DAY 3 – It Never Ends

5:32pm: Um, wow.  Who knew there were so many hours in the day? – like interminably long hours when you are doing nothing but listening to the air in your nostrils. Oh, and I think that right nostril is on strike for a bit.
Anyway, today we have another task besides just focusing on the breath – we get to focus on sensations in the nose area – thank god for the small gifts, another day of pondering the air coming in and out of my nose might have driven me insane.  I contemplated leaving today. Like SERIOUSLY contemplated it but I am trying to get over my own self-belief that I am a quitter.
Back pain today was intense – I was shifting constantly to try and alleviate the shooting pain through my butt and back.  Oh, as a cruel joke I had “Freshman” by the Verve Pipe stuck in my head for hours.  And as if that were not bad enough the Red Lobster version of the Happy Birthday song accompanied me for the four hour afternoon meditation…yea, now let me tell you how tortuous that was!
Broke silence on accident. I was napping after lunch and woke up about a minute after the gong rang to indicate that we should make our way to the meditation hall—I had a flashback moment to high school and thought it was the bell ringing for class.  I sat straight up in bed and blurted: “OMG was that the bell?!?”  Then I clamped my hand over my mouth when I realized what I did.
Upside of the day? No more falling asleep. My mind is like a steel trap of focus, attentiveness, and awareness now, so, points for me!