Whole New Aura
I went to my massage therapist appointment today. As my therapist came out to get me, she smiled and said, "You’re back at it. I can tell. You have a completely different aura about you." She’s right. I do. I am a very grumpy person when I don’t get to go to karate classes. Being back feels so wonderful.
During my massage, she said the muscle tension that was in my neck and back is just gone. It’s amazing what a build up of stress can do to your body. I am very glad to be rid of it.
Speaking of stress relief, I had another great class at the new dojo last night. We did some moving drills individually and then moved on to some two-man moving drills. I partnered up with my buddy from camp last winter, the one I suffered through those brutal two-man leg stretches with and it was great. "Like old times" he said. It’s so nice to already know many of the people there. They all seem happy to have us there.
Of course, last night I went solo since Big I came home from school with a 102.5 temperature and body aches (Yes, already. Can you believe it???). She spent the day at home, and seems to be better. I’m glad it was just a 24 hour thing since I’m sure it will make its way through the entire family before Big I brings some other germ home.
Last night was also a chance to meet one of the other instructors at the dojo. He ran a great class, and made it a lot of fun too. We did a ton of work with weapons (bo, sai, nunchaku). Boy, do I need to work on my nunchaku. That kata always gets dusty if I leave it alone too long, so I definitely need to practice it more often.
Over the weekend, I spent some time outside working on my bo kata’s (when I wasn’t exposing myself to Hershey Park). I spent a good 15 minutes just working on hand changes, and then I spent some time incorporating them into some basics, before drilling them into the three bo kata’s I’ll need to know for Shodan.
I feel pretty good about the state of my bo kata’s. They are all sticking in the brain pretty well; and I even feel comfortable with bunkai for the first two thanks to a fabulous bunkai partner who doesn’t seem to mind how long it takes for things to stick in this brain of mine. "Patience" must be his middle name.
So, the aura is good. My stress level is down and my neck seems to be holding up just fine. Now if I can just get Big I to hold up for the rest of the week. . .
Mixed Bag of Results
Filed under: Growing Pains, Mental Strain for Mama, Tales from the dojo
The minute I saw Big I’s face when I picked her up from school, I knew I wasn’t going to get a good report. She looked tired, deflated, and just plain sad. She started crying before we reached the car. The day was too long, she missed me and Lil C too much, and she just wasn’t going back to do that again.
We eventually got to the good stuff. Her teacher is nice. She had fun seeing her friends again. Lunch wasn’t so bad. There were two recesses (Man, who wouldn’t love that???). She’ll get used to it. She was like this last year with Kindergarten. First grade is going to take some getting used to as well. I’m really happy she has a four day weekend, and that next week is another short week. She needs a gradual introduction to this all day business (and to be honest, so do I). I must say though, that I held up way better than I did last year. I had a teary moment or two, but that was it. At least one of us made it through the day without full on tears.
After a couple hours of decompressing, Big I and I made our way to our new dojo. It only took us about eight minutes to get there (during traffic-I’m so loving the shorter commute), so we were early. We stood outside and talked about what we thought it was going to be like. Big I was excited, but nervous. I was feeling the same.
Then, a fabulous looking motorcycle drove into the parking lot and there was our new teacher (an impressive 9th degree black belt even without the motorcycle entrance). With such an outstanding entrance, Big I was already losing her nerves. "Is that my teacher?" she asked excitedly. Once inside, she was also very floored by the various pictures on the walls of our new teachers from magazines, newspaper articles, etc. I explained who they all were, and she marveled, "Wow! They’re famous!"
We changed, got situated, were introduced and then started our work out, and a work out it was. There were a couple hundred kicks (from a ground-fighting position which was new to us and pretty cool). Yes, I will be paying for those cool kicks tomorrow. The muscles are already starting to complain a bit.
The higher ranks separated and did kata while Big I stayed with the lower ranks and worked on something else. I don’t know what they were doing because I was concentrating on my own stuff; but I do know that she excitedly talked to me about seeing how to break that "muscle" which most people know as the collar bone on the way home. I informed her that it’s actually a bone, for future reference. That only increased the excitement.
