PickledCherub

For the past three weeks I've been fully immersed in Pilates. I even had a dream about it. Mostly it was a video montage of all the Pilates I've been doing, in my studio here, in my studio in Seattle, at the Community Center, at Community College, in Martha's apartment, etc.

I started teaching my first class last week at the Community Center. The first hour was intensely horrifying for me. A bunch of people were at the wrong room (no fault of their own), and so we started late, and I was nervous and sweaty, and so I blabbed on about Pilates and we really hardly got through the exercises. No one wa listening to me, or understanding what I was saying, and there were a couple of people who didn't want to curl their head up because of their necks, and I was like "What am I doing wrong?! Why is this impossible?" When the hour was over, everyone seemed pretty happy and even a few people came up to me to talk about private things. It was like they didn't even notice how terrible I was!

Talking to my teachers about the experience, they all said their first class was horrible too, and that it takes a while to find your voice. My second class went much better (there were only four people, but also one toddler and one baby). It is still difficult, and yesterday I totally forgot to teach the Roll-up. The whole class felt strange to me because I knew I had left something out, but couldn't remember what.

This week I start my observation hours at the studio. I get to watch the other teacher teach. Our focus this week is . . . FEET! Observation is nice because I get to just watch and take notes. It's interesting to see which clients want to talk, and which ones keep quiet. Talking doesn't necessarily mean losing focus, but it also is a good way for a client to avoid too much exercise.

School up in Seattle has been really great so far. I love the teachers and my colleagues come from very interesting backgrounds. Plus I get to spend time with Katie and Alice. Next time I go up I'm going to try to see some other people too. But after six hours of Pilates I get kind of tired and just want to eat dinner and sit by the fire.