a good day
Yesterday was a wonderful day.
School is now officially out for the summer. I was successful in passing both my English and Spanish classes with an A. I worried so much over my Spanish final, and got the best grade in that class. I now have a couple months to work on studying the language on my own and try to figure out if solitary study is better, without focusing on grades, or if school study is better, and having to worry about grades, exams, etc. But that is beside the point for the moment.
Now that school is out for the summer, I made lists of what I would like to do with my free time. Visiting friends and family is high on that list, and is something I want to do more of. I am going to try and be more social and fix some ties that I left dangling when the pressure of school was applied. I only hope that they still have time for me.
Last night I found myself at TaeKwonDo class. I am going to be attending twice per week, instead of once, in an attempt to be able to put more into my physical studies and re-accelerate my weight loss that slowed down over the last few months. Last night there was a new instructor who joined the school. He was flown all the way to California from Alabama. His accent makes me giggle every now and again, but not his abilities. He had us doing exercises that made me love the sport of TKD once again. Flying through the air, kicking targets that are way above head level and landing with the grace of a falling feline - that is what I love about TKD. We had school spirit in raw form. Students were answering up, shouting in confirmation to the orders received. People ran to their designated spots, instead of lazily walking in pain or boredom.
But my favorite was the stretching. None of the instructors that I have trained under have stretched me as well, or focused on stretching, like my first instructor Mr. Dan Lovus. He used to tell us that by yellow belt, all students must be able to do the splits, and by green, we must be able to kick that high. In my training, by purple belt I could kick just like the animated pictures you see on the billboards. Very impressive stuff. This guy is made of the same caliber.
He sat us down, had us spread our legs and stretch forward. The he sat in front of us, pushed on our legs with his own and grabbed your hands and pulled forward. I expected to move a little bit, but he wasn't fooling around. He snagged my arms and pulled hard! My ass came off the floor, but my legs were perfectly strait to my sides. The splits! I haven't been able to attain it since I started my training again a few months ago. This guy will help me achieve that again. And fast!
Once class was over, I admit that I gushed a bit. I thanked him no less than three times for the wonderful class and thanked him again when I went to get dressed, and thanked him a third time as I was walking out the door. I haven't smiled like that about training since the good old days. Wow, what a feeling.
Afterwards, I ended up going to the True Love Cafe and wrote in my journal for a bit. I haven't really picked up my journal, given to me as a gift by Xot many years ago, since Pantheacon. I wrote down some things that I have been noticing, and some things that I want to do. I wrote about tips that I am learning in my Toltec studies, and wrote about exercises for the mind that I am now beginning to perform. I even closed my eyes for a bit, focused on my breathing, and did a very light meditation. In public. Without feeling panicked. It was very exhilarating.
Afterward, I took off my shoes, whipped out my hemp jewelry and began working on my bookmark for my journal that I am making out of hemp cord. I am weaving a bit of a spell into it as I tie the cords in hope that I can create a personal item of power. Something I haven't really tried before. I must have looked interesting, sitting in the public Cafe, shoes off, hemp cords tied around my toes to give tension to my work, while stopping every now and again to sit up strait, breath deeply and write in my journal. :) But I wasn't there for them, and nobody bothered me. I was there for me. When the light died, I went home, had some dinner and fell asleep. It was a good day to begin again, to reaffirm.
No mind blowing epiphany, just a day of smiles by yours truly.
School is now officially out for the summer. I was successful in passing both my English and Spanish classes with an A. I worried so much over my Spanish final, and got the best grade in that class. I now have a couple months to work on studying the language on my own and try to figure out if solitary study is better, without focusing on grades, or if school study is better, and having to worry about grades, exams, etc. But that is beside the point for the moment.
Now that school is out for the summer, I made lists of what I would like to do with my free time. Visiting friends and family is high on that list, and is something I want to do more of. I am going to try and be more social and fix some ties that I left dangling when the pressure of school was applied. I only hope that they still have time for me.
Last night I found myself at TaeKwonDo class. I am going to be attending twice per week, instead of once, in an attempt to be able to put more into my physical studies and re-accelerate my weight loss that slowed down over the last few months. Last night there was a new instructor who joined the school. He was flown all the way to California from Alabama. His accent makes me giggle every now and again, but not his abilities. He had us doing exercises that made me love the sport of TKD once again. Flying through the air, kicking targets that are way above head level and landing with the grace of a falling feline - that is what I love about TKD. We had school spirit in raw form. Students were answering up, shouting in confirmation to the orders received. People ran to their designated spots, instead of lazily walking in pain or boredom.
But my favorite was the stretching. None of the instructors that I have trained under have stretched me as well, or focused on stretching, like my first instructor Mr. Dan Lovus. He used to tell us that by yellow belt, all students must be able to do the splits, and by green, we must be able to kick that high. In my training, by purple belt I could kick just like the animated pictures you see on the billboards. Very impressive stuff. This guy is made of the same caliber.
He sat us down, had us spread our legs and stretch forward. The he sat in front of us, pushed on our legs with his own and grabbed your hands and pulled forward. I expected to move a little bit, but he wasn't fooling around. He snagged my arms and pulled hard! My ass came off the floor, but my legs were perfectly strait to my sides. The splits! I haven't been able to attain it since I started my training again a few months ago. This guy will help me achieve that again. And fast!
Once class was over, I admit that I gushed a bit. I thanked him no less than three times for the wonderful class and thanked him again when I went to get dressed, and thanked him a third time as I was walking out the door. I haven't smiled like that about training since the good old days. Wow, what a feeling.
Afterwards, I ended up going to the True Love Cafe and wrote in my journal for a bit. I haven't really picked up my journal, given to me as a gift by Xot many years ago, since Pantheacon. I wrote down some things that I have been noticing, and some things that I want to do. I wrote about tips that I am learning in my Toltec studies, and wrote about exercises for the mind that I am now beginning to perform. I even closed my eyes for a bit, focused on my breathing, and did a very light meditation. In public. Without feeling panicked. It was very exhilarating.
Afterward, I took off my shoes, whipped out my hemp jewelry and began working on my bookmark for my journal that I am making out of hemp cord. I am weaving a bit of a spell into it as I tie the cords in hope that I can create a personal item of power. Something I haven't really tried before. I must have looked interesting, sitting in the public Cafe, shoes off, hemp cords tied around my toes to give tension to my work, while stopping every now and again to sit up strait, breath deeply and write in my journal. :) But I wasn't there for them, and nobody bothered me. I was there for me. When the light died, I went home, had some dinner and fell asleep. It was a good day to begin again, to reaffirm.
No mind blowing epiphany, just a day of smiles by yours truly.