A few days ago, I was contemplating cutting Edda’s hair. I always want to cut her hair to chin length, but I’ve been procrastinating for a few months. I send Edda to school with only the front bit of her hair in a little ponytail, but she always comes back from school with all her hair in a sloppy, high ponytail. I think someone at school really wants the hair away from her face. So I decided I should try French braiding her hair everyday. So I’m trying. I’m halfway decent at it, but not as good as our au pair Keyla who would do amazing things with Edda’s hair and it would stay together tightly against her head though the day. My braid starts the day pretty tight, but by the end of the day, it looks pretty frazzled. I’ll keep trying. I watch lots of youtube videos.
That’s the first thing I’m learning from youtube. I’m also learning two other things: handstands and Spanish. I decided that before I turn 50, I’m going to learn how to hold a handstand for 10 seconds. I’ve never been able to do this in my life and it’s helping me with my shoulder rehab. So for about 5 minutes each night, I throw myself upside down against a wall to try and find the balance. I’m learning to not to search for the balance by being lucky, but to try and create the balance by adjusting how I press against the floor with hands – sometimes more with the fingers, sometimes more with the heel. But I need to be strong enough to hold my bodyweight upside down for a bit to find it, right now it’s a combination of being unable to find the balance and being somewhat weak and unable to stay upside down for longer than 10-15 seconds. I’m also still listening to Spanish on youtube. Depending on the topic, I can now almost understand full conversations in the break room at the hospital from Spanish-speaking staff and more and more patients are waving away me using the translator phone and we stumble through our day with a mixture of bad English/Spanish (I always use the translator phone when I need detailed information to be conveyed).