Wednesday

Physical education is the fundamental discipline of life, but it is actually despised, neglected, and taught intellectually, because the true intent of our schools is to inculcate the virtues of cunning and calculation which will make money...... The establishment is a class of physical barbarians.... they do not know how to transform money into physical enjoyment. They were never taught how to husband plants and animals for food, how to cook, how to make clothes and build houses, how to dance and breathe, how to do yoga for finding one's true center, or how to make love. -Alan Watts


Friday:

The universe is conspiring so that I will never see Cindy again. Today I was going to go to Sleeper Athletics, and most likely lunchtime at Gracie Seattle as well- but I was prepared to skip the latter if I didn't feel 100%, so as to make SURE nothing stopped me from going to Sleeper. Instead, I fed and medicated the cats, crawled back into bed, and stayed there all day. My head felt like one of those tomatoes that when you slice it open, it's all dry and moldy inside. When I got up to feed the cats dinner and medicate them again, I wanted to go out and get the mail- but my coat wasn't by the door where I thought I'd left it. I searched everywhere, and began to wonder if I'd left it someplace. Then I noticed that it was sitting right by the door- exactly where I'd thought it should be. In that state, I guess it's for the best that I did not try to go to class- or get behind the wheel of an automobile.

Side Control mentions on his blog that he had "fever and fatigue" as well (bad enough that he bailed out of the school tournament this weekend), *and* Rodrigo, and others have had it as well... so apparently some bug I picked up at the gym.

Nauseating search term of the week: "naked bjj girl vs boy". Good grief. I'm pretty sure these twisted puppies are not finding what they're looking for on *my* blog.


Saturday: 132.5 Head still feels a bit weird. I think I'm functional, but maybe BJJ would not be such a good idea today.

Drum circle- smallish crowd, had to start and carry the beats a lot. Started 3 chants. Got a lot of join-in on the 2nd one, including some people who don't normally chant. Note that that one was just a sort of two- or three-tone moan. It ended up sounding like a bunch of coyotes baying at the moon; pretty cool. Perhaps even the four-syllable easy chants I tend to start are too intimidating for some people. Folks are even more inhibited and self-conscious about singing than they are about drumming. Next time: more two-tone moan. See if I can bring in a few more voices. I just know some of them are salivating to chant, and are too scared.... if I can just get them to open their mouths a couple of times (and see that people are not going to laugh, or throw tomatoes), we could build up a serious chorus after a few months.

The 3rd chant was sheer desperation. A very chaotic mash-up had jangled to a discordant halt at 8:58, and you really can't end on something like that. I waited for somebody to start something, anything... of course there was dead silence.... so I just sang. Pure I-have-no-idea-where-I'm-going-after-this-note-right-here. It came out all minor-chord-y- I actually thought it sounded fantastic (hee hee hee), but probably nobody else was going to dare tackle it. Thank you God, some of the drums started accompanying. I just did about 5 minutes, enough to tack a halfway lyrical and feel-good cap on the evening.

I so wish I could chant and drum at the same time, it would make things so much easier. Sometimes in a big group with other strong players I can pull that off, but without much support it's just too much pressure to try to focus on doing more than one thing well at once.


Sunday FOD: Black Crane 1. Both versions. Actually did mirror version first- not really meaning to, just started working and that's what popped out. I like that for some of these forms, the mirror version is already almost as natural as the standard version. Had trouble with the reap at the end of the mirror version, though. That still feels strange.

Looking at photos of Cranes on the internet counts as training for me. Kung Fu is cool.


Monday FOD: Iron Needle. I made a correction, based on how *I* thought the physics should work. Since I am now my own teacher, I need to make my own corrections.


Wednesday: 134

Lunchtime BJJ Gracie Seattle. Got to drill ith Angela, which was great.

Two cross jabs, thrust kick to belly, clinch, reap, end in closed guard. Posture up. Opponent yanks your elbows and hugs your head to hir chest. You stick your hands in hir armpits with the thumbs up, push and duck your head out. Grab hir rt sleeve with your left hand, grab the lapels (low) with your other hand. Stand up (step up with the knee that is on the side you have captured the sleeve first). Let go lapels, switch grip on sleeve to cross grip. Pretend you are reaching into the back pocket of your jeans, break closed guard. Hike the leg up onto your shoulder. Go around the side that you have the sleeve captured, pressure, fold hir in half. Grab the collar on the opposite side. End in side control.

We have done this before, often enough that I felt fairly ok with it- the only thing I kept doing wrong was letting go of the sleeve too soon. You pretty much don't let go of the sleeve till you're done with the entire sequence.

1 Roll with a 4 stripe white belt. I was on top for about the first 3 min, then it was trapped in back mount for the rest of the roll. He was clumsy with his choke technique, so didn't finish any.

Repetitive restarts with Angela, who is training for PanAms. I was just trying to pass her guard and she was trying to sweep me. I came at her a whole bunch of different ways, so she had to do all different techniques, but she got me every time.


Circus School (acrobalance). I got caught in some really intense traffic and got there 40 min late, missing the entire warmup *and* the conditioning.

Lots of high-flying, tricky stuff today. Willis is out of town for a couple of months, so we only had 2 bases. We did a 360-degree plank. A star where you balance upside down on your shoulders, braced on the base's upraised feet (I did okay at that one, but it was a muthuh to jump into... I needed a spotter to hoist my ass up). A 3 person stack with a base, a front plank, then a third person standing on the plank's butt as if riding a surfboard. I got up to a crouch, but couldn't stand- my feet were wobbling from side to side on the plank's butt too violently. (It doesn't help that this sort of thing tends to start all of you giggling.... balance is worse while you're giggling...)

Friday

There are times when the body needs to heal, but those are ripe opportunities to deepen the mental, technical, internal side of my game. You should always come off an injury better than when you went down. -Josh Waitzkin, The Art Of Learning



Thursday:

Sooooooooo tired. Not up for silk class tonight. But you can't blow off circus school, since you have to pay whether you show up or not, and it's expensive!

The hoop arialists were practicing behind us tonight. They looked soooooooooooo awesome. Not as awesome as silk, but almost.

Russian climb: DO NOT WRAP the silk. Drape it over the front of the rt ankle, then lift the tail with your left foot and make a little stirrup. Place the left foot on top of the right. DO NOT MAKE AN "L" SHAPE. squat on top of your feet with your shins parallel to the ground. Then stand up.

