Peeling the onion

It's been a frustrating month and a half. I had a big work deadline which kept me away from the barn for most of a month, and just a few days after that ended, I got vertigo - the horsewoman's curse - which hasn't quite resolved yet. I walked on Charlie for the first time yesterday, and today I had a lesson with Shannon to try trotting and see how it went. It felt like I looked the first time I rode - hands in front of me and high like a waterskier - standing up in the stirrups - weaving around in the saddle like a drunk when I tried to change directions.
The silver lining is I have no excuse but to work on the minutiae until the vertigo is resolved - keeping my hands even, holding my lower leg off Charlie's side unless I am asking for an aid, asking once and expecting him to maintain it until I ask him for something else, working on a nice square halt, not Charlie's haunches going out to the right, no poll dropping, and flexion - Charlie is stiff through his neck, especially to the right, and I'm pretty confident this is because I reel on his poor right cheek like I'm trying to pull in a whale.
However, in a "d'oh" moment, I whined to Shannon that when I put my elbows on my hips to make sure my hands are even, every time I look down, my right hand is further back. First, my slow brain thought my right arm was short, but then when I got off, and I was showing Shannon from the ground, she pointed out that one of my hips is tilted back, and so I should probably just stop using elbows on hips as the reference point.
The other silver lining was two days ago and today I watched Shannon ride and she described what she was doing while she was doing it (and why), and it was really helpful to be able to see from the ground what doing it right looks like, and hearing what she was doing when I couldn't see it. Charlie moves so nice for her, and I still feel like he got the short end of the stick between the two of us.