We had Chinese takeout for dinner tonight. My fortune read:

It’s over your head now.
Time to get some
professional help.

Fabulous.

After several unsuccessful days of attempting not to use my left arm, I’m fairly certain that the muscle I strained sometime last week is this one. It has an obnoxiously long name for such a small muscle, some might even call it compensatory, especially considering its larger and more commonly known neighbors, the pect, delt and bicep. I have no idea how I pulled it or the best way to go about letting it heal other than immobilizing the entire arm for god-knows-how-long. This solution isn’t particularly appealing, but neither is the humbling realization that I’ve passed the age where I can just ignore it and let it take care of itself.

Dammit.

On the upside, however, it has allowed me to leave my laptop at work for the first time in months because I just can’t juggle that plus my purse, lunchbag, keys, and accoutrements de jour with one arm. Of course, that also means that if I have to troubleshoot something in the middle of the night, I have to drive in to work. Thankfully, no calls yet. *knocks on head*

So the planets all realigned again this summer to bring me back to bellydance. I had heard that there was going to be a hafla in town and dragged a friend of mine along to go check it out last week. I had no idea what to expect but, for a three dollar donation, I figured I couldn’t lose. It turned out to be a great evening and I finally got a chance to meet Mona N’Wal, a local woman who has been dancing for some 25 plus years. She was everything that I’d hoped she’d be; kind, generous, an amazing dancer, and… available for teaching!

Tonight was my first class. I was a little nervous to be going back after so long an absence. The other students were so friendly though that I soon felt right at home. In fact, I had such a good time that I accidentally overdid it a little and pulled something in my lower back. It’s nothing that a little acetaminophen, a hot shower and some deep tissue oil won’t fix though. And maybe an epsom salt bath tomorrow for good measure….