Dutchmans again. Arabesque, which I messed up and didn't get enough time to fix. Must ask for that again next time. Hip hang, and straightening out to pose parallel to the ground. I like that one.

So tired that I thought I was going to fall aleep behind the wheel on the way home. Unfortunately, that did *not* translate to getting a good night's sleep. :(


Friday: 133.5

Lunchtime BJJ Gracie Seattle.

Carlos asked how I was, and I told him that my legs were sore from yesterday's class (fronts of thighs). He was delighted. I don't think I could have given him a better compliment. He loves to hear when we are sore from his classes. It means we worked hard. He exclaimed "Good, hah?!" and I said, "Yes!"

Takedowns- grab opponent's left lapel with your rt hand. Pull and step back with your right foot, turning your body to your right as you do so. As opponent lurches forward, drop to your RIGHT knee and grab hir left heel; pick it up. I had my usual problem of dropping on the wrong damn knee over and over. I figured out, though, that part of my mental block this time was because doing it correctly left my chin right against the opponent's left knee, just waiting for him to piston it up and clock me if we were doing anything other than sport BJJ (and maybe even here, by accident). When I told this to Bryan, he of course demoed that it was impossible for me to clock him with *MY* knee, as he was doing the technique way too quickly and skillfully. Well, when I'm a brown belt, I hope I will be able to do it like that too- but right now I can't!

Pass guard from standing, with sitting opponent who has both knees up. Quickly kneel over hir shins and pinch hir legs together with yours. Throw your right arm over hir shoulder- hugging in close like s/he's your buddy, otherwise you'll get straight-armbarred. Pick up your left knee and hike it *HIGH* and *WIDE* as you swing over to the other side of the opponent and take side control. Rodrigo came over _TWICE_ to tell my I wasn't swinging the leg out far enough, so I really need to get my act together in that respect.

You standing, opponent sitting. Step between hir knee with your left foot, step to the outside of hir thigh with your right foot, turn your torso toward opponent and bring that left leg out *HIGH* and *WIDE* just like in the previous technique. When you set the foot dowm, set it close to the opponent's hip, then shoot your other foot out to base. I kept wanting to set the swinging foot out wide. The get KOB or side control.

Always nice to work with Bryan. He was getting a little frustrated with my constant habit of getting knee and elbow in the way of his side control. I wasn't doing it to be a crappy drilling partner; I was just trying to keep him off my ribs! It is a Black Crane defensive technique (which has a bonus **REALLY** gnarly elbow strike incorporated into it). I said that his ability to feel like a dump truck on my ribs is chi. He said it is physics. I also teased him about his hooking monkey feet.

Positional sparring with Bryan and Dave. Wow... I got Carlos yesterday, and today I get Dave and Bryan. I am getting to spend the week in pretty heady company, getting kicked around by black and brown belts!!

When it came time for open mat, I saw Dave drilling something by himself, and remembering how he's always talking in his blog about wanting to get extra drilling reps with people, I went over and asked him if he wanted to drill something on me. So he drilled some terribly complex inverted guard takedown that was way beyond my ability to understand, then offered to help me with something. I didn't have anything specific in mind, so I suggested that we spar a little, and I was sure something would present itself.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to choke him and otherwise wrap him up with his gi top (I had it completely off at one point, by which I ended up disadvantaging MYSELF, as we were now essentially fighting me gi and him no-gi). He went over some choke details with me, and suggested that I practice reps on my own gi top while watching TV or whatever, till I can stop having to pause and think about which way my grips and wrists need to go.

My initial grip- deep with my right hand cross collar, palm up- is fine, but as for the 2nd hand... first thing he pointed out is that I will have better luck if I sneak the second hand UNDER my first forearm instead of over. Then I need to get a grip with my palm _DOWN_. !!!!!DO NOT SPLAY THE ELBOWS OUT LIKE I'M DOING THE FUNKY CHICKEN!!!!! What a newbie flub, and here I am still doing it. Then roll the wrists so that I'm looking at the insides of my wrists.

Alternatively: Grab with the second hand palm UP (this is the way I instinctually want to do it) and roll my thumbs TOWARD me.

That was really nice to get a chance to work with Dave. I should have a couple of specific things in mind to ask for help with next time. It was a fun spar. I've hardly gotten any chance to work with him before now.

Was watching Rodrigo kneeling on the floor taping a white belt guy's foot for him. How cool is Rodrigo? He is just so nurturing to his students. I was also thinking today (this was before I saw him taping feet), I don't know how he remains so patient after all these years correcting- over and over and over- the same little dumbass mistakes we make in drills. In some cases, correcting the SAME PEOPLE over and over and over on those same little dumbass mistakes. Ahem.
I wish I was a better student for him. All I can do is keep trying.

Black Crane drills 1 through 4

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to be over,
it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”
- Author Unknown


Friday: 133.5

Sunday: 132.0. FOD: Leopard Fist. Did just the standard version.

Monday FOD: Tiger Versus Crane. Standard version only. Note that the standard version starts out with a RIGHT Eagle claw. I'm finding that with the forms I've practiced "in the mirror" extensively, I'm often groping for "uhhh, which side is this...?" at the beginning- but once I get going, it's usually not much of a problem because each move flows into the next and they usually only make SENSE on one side.

Also note that after the hop with the "energy ball" and the flying crescent kick, you land in east-facing horse and turn directly to the south-facing Tiger crossed stance. I was wanting to stick the clawing-face-plant in there, but that is later.


Wednesday: 133.5
Sometimes my nightmares are very literal. Last night I dreamed that I was living in some dump, and got burglarized three times in rapid succession. They took everything of value. With what few scraps I could salvage, I was living in my car. Then, it shifted and I was leading about five dozen surviving refugees across a post-apocalyptic city in the dead of winter. That was very weird- but I think that with a few tweaks, I can use some of that last adventure in my weblit. ;-)

Acrobalance. Unfortunately, it seemed to be "couples' night" at the circus school, and all the bases came in already paired up with their own SO flyer, so I was the odd person out- which was awkward. Ended up switching out with the most inexperienced guy (again.... I need to try to avoid this happening every time), whose girlfriend was a six-foot-tall toothpick. One must base a five-foot-tall beginner hourglass completely differently from a six-foot-tall intermediate toothpick, so he was having a lot of issues.

