As if being depressed isn't enough, I go and wreck my feet and knees too

My neck is sore. My feet are sore. My mental state is sore. The theme for this week, as you would have surmised, is SORE.

First the physical: I think I should have stretched prior to the Merengue workshop on Tuesday. One of the moves involved “dropping” and had to do with my neck whipping back. I also danced in my new heels after a very, very long time of abandoning my old heels for jazz shoes. So not only did I have a sore neck, my feet were in a sorry state after class.

Yesterday was Spins Techniques. I had misgivings because my balance is short of perfect and when Sam told me I had to wear heels for this class, it was a double-whammy: the feet already hurt, but with spinning, the heels would exacerbate and accelerate problems with my bad knee. True enough, less than 20 minutes into the class, after “spotting” and prep spins, the knees started to go too. The usual pain in the left knee flared up and the right knee, which is usually quite well behaved decided to keep its partner company. No choice for it, feet straining in the front of the shoes because of the heels, knees throbbing, ankles starting to feel wobbly, I gritted my teeth and focused on finding my (sweet) spot for the prep spins. I almost gave up: I could not, for the life of me, manage a left prep spin (who spins to the left anyway?!).

My mental state for that drill was: “grit teeth, concentrate, *ouch!* focus, focus, get that right leg angled out, *ouch* spin!”

It all paid off as quite a while later, Sam came around, inspected my spin and told me, “You found the spot!” Sweet music!!

Pivots were a blast after that. Still suffering from jolts of pain, we flew across one corner to the other of Studio 3. Surprisingly, pivoting on (or is it to?) the left came easier to me.

By the time it came time to end class, my sore knees, feet and neck pushed the sore mental state to the recesses of my mind. There is only so much capacity for dealing with soreness. The knees and feet were too painful to ignore, the mental state could take a hike for now.

But as I left for home and arrived to greet the kitties, I could feel the blurdy state trying to wheedle itself back into the forefront. Ah heck it! The best way to cure a depressive mood (other than drink, being busy or being out with friends) is to hit the sack. And so I did.