Six black belts

”We either make ourselves miserable,
or we make ourselves strong.
The amount of work is the same.”
- Carlos Castaneda 



Form of the Day: Jian straight sword

Thursday lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Bellevue.


I jumped Doug before class and we rolled around a while. Then the class was all sparring. There were no white belts in the room today. I got to roll with Carlos and Sean as well as Doug (again)... I have rolled with six different black belts in in the last day and a half! How cool is my life?


Ross was seriously muscling me around.... but he's not a jerk, he just got his blue about 2 days ago, and I think he's feeling the heat and didn't realize how much he was muscling. He would have stopped if I'd said something. Because I *KNEW* he'd stop if I said something, I decided to just ride it and see if I could defend. I had to tap to one keylock, but other than that, I survived.


I think I did reasonably well today- nothing spectacular, but nothing spectacularly bad either, in a long unbroken session of colored belt matches. Several of the guys Were giving me elevator rides- hoisting me up in open guard. I defended some of that, but when I did find myself flying, I just went with it and attempted to come down in a decent position. I switched sides a lot- ie, if they were trying to put me down on their left, I twisted my hips and came down on the right instead (hopefully flubbing up whatever dastardly plan they had in mind from there). Carlos commented that my move of the day was the cartwheel.


Ribs sore now- hopefully I didn't spring anything again. Those were some intense spars.


I agreed to take some on-call work starting in Feb: 20 hours a week garanteed (but I can't refuse them either) plus extra which will likely add up to close to full time. It will be at both the Bellevue hospital and the one in Capitol Hill. I'm not happy about the Capitol Hill commute (or the traffic, or the toll bridge, or the parking), but I decided to do it. It may open up more options for me in the future.