SUB me.

Perhaps even more than the dogma of scientific philosophies, the gloomy ghost of many different  religious doctrines planted the seeds for the rejection of the body. Doctrines of renunciation according to which life is a sin to be amended. Doctrines born out of the fear to be truly alive. In their eyes, the Earth is nothing but a vale of tears, a place of suffering, nothing more than an obligatory stop on the way to reach better destinations. The body is a heavy burden pinning us to the ground, an obstacle on the way to Heaven. Not only are body and soul not in harmony, they are antithetical principles at war with each other.
-Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



Tues: 129
Wed: 130

With the all the shift-flipping, overtime, and subsequent reduced mat time, I am having a particularly difficult task lately resisting the caffeinated soda and Ritz Oven Baked Sour Cream and Onion crackers. I actually had those damnable crackers for BREAKFAST the other day. I also had two rice-centric oinkfests while CK was here. I love rice, but it's interesting to observe how my body reacts to it after having been on a much less grainy/carbby diet for a while. I get tired and want to nap... and yet I get hungry again sooner than I probably would have if I'd eaten something meatier... and of course there's an immediate notable jump in the numbers on the scale.

Thurs: 127.5
Fri: 128
Sat: 126.5

One of my very favorite authors has rewarded me for being a stalkerfan by using one of my characters in a little tangent on her current online novel. I must cop to a slight wince at seeing her write my character better than I do, but that is almost wholly overcome by the squeeeeee of it all. As for myself, I am still stuck on the same plot point that I've been stuck on for several months. However, my other MC got two new posts this weekend (it's funny that I was working on it the same day that the REAL author was working on it).

Sun: 126.5

One of the things CK worked on with me while she was here was walking/standing with one's weight on three ideal points of the foot. I have found in the ensuing week that it's actually easy to remind myself to work on this- CONSTANTLY- because my PF pain is simply too severe to ignore. Thus I have been extremely well-disciplined about observing this practice pretty much every time I take a step.  CK points out (paraphrasing here) that it behooves us to remember that our feet are not just lumps of meat to stuff into binding cases of canvas and ignore.

Mon: 126
Tues: 126.5
Store clerks look at you funny when you buy five cartons of eggs.

Weds: 128
Thurs: 128

Fri: Finally, some JIU JITSU!!!!

Sweeps from guard. Then rolls with Doug, Ross and Allison.

I asked Allison to deep-half-guard me... he is one of the best at it. He still got it a few times, but even when he did, I at least made an effort to stay on top and try a few things before giving up and rolling back on my ass. After the roll, he told me that I was getting batter at defending it.

Ross: Wow, just Wow.

I informed him that I was noticing that when he gets on top, he is REALLY tight and heavy and controlling, and I can't do anything- then he starts messing around, and lets me replace guard or half guard. I said, "Once you're on top and you have me really controlled, I want you to SUB me." So he did, several times in a row, even though I was defending hard. Besides that masterful top game, something he does that I like is that he works outside of the box. He said, "I experiment, and it makes me lose more often, but...." But yeah, he's going to be be incredible in the long run. Ross is one of those people that if he quits at blue belt, I'll have to hunt him down and drag him back by his ear. He has a real gift.

Somebody clocked me in the jaw and gave me a real pretty bruise.