Lots of side-star and cartwheel stuff. Keep the chest facing the wall and don't let it (and torso) roll towards the floor. Also remember to turn the leading toe out, and once up, the DANGLING toe needs to point toward the base and not towards the floor.

Propping yourself on blocks and balancing in an L shape while supporting your weight on your hands is a lot harder than it looks. Especially if your hips are too wide to fit between the blocks. Still feels like entering an alternate universe when I come in here and am "the heavy student" at 133.5lb.


Thursday: 133.5

Friday: 134.5 (I had some mustard-onion pretzels yesterday). FOD: Iron Needle

Last night in Somnalist Trauma Theater, I was at some kind of large event at a beach house when someone started shooting up the crowd. I instantly took off running like a rabbit without even turning to look. Points for rapid OODA, penalties for not trying to stop the guy from slaughtering the crowd. I was fleeing across the front lawn alone, and could see his shadow (and the shadow of the firearm, which looked like a damn bazooka) looming up on the grass to my left. There was no cover, and I am not a particularly fast runner (although I venture I may be faster than I think, if I ever find myself pursued by a nut job with a bazooka). I thought, "This is it," Then two people came out of the house to the left, and he started shooting at them, while I ran on. I did the exact same thing I'd done in my previous shoot-em-up dream a few months ago, which had disturbed me so.

This spring I need to renew my concealed pistol licence. I've had it for nine years now, and I haven't actually gotten around to procuring a gun. Since my knives showed up dependably in my violent dreams when I started carrying them in real life, I'm curious to know whether- should I buy a gun- I will start whipping that baby out during Somnalist Trauma Theater.

Saturday: 135. FOD: Southern Mantis. I haven't done this one in a while and was worried about my memory retention, but only a couple of minor problems. After the topfist, the cat stance needs to shift to an equal-weighted Mantis stance. The double low block after the head-smash is with Mantis hooking hands. (I'm not going to beat myself up over having done the heel-hand ones out of Three Step Arrow instead). The final move is a Mantis finger-poke with the left hand, not a hard block. Other than that, seems fine.


BLACK CRANE DRILLS 1 through 4:


+Crane 1 (double eyestrike)

Begin in high horse facing east and looking north. Double Eagle claw hands, palm down, rt in front of groin and left slightly north of left thigh.

Turn torso to north. Do not move feet. Double viper-hand eye strike to north.

Cross wrists, turn palms up and bring elbows together at solar plex. Forearms are now forming a "V" with flat palms toward you.

Step through with rt leg forward to north, turn to end in high horse facing west and looking north. As you step and turn, both Eagle claws circle up-and-over forward (rt at chin level, left at waist level) to end palm down, left in front of groin and rt slightly north of rt leg. You are now in the mirror of the stance you started with. Repeat drill on opposite side.


+Crane 2 (eagle claw eyestrike with two circles)

Begin in high horse facing east and looking north. Double Eagle claw hands, palm down, rt in front of groin and left slightly north of left thigh.

Left Eagle claw strike eye level to north.

Turn left palm abruptly toward your face. Hand is flat.

Scissor step rt foot behind left. Bring left palm to rt shoulder. Cross fisted rt arm in front of it, fist at left elbow.

Unwind to your right into high horse facing west, as Rt fist hammerfists chest level to north, palm down. Left hand is now palm-up against left shoulder.

Scissor step left foot behind rt. Double Eagle claw strikes downward- left in front of groin, rt just north of rt thigh.

Unwind to your left into high horse facing east. As you come around, drag whatever you have gripped with your Eagle claws along with you (possibly over your right hip/knee). Also get a left elbow strike in as you rotate.

End the same way you began: high horse facing east and looking north. Double Eagle claw hands, palm down, rt in front of groin and left slightly north of left thigh.

Repeat. Practice off both sides.

+Crane 3 (corkscrew punch)
Begin in high horse facing east and looking north. Double Eagle claw hands, palm down, rt in front of groin and left slightly north of left thigh.

Circle left arm clockwise in front of face to end at groin, still in Eagle claw to block/seize.

Corkscrew punch rt hand overtop of left arm, at waist level, while using left hand grip to pull opponent into your punch. End with rt little finger up. Torso can turn fwd, but do not move feet. (The fist stays in one place once it's struck the hypothetical target, and the ELBOW rotates around the axis. Extend the punch fully. It's okay if the shoulder hunches up a little.)

Step through to north with rt foot and turn to end in high horse facing west and looking north. As you step and turn, both Eagle claws circle up-and-over forward (rt at chin level, left at waist level) to end palm down, left in front of groin and rt slightly north of rt leg. You are now in the mirror of the stance you started with. Repeat drill on opposite side.


+Crane 4 (backfist to ground)
Begin in Black Crane high guard- high horse facing east and looking north, left arm out straight to north shoulder height, hand in "stop" position; rt "stop" hand at rt jaw. Toes are pointing northeast.

Turn to north and sink into front stance left foot fwd. Rt Eagle claw stabs palm-down in front of groin. Left Eagle claw out straight to north shoulder height.

Lift left foot into White Crane one-foot guard stance. Arms cross wrists at groin and then circle up-and-out to end in Crane-necks flightly to front of sides of temples. Elbows are bent.

Left hand goes to rt hip with grabbing motion. At the same time, Rt Crane's beak stabs north chest height, and left foot firemans' kick to north. (Note that the side that you kick with is the side that the grab BEGINS on. The subsequent Crane's Beak strike is with the other side.)

Little hop starting with left leg, as if you are stepping/jumping on the bent-over opponent. Torso and left toe turn northwest. Touch rt toe down briefly, then…

Outside-of-the-foot rt kick to downed opponent's head (or belly, or groin, or whatever). Pull foot back in. May touch toe down briefly if need be. Left hand is doing Black Crane ward at rt jaw.

Drop into deep lunge rt foot in front, left leg straight. Snappy knuckle-strike (like Monkey slep, only fisted) to downed opponent's head. Left hand still warding rt jaw.

Stand up in Black Crane high guard facing west.

Repeat drill on opposite side, OR….. Turn back to east with Black Crane arm switch.



My spirit misses kung fu. My body misses kung fu. My mind misses kung fu. My emotions have such painful associations with kung fu. I and kung fu are a moth circling a lit tiki torch. I am so bitter toward SK for several reasons, but one of the biggies is that he poisoned that well for me. I do so wish I had never laid eyes on that asshole.

