TKD Tournament and a nasty cough later...
So, I now have this HUGE ass bruise that's red, white, and blue (I bleed AMERICAN, BITCHES! Ha! I'm that good! *rolls her eyes*) that also busted a couple of veins. Of course I'm fascinated by it, I keep looking at it to see how its developing along, and poking at it to see if it still hurts. Of COURSE it does, but one has to CHECK these things, you know? Ben says its the tomboy in me, as I keep sharing it with him too. "Oooo, look Ben! Its purple in THIS area now! How cool is that?!" Poor bastard. :)
So how did I come to get such a first grade bruise?
A 190 pound green belt. No, seriously. She couldn't really get her kicks up above the belt at all, so instead she used her weight behind her kicks and pummelled my leg to death. I even switched sides up a couple of times and she still came in after that leg. At a normal tournament she wouldn't have been allowed to participate because she can't keep her kicks above the belt, but because it was a school tourny, she was let in. She actually managed to get it above my belt once for a point, but she wouldn't protect her head at all so I got 3 head shots in on her to end the round and end my poor leg's abuse. I know she couldn't help it (and I could've blocked it better - my forearm does carry some soreness from the blocks it took in place of the leg), but I'm still a little angry at her. I was also a little mad at the judges for not calling a really good sidekick I got in on her. It was dead center and knocked her back, and I thought, "Thank god, that's the last point, its over." Nope. Nobody called it. Even the ref was like, "Is anyone going to call that?" Nope. So I continued trying to get in close on her so she wouldn't hit my legs, and finally got in good and close so I could pop her up the back of the head with an inside cresent. They couldn't ignore that one, so they called it.
That was actually Round 2. Between 2 and 3, I started an asthma attack, but luckily the guy helping with our equipment had an inhaler *right there* and gave it too me. I guess I really need to start carrying one around again. My old one had expired when I didn't have insurance, and with the smoking ban, I'd only had maybe one mild attack a year that really didn't require an inhaler, so I'd kept putting it off and putting it off, especially since it seemed like the walks, jogging and TKD weren't triggering it. Now I have a phelgmy cough from being stupid and not carrying one to prevent/catch the attack sooner.
I won't go through all the rounds, but I did end up against Mariah for first place. That round happened pretty quickly after the one before it, and I was completely exhausted and my legs hurt so much I couldn't lift them. Mariah was pretty tired too, so it was a bit of a long match as we were both playing pretty defensively. I got one point in on Mariah, and she got the three to win. Then I fought Tina for second place, and she came in nice and hard, which kinda woke me up and we went at it pretty well for awhile. I honestly think that if Mariah had done the same thing and we hadn't been playing so defensively, I mighta gotten it on her, but if I was going to lose to anyone, I would rather it be my best friend. :) Tina and I ended up tied and going to instant death, and I got a head shot on her at the last moment. That was a really excellent match, and I think Tina and I both enjoyed it.
So, a bruised leg, a lost lunch (I threw up somewhere in there too. I didn't feel so bad when the girl I'd been fighting came in the bathroom to do the same thing....I don't think drinking the night before really helped either, however lightly I drank, but I've never really been known for good common sense, have I?), an asthma attack and a pheglmy cough later, and I have an A in the class! Yeah! We're graded mostly on our attendence, and I had a few absences and "lates" more than I should have (I went through a period of insomnia, and had a hard time waking up after finally getting to sleep at 8am for classes) BUT, if you attended the tournament and won trophies, it made up for your absences. I won 3rd place for Forms, which I hadn't expected to be competing in Forms at all that day - the judges pushed me into it as an extra body, so they told me I could even do one of my forms from my old school if I wanted. I decided just to get it done and did the 1st form from my new school (it was the only one I could vaugely remember in my stage fright), so I was pretty bewildered when I got 3rd place. And I got 2nd place in Sparing. So enough absences should be taken off to put me in the "A" range. Ben got to see me compete (he was the one who wanted to see me IN the tourny, rather than just helping with it like I'd planned. He actually paid for my entry fee since I couldn't afford it) and that meant a lot to me. I got to see Mariah's parent's and there were also some decent blackbelt matches to watch. So it was a pretty good Saturday!
So, off to write my 5 minute presentation for my ASL class tomorrow! We had to find 15 new signs we hadn't learned in class relating to a chosen subject. I made the mistake of choosing "Museums" which there isn't a whole lot of stuff that doesn't already have a synomyn, a sign we've already learned, or a sign that's fingerspelled - which isn't allowed. It has to be a full sign. Thhhhpppp!!! Thus far I have: evolve, bee, honey, bones, skeleton, rock, dinosaur, experiment, chemistry (which could be argued that we already learned, because its taken off of "science"), gift store, city/settlement, analyse, charity/donation, exhibit, and elephant (which also I don't know if I can use, because we did learn some animal signs last year. I also thought about adding fingerspell sign of ostrich in there to talk about how the museum mentions that scientists believe birds evolved from dinosaurs, but I don't know if that will fly (Haha, "fly"! Heehee! Oh, sorry...) If from all that, you can't figure out what museum in Lawrence I'm signing about, I don't know if we can be friends anymore....
