I have a friend in Atlanta that I obviously don't get to see much, although we have a standing joke about coming over for dinner and bar crawls. He and his wife are traveling to Vegas next month, and we were looking at the possibility of meeting up there, but I wasn't going to be able to afford a whole weekend trip to Vegas thing. And then this conversation came along today (screennames deleted to protect the not-so-innocent and slightly edited for length):
Me: so I'm apparently flying through both Vegas AND Atlanta in order to get to Nowheresville, Illinois
Me: please tell me how that makes sense in the slightest
Friend: How long you gonna be in Atlanta for?
Me: hopefully about an hour
Friend: aww, not nearly long enough.
Friend: I've made trips down to the airport to catch a lunch with somebody flying through before.
...
Me: I'll be overnight in Vegas on the 1st/2nd, but only there for an hour or so on the 8th, flying back
Friend: ...
Friend: the eighth is when we're flying in.
Friend: what time?
Me: are you flying Airline?
Friend: yes.
Me: if we're on the same flight, that'd be freaky
Friend: I'm going to laugh my balls off if we're... yeah.
Friend: That'd be epic hilarity.
Friend: Airline ABCD, leaving at X:YZpm and arriving at H:IJ local.
Me: uhh...let's see, oh my god
Me: are you serious??
Friend: yes.
Friend: rofl
Me: hahahahahahaha
Me: yeah, Airline ABCD, X:YZp-H:IJp
Friend: That's hilarious.
Me: that's so weird
Friend: What're the chances?
Friend: You have a seat assignment yet?
Friend: We're...
Friend: Row Number A and Row Number B
Me: hmm...no, I don't think I have one yet
Me: let me check
Friend: (Row Number C)
Me: that would be weird
Me: ah, mine just says seat assignments upon check-in
...
Friend: Damn that's funny.
Me: it really is
Me: so I guess I will see you in Atlanta. And Vegas. And we still can't go on a bar crawl!
...
Friend: so when you're laying over in Atlanta, you should call me and tell me where you're sitting.
I mean, honestly, what are the chances that two friends (well, three counting his wife, although I don't know her other than she's his wife) on opposite sides of the country, booking their flights at vastly different times (they've had this trip planned for several months now, I only finally decided last night), and not even TRYING to coordinated anything ended up on the same four-hour cross-country flight?? That's just weird!!
Update - Teddie actually does seem to like his new carrier better. He still cries, but it's more of a "I'm crying because I think I'm supposed to be crying more than any real discomfort and really, I don't know what I'm crying about so maybe I'll stop for good lengths of time until I remember that I'm supposed to be crying again" sort of thing. If I was driving out to the Midwest, I'd totally take him, but I'm sure he wouldn't be comfortable on a plane with drastic pressure changes and lots of people uncomfortably close (not to mention my wallet not being comfortable with the extra $200 it would cost to fly with him), so he'll be staying home and guarding the apartment again. I'm a little bummed about it, but it's probably for the best.
Martial arts stuff behind the cut, since this is long already.
Midterming tomorrow. I've run through both my forms at least twice every day, and instructor class on Wednesday was focused specifically on our ranking forms. "Not nit-picking, but ways to make it better" - keeping my focus upwards, shifting my blocks slightly to the outside to make them be useful rather than perfect straight lines, not dropping my hands to chamber for circle low blocks, turning my knee out just a little more in rear and back stances, picking up the tempo slightly on some of my tension moves (moves that are deliberately slow in order to make them harder and show them off - I have six hand techniques and two kicks in my regular form and I think six blocks in my weapons form that are tension moves). So many little things to think about that I haven't really had time to practice and get into my body. Not to mention the whole "take your time and don't rush through it" thing. I will count myself successful if I can at least do that much. Sir asked us to come in a little early, because the floor will be a little different than the mats we're used to, so I'm going to try to get there around 11:00a.
On the plus-confidence side, though, I was finally able to break a brown board with my spin hook kick Wednesday night. I can power through a blue board really easily using the foot position we use for that kick in the forms (pointing the foot so that the ball "slaps" the target), but that doesn't really work when you move to a harder board. I've been focusing on using the "board break/doing damage" foot position for the kick - hitting the target with the heel instead of the ball; the force is more focused at a specific point where the heel contacts the board instead of getting distributed all over the board with the wider ball of the foot - and think I might have finally gotten it. It took a few tries to get through my hand technique (an upset hammerfist) on a blue board, but that was completely my own fault for not thinking and doing it correctly the first two times. I'm pretty confident on both my breaks now, which is nice!
Oh, and I got told last night by Gil that he feels sorry for anyone who tries to fight me with knives. "He's either gonna get his throat slit or his face slashed off, girl, you don't mess around!" I've lately been trying to focus more on getting "killing" hits in during knife sparring rather than the slashing at the arms that some of the others do. It seems to me like I would want a knife fight over as quickly as possible, not put them in a blood rage. I can live with a scar on my arm, can't really live long enough to get a scar on my neck or a few other places. I'd still be dead five hundred times a night, but I only have to survive a real fight once. I hope. Actually, I'd rather not ever find out, but you know what I mean. A couple of the guys got goofy throwing kicks around, and Sir told them that if they wanted to throw kicks in a knife fight, he'd take away the practice knives and give us real blades. He figures after a few toes hit the mats, we'll learn. Good to remember.
We've had several new guys in FIGHT the past few weeks. No new girls, though. Several new girls, and guys, in kickboxing, though! A new guy in adult tkd, and the kids' white/orange/yellow belt class about exploded through the glass last night, there were so many. It's good to see!
Btw, I'm seriously wondering if someone at the dojahng reads this blog. It's occasionally eerie how I say "I feel like I need to work on X or I really like Y or I'm just getting frustrated with Z" and usually within the next couple classes, there will be a drill or workout or something focusing on whatever it was. Or, in the case of the previous post, the next day getting "it's not nit-picking, it's making you better" fairly randomly after going through one of my forms. I don't actually think someone is - I think it's more a matter of I'm focusing on one thing and so I pay more attention to it, like how astrologers make daily horoscopes work - and it's cool if they are, I just find it mildly amusing. Oh, and if someone does read it and knows where my other sparring foot pad went, can you bring it tomorrow? I'd really appreciate it! =)
For now, it's 65 degrees with 65% humidity (it's actually more humid than the Midwest right now, but much, much cooler!) and lots of sunshine, so TeddieCat and I are going out on the balcony to take pics of knitting and read while the uniform goes through the laundry. And I got a new afghan pattern (sorry, non-Ravelers, that's all I can find right now) that I'm dying to get started on! Finally, an afghan for ME! (Yeah, yeah, I know, I have two other projects on the needles right now, too. They'll get done...someday...)
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