Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (Gergiev/ Tolmachev)

   


In honour of the 100th birthday of the ballet that changed the world...and caused a riot...I give you Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

Breathing

Breathing. Such a simple, thought-free part of life.

Until it isn't.

I've had breathing issues since November of 2011. It's what originally tipped me off that something just wasn't right, part of what sent me to Urgent Care, which then led to being referred to Internal Medicine due to my heart murmur, which led to the discovery of my congenital heart valve defect, which led to being referred to genetics, which led to getting tested for Turner's, which led to being diagnosed with Turner's.

So in a strange way I'm grateful for breathing difficulties...

But 99% not grateful for it.

The past four days I've had increased difficulties. I wake up fine in the morning, and will usually have the difficulties triggered at some point. Friday it was triggered by walking to and from the library (about 5.4km round trip). It was mostly okay while walking, but when I got home it didn't let up and really got worse in some ways. Yesterday, it was triggered by doing just a short time of parachute activities with the children at the Teddy Bears Picnic. It made me extra tired (which I already was with dealing with the crowds) and made me withdraw even more into myself and not feel like I was representing MYC properly. And it didn't really stop until I went to bed and fell asleep.

Today it's been going on for some time now. Since early afternoon, as I remember breathing a bit this way on the bus. Very annoying and frustrating. Not to mention anxiety provoking. It makes it harder to eat, it's exhausting and I'm just plain sick and tired of it. It's uncomfortable too.

Time to go to bed and hopefully breathe better by falling asleep.

Students' Recital Tomorrow....!

My students' recital is tomorrow. How do I feel right now? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

That pretty much describes it. Teacher Jitters.

Bernat Baby Blanket Shadow Cable blanket

Finished this one today. It knit up quite quickly, despite the cables. I accidentally forgot to increase in the fifth row, so it was narrower and longer than the pattern stated, but I'm still happy with the results. I'm not entirely used to working with such thick and non-flexible yarn, so I had to take out the first several rows the first go-round and redo them as I had cast on too tightly.

Two more blankets

Two more blankets in the now very familiar Bernat Baby Sport round crochet pattern. Any sport weight yarn with a tension close to 22 st and 30 rows will work, which is why Bernat Baby Jacquards also works.

The top one is done in Bernat Baby Jacquards, and the colour is "Boys and Girls" (which Bernat unfortunately just discontinued)

The bottom on is in Bernat Baby Sport, and the colour is "Baby Baby"

Bernat Baby Jacquards is softer than Bernat Baby Sport, but Bernat Baby Sport holds the shape a bit better. I like both of them!

Ultrasounds and flute festivals

Today was a very exhausting, but good day. Performed twice at the flute festival, listened to countless others perform, walked about an hour back and forth and back and forth from Starbucks to the church where the festival was...

It was WARM today. Actually too warm for this heart girl. It got warm enough in the sanctuary (no air conditioning) that I was starting to have my breathing difficulties. Not so much fun.

Tomorrow I perform four times, and have my renal and pelvic ultrasounds. Sandwiched between orchestral excerpts and Mozart, I get to end up with a temporarily distended bladder, gel around my abdomen (and hopefully NOT internally) and tiny sound waves bounced through my body. Well, could be worse. Hopefully things look normal for my kidneys and urinary tract etc, and hopefully things look decent (I really can't hope for normal) for the pelvic ultrasound.

Exhausted, but a little bit wound up. Performing will do that to a girl!

For some reason, I've just been depressed pretty much since I finished teaching this afternoon. It doesn't help that my kidney(s) have been hurting a bit, signifying that I need to have more to drink, except that that doesn't make sense because I had plenty yesterday. As much as I'm not looking forward to my ultrasounds, when I have days like this, I realize that it's a good thing that it's coming up.

Meanwhile, I feel near tears for really no reason.

Maybe it's with the stress of re-registrations. Maybe it's with the stress of ending the year.

The smile of my day? Finding out that I did get my A in History of Antisemitism and the Holocaust.