March of the Greenies

I am convinced they are out to kill me. Or put me on trial for murder. One of those two. The kids have been off the wall all week and the presence of several teachers is not helping. I heard head sensei utter the phrase, "If I hear anyone speak one more time, I'm gonna assign 100 pushups." Some of these kids complain about 10. This week, a six year old earned his orange belt. He was so young, he didn't quite have the knack for bowing yet. It was extremely cute, but I have to wonder what six year old is ready for that kind of focus.

So many greenies! The gaggle is up to 7. I noticed that every year around beginning of school year, attendance spikes and a gaggle of white belts comes in. Then, around January, they level off, and in May when the weather warms up, there's a big attendance drop-off. The big numbers are sitting in at white belt (currently about 9-10), green belt (8, counting me), and brown belt (4, sometimes 5- there is question as to whether 2 more will come back). Green and brown tend to be the dumping grounds- green being the last rank a lazy, insubordinate gremlin can handle without being bored, and brown being the big purgatory waiting for St. Peter to call you up to the front desk. Uke killer was a brownie, two stripes, from the time I started going to martial arts, 2 1/2 years ago. Kids lose interest so easily these days, and adults tend to let class be the first thing to go if their life changes. So it's verizon guy and me left to fend for ourselves within the mass of awful brownie warmup leaders and gaggle of greenies. It's a good thing we know aiki.