Wednesday

When the senses wake up, people talk about altered states, but actually nothing about them is altered. The only real alteration is the sleep into which we often let them fall. Bringing them back to life is the only natural thing we can do. It is as if we defined the starting of an engine as an “altered state” only because we consider normal leaving it turned off. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



The Form Of the day is Little Red Dragon.

Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Seattle. I beat Rodrigo and Carlos to the school today, so when they walked up, I stood behind the outer door and held it open for them. Rodrigo took the door away from me and shooed me in first. He's so funny. He's done that to me before, too.

Carlos seemed a bit out of sorts today. This translated to extra-vigorous warmups and anal-retentiveness regarding how everyone's jacket and belt were hanging in the lineup.

Same guard break that we did the other day (only tighter and more painful), then a guard pass leading from that (and how to not get caught in half-guard in the process).

Also, armbar drills in which you were supposed to put your opposite shin on the mat as if you were setting up a mounted triangle.

Rolls with JB, Cornelia and Bryan. I am not going to try any more triangle setups on JB. They always end the same way- with that horrible stacking guard pass she loves to do, ending with me squashed like a cockroach under her heavy side control ("Someone taught you a really good heavy side control!" "Why thank you!") Cornelia and I seemed pretty competitive; with her having the edge of being on top more- no taps.

Bryan let me have a couple things (after I tweaked them according to his instructions). He told me that I'm playing really tight and that he can't find any more arms to bar anywhere. I almost got a guillotine on him, and somehow managed to grab a scrap of my own gi to wrap around his neck. After a few adjustments, I got it a little more seated, but it was in my left hand and my wrist was a bit twisted- I didn't really have the leverage I needed to pull it tight enough. I started walking my feet around trying to neck-crank him with it, and he gargled a bit, but he just chased me. At last, I had been pulling it for so long that all the strength was running out of my wrists and I had to give up in disgust. He told me that it had been close, though.


Evening BJJ at Cindy's.

All sparring, all the time. From standup. Both gi and no-gi. Cindy, Lamont, Alecia, Rodrigo (the OTHER Rodrigo), George.

I was pretty tired during/after warmups.... I can definitely feel it when it's the second class of the day. As for the sparring, I didn't really feel like I was doing particularly well nor particularly poorly.

I am still finding myself rather intimidated to go for takedowns. I feel fairly comfortable defending them- even against bigger, stronger opponents- but they're going to get me down sooner or later if I don't go for any myself. Sometimes I can latch onto them as we're going down, or otherwise turn the landing into a not-really-win situation for the opponent.

I got guillotines on a couple of people. Tried some other guillotines and a few other subs that I couldn't finish. I spent half of one match in top side control on Alecia, struggling grimly for a keylock, but she defended well. I was just happy to get on top for a while. :-P It is painfully apparent that Alecia hates rolling with me. If I'm tapping like Savion Glover, she seems irritated (I assume because I'm not being a lively enough challenge). If I play conservative defense and she can't get any taps, she seems even more irritated. I'm not sure if that's because she didn't get the tap- altho she dominates me and would certainly win all these matches on advantages if nothing else- or because, again, I'm being boring. Unfortunately I can't seem to manifest any third scenario with her. Tonight I made a special point of shaking her hand and thanking her politely for each roll, even if I had to chase her turned back to do it. Well, she won't have to endure me much longer in any case.


On Tuesday, Silverdrake sent a post to the PSG list about how we're all looking forward to the Sacred Hunt, etc etc, and if you're interested in Hunting you need to see him asap on opening day, etc etc, and we need people to village (see Aegis for that), and we need people to drum (see Kitsune for that). Well, I guess that means I'm coordinating the drumming again, LOL- even though he never exactly asked me or told me. I'm glad I'm finding this out BEFORE opening day.

I'm thrilled that Aegis is coordinating the villagers this year- he is my Heralding co-cordinator, so we work very well together practically and energetically. It amuses me that we now have Heralds in two out of three of the most important leadership positions- plus Dru as my lieutenant. It's like the Heralds are staging a coup and turning the Hunt into a Herald Camp ritual instead of a Ghetto Shamans ritual.

I hope my dead finger is going to be okay for four hours-ish of thunder drumming. If it starts to ache a few minutes in, I'm going to be in serious deep feces.