Growing Pains

Okay, the growing part is not only for me. Just the pain.

Alexander passed his permit test yesterday. Tried to put one over on me and told me he failed, missing 20 out of 40. I responded by telling him that he has NO business behind the wheel if he misses 20 questions! But he only missed 5, so I suppose he is ready. After I got the news, I couldn't focus much on work the rest of the day. Called the insurance company, got the paperwork emailed and faxed back allowing him to be a permitted driver on our insurance (thankfully no extra $$ yet), spoke to the young woman who is selling her car and worked out some details (it looks pretty darn good that before Christmas, we will be the owners of a third car. Joy.) Then took Alex and two of his friends to Sakura for dinner, along with Amanda and the girls, my mom, Franklin's parents, his cousin Claudia and her husband, and Franklin's friend Noe and his daughter.

Dinner was great as usual, Tim, the owner, gives us a standing 10% discount each time now, since he loves soccer and can talk at length with Franklin. He also thinks my son is great so he told him to order ANYTHING off the menu, including the Kobe beef and lobster, for his birthday. Such a nice man. Dinner was fun, although late, because I couldn't get the private room until 8:30, so the girls were almost falling asleep in their dinner. Then I had to be ME, and sustain a head injury. There are two support columns along the window and I had walked back and forth twice already, hitting a shoulder each time because they blended in with the window and stick out at an odd angle or something. Well, when Alex's beef came I got up and walked over to taste it, and WHACKED my head so hard on the steel post that I think it vibrated. The post. Or maybe it was my head. Either way, something was ringing. It made a loud bang, that's for sure. I stood there, with my hand on my head, while the boys laughed at me, then looked concerned because I couldn't move. I played it down but it hurt like crazy and I saw stars, and couldn't move for literally about 5 minutes. Of course my mom was overly concerned, and once Amanda teased Alex about not letting me sleep because I had a concussion, he started worrying as well. I was fine, didn't forget my age or my address. I iced, Franklin kept checking on me for a couple of hours and it was okay. But this morning I was sporting a bump and a headache. Washing my hair after the gym reminded me of the pain as well :)

Alex had a game at Santa  Clara University this morning, early, and we were out of the house before 8:00 am. He was playing with the Palo Alto team that he is accompanying to Florida on Christmas day. He played mid field today, which he used to play but has played last man defense for so long that he was extra winded today from all the running. A bit more endurance training and he'll be fine.

Cassie stayed with Amanda and the girls while I went to teach at PAC. Deb was coming to team teach with me today, which was very welcome since I was not feeling 100% in the head. She did biceps to abs and did a great job today. She is growing but is struggling with getting in at a club and I am confident with more practice, she will be really great. She just needs a break.

I had a regular member come to me after class, she is there each week with her teenage son, a very nice, soft spoken woman who has expressed to me in the past how much she enjoys my class. Today, however, she literally brought tears to my eyes. She came to me and told me how wonderful it has been to watch me grow and mature as an instructor, that I seem so passionate about teaching and my enthusiasm is infectious and makes it fun to come to my classes. It really touched me today, more so than others, for some reason.  To hear it from a member who is usually very reserved and just smiles quietly or says thank you to make a point and come to me to share that with me.......just priceless. I still have trouble really accepting compliments about my instructing abilities because I know where I want to be and I still feel so new, but I know, deep in my heart, I've grown and improved. It's been a whole year and I am a world away from where I was last December and January. I have a long way to go, and I still make mistakes, every class, but it's getting better.

I'm so overloaded with studying for this AFAA exam next Saturday that I simply cannot WAIT for it to be over and done with. I've completed the study guide and yesterday took the practice test. I missed 13 out of 75, which brought me to about an 82%. I need 80% to pass. What was nice is this study guide tells me which chapter each answer came from, so I saw a pattern of all my errors in that they were mostly from one chapter, and a couple of others. I know where I need to go back and re-read. I have also skipped some chapters so this week I will be reading more, reviewing the study guide, and looking at Alex's flash cards. I don't have time at this point to create my own. In looking at the day's agenda for this thing next week, I somehow missed that the entire day is actually a workshop going over the study guide in preparation for the test! So I have more hope that I can pass this. We get an hour lunch, then late in the afternoon, after reviewing areas in the text, we take the written test (an hour) and then the practical part, which now I'm beginning to get more nervous about because I have to "perform" in front of others, first in a group which doesn't bother me, but then individually for 1-2 minutes demonstrating some type of exercises to their music.

Hello??!!! I only know LES MILLS BODY PUMP! I don't know anything else! I only know how to cue BP moves! I only know the techniques that I have been trained on, not general group fitness stuff. Even in the text, there are pictures of moves that don't look like how I was trained. Sigh. I just want this to BE OVER.

Then maybe Christmas can come alive in my house, if only for the week before........