw Ox and me for a bit of a loop, especially from someone we didn’t expect to see… well… ever, I guess. 

Tuesday night I didn’t sleep well again. And by not well, I mean I didn’t sleep at all. It hardcore sucked. Work was decent enough. While I was on my lunch break Ox convinced me to call my endocrinologist to see if my appointment could happen earlier. 

I’ve known for a while that my dosage of Synthroid is on the high side. Having trouble sleeping is one thing… Not being able to sleep even though you’ve taken a double dose of melatonin is starting to toe the “not ok” line. I have slight tremors in my legs and arms if I stay still for too long. I feel like I’m hungry more often than what is normal for me. I haven’t been having heart palpitations, so I have that going for me. It also shouldn’t take that level of symptom for me to reach out to my doctor when I’m constantly trembling for no reason. 

The receptionist was able to advance my appointment, so I have my lab draw this coming Friday morning, and then the following Tuesday I’ll meet with my doctor to see how my medication should be adjusted. It will still be roughly three weeks before any changes begin to take effect, but at least it’s only roughly a month more of restless/sleepless nights rather than two months.

Wednesday nights are DnD nights for Ox and me. We recently found a couple other people to meet up with near my work and nerd out for a few hours. Ox was worried about me staying out late instead of coming home and trying to go to bed early. I was worried about it too, but it had been two weeks already since our last game session and I had been looking forward to the evening. It ended up being a good night despite my sleeplessness. 

Once the session was over Ox and I came home and pretty much went straight to bed. 

Luckily I was able to sleep really well. Who knew that exhaustion helps you sleep? 

I woke up on my own, a little bit before my alarm. It was early enough that I could make it to the gym for a bike ride. So I did. Fed the cats, ate some breakfast, then headed to the gym. I biked 10 miles in roughly 25 minutes. Not a personal record, but that’s not what I’m going for at the moment. I’m trying to get back to consistency and having cardio endurance rather than crushing it like a bawce. That will come with time. 

After my ride, I stretched, then showered. Got ready for work, then headed in. It was another decent day. Nothing really special or crazy. 

Friday I didn’t wake up early enough for the gym, but I packed my gym bag and took it with me on the off chance that I had it in me to go after work. 

I was able to finish up the project I was working on, as well as make the changes for a checkset I got back. A lot of the feedback fell into the “personal preference” category of corrections. They were the kind of correction where my boss would want me to “defend my work”. 

And I guess this is where things get kind of weird with not actually naming people. My actual supervisor isn’t at my work location. He’s at the company headquarters. I’m an hour and a half away in our off-shoot office. My trainer is also not at my location. So when I have a question it’s easier to ask my location supervisor for advice. 

So for names, I guess we can have Mr. Boss (my official boss), Ms. Trainer (my trainer), and Mr. Not-My-Boss (my future supervisor once I’m out of my apprenticeship). 

So… since I was pretty sure I had corrections that didn’t need to be made, I popped into Mr. Not-My-Boss’ office to talk to him about it. He advised how he would send an email and verified that yeah, the stuff I was concerned with was actually fine and didn’t need to change. 

With all of my work done until next Wednesday (yeah… I’m that far ahead on my projects), I was able to work on a special project that I have from Mr. Boss. The plant has a lot of scrap steel and they are looking for different things to use it for. One idea they are kicking around is making fire pits. So I’m currently working on different designs for how our sheets of scrap could be folded and pressed to make fire pits. 

It’s been fun. I’m using origami for a lot of my inspiration. I’m curious to see if all the different origami animals and such could possibly be garden decorations or something. It’s going to be part of what I submit. Not that any of this is actually going to go anywhere. It’s just R&D right now, but it’s fun. I have to not only figure out the dimensions and bends and degrees and cuts and all of that, but I also have to create the plans that the plant will use to create my designs. 

So we’ll see where that goes. I’m hoping to remain ahead on my projects so I can work on this special one during normal office time, rather than coming in on the weekend or staying late to do it. Mr. Boss and I have talked about my time regarding this project. He doesn’t want me working on it off the clock at home. And he knows for the past weeks, it has been hard for me to work on it during normal hours because I’ve had so many actual work projects on my schedule. He’s ok with ~5 hours of overtime each week, and while I would like the overtime, I would also like to be home. It would be ideal to keep ahead on my normal work so I can have a few spare hours each week to devote to my R&D assignment.

