Slap my gym pals.

The title of this entry is a palindrome; same forwards as backwards. I use this because I feel like my time as a martial artist is becoming linear and repeating. I feel as though the same instances are repeating themselves, if only in a slightly different direction.

I hurt my hip again. So, no serious martial arts for two weeks, which is just as well, considering I should be busy with school, and Head Sensei is busy testing two people at once...again (because it worked so well the first time). The little senseis, especially the younger one, have their nose up so far into the air that they can touch their butts (fighting over who technically has senority even though they are the same rank). The kids testing for black belt in a couple weeks- Eraserhead and Freckles- are following the eerily familiar pattern of cramming for their test (only to never be heard from again when they get their belt). Their self-defense is basically "use whatever I saw on wrestling the other night", and not anything they learned over the past 4-7 years. Are they really ready? Then again, they are testing for kid belt. Is it any different from adult? Only to the adults.

I am still stuck teaching the same kids who keep getting ranked even though their basics are awful. I had one of Punky's friends, Frankenstein, Owl, and Lurch. Sometimes, I thik that the middle ranks are a sick version of survivor; you keep gettign ranked as long as you stay on the "island". As a constant teacher, am I being honored or punished?

And where the hell are the adults? Where's Tank, and Cigarette Man? Where's half of the newbies? Every time we have a big attendance surge, the class ends up shrinking smaller than it was before. Bah. We do have two new people in our aiki class who look like they will stay- one I will call Surfer Dude and one I will call Thinking Man. That's nice, I guess. Now how about people around my own rank?

At the end of class on Saturday, Head Sensei apparently talked to my mom. She says he told her that he wished he had 100 students like me. Hmm. At least I'd have good ukes.