Thursday

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


Friday- 131.0. FOD: Kiu Two. I had to look up the opening techniques of both sides. For some reason, I had Snake Versus Five Animals stuck in my head, and kept wanting to do the openings of that one instead. Note that Kiu Two starts with a LEFT punch for Snake A (not a rt punch as in Sv5), and a left FORWARD step for Snake B (not a left back step as in Sv5).

It just occurred to me that I know as many Snake forms as the Black Sash Snake stylist does.

Note that I need to check my FOD bowl and make sure there is at least one stone for the Green Dragon form.

Darby never got back to me. I guess he's too scared I'll want to spar. I'm a little annoyed that I didn't get to finish learning Green Dragon from him, but then he didn't get all of Hurricane Hands from me either.



Sat FOD: Wood Monkey. Don't forget that the first roll culminates with an axe kick, then a double back-of-the-hand strike down.

The arm circles immediately after that- I'm doing them clockwise, even though I am pretty sure I was taught counterclockwise. Clockwise makes more sense to go into the next strike. Since I no longer have a teacher, I am going to do them as I darn well see fit. So there.

Note that the rear roll is over the RIGHT shoulder, and the kick is with the left leg. The first time I did it, I wasn't sure which shoulder/leg it was- but it quickly became apparent that doing it left-shoulder-right-leg leaves you facing the wrong way for the technique that comes right after.



Sunday FOD: Three Step Arrow. I keep wanting to confuse this with Spear Hand- both fragments, both Mantis, both referring to weapons that you're not actually using.

Cutting down my soda intake a bit. One less here, one less there. Unfortunately, the Mountain House chicken a la king is full of hot peppers, which make me want to drink soda!



Mon FOD: Chen Dao. Used the broom handle as a substitute dao. A few moments of cluelessness as I tried to dredge up the opening- but once into it, I was fine till I got to the end and wanted to do the closing movements out of catherine Dao instead. I checked my notes, ran through both endings… they are quite similar, although each form has you in a different position *entering* the sequence.

Less soda today. Feeling some withdrawl.


Tues FOD: Little Red Dragon. I feel like I haven't done this one in a long time, but it (standard and mirror versions) went fine aside from the fact that I accidentally did three Dragon claws at the opening instead of two. It goes 2 claws, elbow strike, 3 claws. Just to mix you up further, Lun Chi begins with an identical opening, only using 3 Dragon claws.

This has always been one of my favorite forms. It's a short little thing, but it feels good, and it has the prettiest flying kick in it. JB's looks prettier- but mine is not bad, as long as I'm fully stretched out! I had to micro-fu it tonight at work, because I can't do good flying kicks in certain of my work pants.



Thursday: Arial silk. I was kind of dragging ass tonight for some reason- I tired easily, and actually started to get a little queasy near the end, with all the upside down- and don't feel like I advanced much. One important thing re: the basic climb- if I place my feet while my knees are still bent instead of waiting till they're half straightened, I get a higher climb.



Someone found my blog by searching on "spots on a toddler's groin pictures". I find that disturbing. Hopefully it was a parent looking to research some rash they found on their kid... but I don't recall having done any blogging about toddlers' groins.

Chess on the mat

One of the first things to do is learn to accept, and to expect this Power to flow through everything we do. –Ernest Holmes



Sunday: 133.0

I got fast food yesterday- still working on the book of excellent and tempting coupons that Arby's hands out over the holidays. I was good, though- I cut the roast beef sandwiches (no condiments) in half, and also split up the fries to make small portions and stretch everything into multiple meals. Yesterday I also recieved the dehydrated Mountain House food I'd ordered- chicken a la king and beef stew. I adore that stuff. It's not cheap, and it's caloric, but you make your own portions and prepare them just by adding hot water (from kettle or microwave) and letting it sit for 5 min. "Make your own portion sizes" can be good as long as you are disciplined- but you have to be disciplined- it's easy to want to make a biggie portion if you're hungry. The ease of preparing this stuff, though, makes it simple to make a smaller amount and say, "If I'm still hungry after eating this, I'll just make a little more." It's also nice that it's dehydrated and you don't have to worry about it going bad for a long time. Portable, and doesn't have to be refrigerated unless you've already reconstituted it. We've had some instances of lunch theft in the employee lounge at work recently. I always worry about that, since I work alone at night. If my lunch gets stolen, I can't leave and go get food- I'm hosed. Another thing- I am not good about eating veggies; the Mountain House beef stew has lots of peas and carrots and things in it that I normally don't eat much of- so that's a good veggie-eating incentive. Both of these varieties are generous on the actual meat. It seems like most food companies want to try to get away with measuring out the bare minimum of meat that they can include, load up on the cheaper fillers, and still legally call their product a "meat" dish. Sometimes I end up buying extra meat and supplementing certain prepared dishes of this type (If I still consider them worth buying at all!). Mountain House chicken a la king has lots of chicken, and their beef stew has lots of beef.


Monday: FOD- Mantis Bo. I didn't do it. Bump to Tuesday.

Tuesday: FOD: Mantis Bo. Used the bamboo staff. So light, so short, so different-feeling. I don't think I'd actually try to do most of the staff strikes with this, if it was a real combat situation. Tangling up the feet and such, sure. Stabbing with the end (the ends of this staff are actually cut on an angle, so stabbing would be BETTER... easier to maneuver due to the decreased length, too). This staff is a bit thicker, too- not the best size for my hands to wrap around.

136. Gak. Sadly, I can't lay this at the door of the Arby's. This was too much Mountain House. Obviously, dipping out of the bulk container is resulting in too much portion-size upcreep. I shall solve this with a measuring cup and individual pre-allotted 1-serving baggies.


Wednesday: Measuring out one cup servings of the Mountain House. Sigh. It's a sad thing. Already back down to 134, though. One cup is 290 calories... sheesh. The beef stew is fewer.



Acrobalance. More practice on the standards, and a few new things: paired rolls with two people forming a wheel, each holding the other's ankles... standing on the shoulders of a seated base with no handholds, then transferring to standing on that person's hands (I managed the shoulders after a couple tries; was not successful with the handstand).

Also- plank with your feet on a big ball, then pike your butt up and try to get your torso vertical and your body folded as closely as possible. I had an easier time with this than most people due to my excellent balance and decent core strength, but even one or two reps is a workout.

The teacher made a point of coming up to me after class to tell me that she was enjoying having me there. That was cool.


