Seeing the Skull

Okay, the title probably means absolutely nothing to 99.9% of the people out there. To me and the others who know what Astaria is and play there, it means your character has died. Dying in-game only results in a loss of levels, but when you actually hunt and level as rarely as I do, it's a pain in the arse. I saw the skull three times in the past 24 hours: killed by another player once (clan war) and by my own inattention to my surroundings twice. Sigh. That will give me something to do, I suppose.

Class was tiny tonight, there were only eight of us. I'm told that's common right after testing. Cute Camo Belt is now Cute Green Belt. One of these days I'm going to work up the courage to ask his name. Brown Belt Girl wasn't there tonight, so I don't know if she got her red belt or not. I bet she did, though. Tonight was all about the kicks. I can't even remember what all the names were. We did push kicks (where you use your foot more to push your partner away than try to hurt them), jump side kicks where you jumped off both feet (those were hard), jump side kicks where you jumped off one foot (much easier), and I think he said they were called back roundhouses (I was still processing the jumping side kicks, so the possibility that I'm totally wrong is pretty good) where you turn and kick with your back leg. We did several combinations of them, moving up and down the studio with our partners. That doesn't count the front kicks and roundhouses in the formwork. Ugh. Tomorrow may be a swimming day instead of running! I got partnered with the White-Belt-Now-Orange-Belt kid again. He seems like a nice kid (he looks like he's maybe fourteen or fifteen tops), but I get the distinct impression he's afraid. I don't know if it's of getting hurt, just nervous about the class and the work, or even me personally, but it's annoying. I mean, I put some strength behind my kicks, sure, but it's mostly about learning the technique for our level right now, so there's not a lot of power to them. He definitely doesn't need to hold the pad on the other side of the room (slight exaggeration but not much) for kicking drills, not to mention it's damn hard to keep your balance when you're trying a new kick and the target pad moves because your partner is either flinching to the side or stepping even further back. His forms are good, though. Sigh. Hit/kick me already! Or at least realize you're holding a big thick pad and let me kick or hit it! I want another class where I realize my knuckles are bleeding halfway through drills and it feels like I've been hitting a brick wall instead of a pad. Cute Green Belt and Purple Belt Guy have been the best partners I've had so far, with Brown Belt Girl a close second (we usually end up laughing but not hitting as hard as we maybe should). I also finished learning the moves for my new form tonight and talked with Ma'am again about watching sparring on Thursday. She thought it was a great idea and said it often helps people who are initimidated by the idea of sparring to get more comfortable with it, but not many take the initiative to actually come until they have to for belts. (Hell, I'd come every class if I could, but I can't afford it in either time or money, unfortunately.) I like Ma'am a lot; she is the one who has been my form and techniques instructor and she never makes me feel stupid for asking questions, even if it's as basic as "what's the difference between a roundhouse and a side kick?" I like Sir and Mr. H (the other instructor in class, we have three), too, of course, but I work with Ma'am usually and will go to her for questions more often as a rule. For clarification purposes, Ma'am is not Sir's wife. I'll refer to Sir's wife as Mrs. S., who I also like, and is the one who is pregnant and did my orientation and taught the first part of my white belt form. Apparently the baby is due very soon, so I need to get working on a baby hat, I think!

Speaking of knitting (I know this is getting long, sorry), I wasn't able to finish Mom's sock this weekend. I think I'm in the dreaded Knitter's Twilight Zone on this sock. I work and work on it and never seem to get anywhere. I think I actually only have less than an inch on the foot and then the toe, though, so soon! I've also FINALLY finished the increases on the SRSP sleeves. I think my row gauge might be off now, though, but for the life of me I can't figure it out. I'm supposed to get 30 rows over 4". I had to swatch a bit to get both stitch and row gauge, but I did get it and I've been checking it. But now I'm somehow down to 28 rows over 4", and the directions say after you finish the increases to work even until the sleeve is 18.5" from beginning. But the sleeve is already 19" long. I have the correct number of stitches for each sleeve, should I not bother with the working even part and just start the decrease for the raglan? Will that mess me up when it comes time to sew the sleeves in? I could just keep following the pattern, but I think I will end up with sleeves that are too long. Gotta ponder this for a while.

And I gotta get some sleep. Sleeping pills don't work for anything, ugh.