I am very numerical: six weeks, "seventh" and second series

Sunday is the kid's week-birthday, so this makes six weeks. They say that the first six weeks are the hardest, and I'm already finding that I don't remember large sections of June, so I'm glad I threw down some posts about those days. For example, I can't remember if I led a Primary on the second Monday in June (my monthly Primary, that is). I can't recall ENTIRE three-hour classes in art history that I taught. Days at a time, are simply gone, transformed into quick, summary images of whole experiences, conversations. Hard sleep deprivation will definitely fuck up your memory.

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The new test for the household is to get this child to sleep regularly so that when J begins going back to work for administrative stuff in August, some kind of sleep schedule (at NIGHT) will be in place. This means about two hours nightly of trying to coax the child into unconsciousness and comfort, in the crib or bassinet. Very challenging stuff. Currently the kid is unconscious next to me, wrapped up in both a swaddling blanket and a sling (that's for ease of me putting him over my shoulder to walk around; sling creates peace and lets J get some sleep while I do things like type this very blog entry).

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The nature of seventh series is that it needs to be done above and primary to, whatever it is that you're doing. Writing something delicious while you're really in the zone? Put it down, seventh series is calling. Cooking garlic which burns easily? Take that pan with you; seventh is calling. And so on: practicing and up to Janu Sirsasana C? Hold that sweat and walk the kid around in the sling! Diaper changes, crying that needs attention, anything at all. Seventh comes before it all. He's never called me out of Kapotasana (what a mindbender THAT would be) but in general, his needs come before everyone else's. If one of us has an appointment or I want to practice in the back yard, negotiations have to be made. It's not an attack on free will--as earlier I would have described it--it's more like really intense obligation with no set schedule. Maybe it's comparable to being "on call" at a hospital; you might have to address a scratch or a big emergency. Whenever that call comes in, no matter what you're doing, you go.

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Our communication--that is, between the kid and me-and-J-as-a-unit, is getting better. We can tell "feed me" crying from "change my diaper" crying. We can spot overtired crying. There is still random, inconsolable crying, but not as much of it. We're getting better ears for him. The comfort level is somewhat increasing, but J is getting big pressure between the biochemical impulses to be near the kid all the time, and the demands of work coming soon. I think this will sort itself out as new schedules do, but that first week in August is going to be a mess.

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I am slowly and gradually rebuilding a regular practice of asana. Brief Intermediate (to Bakasana) on Sunday, whole Intermediate on Monday. Hopes for a Primary today (for its hip-opening qualities; I could use some big stretches through the hips and glutes).

About whole Intermediate:

I modified everything which I could not do in full expression: that's Kapo, Supta Vajrasana, Dwi Pada Sirsasana, Karandavasana, Mayurasana (yesterday, anyway), Nakrasana, and (I suspect) Parighasana and Gomukhasana and Supta Urdhva Pada.

Kapo and I are still, without adjustment, working toward a toe-grab. With adjustment, it's easy.

Supta Vajrasana and I are working toward keeping the toe-grab. I built this with my kneeling dropback practice, then lost it to seventh series, and yesterday I started over again with that.

FBH yesterday was very springy; the foot really wants to spring out from behind my head, and slightly overcranked a lateral ligament behind the right knee, trying to keep the foot back there. This is really what's making me want more Primary. I could get lefty back, no problem, for Dwi Pada, but taking righty up, made the whole thing explode, like a box of Slinkies(tm) falling off a quick-moving truck.

Discoveries in Karandavasana, which feel like I'm tracking Grim's footsteps:

When I make lotus upside down, I fold slightly toward my belly. Predictably, for Karanda, this starts the lower-down before the lotus is made, and then I lose the inversion. Yesterday I did it 7 times, finding that if I move my gaze just barely toward the elbows, I can somehow get enough of a backbend to counter the lotus forward fold, and I MADE the lotus. Twice. The new test is to CURL IT IN rather than dropping it down (Grim has written at length about this).

Mayurasana, I can usually do anytime, anywhere. But sweaty triceps on sweaty belly saw me fall to the side, then onto my nose, then down between the arms. I simply could NOT hold it together. I used to blame too-much-sweat on poses I couldn't stick in Primary, and that's turned out to be nonsense (hell, I stuck a Bakasana B on those same sweaty triceps), so I'm not willing to blame the sweat here. More bandhas!

Nakrasana, I know I faked. Chest coming up, making it more locust than bandhas jumping. Also, I suspect that the rule for Parighasana and for Gomukhasnaa is "sit bones grounded" and they weren't, in either pose (particularly the forward fold in the cowface). Couldn't hold the lotused toe in the rollup in SUPV, whereas before, I've been able to. That pose isn't, I think, as hard as it's rumored to be. I just couldn't stick it yesterday.

Nonetheless, I did the seven deadlies and chaturanga'd down all seven, and then did five wheels, three heels-up dropbacks and three stand-to-knees. 25-10 closing. Took about 1:45 to do it all. A worthy experiment. Learning experience.

It's been a year since I was getting any instruction in a Mysore-style format. Matthew wanted hands-to-heels in Kapo and K wanted me (I think) simply to stay down there for as long as she held me down there. I imagine a trip out to see family (and K) in August, but I know that won't happen. Who the hell knows when my next session of instruction will be.