Thursday- 131.5. Yowza. The measuring cup, unpleasant as it is, rules. I want to get a new tattoo on my hip, and it would be good to be back down to 124 first so that it will be in the right place and stay the right shape.


Evening BJJ at Gracie Seattle. It was supposedly "all levels" tonight, but Rodrigo had two sets of complex, two-sided, multi-step techniques to teach.

Standup: Sleeve & lapel grip, step on opponent's hip on the side that you have the sleeve. Sit down, place other foot on opponent's other hip. Let go of lapel grip and grab opponent's ankle. Yank yourself between hir feet and wind left leg around the back of opponent's rt leg, placing foot on hir hip. Use your rt knee to pinch hir leg between both of yours, take down. DON'T LET GO OF SLEEVE (I always have trouble with that). Get into side control, but allow opponent to grab half guard so that s/he can do the next technique.

From bottom half guard: frame up and shrimp out, reach the arm that's on the mat under opponent to grab hir ankle. Wrap other arm around the backs of hir thighs. Switch feet (don't cheat or skip this). Get to knees, pulling opponent's bottom half toward you with your arms and stretching hir leg out with your hooked toe, till you can put hir on hir back and get on top.

I was having some trouble with that bottom half guard one... it was hard to get my short arms all the way around the opponent's bottom half, and I was having a problem with stretching his leg out- I never did quite figure out what I was doing wrong with that part, other than I seemed to be wanting to get to my knees too soon.

Next: same beginning from standup, only as soon as you sit, switch your sleeve grip to a cross-sleeve grip. Now use your ankle hold to turn into inverted guard, and continue into an omoplata. Do a sitback all the way over the opponent and grab a triangle. Opponent's turn: grab the pantleg on the bent knee, and move around to the opposite side to put your knee in ther person's ribs. Pull/pry enough to get your arm out, then get the "seatbelt" guard passposition.

The most trouble I was having with this one was that sitback... just couldn't seem to get the flow quick and smooth. Also, I think I should have been hiking my hips up higher and being more forceful going into the omoplata, but I think my partner was being a bit *too* helpful about diving into it willingly.

Had to sit out the first live roll- I was so tired! Then went once with one of the female white belts, and once with Angela. Angela got me two or three times with a complicated series of moves ending in a sub I never saw coming. It was like chess.... I can't really wrap my brain around planning more than a move or two in advance, but some people have dozens of moves lined up in their minds. It really showed up the difference between Angela's level and mine. I hope that when I am at her level, I will be able to play better chess on the mat.

I tried the takedown of the day on her and F'ed it up, but good for me for attempting it.

Wednesday

No man, however civilized, can listen for very long to African drumming, or Indian chanting, or Welsh hymn singing, and retain intact his critical and self-conscious personality. –Aldous Huxley



Saturday: 132.5

Finger is significantly swollen- not just at the kinky tip, but the entire length. Slightly discolored. Hurts. Can't close a fist completely.

I also have lots of funny green bruises on the fronts of my shins. MM's shins and knees don't feel like they're made out of cement, the way CK's do- but he kicks a LOT.

It took 2 days for the bodily-backlash from Arial Silk to show up- sore hip flexors and thighs! Ow! It's good, though- CK is always complaining about my tight hip flexors, and God knows the thighs can always use more work. Both arial silk and acrobalance involve a lot of SPLITS- or at least as close as one can get. I have never been able to do the splits- either the Chinese kind or the front-to-back kind- even as a high school cheerleader. I can get close, but no joy. On the silk, I can do double foot locks and use my body weight to try to squeeze another inch out of it.

Drum circle- went well. My sleep cycle was all messed up this weekend, and my brain was not cooperating as far as getting creative with rhythms and chants (especially as I was confined to stick drums), but luckily the old standbys served. I was being conservative with both fequency and volume on the bell drum so that it would not become obnoxious, but at one point the didge player crawled over and propped his microphone right under the bell drum- so I guess he thought I should be louder! There was a new flute player there, and after the circle closed, he came over and told me that he would have liked to hear more from the bell drum. When I told him that I was trying to not dominate the circle with it, he laughed and said that he had been minimizing the flute for the same reason. That was funny, because *I* had been wanting to hear more from the flute! It's usually the wrong people who are anxious about overusing an instrument. The truly obnoxious ones are oblivious!

I tried a shamanic beat on Ascha, my big frame drum, as I usually do one time per circle. It's always interesting to see what happens with that. This time, they did not know what to do with it, but it got them very excited nonetheless. They tried to join in, and it was complete and utter chaos.... but they seemed to be grooving on it, and two people got up to dance, so I kept going for a while even though I had to work hard to tune out the chaos and keep the beat!

(Bell drum is in the picture, in case you don't know what a bell drum is...)



Sunday FOD: Frolic Of the Five Animals. I didn't work on the mirror form. Can *almost* make a fist today.

Monday FOD: Tai Chi short form. I didn't do it. Sigh. I'm having a really hard time disciplining myself right now with this.



Wednesday lunchtime BJJ at GB Seattle.

I wore my newly-tailored GB gi for the first time- the sleeve cuffs are the most annoying part now; they are so wide and gaping that everyone loves to grab them.

Finger did mostly okay; I still can't do a real fist, but I can grip as long as I do it carefully.

Warmups- huff, puff, huff.... oh, cardio.....

Double-legs.... my breakfalls still need work; once I hit the back of my head on the mat. (Eyeroll)

You double-leg, partner guillotines and pulls guard. You cartwheel to the OPPOSITE side of partner's body before he can close guard, pry your head out, and take side control. If you go to the wrong side, you choke yourself. (You only do this once before you learn.) Partner shrimps out and closes guard (or gets spider guard, or whatever s/he wants).

You double-leg, partner tries to guillotine. You change to single-leg (on the same side that you are getting guillotined), pull the knee to your chest, swing your body out to the side, sit down, and pull/shoulder your partner into falling forward. Partner must let go of the guillotine to avoid doing a face-plant on the mat. This took several slow-mo's before I caught the hang, but once I did, it was nice. Luckily I was working with Marc; we do well at helping each other work through things. Prof. Carlos' demo was funny because he tried to tell us that this technique was a little bit "complicated"- he tried to say "complicated" about five times and couldn't quite wrap his tongue around it. Finally I interjected, "Hard".