We’ll see what happens schedule-wise throughout the week.

So yeah, Friday at work was a pretty chill and fun day making origami boxes out of paper and then recreating/modifying the designs for steel production. 

After work, I stopped at a gas station to fill up, get energy drinks, and smoke since that’s still a thing I do. 

I went to the gym for another bike ride. It went well. I’ve gone through a lot of my music to make a biking playlist instead of skipping around while I’m in the middle of a ride to try to find something I want to listen to. 

I swung my Costco afterward to pick up some of their St. Luis ribs. I haven’t had them in a while and I know Papa Ox likes them, so I thought it would be a nice treat over the weekend. 

I finally made it home and proceed to annihilate my to-do list. 

Ox and I made plans for Saturday and eventually, after doing a bunch of other stuff, I went to bed. 

I slept decently. Woke up around midnight for a little bit, but was able to fall back asleep until around 6:45. The cats knew I was awake so they began their cries of “MOM! WE’RE STARVING! FEED US!”

I decided it was better to go ahead and get up rather than pretending I couldn’t hear them. It would have only caused them to sit on my chest and yell at my face anyway. Besides, I had plans to go to yoga at 8:45. Might as well get up early and get a few extra things done before heading out. 

I fed the cats, had half a bagel for breakfast. Even made a cup of coffee to go with it. I was outside sipping on said warm, comforting cup of coffee while I had my morning cigarette when Ox joined me. 

We had planned out our day the previous night. If I was able to sleep well, I would go to the gym for the yoga class. It would be a nice relaxing class, and once it was over I would come home all refreshed and awesome feeling. It was going to be great. Everything was going according to the list. Sleep well. Check. Wake up on time. Check. Go to the gym. On it!

Made it to the gym. Got inside. Found the studio. Rolled out my matt. Totally looking forward to my first yoga class in forever. I couldn’t wait to stretch my hamstrings out after biking so much.

Well… wouldn’t you know that Saturday classes are the M3, power yoga classes…

Fuck… my life… >.<;

My legs were already goo from biking 30 miles this week. But I was already there so it’s not like I could have left. I mean… yeah… I could have… admitted defeat in front of the whole room of strangers I had never seen before… but I wasn’t going to because my sense of pride is stronger than my sense of survival. 

I did alright for most of the class. But then we got to the third and final flow. That one was focused on balance poses. ;-;

Why, Universe? Why do you hate me so?

Needless to say, walking down the stairs from the studio was sucked. Walking to the car sucked. Standing sucked… My legs were so shot after that class. 

I managed to walk, not crawl, into the house. Regardless of if the rest of the day was salvageable or not, it was a success simply because I walked over the threshold of the house rather than sobbing at the first step up the porch.

Papa and Mama Ox were in the living room and I ended up talking to them for a bit. Told them the “funny” story about “relaxing” yoga kicking my ass. Sunday is for sure a rest day after today… 

Once I was able to wiggle my way out of the conversation I showered and the rest of the day got back on track. My trial contacts had come in early in the week, but I was never able to make it out of work in time to pick them up. Since the office has short hours on the weekend, Ox and I swung by there first. They were able to look at the delivery date for my glasses as well. Their system says they shipped today so I should be getting them at some point this coming week. That will be nice. 

With “pick up contacts” off the list, Ox and I headed out for lunch. We had agreed beforehand to go to Chili’s since it takes for-fucking-ever (a legitimate measurement of time, btw) to decide on a place to eat. 

Lunch was super good. I had a cup of chicken enchilada soup with the cajun pasta. Ox tried the soup and enjoyed it, too, so I’ve already found a recipe to try making something similar at home. 

After lunch, we went back to Costco. During meal planning, we decided to do the garlic butter steak recipe I have. Well… I totally didn’t think to check out the meat selection at Costco while I was there Friday evening because why would I think to be efficient like that? >.<;

Walmart never seems to have a good selection, so we figured it couldn’t hurt to look at Costco. It ended up being a successful trip. With that completed we headed to Walmart for the remainder of the grocery shopping. 