At the end of the two hours, I’m pretty sure there was steam rising from my head, and my gi. . . well, it needs to be washed and badly. It was a great work out and a fun night. It felt awesome to be back in karate class again. I’m happy to say that my neck seems to have held up pretty well. I’m sure I’ll have some soreness tomorrow, but that’s to be expected as I continue to heal.
Big I and I spent the drive home discussing our new dojo, and it’s quite obvious that she does not have the reservations about our new karate school that she obviously has about first grade. It seems that Big I and I will fit in there quite well. It already felt very comfortable. Today may have been a bit shaky with the first grade business; but tonight was an overwhelming success.
To all my regular commenters, comment moderation has been turned on until the spammers decide to give up. I got some of the most insane spam comments the other day and it just needs to stop. So, sorry about the delay in seeing your comments up there; but they will all get up there eventually as long as you’re not trying to get me to transfer funds from Africa or something. I appreciate all of your comments and will give you free reign soon. Promise.
Also, one of my fabulous readers along with her "zoo" is walking for the Humane Society. If you’d like to contribute to her efforts, go here. You can also click the link in the sidebar.
Karate Camp Day 1 and Injury Report
Day one of summer training camp was today. I had an opportunity to train with Hanshi Miguel Ibarra in Aiki-Jujitsu and Kyoshi Bill Hayes in a style of Shorin-Ryu Karate. I also had a training session on some sword techniques from a 6th Dan, and another session with another Kyoshi and two 6th dans.
I am one of only about four brown belts at this training camp. The rest are all varying degrees of black. There’s nothing like a training camp with that kind of company to make you feel completely insecure about your own skills.
I did learn some really cool things. I’m just worried I’ll have to go back to camp in a complete body cast tomorrow. This skinny bod of mine just doesn’t bounce back in a day the way it happens for kids and young men.
I realize this post is rather disjointed. I’m going to blame that on the bell ringing that took place today when I was dropped on what felt like my neck/head during the aiki-jujitsu session by an aiki-jujitsu black belt candidate. I’ve got a brush burn on the back of my neck to prove it. This post will also serve as a public service announcement to anyone out there thinking that they can wear their wedding rings while doing martial arts. When I was dropped earlier today, I must have landed badly on my left hand. After the static spots cleared, my diamond looked more like a ruby and my fingers had blood on them.
As of tonight, the injury report is as follows:
- Two cut fingers from wedding rings (pinky and middle finger)
- One jammed middle finger
- One bruised upper pinky knuckle
- An entire hand experiencing some hurt (yes, you should totally thank me for even trying to write a post)
- One extremely stiff neck that is spreading into the back, my shoulders, and all around my neck (front, back and sides).
- One brush burn on back of my neck that hurts like you know what when I’m in the shower.
- One foggy brain that saw spots after being dropped in what I will call a rather unfriendly manner.
Tonight, I got to watch black belt testing. I wanted to watch so I know what to expect. It was exciting to watch and gave me some good ideas of things I need to work on.
I’m not the only one who experienced an injury today. Today, Lil C through her head back into Big I and broke what appears to be a blood vessel on top of her nose. Her nose is bruised and was bleeding quite a bit today. I’m just hoping the poor kid doesn’t have a broken nose because she already has so much going against her in the genetic nose department in this family that I’m not sure any of us can handle a broken nose.
I’ll be heading back to camp tomorrow and am going to hope that I am able to turn my head from side to side and bend my fingers a little better. I did natural child birth right? What’s a jammed finger?
Enter ibuprofen and tub full of ice.
Edited to Add: There will be no more karate camp for me except for observation only (Maybe the dinner if I’m not too loopy from the muscle relaxers.) I saw a doctor this morning (Saturday) after waking up in agony. I have a severe case of whiplash/neck sprain that will require physical therapy starting next week. I’ve been prescribed muscle relaxers, some pretty heavy duty pain medication, a soft collar for alternating with ice application, and some gentle neck strectches. Someone please remind me to never try aiki-jujitsu again.
