I was in great shape when I got up, but I had had a nightmare again about Mike leaving me for another woman. We were on some vacation with other people. He came up to me and said that he no longer loved me. He chose to sleep in another bedroom. He was very distant. It hurt.
To get to Bikram, I had to use Mike’s car. Again I felt that leaden feeling all during class. I had to work with the feeling. I was lying down because of my back problem. It helped because I didn’t have to make as much of an effort to stay upright. Heather said she could see a difference in my alignment. I feel I’m getting more of a stretch on the left side. Different muscles are beginning to kick in.
After I left there, I drove over to Toyota, just down the street from the yoga studio. I wondered why they hadn’t called me. The check-in guy said he called me nine times, and it always went to voice mail. I asked him what number he called. He said (614). I said, “Wrong number. Remember, I gave you an (808) number.” He checked his records, found the number I gave him yesterday, and apologized. No worries. He told me that there was no serious problem. For some reason, the electrical communications system had been thrown off. Once the communication system was reset, there was no indication of any other issues. He recommended that I drive the car and bring it back if the warning light goes on again. Boy, was I relieved, mostly because I wouldn’t have to drive Mike’s car. That was too hard. I told the guy I would come back later with someone else to drive the car off the lot.
As I went home, I called Jeannie, Judy, and Josh to give them the good news. The problem with the car was caused by pushing the off button in the Prius while the vehicle was still in drive. When I got home and turned the car off, I remember Josh doing that when he drove me to the PT appointment. I remember him commenting that the car could be turned off while in drive. I didn’t think there was anything peculiar about that at the time. I realize that I automatically put the car in park before I turn it off. I have no idea why I have that habit. Did someone instruct me to do so 11 years ago?
When I got home, I showered and got ready for school. I was planning to leave by 11 because Josh would drive me down to Toyota to pick up my car. I wound up running late because I called Judy, and we were on the phone for a good half hour.
When I got to school, I worked with D. first. I thought about his behavior and mine yesterday. If he’s not using the cross-body blending, it is because it doesn’t feel right to him. It’s because I haven’t adequately taught him how to do it. Giving him a brief set of verbal directions isn’t going to do it with this guy. He has directional problems. I apologized to him for assuming that I had done enough. I worked with a 2nd-grade level book with him and looked for words he knew. Then we worked on applying cross-body blending to them.
The objective is using the procedure he will need when decoding words he doesn’t know. To learn this procedure, I am having him work with words he does know. I looked for three- to five-letter words that he could correctly identify, like run.
I took his right hand, placed it on his left shoulder, and said [u]; then moved his hand to his right shoulder and said [n]. He moved his right hand for the second move, quickly touching the left shoulder while holding the [u[ sound and then saying the [n].
For the second step, he had to touch his left shoulder, say the [r], and then the right and say the [un], separately and clearly. Then move his hand quickly from left to right shoulder, blending the two sounds to get [run]. He had trouble holding the [r] and [-un] separately for the first round. This is an auditory processing discipline. Again he is not learning or practicing the word run; he is learning and practicing cross-body blending using words he already knows.
Even with this, he had some problems correctly pronouncing the vowel sound in the word when he said it in isolation, which means there are still phonemic awareness problems. When he says a word, he has to isolate the sound he hears and produces, not the sound he thinks it should be from what he has learned in phonics classes. I’m going to keep on with this process. I suspect it is going to make a huge difference.
After I was through with D., I went into Mrs. D.’s class to work with her kids. She had the result of the week’s spelling tests in her hands. Both B. and N. had done better than they usually did; N. did much better. He got 70%, which is a big jump from his usual 30 -40%. Yeah, for our team.
Mrs. D. asked me how I felt; I said I was tired. She said, why don’t I go home. I was standing right at N’s side. I asked him if he wanted to work. He gave a clear no. I left. I tried to nap when I came home, hitting the love seat/anti-gravity chair. As I lay there, I could feel my back starting to hurt. I think Judy is right. I have to stay out of my favorite sleeping spot until this all passes. Hopefully, someday I’ll be able to return. I do love napping there.
I was inspired to pack some books for shipping, but it was clear that it was out when I got up. My back was the worse. I sat in a firm chair, played Free Cell forever, and then made some blog entries.
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