Yoga School, Birthday, CPR

I finished my practicum with Ken. I still need to write up the report, and I know basically what I'm going to write in my head. I just haven't done it yet. I have plenty of notes, emails, and memories to get it done. I just need to be inspired at the right time. Not when I'm in the car on the way to yoga class like earlier today when I felt inspired to write it.

Evening yoga classes are great, but rough. I go straight from work, get home at 8 or a little after, eat a late light dinner, take a bubble bath, and that's my evening. It's a great evening, but leaves me little time for anything else.

There are only 2 more Ken classes before he stops teaching as he plans his move to New Jersey. :( That's all I have to say about that :(

It was really neat how Ken popped into my life right after I signed up for teacher training. The massage therapist at my office introduced us when I said I was going to be a yoga teacher. Who knew there was an awesome yoga teacher working at my office all along in this style of yoga that I'd never heard of, but loved the minute I tried it? How awesome is that? I'm so glad I got to meet him and learn from him. Boo that he's leaving.

My birthday was Monday, and my friends are awesome. They know how to put on a birthday at work. They got me presents!

My favorite is Ashtanga Yoga Intermediate Series. They assumed that I must be intermediate or advanced. How sweet. I'm actually struggling with a lot of the Primary Series because it's HARD, but it's really neat to read about the intermediate series. It has some things that I can do, so I can work those into a vinyasa practice. It's kind of a vanity vinyasa class if it consists of everything I'm good at, and only what I'm good at, but sometimes that's fun! :) Also, you should never teach something that you can't practice and demonstrate well, so I can justify it that way. I should teach what I can do, and practice what I need to work on. Separating the teaching and practicing is hard, but important, so that's the big thing I'm working on now, along with not dipping my shoulders down in chaturanga.

Back to my birthday! It was tons of fun at work. I'm very fortunate to have some really great friends there. They decorated my cube, got cheesecake, cream puffs, that awesome yoga book, a cool coffee mug with "stats" like WoW loot, and a hot stone massage kit. It really was a great day except that I wasn't motivated to do any work, but I tried to anyway.

Emilie, the yoga teacher trainer gave me a dozen roses at yoga teacher training for my birthday. That was really sweet of her. She wanted to thank me for running the yahoo site and maintaining the archive of electronic copies of the handouts, homework, and stuff, teaching the other students how to use it, and making fliers for classes and workshops. None of that work was very hard or time consuming, and I like to help. It really was a shock to be handed a dozen roses in front of everyone.

My in-laws showered me with gifts as they love to do. I keep saying I don't need presents, but they love buying things, so I happily tell them what kind of things I want. My favorite gift was an essential oils kit and book. The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy. I really love this book and kit! Essential oils/aromatherapy are my new favorite thing to learn about, just behind Ashtanga yoga. I mixed some grapefruit and lavender oil today at work, and when the scent wafted into my friend Becca's cubicle she LOVED it and is very happy to "reap the benefits" of my new obsession. I hope it doesn't waft over to anyone who doesn't like it. I try to only use a tiny bit, but she sits very, very close to me, so it's unavoidable that she would smell it. I'm glad she likes it :)

This morning I got re-certified in CPR (I originally got certified last year, but you have to take a refresher every year). It's scary to imagine the situations that could come up, but it's really great to have training in how to help. What is done between when an emergency occurs and when the ambulance arrives can make the difference between life and death. I hope I never see an emergency like that, but knowing what to do beyond call 911 and freak out makes me feel good. I liked today's trainers better than last year. They were brutally honest about what it will be like to actually do CPR on someone, and said that you will hear ribs breaking when you do chest compressions. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek, I'm so glad they warned us, because that will freak me out enough, but knowing that it's normal and ok because ribs heal, but you can't bring people back from the dead, will prevent me from panicking and thinking that I'm doing more harm than good if ever need to do CPR.