donutszenmom.com

When I signed up for my eyelid surgery, I got six microdermabrasion/chemical peels. Because nothing says, “thanks for paying us to cut your eyelids,” like a few free chemical facial masks. Needless to say, once I had the surgery, I wasn’t in the mood to be slathered in acids. So I waited a bit. Until this very week, when I went back to claim my prize.

First the microdermabrasion, which is applied with a pretty cool tool: a hose shoots aluminum oxide crystals through a wand that has a vacuum system, so it blows the crystals onto your skin and sucks ‘em back up as they bounce off the skin. The whole thing was entirely painless. Then there’s the application of chemicals. In layers. After the first one, the technician paused for a few moments, then said, “On a scale of one to ten, how painful does it feel?” My skin pretty much felt like the inside of your mouth feels after you eat a few Red Hots. “I don’t know,” I told her, “Maybe almost one?” That answer meant I got another coating of chemicals. Still nothing more than a few more Red Hots. A couple of other layers, none of which felt bad, but a few of which smelled pretty awful. One last layer, and suddenly my skin felt like the inside of your mouth when you eat too many jalapenos. But that was the end, so it wasn’t bad at all.

I looked a little red and shiny, but that was the extent of it. Until the past couple of days, when I find myself all peely — and broken out on my chin. I hate it! I think I have more zits on my chin than I did throughout all of my teen years. I took one look at it and decided, “That’s it! No more chemicals!” This is supposed to be a six week process. No way. It’s one thing to pump me full of chemicals and cut me up and sew me back together. I mean, that’s a one day thing and then it’s all just getting back to normal. Dramatic but quick. This slow, drag-on-for-six-weeks thing? Nuh uh. Not gonna happen.

I think it’s a vata thing, not unlike my response to a slow adjustments, lengthy explanations, drawn out meetings: UGH! Sanskrit Scholar laughed one day when we were doing something slowly and I told her I get confused and disoriented if I can’t move quickly. Kind of like how I read two books for work over the past two days. Great books, great ideas — I read ‘em, documented the important parts for our project, and will pretty much forget 99% of it within a couple of days. Except for a few important bullet points. I guess that’s why I’m so addicted to documentation — without it, I’d forget everything.

Improv class this morning. Started right off with vasisthasana and vishwamitrasana. Uh oh, I thought. But we settled in and spent some time on my current hunk o’ second (pasasana through supta vajrasana), which was nice. Since the new shala opened, I’ve been doing the usual Monday, Wednesday and Friday Mysore practice, along with Saturday led primary. Used to be that I’d do home practice on Tuesday and Thursday, and take Sunday off — all of which added up to 5 shots at the intermediate poses per week. With my new schedule, I take Tuesdays off and do home practice on Thursdays. And while I was eager to attend the Sunday improv class, I was a little concerned that it’d mean I’d only practice the intermediate poses four times a week. So anyhow, I was happy to hear Volleyball Guy call for pasasana, and happier still as he proceeded to move us through the rest of the series up to supta vajrasana.

Speaking of supta vajrasana: yesterday, in a comment to my posting, Inside Owl (I’d link to you, A, but looks like your site is off-line today…) mentioned a Manduka-prop self-assist for supta vajrasana. What?! I am the biggest tool nerd in the world, so the very thought of using my mat to assist me in supta vajrasana was just thrilling. (It’s not just electronic gadgets that I love, but any tool. From smart phones to butter knives, any tool that gets a job done makes me curious. Nothing more delightful than images of chimps using sticks as tools to fish for termites. I have no idea why tool-use pleases me so, unless it’s some kind of flashback to a previous chimp life.)

Anyhow, IO wrote back and told me how to use the Manduka to self-assist. Roll it up, use the very end of the roll to sit on, then push the roll into your sacrum and lean back over it. For sure, I thought I was going to crash on my head, but no! It really works! Yay for self-sufficiency! Of course I had to show all the Mysorians this morning, because a chimp always shares this sort of thing with the rest of the tribe.

I also shared “the rack.” Brought it along to do show and tell. Everyone got on it and stretched and groaned and asked where it came from. It got set aside for a bit, until Volleyball Guy turned it on its side and sat on it during class. “A very good prop,” he joked as he sat there. “I’ll do five more breaths.”

Other notable entertainments during class were eka pada sirsasana and yoga nidrasana. I have some claustrophobia issues with hooking my leg behind my head, and I’m hoping it diminishes by the time I get to those poses in my own practice. For now, I’m not stressing. They’re off my radar for the time being and no sense creating a mental block.

About an hour and a half into class I felt exhausted and starved. Pretty unusual. I limped through to the end of practice and had a deep savasana — and immediately thought of a leftover burrito in the fridge as I came to. How yogic and mystical. The burrito was left from My Gift’s visit this week. She forgot to bring it with her when she went back up north. Handy for me. I talked with her a little last night: she went hiking at the creek yesterday and burned her foot on a rock. Badly enough to blister. It’s unnerving to have to do Mom first aid from a distance. But I also recognize that it probably wouldn’t be healthy for me to drive 2 hours to inspect a blister on an almost-20 year old. Believe me, though, the impulse is there.