Something for Everyone

For the athletes in the room:
Here is the status of my "injury". The MRI spaceflight showed two herniated discs in my cervical spine, causing a pinched nerve. For those of you not in the know (and who are the type of folks who like pointless medical info for your Tuesday night bar trivia), a herniated disc basically means that the fluid that is normally inside the discs in your spine has decided to push its way outside instead. My doctor described it like a jelly donut that has some of the jelly spurting out of the little hole in its side. (Yes, he said this. Perhaps he was hungry at the time.) This not so yummy jelly can push against nerves and cause pain, numbness, weakness, etc.

He said this type of injury normally resolves itself on its own, with physical therapy and time. He said exercise is good. He also said I need to fix my terrible posture. And to stop looking down at my phone. 

When I mentioned jiu-jitsu he said sure. But judging from his blank stare, I am pretty sure he has no idea what an omoplata is. And although I love the idea of training, I do not think neck cranks and collar chokes are good for my slowly healing jelly donut. So I have decided to take a month off of BJJ and see how things are feeling. I can still do karate if I am careful. And yoga. And lots of fun exercises that look like this: 

Yeah, that is an exercise. Really. It is called a chin tuck. It is slightly less exciting than butterfly sweeps. But only slightly.

How do I feel about all this? It depends on which day you get me. Like today I got woken up at 4am by a crazy thunderstorm. My daughter was up for over an hour. I was up for at least two. And it is grey and rainy outside. My neck is sore. So it is not too hard for me to just lie around all day. You know, "healing". 

Other days I am angry and frustrated and impatient and I hate those stupid chin tucks and would give anything to be back on the mats.

But you all know how I feel about patience.

For the mommies and daddies in the room:

A picture Maya created was recently selected to be in the District 14 Art Show. Here she is with her masterpiece:

Pretty cool huh? She was one of only three kids from her school selected and she was very very proud of herself. The art show was at a local school and we were instructed to dress up for the occasion. There were refreshments, some local vendors and a live band. Her art teacher, whom Maya adores, was there. Did I mention she was very very proud of herself?

Which was nothing compared to how I felt. Maya has accomplished a lot of things in her life, but most of them do not involve being better than other kids. Usually she is just better than a younger version of herself. And I am super proud of her every time. Like when she learned how to ride a bike. And moved up to level M in reading. And when she got her green belt. And so on. 

But there is a horribly exciting and terribly toxic feeling you get when your child accomplishes something that her peers do not. When she "wins". I could easily see how one becomes a crazy pageant mom or a nutty soccer dad. Nah nah nah boo boo, my kid is better than your kid.

Thankfully I am a good mommy. Instead of telling Maya how awesome it was that she was a better artist than all of her friends, I just told her how exciting it was that her art was picked to be in the show. Especially since she claims to want to be a famous artist when she grows up. I said that someday our Facebook photos of her "first gallery opening" would be worth millions.

Go Maya! After all, someone's gotta take care of Matthew and I when we are old and crippled from all of this silly jiu-jitsu.

Off to heat my neck. Or ice it. Or roll a tennis ball on it. Or some holy water. 

Hey whatever works.

I did bake some lemon bars this morning.

Happy Thursday!