I co-taught a class, "Teaching to Beginners," with Genevieve, a sweet soul and intriguing Sanskrit scholar. It was really, really challenging. The students were pretty unruly, acting out in some crazy adolescent manner.
I'm still processing it.
So today I took it easy, having lunch with Donna, who is going to Italy in just a few days, and mellowing out at home. The rain keeps coming.
There was a woman in teacher training this weekend who claimed to have a stomach flu; I don't know if I caught it or what, but my throat is INCREDIBLY sore.
Oh wait, throat.
She said "stomach."
I'm feeling achey all over.
Lord, please don't let me get sick!
Om Namah Shivayah.
I just got a writing assignment a few minutes ago, so I will probably tend to that either tonight or first thing tomorrow.
After the unruly class, I came home and read Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs in one sitting.
And that sitting lasted about 15 minutes.
It's a light read.
Nothing new there.
She's kind of funny, I guess.
To be honest I was a little disappointed. I think she's cute and I expected more.
It's an interesting study in what happens when a sort of shallow celebrity type goes through pregnancy. There are all the usual jokes about cellulite, sex drive, weight gain, maternity clothes. Yawn. Her chapter on industrial strength deathscented farting was amusing, I will admit.
Her problems with constipation were the most compelling part of the book for me. She actually went two weeks without dropping the kids off at the pool and had to have fecal material surgically removed.
I will never complain about missing a day again. And that's in my NORMAL, unpregnant life.
As I've mentioned earlier in this blog, my pregnancy poops have been FANTASTIC. I am eating well and drinking lots and lots of fluids. Maybe that's it. And no caffeine.
On a positive note, Belly Laughs does help to clear out some of the negativity you get in all those other pregnancy books. I do want to know what can go wrong, and what symptoms to look for, but instead of reading only about THAT when I turn to "what happens during Week 25" in my preggers books, I'd like to see more of all the miraculous changes that are happening in both my body and in my baby's body.
Andrew and I were reading "What to Expect" and "Your Pregnancy Week by Week" last night and started laughing at what a BUMMER they are. It's like having Debbie Downer come with you to the obgyn's office and freak you out as you wait.
I guess I must be in the positive phase.
Yippee!
3 comments:
The "What to expect" series is a total downer. All the worst things that could happen. Trash it!
You need to read "active birth" by Janet Balaskas. About how you participate in your birthing with lots of yoga stuff. (Well - to this amateur yoga mama.)
Thanks, Dr. Ruth!
YES I think I will trash it. I just read a great essay in "Mothers Who Think" that really articulated my immediate feminist reaction to all the emphasis on DIET and FAT. I am a vegetarian, so I have to admit that I automatically ignored most of their advice, but was annoyed by the tone of the writing.
I am devouring (the completely animal-free) Balaskas book on Yoga as preparation for childbirth; it's THE best prenatal yoga book I've seen yet. And I just completed an intensive teacher training in prenatal (and postnatal) yoga that has really informed my practice, and what I will teach.
Although there's a lot of yoga in her "active birth" book, it's primarily about the birthing process and things you (and your partner) can do to be an active participant in the birthing rather than lying back and letting it all happen. I really recommend id.
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