I wrote the following as I was waiting for class to begin:

I’m now in class. Outside, it’s drizzly, cold, a nasty day weather-wise.

I am working hard at figuring out ways of getting by in a class where I have a teacher who does not seem to value free association. I must think in a linear, non-connective fashion. This is as difficult for me as for those who are diametrically opposed.

It is very exciting, what’s going on in my head. I want to learn as much as I can about cognition in relation to how the brain works – right now I’m focused on making the connections between teaching riding instruction and body awareness. This right now is a huge challenge. I am not getting much assistance in this endeavor from those on the body awareness end of things—it’s a narrow pathway that they’re trodding, and it seems to get narrower. Any deviation from the norm seems to spark ire.

Why is this? Why is it that they don’t delight in creating new neural pathways? Why do they seem to be thinking in terms of either/or rather than and/also. The answer might be that they are suffering from sensory overload. So when I am around them I have to toe the line.

I wrote the following in the evening:

Shortly after I wrote the above, Shari, my Bones for Life instructor, fell ill and had to be taken to the local hospital emergency room. In the above, I wrote about body awareness teachers collectively, was attempting not to address her specifically. She was short with me all weekend – started when I entered the class area and she snapped at me, saying I had too much stuff and wondered where I’d put it. I didn’t say what I was thinking, that I always have a lot of stuff because I stay in Anchorage for the weekend.

Her being short, then and after, it was puzzling to me. I attributed this to her personality and her inability to deal with me. It turned out to be partially a matter of me connecting the dots – when I ought not have done this. They were not, at the hospital, able to determine what was wrong with her. They discharged her late in the afternoon.

My own thinking is that Shari was exhausted and perhaps stressed from having to plan for a class that turned out to take more time and energy than she originally thought. And our numbers went from an initial group of seven to a group of four. Then too, I also think that she had modified her diet to the point where she was not getting the nutrients she needed.

This is pure speculation on my part. I am not a doctor, or even any kind of medical person. I in part think this way because when we all reconvened, Shari curled up on a mat on the floor and fell into a very deep sleep. I would have mentioned this to her co-worker who is a physician’s assistant, but she was not listening. She speculated that Shari has sinusitis.

I of course do hope she gets better, and fast. Not a good day for this kind of thing to happen. But then again, there is never a good day for this kind of thing to happen.

Next: 141. 5/23/17: A Conversation with Tyra