The Rest of the Week

I've been busy giving and grading tests, and helping my mom with various projects. One item of note. Last Saturday, I found a book called Chakra Mantras which has been quite enjoyable. The odd thing is that it's written by a psychologist, so he ties all the Hindu myths into things like the ego/mind. He's also not using traditional language for the myths, so they feel more modern. The chants are fun, though. Whether they do exactly what they're "supposed" to or not...*shrugs* I feel energized after a long chanting session. I do think it's important that the words not be everyday, English words. That just gets the conscious mind involved. Chanting essentially nonsense syllables lets the mind relax (once the syllables are remembered, anyway ;^).

Yesterday I had a solo taiji lesson. It was both good and unpleasant. Unpleasant because there's no one else for Don to focus on, so I don't get a break. Good for the same reason. In push hands, Don corrected some habits of mine that I hadn't realized were problematic. He seemed to be looking forward to seeing me push with Mark again. We'll see if his lessons carry over well enough to make a big difference. :^) We wound up quitting a bit early. We were both losing focus, and Don managed to hurt his wrist (i.e. he'd lost fair maiden's wrist on a push and wound up aggravating his arthritis). He apologized profusely, but I think I got three times as much as I would have in a regular class, so I can't complain.

I spent most of the rest of yesterday cleaning and rearranging. I didn't get Christmas decoration up because Mom needed me to babysit her house again (which turned out to be a wash, as (a) they didn't need to do anything INside the house and (b) they never showed up. But I've got that bookshelf moved, and I've even made a start at organizing the books I've got. Some of them were already organized. Some had been sitting in random stacks. I think I've got all the random stacks from downstairs at least on shelves, though not necessarily organized. There are a few more stacks up here.

Then there was evening... Mom stopped by on the way back from helping to decorate the church choir Christmas tree. She looked half-dead, and said she hadn't slept well. Still, she asked if I wanted to eat at Chang's with her (lately a Saturday tradition), and we agreed I'd pick her up when she called again. She called. I drove over. I don't know if it was stomach "flu" or food poisoning, but she was not doing well. She said she'd felt okay when calling me, but then... So no Chang's. I stopped off at Fred Meyer and got her some 7-Up, which she thought she could keep down. I also helped get her bed made. Moving around much made the symptoms recur. She was also sensible enough to call an alternate organist/pianist for the service today (on occasion, she's too stubborn to do this even when she CLEARLY needs the relief; so she was feeling pretty rotten). My last errand was to drop off the music some place where the alternate could find it. So hopefully Mom's feeling better today, and being able to sleep in should help.