Public Network for Contortionists

Week 11

Wow, this has been a crazy week. After my car did what it did after class last week, it also died one afternoon when my boyfriend came to pick me up from work and required a jump. So, a family friend who works on our cars took a look at it and put new battery terminals on it. We then drove it to class on Monday night. It started up fine and got us there okay (with the weird exception of my radio turning itself off and then back on once, which worried me), but we decided to test it right after we got there and turned it off and sure enough, it wouldn’t crank again--it wasn’t even making a clicking noise when we turned the key. So after class we tried to jump it to no avail and had to get a ride back to Tampa. The next day my boyfriend, brother, & I went back to Clearwater to try and jump/charge the battery with no luck, so I then bought another new battery, which also wouldn’t work. At this point I was really frustrated & figured that it was some big thing like the alternator--I also didn’t like thinking about the cost of towing it from Clearwater back home. The next morning, the family mechanic, my boyfriend, brother, and I drove back out to Clearwater to look at the car. GOOD NEWS! It turned out to just be a loose connection! My alternator’s fine! It was such a relief, but quite an ordeal. Oy. Anyway, on to aerial & contortion…

So far this week contortion-wise, I was doing a good job of getting back into the groove of stretching every night, until Monday night when I spent another late night in Clearwater with my car. So, as of today (Thursday), I haven’t stretched in three days (other than the minimal bit we do as warm-ups in aerial)--Monday night I was exhausted & stressed out and the same for Tuesday night; Wednesday night I didn’t get home from class until 10-ish and had to get up for work at 7. However, other than this short hiatus, it has been going well--the last night I stretched (Sunday) I got fully down I my right front oversplit (still small, of course--two yoga bricks) in about 15 seconds (I hold them for 60); I got fully down on my left in about 17 seconds, but it was still a bit painful and I wasn’t able to sit back into it like I was with my right. My straddles are looking a lot better too! I had picked up a new shoulder stretch from my contortion instructor (although I picked it up just by watching her and another student from my summer contortion classes during an aerial class--she certainly didn’t teach it to me! [which is one reason why I’m not taking that class anymore]), so I’ve been trying that out. I’m still working on figuring out how to stretch for/practice chinstands against the wall. Jenji Dea gave me very good instructions to follow, but it’s a bit awkward, so I think it will take a little figuring out--it probably didn’t help that I had already had about three beers (it was quite a stressful day at work, which is why I was indulging, but I’m also a lightweight, so three is quite a little bit drunk, lol) by the time that I was trying to do this. XD I still need to work on making myself practice handstands, elbowstands, bridges, etc.

Monday’s aerial class was a little crazy--there were a lot of students in the class, so it was a bit hectic and disorganized. All of the equipment was occupied fairly quickly, so I started out the class by doing some conditioning until something opened up. I had really wanted to work on trapeze, but they were almost constantly occupied throughout the class. The class was so full and the instructor was occupied with some newish students, so I just worked by myself, which is annoying if you only know a few things to do on the fabric. My left foot was still hurting a bit, so I avoided single footlocks on that foot, but I practiced my doubles and also single footlock tricks on the right. I’m getting closer to that butterfly, but still don’t have it yet.

Wednesday night’s aerial class was completely different. There were six of us including the instructor and instructor’s assistant, so obviously the equipment was easier to get ahold of and we had a lot more one-on-one time with the instructor. There was a new student, so the instructor’s assistant worked with her on trapeze, while the main instructor took the rest of us on fabric. I asked her to show me the “Indian Hang,“ because I’ve been trying to figure it out myself the past few classes, but with no diagram to look off of or other input, I was having some problems. She wanted me to try the double saddle footlock again and I actually got it this time!! First try!! I was quite pleased with myself. I attempted my butterfly again--the instructor says it is easier to do with this other footlock and I found that to be true--I still didn’t get it, but I am getting closer. I then worked on straddle backs a bit since my instructor said that I was able to get up there, but I wasn’t pushing myself all the way over--sounds like the same problem I had with the rainbow split under the bar of the trapeze when I first tried it. After I worked on that, she showed me a few other little things to do and then it was time for conditioning. After conditioning I played around on the trapeze a tiny bit while the instructors talked and I managed to do an L-Up, finally! It wasn’t very pretty, but it was definitely an L-Up. So I am getting stronger and I am progressing!! It’s just slow. ^^;