Friday lunchtime

When we have worked hard and succeed at something, we should be allowed to smell the roses. They key is to recognize that the beauty of those roses lies in their transience. It is drifting away even as we inhale. We enjoy the win fully while taking a deep breath, then we exhale, note the lesson learned, and move onto the next adventure. –Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”



Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Seattle.

I wore the "Black Forest" gi for the first time. Once I was under the florescents at the gym, I was bummed to see how glaringly the pants don't match. I'll try wearing the jacket with the alternate pair of pants next time. Carlos looked me up and down, and asked what color I was going to be wearing NEXT week. I told him that this was the end of it, because I have run out of gi's (with the exception of my unbleached cotton Atama, which I do not plan to dye). He suggested red. I responded that red hair with a red gi was way too much red.

Rodrigo (who was looking markedly healthier today, although still slightly run down) was happy to see me too. He tried to kick my knee out, then gave me a hug. Between my rib-out absences and the fact that I've mostly been going to the Bellevue branch lately, I have seen very little of Rodrigo for the past few weeks. I told him about my injury, and he told me that he has had the exact same injury- which has been troubling him for a year. Expensive as it was, I'm glad I actually got mine treated; it sounds like it's the gift that keeps on giving if you try to ignore it. Rodrigo wanted to know if I was going to be okay for the May Revolution, and I said yes.

After warmups, we did several sets of single- and double-leg takedown setups. A little trouble with left and right again for me- otherwise okay. Then three different guard passes using either one or two pantleg grips on the insides of the knees. These were new to me, and a little awkward. I was drilling with Angus, who is helpful. He tends to go a bit too rough and heavy, so I have to ask him to ease up a tad. Then a little positional sparring from spider guard.

Carlos used the word "butt" while explaining technique today, which made me laugh. For almost a year now, whenever he's had to make reference to the rear end, he's struggled because the only English word he knew for it was "ass"- which he also knew was not really proper to say on the mat. It's been a running source of amusement. I guess somebody finally taught him "butt". Hee hee.

Timed spars with Z and then Bryan. Z is a small-sized no-stripe white belt that I've never worked with before. About two minutes in, I said, "Okay, you know too much to be a no-stripe white belt- where have you trained before?" He insisted he hasn't; that he's just "been here a lot" since he joined up. Well, he's pretty good. We had a competitive roll. He tapped me once, I didn't get him at all. He almost tapped me a second time with an awesome wrapped-up twisty gi choke, but I launched a kamikaze summersault to try to get the pressure off my neck- I wasn't sure it would work, but it did. He was also doing the torso-squeezing body-triangle thing, which I once more refused to tap to. I got him three (3!) times with the grab-yer-ankles and dump-ya-on-yer-butt move.

Bryan- well, it went much the way it usually goes with Bryan. He tapped me out a couple of times, but spent much of the roll trying to choke me in various creative ways. My focus was getting some body part or other turned or wedged in just a hair enough to allow me to block him from getting full leverage for the choke. If he couldn't get full leverage, he'd hold it for a while, and make a few adjustments, and then move on to try something else if I didn't tap. I don't think I tapped to any of his chokes today. Not that I deserve any medals for lying under his front mount while he maneuvered around and squeezed my throat for ten minutes, but hey- it's something. Especially against Bryan. I informed him that I would have a headache with his name on it for the rest of the afternoon.

I wanted to spar with Bree, but she is injured AGAIN. She threw her back out- by- wait for it- cleaning the toilet.

The spandex Nike swim cap is working well for controlling my hair. It's not noticably hotter/more annoying than the headgear itself. I need a second one for when I have more than one class in a day- but I'm scared to go back to the Sports Authority, because it's going to be really really hard to walk out of there without another couple of new rashies and sports bras. I love the ones I got on my last trip in, but they were pricey!

Another thing- I am up to 133lb, and I need to lose four pounds (preferrably six) before the Revolution on May 21. Ugh. Chicken and Egg Purgatory, here I come again.



SK wants to schedule a get-together with CN and work on Dragon stuff. This quarter is supposed to be Mantis and Dragon quarter. SK doesn't know much Dragon material, and he also considers it one of his weakest styles. The people in the intermediate group know Little Red Dragon, so we can always work on apps out of that- but this is the fourth annual round of Little Red Dragon review for several of us.... it would be nice to have something fresh to play with. SK invited me to come to the Dragon session too, and I'm not sure if I should go or not. CN and SK are lightning-learners, and I would slow their process down a lot.

I sent an e-mail to CC to see if I can get a session with him; he will surely have some Dragony tidbits that he could show me, to take back to the group.