We’re trying a bourbon chicken recipe tonight, so we had to buy bourbon. I’m hoping it turns out well. Other than that it wasn’t a super exciting trip. I wasn’t feeling as tired and sore after eating which was nice. Maybe part of my tiredness was the fact that I only had half a bagel before demanding my body do strenuous things… -_-;

I’m glad my overall energy level picked up after lunch. I was worried all of the extra walking was going to be too much, but it wasn’t. Hooray!

With the shopping done, we came home. I prepped some of the veggies and meat, so that’s less to do during the week. I baked the chicken that’s going to be used for dinner tonight. I cleaned up all of the mess I made so the kitchen would be ready for later. 

By that time, I was feeling the tiredness in my body again, but this time it was as pain. I ended up lying down for about an hour. I don’t think I really slept as much as I simply rested. It was a nice break and I think a needed one. 

Once I got back up, I tried out my new contacts. They feel thinner than my previous ones, which I didn’t even know was a thing until I put the new ones in. I’ve been wearing them for about two hours, so it’s not a whole lot of time to go off of. So far I like them. I get a few more days to try them out before I have to make a decision to buy. 

I typed up the changes to my work notes from the previous week. Ox and I folded clothes, which that’s something I forgot about. This morning before I left for yoga I went through my clothes so I could pack winter stuff away. I pulled out some things that I want to donate rather than keep as well as a few things I want to take to my storage unit. Sorry for the tangent. Writing about folding clothes triggered that memory. 

I’ve already done my evening chores like cleaning the litter box and other mundane, boring stuff like that. And now I’m pretty much done with writing so I’ll be able to scratch that off my list, too. 

It’s been a super busy day, but it’s been a good day, and despite my restless/sleepless nights, it was a good week. 

There’s not as much going on tomorrow so hopefully I’ll eek out some time to type and it won’t be an entire week’s worth of catching up. But for now, I’m going to go since I’m hungry and dinner won’t cook itself. ;-;

Daily Post 176: Survived the Day

It’s later than I would like, mostly because I’ve been messing around on my phone. I’ll get to that, though.

Today started sort of rough. I woke up in the middle of a REM cycle. Never fun. I was dreaming this morning. I was dreaming about my cousin who I haven’t seen since mom died. In the dream, my uncle was being mean to her. We were at my grandfather’s house. He had already died and we, the family, were there to figure out what to do with all of his things. I remember looking at a knife collection but my uncle was getting upset because he didn’t want us messing with any of the objects in the house.

Eventually, I got tired of my uncle’s attitude and I confronted him.

That’s when I woke up to my alarm for work.

It’s an odd dream. I’ve never had a bad relationship with my uncle. My grandfather never had a knife collection. I haven’t had much time to reflect on it.

Since I was in the middle of dreaming, I woke up tired and was never really able to shake that feeling. I made it through my day at Cap City. I smoked more than I have since I went to the ER. Much lame. Tomorrow will be better in that regard.

I was able to leave work 30 minutes earlier than I thought I would. Woo. I went to the home improvement store to get another bracket for my window shelf. Ox mentioned that it was sagging a touch in the middle so it seemed like a good idea to pick one up. I had to drive past the store to go home anyway. Might as well stop while I’m out. I ran in and spent a bit of time gathering up supplies that I wanted for my “coat rack” pot/pan hanger then headed to the apartment.

Ox was here waiting for me. He put up the third bracket for the shelf while I paid bills and researched a few things. I got $500 out of my $800 discount for health insurance. It would be cool if I could get the other $300. That’s been part of tonight being a late-ish night… I was looking into all of the options I have for that.

Ox and I did our Darebee challenge. Go, team! We already discussed tomorrow’s challenge. Since it’s Ox’s birthday, he gets the kids. He said we can still do the challenge but it will have to be later in the evening after the kids have gone back to their mom. I’m ok with that. I’m grateful he’s willing to do it at all.

Ox and I spent a bunch of time in the bedroom with the kittens, too. While we were there he quizzed me with my flashcards. By then it was around 7 pm.