Open mat, I rolled with one of the new white belt women, Moe. She is really, REALLY strong. She claimed to have no martial arts experience. After rolling for a couple minutes and feeling how muscular she was, I was like, "Okay, wait a minute here..." then she fessed up to dance. That explains it. She has little technique, but enough basics that combined with the incredible strength and the extra weight, she was a real challenge. She's gonna be trouble as soon as she gets a little technique! We kept going till two o'clock- even Rodrigo left, and told us to lock the door behind us.



Acrobalance. I decided that in light of the persistantly painful and unreliable right shoulder, I would be judicious about what I tried to base- although I continue to wish for more practice at it. I declined to do table-stacking unless I was on the apex, but I did base some cathedrals and some plank-to-walkovers. My balance was a mixed bag. Basing is much more challenging for me than flying, which is part of the reason I want to do more of it.

Noticed during cartwheel lifts that one hip was much more flexible than the other. When I was supposed to drop my left hip, the leg went right down like a dead log. When I was supposed to drop my right hip, I relaxed it- and very little happened. That leg just kept sticking out stiffly.

I didn't get to do a whole lot tonight because there were a lot of people, and a lot of beginners. My good balance, and the fact that I'm not afraid to be dropped, makes me a good person for the virgin bases to practice on. I'm heavier than several of those wispy little girls, though... a couple of times, I was like, "You should probably do your first run on this other girl who looks like she weighs about 30lb less than I." It's a lot more about the correct form than about weight.... but with people (and I'm including myself) who aren't very experienced at this, our form is not always correct enough to support a good deal of weight, and so 30lb more or less really *does* make a difference at this level. I'm seeing that acrobalance is like some forms of partnered dance- in that when you're the one being lifted and thrown, there is a pressure (overt or subtle; from others and/or from yourself) to attempt to drop weight and be as light as possible.

Some pain in the upper back tonight. Also fighting a headache (which had begun halfway through BJJ class earlier; perhaps as a result of that flubbed breakfall) all the way through class.

Thursday

Freeing the body inevitably leads to freeing the heart. –Gabrielle Roth



a

Friday- 131.5. FOD: Spear hand. Note that the first footwork motion is into FRONT stance. When I went though this, I was doing Seven Stars. For the past several months, I have been inadvertantly changing a whole bunch of stances to Seven Stars. I had previously assumed that it was because I had repped Spear Hand and Southern Mantis so much; but now I am starting to wonder if subconscously my body is thinking Seven Stars is going to be less painful on my knees. Disturbing, if so.

Saturday FOD: Lun Chi

Sunday FOD: Silken Needle. Note that there are THREE side-pushes, and they go 2, 2, 1. I can never remember that.


Monday FOD: Cannon Fist. Not happy with the way this went today; going to roll it over into tomorrow.

Tuesday FOD: ergo- Cannon Fist.


Thursday: Picked up MM and took him to my (non-MA) gym for a few hours of sparring. It was great, all except for the part where I jammed my busted finger before we'd even broken a sweat. God, it hurt. I didn't want to waste the opportunity to work out, though- so after a short break huddled against the wall gritting my teeth and cradling the hand to my chest, then sticking it in the water fountain, I fisted it and continued. It was definitely a handicap to keep the hand fisted- it's my dominant hand, and I do a lot of grabbing, clawing and poking. A lot of Tiger, Snake and Mantis is nullified when you have to keep your hand fisted. I did, however, do a little better about remembering to not stop kicks with my hands- or if I did, to at least use the heel and keep the fingers out of the way.

His head seemed to be surrounded by an impenatrable forcefield, but I got lots of belly and groin attacks in. The scissor-step underhanded Tiger strike to the groin was not working on him as well as it had been working on CK, and I couldn't discern why. He often has all four limbs moving simultaneously, which is very distracting, and you don't know where to guard. He got me a lot with the trick of striking with left leg and right arm together, or vice versa. That one always gets me. Another thing that was working for him was hand strikes shooting from underneath or rolling overtop the opposite arm. The ones coming from underneath never looked like they had range- until they hit me.

That right elbow of his was the bane of my existance. Everywhere I turned, it was in my face. The Wing Chun that he has been practicing is really showing there. Often I impaled *myself* on the elbow while I was trying to come in on him. He tried to guillotine me a LOT, but it was very easy to escape.

He was very skilled with blocking my close-in knee strikes. It was very hard to avoid telegraphing those with my balance shifts. With someone who can read those well, I need to be better at discerning which ones are positioned well enough to be worth going for and which are fruitless.

Another thing that I did well today was to pay careful attention to my focus level. As soon as I started to get frustrated and noticed my focus level drop, I asked for a short break- instead of continuing and allowing the frustration/focus drop to lead me to do stupid stuff and get clobbered MORE, which is a self-perpetuating cycle.

Great practice; I was really happy that he had made the time. Hope to do it again next time he's in town (prob next fall). I'd like to take him over to Sleeper for a little grappling if we get the chance next time- although that will probably sink my goal of getting one tap on him before he learns and formal grappling! We did end up on the floor once today, and were both trying for footlocks- I *still* can't manage one, dang it.



Arial Silk at the circus school. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do this today with my re-injured finger- it hurt (and so did that perpetual sore rt shoulder), but was managable. Most of the same stuff from last time, munus the double foot locks and the second climb technique (although I did get a little time to play with double footlocks). One new thing- flying Dutchman. Single footlock with both silks, then split the silk and twirl your body around the side that your foot it locked, wrapping the silk around your ankle and pushing it down with the opposite foot. Three up and then three down. Note that this one is a little dangerous, especially if you're high up, because it's a little hard to get unwrapped again and you have to make sure you leave yourself enough energy to get yourself out of what you've gotten yourself into. Also, I need to keep my body stiffer on the twirl and keep it more controlled instead of storta throwing myself into it.

Note on the climb- after bracing the foot, stick both legs out stiffly to make an L shape with the body, then pull the hips to the silk. Taking the extra time and care to do each of these steps cleanly resulted in a better climb.

I was not doing very well emotionally today, and wrestled with anger and depression. It was frustrating, because today was almost identical to last Thursday, when I worked out with CK and MM and then took them to Shaolin- except that week I went straight home afterward instead of distracting myself with circus school, which should have made me MORE susceptible to sinking into angst. But I had been doing pretty well the last several days, and backslid today. I wish I had a better understanding of the triggers.


