Life on the Student Track

Suddenly, I find that every minute is packed.  Mostly that's a good thing.

Yes, it's playing havoc with my ability to keep up with all the TV shows I like to watch, but I think I can survive if I've not seen this week's Closer.

Yes, it is slowing down the knitting and designing process a tad, but it's not keeping me from edging ever closer to binding off Fairy Stars over Diamonds (I'm so close!!).

But -- it's filling my brain with all sorts of wonderful new stuff! I have so much to think about (and talk about), that I'm sort of overflowing with it all.  Best of all,  I'm meeting new people, some of whom are truly delightful, with whom I can discuss this stuff so that I'm not driving my family mad.

Better still, it's not ALL brain work.  True, I'm learning physiology and anatomy and psychology.  And I do have to memorize muscles (among this week's pets: the Levator Scapulae.  They're among the culprits for headaches and are the reason you can't turn your head when you get a stiff neck.)  For each muscle, I need to know it's origin (where it attaches to the bone(s)), and its insertion point (the other bone(s) to which it attaches, and which it moves when flexed), and what it does -- exactly what it does.  It's both pure memorization and useful for the hands on work.

Learning all the muscles means that I understand what I'm massaging. And learning the origins and insertion points helps you remember which way is best to work the muscle (from origin to insertion).

The other part of my week is learning a new sequence of massage.  We started with the back, learning what will become about a 25 minute sequence (when we've learned it well enough to do it without lots of filler strokes to figure out what's next) that pretty much addresses all the back muscles.  Once we learn the sequence, we have to practice it. Each week we have to give a certain number of practice massages, and record what we noticed and/or learned in the process.  My local friends are lapping this up  :-)

At first, I thought this would be awkward.  I also feared I'd find it tiring to wedge in the massages.  Now, I'm thinking I'll be doing far more than the required number.  I mean -- I've fulfilled my obligation for this week, but I've got DAYS until the new week starts.  Surely I can give another one ??? maybe two???  It turns out, the hard part is scheduling them in ways that work for both me and the ... recipient.

Alas, all this fun and studying means that I'm woefully behind in reporting on the Scotland trip.  As I get used to the studying and the memorizing, I'll find more time to do that.  Perhaps tomorrow morning.

For now, I'm off to take another quiz.  I got 18/20 on this morning's quiz. I'm a tad irked that I didn't get them all right, and am dithering over taking advantage of the re-take option. On the other hand, it's hard to complain about an A when I know others are struggling for their C's.

Comments

[caryl carr]

It's fun to go back to school and learn something new - what a change for you!

I sent you a PM on Ravelry - I'm interested in some fiber in you destash there. When you have a minute, could you let me know if it's still available?

thanks!