I’ve been looking at the App Store for a good yoga app. I think I found one I’m going to try. While I was poking around, I found a rainstorm app that I’m going to try out tonight, too.

I didn’t cook the stir fry like I wanted to. I was pretty dead after work. I heated up leftovers not too long ago. I’ve been trying to catch up on my water intake, too.

Tomorrow I work at my clinic. Finally. I haven’t been there since Monday. The schedule for the last two weeks of September came out, but there are already several changes that are going to be made to it so… yeah… I doubt what I have is going to be what I actually end up working. It’s frustrating. I wish I had a consistent schedule. : /

But, yeah… not a whole lot to write about since not a whole lot happened. Got to spend some alone time with Ox which is always nice. Got some stuff taken care of. Sort of not looking forward to work but that’s because I’m still tired from this morning.

I guess I should go for now so I can get to sleep.

Daily Post 030: The Right Direction

Today has been a good day. This weekend has been a good weekend.

Friday was amazing. It was my first day at my home clinic. The first day meeting the people who will soon be my new teammates. The first day meeting the patients I will be working with three days a week from now until the day they die or move or receive a transplant. The first day meeting my new supervisor; the fourth one I’ve ever had.

It was a good day. One which started at 3 am. I got to the clinic by 5 am. Traffic was non-existent which I was grateful for. I’m ok with early mornings for that fact. Everyone is still asleep. There’s a solitude that I enjoy that can’t be found any other time. A hush. A quiet which I thoroughly enjoy.

I was nervous. I explained to my trainer what I had been cleared to do. We agreed on what I was comfortable with doing. She showed me new things. She explained the layout of the floor for my clinic and how things are divided up between the team members. I learned how to make the needle packs for patients; how much gauze, which tape rolls, how many alcohol and iodine packs.

At the end when I asked my trainer how she felt I did she said I did better than she expected. I was allowed to string the machines and set them to prime and test the alarm systems and though I did make a few mistakes, with my trainer’s guidance I was able to correct them and in most instances, I was able to troubleshoot the issues on my own.

I was able to clean the chairs and machines once the patients were done. I like to think even though I asked a lot of questions that I helped my trainer out a little bit.

My supervisor is one of the kindest people I have met. There’s an aura about him; the way he carries himself, the way he talks to my other teammates and patients. You can tell he cares. He’s genuine and real.

There’s another girl who was training with me on Friday; one from my class. My clinic will not be the one she works at, but it is where, at least for the moment, she is getting the “hands on” portion of our training. It was nice to have her there with me. A familiar face in the sea of new. At the end of our shift, before we went home, my supervisor took us back to the breakroom. He had bought a cake for me and the other team members as a way to welcome me to the clinic.

It was so amazingly fantastic. I felt nothing but welcomed all morning and then to have something like this done for me left me speechless and humbled.

I had felt that having a good morning was my sign that this was the right step forward. Simply having a good day and not killing anyone and feeling my confidence grow as the day progressed was enough. Having a good day was enough to affirm to myself that I can do this and that things would be ok.

But then there was the cake.

I know it’s just a cake, just a balloon. It really doesn’t say anything at all about the future, and I know there will be problems and issues and bad days ahead of me. But it nearly brought me to tears to see my balloon and cake on the table I had taken my break at only a few hours ago.

They took the time to think about me. They wanted me to know I was welcomed. I still feel moved to tears when I think about it.

I cried in my car as I left the clinic. Good tears. Painful tears. I wanted to call mom and tell her about my day. I knew she would have been ecstatic about the cake. She would have been thrilled that my day had gone so well and that I already love what I’m doing.

I talked to her in my car. I don’t talk to her often. I write more than I talk, but I talked to her Friday afternoon. I told her about the cake and my day. I told her I knew she was happy for me. I told her I would be ok.

I went to kickboxing that evening. I enjoyed the class though it was one of the more intense ones. The trainers all have different styles. Some focus more on conditioning, others more on technique and reps. The instructor on Friday was a “conditioning” instructor. My core still hurts from that class. It was worth it, though, and I’m glad I went.

Big Bad and I spent the evening together. I loved all of our time together, but what I loved the most was having my head on his chest and hearing his heartbeat while he held me close. It was the first time in almost a month that I’ve fallen asleep next to someone.