Friday: 132

I had been looking forward to some BJJ today, and am quite vexed. But my finger is very painful, and I don't think it's up to grappling. I hope it will heal quickly. I really have got to get some grappling in before the next work rotation begins. Also, I have to host the drum circle tomorrow. Stick drums for me, sigh.

When I decided that I could just live with the modest amount of pain and disfunction presented by that busted finger, I hadn't really thought about its potential for RE-INJURY. If it's going to be frequently reinjured- and take a long time to heal- something may need to be done. Unfortunately, the health insurance I was hoping to manifest has not manifested, and will have to wait another year.

Wednesday

"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."-- Grace Murray Hopper



Saturday: 130.0. FOD: Snake Versus Five Animals.

Sun: 133.5 (WTF?!? Okay, I had a couple of extra cookies and things, but not enough to account for that. I'm calling it a hormonal thing.) FOD: Five Animals.

Mon: 135.0. (Yeesh! I really have not been snacking that much!) FOD: Leopard 3.

Wednesday: 132 (Okay, that's more like it).

I met with CK this morning, and we spent several hours doing grueling stance work- the kind where you're just standing there, or doing something seemingly easy like taking a step- and it's a more intense workout than a BJJ roll. Knees, pelvis, lower back, the crease where the trunk meets the top of the thigh. Note: engage the backs and sides of the thighs more, and try to open up that crease area more... about two minutes of that (just STANDING STILL, mind you) made me feel like I'd been digging ditches for eight hours straight... but it seems to take some of the strain off my bad knees.


A little tai chi. Then a sinful lunch. Then back to the gym for sparring. Her back is all messed up, and I didn't have my contacts in, so we were going fairly easy. I got her with the same trick that I got her with this summer- heavy bridging on both of her arms, doing a bunch of stuff with one hand to keep her attention, then suddenly popping the OTHER hand up into her chin. There is a lot of this in Hurricane Hands. I got her with it several times, to my surprise- I'm sure it will stop working soon! I was also getting her a few times with a trick I've been using on her for years: I kick or feint, she blocks, then as she lowers the knee, I nail her with a follow-up kick. It works best if I do both kicks without setting the foot down. Another thing that worked for me a few times was dropping into a low scissor stance with and underhand looping claw to the groin or lower belly. I should mention that besides her back being all messed up, she is very heavily medicated- which I'm sure has a lot to do with the fact that I was able to land anything at all on her.

We did not discuss my life disasters, to my relief. I told her that I had had a really ugly few months and did not want to talk about my life- and she was good about it. She twice brought up SK, and I gave short noncommittal answers and moved on quickly. She was playing with her phone at one point, and put on the ring he always used ("caffeinated rattlesnake")- that hurt. But I did okay overall, emotionally.

MM e-mailed me to ask if we could get together to spar a couple times while he was in town, which is great. I'm considering it a compliment that he asked. He'll kill me, of course.... I would sure love to get him on the ground and tap him out with a BJJ technique JUST ONCE. I couldn't manage it last time he was here, although we rolled around for a long time, and I came close with a number of things. He is REALLY strong, has significant weight on me, and besides his Kung Fu and Karate, he has some Aikido and other things in his tool kit. He is a formidable opponent indeed. He and CK and I will probably work together tomorrow afternoon. It's great to round-robin spar with the two of them... we can go for hours.

Acrobalance at the circus school. There were only five of us tonight, three intermediates and two advanced, so we did some challenging stuff and it was very much fun. Willis was basing for all of us, and having a challenging time, because we were all very differently shaped. It went from 5-foot me to a 6-foot student; and two were very skinny while one was a pear shape and one an hourglass. All of these sizes, shapes and weight distributions called for different balancing methods and post placement for him. I am doing well. Now that I have the hang of getting into the rear plank, I am much less clumsy- and my balance is always excellent. Gawds, but this stuff is an intense core/abs workout.

double-legs and aerial silk

With developments in technical competence and the application of the technique in training, grading, or competition, the self confidence of the student improves. He sees his improvements as successful efforts on his part. Success breeds success, and success breeds self-confidence. The two go very much hand-in-hand. A successful and confident student looks forward to training and enjoys the learning environment. A happy student learns faster than an unhappy one because he enjoys what he is doing, and because the skills are consciously and subconsciously associated with pleasure, they are retained for longer. In that the reverse is also true- that failure breeds lack of confidence and dissatisfaction with training- the learning environment has to allow for the student to succeed in what he is doing, no matter what his level of ability or competence. Tony Gummerson, "Teaching Martial Arts"


Lunchtime BJJ at GB Seattle. There was "beginner" and "competition class"- back to back, that's a challenge any day, so I decided to ease back in and just do the beginning class. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO crowded in there today. It was really hard to get enough space to do the techniques. Prof Carlos took a step backward and would have stepped right on my partner's face if I hadn't stuck out an arm and blocked his shin just in time! Two guys were flailing all over the place, and I was THIS close to getting up and going over there to tell them to take it down a few notches- that is just not safe when you've only got three square feet of mat space and other people's heads all around you. One of them was a blue belt, too- he should have known better.

Opponent in side control: you bridge and frame, take the arm nearest hir head and cross it over your body to stick under hir armpit. Twist to belly, get to knees. Double-leg from there. Note that if you hop to your feet first, you get takedown points. Otherwise no points for this.

I drilled with Kelly, who was wearing a fresh blue belt! Awesome. Z also has his blue (about time- I was tired of getting wiped all over the mat by that little white belt!)

I would have really liked to get a chance to roll with some of these people that I haven't seen in a long time, but I think if I'd tried to do the competition class after that, I would have upchucked halfway through.

Fronts of thighs are killing me from the kneeling double-leg takedowns (we did about a bazillion reps).


Aerial silk at the circus school. This was really fun. I think I was the biggest *and* the least flexible person in the room. That was so weird!!! That has never happened to me before, not even in ballet! The class was full of these tiny skinny pixie-like Asian girls, who could tie their bodies into pretzels and looked like they would blow away if I sneezed on them. It's good, though- it'll push me to work harder. I can see that I do not have the body to be a star pupil at this particular skill, however!

There were only three silks and eight students, which I wasn't very happy about at first- but it turned out to be fine, because we silk virgins (five of us) could only work for a few minutes at a time before we needed to rest our hands and shoulders. I have a lot of upper body strength and a lot of muscle in my arms and shoulders, but it was still challenging. A great workout, and fun! It will get more fun the more technique we get, too.

