Friday, November 25, 2005

Pain's part of the game

Well, this week was a lot of learning. I got to learn a new kumitachi in sword class on monday, and this one is by far my favorite one. It's a little more movement than the other two, and is faster. I noticed that the class has gotten better, and my new rank seems to have no real change. The two teens in our class who have been here about 3yrs+ must be getting there soon, I think, to black belt, which would be great for the school since we haven't had a new sword sensei in a while. But they're both young, and have other commitments, otherwise, I think they'd be further ahead. Same with the other teen, who will no doubt have to leave for college next fall anyway. In Aiki on wednesday we dealt with a lot of techniques for breaking out of headlocks and full nelsons. I can tell that they are sprucing us (that is, the other white belt and I) for blue belt. They made us run through the basics at rapidfire speed, both sides: ippon seionage, morote seionage, o-goshi, o-soto gari, o-uchi gari, and tai otoshi. I think I'm doing okay, despite some confusion with the left side of o-uchi. One of the sensei even said my fit-ins were really good. The sensei are throwing us a lot more, which they never used to do, so that's great, despite the fact I'm black and blue. I got flattened, hit in the face (both sides), squished, and got a really puffy-looking finger. One of these days, I'm going to do a photo essay of all my bruises. So now, I am wondering if I should go to the school Xmas party...

Sunday, November 20, 2005

A Little Exercise in Being Humble...



I got promoted! Weee!!
Now a san-kyu in iai.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Stop being such a douche-bag, Nerdverd


Ah, what a week. I spent the past week sweating word of my interview, of which I found out today I did not get the job. And, I couldn't go to Aiki, but I more than made up for it this past Saturday when we did a double block of Aiki class. Head sensei's trying to get some new blood into the class, and although it's fun to get new people, they hurt. We got this little kid, his dad, and one of the other kids' dad to join us. Both dads are built like trees. Getting seoinage done to you by them is like getting run over by a Mach truck. I'm still sore from it. I had fun, though I am sore, and I probably knocked over the little kid more times than anybody in his whole karate career. Then, we got to cut. We used some goza that had been soaking in stale water for three months and smelt like poo. It's hard to cut goza and hold your breath. And, to make it worse, the goza had sucked up all the water and were hard as rock. I kept missing my left-to-right horizontal cut. I kept knocking it off the the stand. Bah. So today, I had sword class...fun fun fun. I don't wanna do waza #1 or kumitachi #1 ANY MORE! Three straight months of just that is too much for me. I guess it's the ADD in me. I finally got to work kumitachi #2 with head sensei. I haven't done that in quite a long time. I'd like to know #3, but on the basis of height I keep getting placed with Nerverd, who I am convinced is either a moron or doesn't practice. Probably both.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Zen Art of Beagle Washing


Sometimes I think my beagle was a ninjutsu master. How else can she piss on the carpet, eat a shoe sole, and steal my cheese poof on the run in less than a minute? I hate bathing beagles. Despite the fact that I take good care of her, feed her, and pump her ego, she still loves to roll in shit the second she's clean. I'm giving my beagles warrior names today. From now on, my sweetie fat blind beagle Bucket will be called kawaiiomohana, meaning "cute fat nose", for his amazing ability to smell what I ate five minutes ago and cry like a baby. And Pepper will be called sanirokaze, or "three-colored wind", because that's all you see running around the house when she's freaking hyper. The two have their own specialized martial arts moves when it comes to bath time. Bucket's is sumo- being so fat as to being ummovable. Pepper's is catch-me-jutsu. I don't like combating either. Any beagle owners/martial artists who have found the secrets to conquering these techniques, please drop me a note.
By the way, I missed Aiki class tonight. I am bummed out by the boredom and the fact that nobody cared about me having to miss it. It was like, "hmm, well. Too bad". Grrr.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Oi-vay on the oldshay.

Ow. I hurt. I hate tai otoshi, a painful throw to fall from and do for me, for some reason. It's been a year since I started Aiki, and some days I feel invincible and others I feel like a moron. I enjoy the small class size, which will probably remain so due to humorous attempts to recruit parents of kids. That's an interesting development- there's a crapload of new white belts in karate class, young (of course) and old. I am still the oldest female kyuu rank, but hell, I'll beat up a middle-aged guy over a kid any day. I love the perspective of these parents. They remind me that the stuff we do in class is sometimes in fact insane, and it's not just me. Ah well. Today was a good Aiki class. I got my neck stretched by the head sensei. I guess I'm a fun uke. Because I'm more flexible than the average person, I tend to not feel a lot of the moves that are put on me unless they're done just right. And then,just like today, head sensei does it right and it hurts like hell. I'm now two inches taller.