Friday, August 31, 2007

Visitors and Butt-Kickings

Becki and Amanda are here! They're currently crashed out in my bed, as they haven't quite adjusted to Pacific Time, much less my time, yet. They'll probably adjust just in time to fly home on Monday. Even Teddie likes them! We're going to go wine-tasting and see the show tomorrow night.

Reactions to the haircut have ranged from "Wow, it's gone" to (more commonly) "It's darling!" to (even more commonly) "It looks very natural on you - this is the way your hair should be". I like it, which is really all that matters. I promise I'll get pics soon. The eyebrows are almost healed, although they started scabbing over the other day, prompting a lot of "What happened to your eyes? Did you get hit in the face?"-type questions.

I have not gotten a lick of knitting done this week. Tuesday was a fifteen hour work day for me, Wednesday and Thursday were both nine hour days, plus class in the evenings, and then today I drove down to LA to pick the girls up.

I did, however, get my butt thoroughly kicked to hell and back at sparring last night. A.) One should not spar on barely twelve hours of sleep over a three day period. I knew as soon as I walked out on the mat that I mentally and physically didn't have it that day and shouldn't have come. In typical coach/teacher fashion, all I got was "Breathe, focus, and work through it." Sir was trying to show me how to set up a hook kick to the back of the head, and I really have no idea what he said now. All I remember is then getting told to drill stretch side kicks and hook kicks (not to mention the repeat side kicks and crescent kicks in general) outside of class this week. B.) One should not spar one's instructor in the above mentioned situation. (Was not by choice.) I mean, I've watched Mr. R spar in class before, and even on a good energy day I'm still only a green belt, but watching him spar someone else does not prepare you for how FAST he is. Good lord! I have bruises all up and down my left arm in particular - some from blocks and some from hits. I was planning on going to Solvang after class - Chrissy wants me to start calling the show as early as Sunday after this - but I walked off the mat, changed clothes, sat to collect my gear and decided it really was too much effort to get back up. I ended up cleaning my gear there and watching most of Haganah class with Ma'am, her daughter, and Mel. Oh, and my new board break is a #2 front kick, which I drilled on the pads five bajillion times with Mr. R. while the lower-rank color belts were doing their breaks. The drills worked, though. Brown board, second try (first was my fault for not setting it up correctly), what Sir called an "excellent break", which means I'm probably going to get something harder next time. Like Sir teases me, though, I wouldn't have it any other way. The new class schedule starts after this weekend - it will be nice to have a variety of classes and times to choose from when I can.

Now I must sleep or I will be in even worse shape next week!

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