Rt shoulder is still painful- the one that was painful at Acrobalance a few weeks ago, for no discernable reason. The time span and the lack of any apparent actual injury is worrying me. I was also noticing- during the intensive yoga-contortionist warmup- that I have a painful knot below my rt shoulderblade. I think I may have a permanent knot of some type there from my rib-out early this year- a hunk of scar tissue or something. Lovely. I hope it's not related to the shoulder pain.

I was worried that my broken finger would hamper me in the silk workout, but it didn't as far as I could tell- so that was a relief.

"If you were naked, I'd have no problem"

It is important that when a new activity is being introduced, the practices that immediately precede it are will known to the student and the general movement pattern is similar to the new skill. The advantage of this strategy is that the student is confident in his own ability and has a starting point to work from. Having an existing frame of reference makes any demonstration or presentation of a new technique all the more effective for the student, because he can quickly relate it to his own existing range of skills. With similar movement patterns, the rate of learning is much faster than with different ones, because part of the skill is already known. Tony Gummerson, "Teaching Martial Arts"



Yeah, there's another blog post title that'll get a few extra hits.......



Friday FOD: Iron Needle
Sat FOD: 3 Step Arrow fragment
Sun: Silken Needle
Mon: Chen Jian

Tues: Jian, again. Yesterday was the last stone in the jar, so today was the restart- and I picked Jian again. This is obviously straight-sword-and-Needle week.

Wednesday: Did not exist
Thursday: Sil Lum Tao
Friday through the following Wednesday: Did not exist. This has been a bad week.

Series of nightmares on Monday, including one in which something new and particularly disturbing happened- for the first time in about a decade, I reached for my knife in a nightmare and the thing wasn't there.

True, I have not yet replaced my broken serrated knife. I'm still carrying the straight edge, but have gotten a little lazy in that I've been putting it not in my waistband or cargo-pants leg pocket as has been previous habit, but in my shirt pocket (where- if I needed it- there would be a delay as I would have to first think about what pocket it was in, and then dig past all the other crap in my pocket to get to it.) Now that I am sleeping in the tent, I have also gotten lazy in that instead of having the knife right where I can reach it while I sleep, I've been leaving it on the counter or hearth.

This nightmare illustrates a disturbing disconnect between me and my warrior self.

It's also bothering me a lot that when I fly to Delaware on a business trip at the end of the month, I will have to leave my knife at home altogether (unless I want to pay $50 to check a bag) and be totally unarmed for three days in a strange city. I do not like that feeling. No pepper spray either. &%#$^&% TSA Security Theater.

Congrats to Gracie Barra Seattle, which kicked butt at last weekend's Revolution.


------------
Tuesday: Another nightmare, during which I thought about reaching for the knife and didn't even try this time. I had some kind of small blunt untensil in my hand, and decided (?) to make do with that, even though the guy I was about to engage was about half my age, three times my size, had already beaten the crap out of at least one person further up the hallway, and was ranting like he was seriously high. (Hey, at least I was still willing to pile in; that's good, right? That guy was scary!)


Wednesday: Acrobalance. I discerned during the warmup that my right shoulder was sore and weak (Why- when the most martial thing I've done with it lately is open a stuck ketchup bottle for my housemate??). I also noticed that I seem even more wobbly than usual on poses that involve standing on the left foot.

Allover, I was doing a little more poorly this week in acrobalance, altho I think part of that had to do with the guy who was my partner for most of it. He was new and clueless as well, yet somehow decided that he was competant to teach me (yeah, those types of people aren't just in BJJ class!) At one point, he slid his foot down to brace against the inside of my knee while I was in the Chinese splits, and then instructed me to swing my leg to the inside- umm, sorry dude, that is not physically possible unless I saw it off first, or you move your damn foot!

I gave an instruction tonight too, though- I couldn't help it. I try really hard to remember to keep my mouth shut unless it's a class I am actually officially supposed to be TEACHING- and moreso when it's only *my* second class in the school. But the (male) assistant teacher tried three or four different ways to tell a teen girl how to fix her posture so that she wouldn't get pulled too far forward by her partner, and finally I couldn't stand it any more and I told her "stick your chest out". She did, and immediately was able to balance after having fallen off about ten times. So I forgive myself.

Ironically, I seem to be more balanced on upside-down techniques than on rightside-up ones.

I would have liked to practice being the "base" a little more, but once again I was by far the lightest person in the room. Not that that means I can't lift someone a lot heavier than myself, with the proper form- when I did contact improv, I once had a six-foot-two male ballet dancer jumping up and sitting on my shoulder, and he must have weighed twice what I do. But I figured that since I don't know what I'm doing in this class well enough to always *HAVE* proper form, I'd better be conservative.

Being the lightest also made me the default for "Hey, Kitsune, come over here and let this brand-new guy lie down and try to balance you upside down on his feet" even though it was only my second class. Luckily, as a martial artist, I know how to fall down. And here they have something I don't have in MA class- SPOTTERS, whose job is to save you when you're about to do a face plant or go cartwheeling over the railing into the arena below.

Note that there were several clothing malfunctions tonight, mostly involving trying to stand on people's thighs, and having one's foot slip on their pants or tights. I think what I wore tonight is the wise choice- bike shorts with yoga pants over them. That way if people are having trouble getting purchase on my pants, I can just take them off. When I was standing on my partner's thigh (the pose in the photo, incidentally) and he suggested an alternate direction of balancing, I said, "It's not the orientation that's making me slide, it's your pants. If you were naked, I've have no problem." (You know, I really ought to take more time to get to know a class and its students before tossing out commentary like that.... but the teacher was repeatedly making reference to the position of her "ass" and our asses as well, so I figured if she could get away with saying "ass", I could get away with suggesting that a guy take his pants off....)

Acrobalance

Sunday FOD: Iron Needle
Monday FOD: Southern Mantis fragment
Tuesday: did not exist.
Wednesday FOD: Sil Lum Tao


Today I went to Acrobalance class. It is indeed a lot like "Extreme Contact Improv For Martial Artists". It was fun. I did one lift with the teacher's assistant, and he immediately asked me if I was a gymnast. Well, yes, back when all the continents were still one land mass. Then he had somebody else lift me, while he hollered across the room to the teacher, "Jenny! Look! It's her first night!" Ha ha.