Words, words, words...

Suffice to say, the audition trip was interesting and it was nice to get to know the two guys I went with better (800+ miles of driving will do that), but I would rather have been home. Still, I did get to meet up with some old friends, which was nice. We also caught the last approximately two minutes of the Super Bowl at a sports bar full of Giants fans, which was fun. The TeddieCat also apparently found a new girlfriend while I was away. Although he's ran and hid from every other cat sitter I've had, he likes Chrissy. She's the only person I've ever heard use the terms "snuggly" and "lovebug" to describe my cat. Weird animal.

I didn't get much knitting done, in fact, I ended up frogging the toe of the second Wendelin sock after I realized that I'd somehow ended up with several stitches on the wrong needle and had been happily increasing about five stitches from where I should have been. I did get several more repeats done on the Drop Stitch Scarf, even though it's kind of gotten into that weird twilight zone of scarves where you can do five million pattern repeats and the scarf only grows about half an inch. I'm going to try to at least finish the first sleeve of the sweater this weekend and hopefully get a decent start on the second one as well.

Class stuff behind the cut. Man, I miss three days of class and I get "Oh good, are you back for a while now?" Most people don't even come to class two days in a week. I miss three days and it's assumed that I've abandoned the school. Luckily, Ma'am was kind enough to work with me on my new form after tkd Wednesday night. I need it. I always say that when I start learning a new form, and actually this one isn't too bad. Nothing too tricksy or difficult in it. I just don't have the memorization down yet. I will have to work on it over the weekend so I can start working on cleaning it next week.

I have gotten a lot of comments and cracks lately about how many classes I take, or how tough or aggressive I am/must be. I get it from lots of people online and irl, and even the instructors. I'm not trying to be tough or aggressive or show off. I just enjoy being there, I want to learn as much as I can, and I know that in a few weeks, just when my training is going to intensify for black belt, I'll only be able to come once a week. At this point in my life, I'm physically capable of handling the classload. So what's the big deal? And what's the point of training if you're going to half-ass it while you're there? I think Sir kind of gets my frustration. Whenever he hears those comments, he catches my eye, smiles and shakes his head. Of course, he and his wife both make their living doing all of these classes and more every day, so I'm sure they've gotten those comments most of their training lives, too. I was rather grateful when Ma'am said that if Sir really thought Weapons class would help me, he would tell me to get my butt out there, though, since I'm really not interested in weapons much (ssahng naghts are the weapon of choice this unit, ugh!) and technically don't have to deal with them until after I get my black belt.

Tonight's FIGHT class was interesting. We've had a bunch of new people join class lately, but tonight we had a guy who is teaching English in Taiwan join us as he was passing through town. Afterwards, he took a picture of the dojahng and the class to show his students when he goes back to Taiwan. Ma'am and Mrs. S stayed for a while and talked to a new girl who seemed to be interested in the class. They warned her that many girls don't like FIGHT because it gets too rough and it's mostly guys, but that I came whenever I could, and the only reasons the two of them weren't doing it were injury (Ma'am's knee is still messed up) and Baby S. The regular guys know how and when to dial it back if they need to. F clipped me with an uppercut elbow to the chin tonight, and he is a big guy, about my height and probably twice my width and I'm sure has a good hundred pounds on me (trying to move him is like trying to move a brick wall). It honestly did not hurt at all, although he was absolutely horrified that he hit a girl. It earned both of us a good five minutes of teasing from the rest of the guys and from the peanut gallery. I don't know if that helped make up the girl's mind one way or the other, but we had fun =) The guys take care of me, but also respect that I'm there to learn to take care of myself. Oh, and I learned two things tonight: P, an older guy who's been doing FIGHT for quite a while, takes no prisoners during knife sparring - he goes straight for the throat and I'd be dead about fifty times if we used real knives - and S, the tall guy who's been coming for about two months now, has a degree in archaeology. How random is that?

A little bit of work, kickboxing, sparring, and pizza tomorrow, then Othello opens Saturday night! I've seen bits and pieces of it this week as they continue into dress rehearsals, but it will be interesting to see the whole thing put together. I think it will be over three hours long with intermission, though! (Is it weird that I can watch Othello break Desdemona's neck and think, "I know they're doing it that way for stage combat/safety reasons, but you'd never break someone's neck like that!"? I think it might be, a little.)

And, Mr. R during a round kick/side kick drill at the very end of tkd class Wednesday (we were supposed to be alternating mid-range round kicks with low side kicks):
"Aw, ma'am, the workout comes from changing the height of the kicks!"
"Um, at this point, I'm not really sure I need more of a workout."
"Sure you do. You're addicted, admit it."
"Addicted, maybe. Not sadistic." (Which, I realized later is the wrong word, should have said masochistic, but the assonance and trying to concentrate on the drill got to me. Although I'm not sadistic either.)
[To my partner]"Don't believe her!"