the good, the bad, and the lucky

My blood test results came in earlier this week, and I'm happy to say that I'm completely fine! I apparently had a long-lasting viral infection, but I am feeling much healthier now that the bug has finally passed. Woo!

I love love love my dance classes! I can see that I am slowly getting better. My balance is improving as my core muscles are gaining strength. I've become more aware of my own limbs and how they function, and because practice has made me more coordinated, I'm beginning to understand, consider, and appreciate the aesthetics of dance in addition to the techniques. I really enjoy the challenges that both my musical theatre dance class and tap dance class offer. Both require more discipline and control than I ever would have imagined. Though it is difficult, it is about ten times as much fun!

Spanish class is just as enjoyable. I really need to give myself more credit when it comes to the language. I have held on to more from those three years of Spanish in high school than I actually thought, and I'm hoping the class will really push my brain power. By the end of the semester, I hope to have a casual grasp of it all. I'll probably pursue one or two more classes after this. My co-worker was putting together a Spanish script of our show the other day, and she believes that after this class, I may have the skills to do a live scripted translation. Spanish translation? I never would have thought I'd be doing that as part of my job. And what a great addition to my resume!

...

Having been sick for almost two weeks, I've slipped back into the bad eating and exercising habits. Also, since my body has been in rest mode for so long, I'm finding it rather difficult to jump back into working out on a regular basis. Alas, I've experienced a slight weight gain. It's really not all that much, but I have this terrible tendency of giving up when the scale tips upward. I can't do that this time. Not again.

...

Last Tuesday, I was driving out to San Rafael to host a Family Night event for work. I woke up at my normal time in order to get to the gym early in the morning and still have time to run some errands. By the time my work day started at 12:30 pm, I was running out of fuel. And driving makes it worse for me, since I fall asleep very easily in cars. As I was crossing the Richmond Bridge, I could feel myself starting to doze off. I did everything I could to stay awake and alert: chew gum, pat out a beat on my knee, sing along to the radio... Nothing helped. My chin kept dipping downwards, and my eyelids more than happily followed suit. At one point, I actually dozed off, driving a good 60 mph on the bridge, with my head tilted over my left shoulder. A few seconds later, I snapped my head up forcefully, reacting to the feeling of my heart being squeezed. As I tried to figure out what happened, I suddenly realized that I was still on the road and that I had actually fallen asleep. I braked, looked down at my speedometer, and let out a sigh of relief as I saw that I was driving at a safe speed and safe distance from the driver in front of me. I settled down a bit and continued to wonder what exactly happened in those few seconds. I fell asleep. Something squeezed my heart - I had felt the walls of my heart contract from pressure, release, and then the sudden rush of blood outward into my veins. I woke up, and I was still driving. That's when I thought, today is not the day I'm supposed to die.

No one ever determined the cause of Angelina's car crash. The weather was nice. The roads were clear. She had travelled that road so many times before. People suspected she fell asleep at the wheel on her way back to school the morning after Memorial Day weekend. And sometimes, that's all it takes. Half a second. Maybe less.

To the angel who gave me a jolt of life - thank you. I count myself as one of the lucky.