So how did I come to get such a first grade bruise?
A 190 pound green belt. No, seriously. She couldn't really get her kicks up above the belt at all, so instead she used her weight behind her kicks and pummelled my leg to death. I even switched sides up a couple of times and she still came in after that leg. At a normal tournament she wouldn't have been allowed to participate because she can't keep her kicks above the belt, but because it was a school tourny, she was let in. She actually managed to get it above my belt once for a point, but she wouldn't protect her head at all so I got 3 head shots in on her to end the round and end my poor leg's abuse. I know she couldn't help it (and I could've blocked it better - my forearm does carry some soreness from the blocks it took in place of the leg), but I'm still a little angry at her. I was also a little mad at the judges for not calling a really good sidekick I got in on her. It was dead center and knocked her back, and I thought, "Thank god, that's the last point, its over." Nope. Nobody called it. Even the ref was like, "Is anyone going to call that?" Nope. So I continued trying to get in close on her so she wouldn't hit my legs, and finally got in good and close so I could pop her up the back of the head with an inside cresent. They couldn't ignore that one, so they called it.
That was actually Round 2. Between 2 and 3, I started an asthma attack, but luckily the guy helping with our equipment had an inhaler *right there* and gave it too me. I guess I really need to start carrying one around again. My old one had expired when I didn't have insurance, and with the smoking ban, I'd only had maybe one mild attack a year that really didn't require an inhaler, so I'd kept putting it off and putting it off, especially since it seemed like the walks, jogging and TKD weren't triggering it. Now I have a phelgmy cough from being stupid and not carrying one to prevent/catch the attack sooner.
I won't go through all the rounds, but I did end up against Mariah for first place. That round happened pretty quickly after the one before it, and I was completely exhausted and my legs hurt so much I couldn't lift them. Mariah was pretty tired too, so it was a bit of a long match as we were both playing pretty defensively. I got one point in on Mariah, and she got the three to win. Then I fought Tina for second place, and she came in nice and hard, which kinda woke me up and we went at it pretty well for awhile. I honestly think that if Mariah had done the same thing and we hadn't been playing so defensively, I mighta gotten it on her, but if I was going to lose to anyone, I would rather it be my best friend. :) Tina and I ended up tied and going to instant death, and I got a head shot on her at the last moment. That was a really excellent match, and I think Tina and I both enjoyed it.
So, a bruised leg, a lost lunch (I threw up somewhere in there too. I didn't feel so bad when the girl I'd been fighting came in the bathroom to do the same thing....I don't think drinking the night before really helped either, however lightly I drank, but I've never really been known for good common sense, have I?), an asthma attack and a pheglmy cough later, and I have an A in the class! Yeah! We're graded mostly on our attendence, and I had a few absences and "lates" more than I should have (I went through a period of insomnia, and had a hard time waking up after finally getting to sleep at 8am for classes) BUT, if you attended the tournament and won trophies, it made up for your absences. I won 3rd place for Forms, which I hadn't expected to be competing in Forms at all that day - the judges pushed me into it as an extra body, so they told me I could even do one of my forms from my old school if I wanted. I decided just to get it done and did the 1st form from my new school (it was the only one I could vaugely remember in my stage fright), so I was pretty bewildered when I got 3rd place. And I got 2nd place in Sparing. So enough absences should be taken off to put me in the "A" range. Ben got to see me compete (he was the one who wanted to see me IN the tourny, rather than just helping with it like I'd planned. He actually paid for my entry fee since I couldn't afford it) and that meant a lot to me. I got to see Mariah's parent's and there were also some decent blackbelt matches to watch. So it was a pretty good Saturday!
So, off to write my 5 minute presentation for my ASL class tomorrow! We had to find 15 new signs we hadn't learned in class relating to a chosen subject. I made the mistake of choosing "Museums" which there isn't a whole lot of stuff that doesn't already have a synomyn, a sign we've already learned, or a sign that's fingerspelled - which isn't allowed. It has to be a full sign. Thhhhpppp!!! Thus far I have: evolve, bee, honey, bones, skeleton, rock, dinosaur, experiment, chemistry (which could be argued that we already learned, because its taken off of "science"), gift store, city/settlement, analyse, charity/donation, exhibit, and elephant (which also I don't know if I can use, because we did learn some animal signs last year. I also thought about adding fingerspell sign of ostrich in there to talk about how the museum mentions that scientists believe birds evolved from dinosaurs, but I don't know if that will fly (Haha, "fly"! Heehee! Oh, sorry...) If from all that, you can't figure out what museum in Lawrence I'm signing about, I don't know if we can be friends anymore....