Monday

Finally was able to go off to the dojo tonight! The wife was able to handle the 2 kids for a while, so I was able to attend Jujitsu and Kung Fu classes. I planned to attend the TKD class, but ended up missing it. Logan wanted to watch Karate Kid, and wanted me to hold him - and that took precedent. Tonight in Jujitsu, we worked on some orange belt requirements, specifically these things called "shodans". In the police academy, we learned a few of them , and they were called "come alongs". It's a manner of controling a person by almost bending their wrist in half. Really neat.

In Kung Fu, we worked on what the Sifu called "jart kicks". It's a kick that used the rear foot, strikes the opponent very low (shin or knee level), and cross-attackes. This is to say my right foot would attack the opponent on their left side - my kick crosses my own body. Very unusual, when you compare it to karate and TKd styles, that teach straight kicks. Even spinning and hook kicks are nothign like the effectivness (and deceptiveness) of these kicks.

I took in a few pics of Lance to show anyone who asked. Several students asked, and so did my 2 instructors. The owners never gave me a second look (or thought). Im really getting the feeling that these people are rather rude. It's a shame that to test in TKD, I have to amuse the male owner (the same guy that won't let me into his precious sword class). TKD test is on saturday - I have the money to test - and I have the time blocked off - just need to work on a few more things. My master plan is to test for high blue. Then only 2 reds stand between me and black. Now that i think of it, I really need to start video taping the jujitsu stuff - it's so easy to forget a simple thing, and not be able to do a lot of stuff because of it. For lack of a nail, a shoe was lost...for lack of a shoe, a horse was lost....and so on. The KF stuff, although like nothign else I've ever studied before, facinates me enough that I practice it all the time - no need to video tape anything there. When I took the first "trail lesson", I loved both the jujitsu and KF class. I even thought to myself (regarding the JJ class) "I'm going to be your top student". So far so good. After my first KF class, i thought "This is neat - I may not be top student, but I'll learn something here". So far, I've attended the most classes and seem to "get it" more than most of the other students. I knwo it's not a competition...but it's really nice to know that the classes make me feel a sense of importance - of accomplishment - and of belonging. I really look forward to each class - to see what bits of wisdom the instructors will have for me each time. It will be a big honor to be among the first group of student to receive a sash rank from our Sifu (he has taught before, but only private lessons.). He had to develope a "criteria" for each sash when he started at this dojo.

Well - that's my day and life in a nut shell. The babies are doing fine - and dada got to go play today!!