Saturday morning we had coffee with bagels. I came home and meal planned. I made my shopping list then showered and headed out. I went to Target and got blackout curtains since I’m having to go to bed when the sun hasn’t fully set. Next was the dojo for my first jiu-jitsu class in what seems like forever.

I didn’t do well with the technique. It was a roll technique, one they had been training all week, but this was my first day with it. I’m ok with that; not being good or proficient with something new. I was glad I was at the dojo at all. Being there meant more to me than doing well. My sparring rounds weren’t all that awesome either, but again, I didn’t mind. I did better than I thought I would, I stuck it out for all of them, and no one made me tap.

Once class was over I finished my shopping by going to the oriental market. The cashiers there are starting to remember me. It’s a warm feeling.

I came home and prepped most of the veggies. I spent time watching Vikings. It’s a show on Amazon Prime. I’m almost done with season three I think.

I went to sleep fairly early. I slept well and deeply.

Today I woke up and felt low. I figured I would. Two days, both of which were fairly intense and productive… I was actually surprised Saturday hasn’t started that way with how sore I was from kickboxing. I could feel the arrhythmia in my pulse and the tiredness that either comes with it or causes it. I’m not sure which is first.

I didn’t want today to be a low day, though. I still wanted to do things and I didn’t want to let the sadness have a chance to take my day from me. I knew that some form of exercise would most likely correct at least the arrhythmia, which hopefully would at least help with the tiredness and being less tired would hopefully, ideally help keep things in perspective and not allow the sadness to overstep its place.

I didn’t want to do anything intense, but an active recovery like yoga sounded good, especially with how sore my body was feeling.

There had been a post in the dojo’s group earlier in the week about an open mat on Sunday. Normally the dojo is closed on Sunday, but the thought of having all that space to do whatever I wanted to sounded amazing. I didn’t think many people would be there either which would make it even better.

After cooking breakfast and enjoying my coffee I showered and figured out a yoga podcast I wanted to try out.

I was pleased that there were only four other people who showed up. All of them I have seen before, two of them I’ve sparred with previously. They did some conditioning work while I did yoga. Eventually, they started to spar and asked if I wanted to join.

I did, for two rounds. It was really nice. I did better than I had on Saturday. I almost got Akib in a choke hold but the bell sounded before I could finish it, so I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Next time. Just like Big Bad, his days are numbered. >:3

Overall I’m glad I went and I’m glad I sparred, too, even though I hadn’t planned on it. I felt much better afterward, my muscles warm and stretched, no longer painfully tight, and my arrhythmia seemed to be gone.

When I left the dojo I made a trip to Publix for a few missed items, but after that, I came back home and continued to cook my meals for the coming week while watching Vikings. I did a load of laundry towards the end along with cleaning out the water bottle graveyard in my car.

And so here I am at the end of it all, writing it all, remembering, processing, accepting.

I like that I have bruises on my arms again. I like them because they’re reminders of my training. Marks where someone tried to hold me, subdue me and wasn’t able to. I was able to break their grip and though I might not have been able to achieve a position of advantage, I wasn’t tapped out or trapped either.

I like how I made it through the weekend without feeling like I was surrounded by chaos or being overwhelmed. I like how even though I felt low I was able to actively work to alter those feelings. I like how sadness didn’t take away my ability to get things done.

There’s a lot of things I liked about this weekend. More than anything I’m glad I went to the dojo and the gym. I’m glad I brought training back into my life after a week of absence and close to a month of inconsistency.

I don’t want to go that long without training again. I don’t like the ache I feel when I think of having to give it up, or not being able to make my schedule work with it.

I need this in my life still. I want this in my life. It’s one of the things that makes it worth it. And so just like I know my new job is the right direction, so too do I know that I need to keep my training close to me. It’s a part of who I am now. It’s in my heart chakra and I refuse to give it up.

It’s part of myself and I’ll keep moving forward whole, complete, without sacrificing the things that make me me.

I’m done meandering through my thoughts for the moment. I’m tired and ready for sleep and another 5 am wake up call in the morning.

So with that, I take my leave.