Lightning fingers

Yesterday, I ate a peach.

Well, several, actually. They were really good.

And then one of my eyes got scratchy, which is typical of allergies (which have been really bad this year). Not unusual, except when I went to rub it, it was like my fingers were giving me mild electrical shocks every time I touched my face.

I thought it would improve overnight, but it took an allergy pill this morning to make it stop.

Very weird.

Yesterday, I got together with some friends for lunch. I brought dessert.

I starte with a basic sugar cookie recipe and a foot cookie cutter from Bulk Barn.

I baked the cookes, flipping every second row so that I had both left and right feet. Then I made butter icing.

I iced each cookie, then cut gummy worms in half.  I cut each half worm lengthwise, leaving just a bit connected at one end, then attached them to the cookies to make flip flops.

I tried a couple with mini jujubes, but that didn't work well. I also tried sour worms, but they were smaller and harder to work with.

I think the cookies turned out well.

Om

For a while now, I've heard about yoga on Parliament Hill. I thought it sounded interesting, but I don't work downtown, so it was logistically difficult.

I do work by Dow's Lake, so when I heard there were free yoga classes at lunch on Tuesdays during the summer, I decided to check it out.

I've done a lot of exercise classes - belly dance, boxing, strength training of various types, fencing, yoga, aerobics, core class, and spinning, to name a few, and yet every time I go to a class for the first time, I get anxious. I worry that I'll have the wrong day or time or I won't actually be signed up. 

So this morning, I was debating the wisdom of going, and was using my still sore neck as an excuse.

And then I told myself I was being ridiculous and that the worst thing that could happen was that I'd have a 20 minute walk in the sun without doing yoga, and I went to class.

I really liked it - which surprised me, given my general discomfort with yoga and my sore neck and wrist. It was a beautiful day, and the instructor was good at explaining the moves, and it was a nice day. Oh, and the "relaxation" at the end was super short, which I liked because my mind wanders a lot during that part if a yoga class.  I might even go back next week.

A pain in the neck

On Tuesday, I noticed that my neck was stiff. It was strange - I hadn't done anything - but sometimes that happens, and I figured it would get better.

By Friday, it was better, and I was looking forward to the long weekend.

Friday night, my neck hurt so much I couldn't sleep.

Yesterday, I tried hot packs and slow movements. I even resorted to painkillers, which don't work for me, in the hopes that that anti-inflammatory part would do something.

It hurts when I'm sitting up, and when I'm lying down. It hurts (a lot) when I move from lying down to standing up. It hurts when I bend over to pick something up, when I tilt my head back, and when I try to turn my head from side to side.  (It doesn't hurt when I tilt my chin forward, which is how it would hurt if it were meningitis, so that's good.) Basically, I'm like a newborn baby whose neck is not strong enough to support her head.

It's clearly muscular - staying in one position causes it to stiffen up, and it loosens up with movement.

Last night, I started the night sitting up. After a couple of hours sleep in that position, I went into the bedroom and tried lying down. I actually got some sleep that way.

And today? It's a little better.

Still, not a fun way to spend a long weekend.

Do not try this at home.