Sorry I said “Sorry”
There’s a new rule at the dojo during my one instructor’s classes, and I’m not liking it one bit. The rule is this: If I say the word "sorry" I have to drop and do five push-ups. Five. Big deal, right? Well, with my genetic programming, I ended up doing at least 25 push-ups tonight.
I screw up and my instructor catches me. I say "sorry." Five push-ups. I hit him harder than I should. I say "sorry." Five push-ups. For me, saying "sorry" is as automatic as brushing my teeth in the morning or saying "thank you" when someone holds the door open for me. It’s going to be a hard habit to break.
My instructor says the "sorry" has to go before black belt testing. He also says I need to stop making faces when I screw up and sound effects to accompany those screw-ups. I swear it’s harder than working on kata and bunkai; and unfortunately he is exactly right about each of these little BBMisms. I’m afraid that this is what I’m going to look like by the time black belt testing rolls around if I don’t stop saying "sorry."
I was thinking tonight, that maybe I should just try to program myself to say something else. He said the word "sorry" is push-up inducing. He said nothing about the following phrases or words, "I apologize" or "my deepest apologies" or "regrettable" or "remorseful" or "repentant" or "penitent."
So the next time I screw up, if I feel a "sorry" coming on I’ll just say "regrettable" and see what happens. Of course, something tells me that the push-up tally will only increase if I try that. Then again, I’ve been meaning to work on my upper body strength so I’m going to just roll with it. . . right up until I wake up tomorrow, sore as hell, cursing myself for being so damn apologetic.
In other news, I found this interesting website where you can plug in your site and it gives you a rating, like a movie rating. Mine is as follows:
Want to know what that rating is based on? I kid you not. I get this rating because of the presence of the word "pooped." No wonder Karl is rated NC-17.
In the interest of starting off on the right non-apologizing foot, you won’t see me apologizing for my use of the word "pooped" or my PG rating.
Sorry if that offends you.
(Sigh)
I have a long way to go. . .
Floating, Oozing, and Encores
When I went to karate last week, I had to climb in my moon roof because my head wouldn’t fit through the door or even in the car for that matter. Driving with your head sticking out of the moon roof is not easy. Despite all the odd looks I got and the few bugs who met an unfortunate fate, driving in such a fashion was not all that bad (Bugs are protein right?). I’ll deal with the bugs, because compliments like the ones I got certainly don’t come every day. When you guys like something, you know how to compliment the hell out of a girl, so thank you all!
After watching all the comments and emails rolling in from across the blogosphere in response to my debut music video, I came to two possible conclusions: either the mirrors in my house are straight out of a fun house, or my readers need to seriously consider seeing an eye doctor. I’m going with the latter.
Mr. BBM is so thrilled with the response from the video that he’s been scratching his head trying to think of an encore. I had imagined this would be a one-time thing but Mr. BBM says that it was entirely too much fun to only do once. After such a fabulous response to the debut, I don’t think I’d ever be able to top it, so he’s going to have to do some major convincing for me to get out the echo microphone and heels and come out of retirement. I think I’m more of a one-hit wonder.
In other news, mosquito’s are not the least bit threatened by a bo. I’ve been taking advantage of the nice weather to work on my bo kata’s and bunkai outside. I figure I better get all of the bo kata’s and their applications nailed down now since winters where I live are not exactly bo friendly.
Before I went outside, I sprayed a decent amount of natural bug repellent on my arms and legs. It spelled worse than the DEET stuff, a harsh concoction of lemon and eucalyptus. I think the spray is more of a human repellent than anything else though. I know I wouldn’t want to stand near me smelling like that! The mosquito’s, on the other hand, must be really into citrus fruits. My legs are currently a spotted mess of itch and ooze.
The good news is that despite the attack of the mosquito’s, days later I am able to walk a stranger through the bunkai. It is definitely starting to stick in that slippery brain of mine. The bo kata’s are starting to make a lot more sense to me, which is a big relief. If only bunkai came as easily as lip syncing. . .
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