I was happy to see my munchkin yesterday. She had been at her dad's for a solid week, and while I usually see her quite often, she was busy this week, and I missed her. I can't believe how fast she's growing nowadays. I hardly have to bend over to kiss the top of her head! I'm pleased at how happy she is to be going back to school. Once again, she didn't come home with a huge pile of homework, which was a relief. I'm going to start having my own life again this semester, and I don't want her performance to suffer for it. I think she's ready for one or two nights per week.
I've been asked to rejoin my old handbell choir, the Capital City Community Ringers, and accepted. They've cancelled their spring tour, so the schedule isn't a killer anymore. It's just rehearsal once a week, before Tae Kwon Do club, and fits into a time slot when Forest is always busy, but I usually am not. They even invited Kirstin to stay in their lounge area and watch videos during rehearsal. I'm stuck in the way way top position, which isn't a lot of fun, but Jane (the director) says I can rotate down sometimes, which helps. I really prefer those middle positions, my favorite being F5-G5. Instead I'll be at B6, B7, B8 and C6, C7, and C8. Those are the really tiny high-pitched bells, the ones that don't get used as often as I might like. Ah, well. It will be a good way to get my ringing back in shape. It's been a while. It's also exciting because I'll be doing something on my own, without Forest. This will mean built-in, prescheduled times that he can count on my being busy, and he can make plans with his friends without feeling guilty, or worrying about my being home alone.
Hence, my Monday evenings will now include rehearsals from 6 until 8, and then Tae Kwon Do club from 8:15 until 10 on weeks that I don't have Kirstin.
I'm going to go down to LCC in the next few days and register as an official Tae Kwon Do student. It's quite a commitment for me to make, since I'm going to have to pay for it, but I think it's more than worthwhile. Master Kim is just amazing, and it will be good to be learning from him again. I'll likely be in class on Tuesdays, from 6 until 9:30 or so. I was going to ask Forest's sister to babysit, but she's moving to Virginia now, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll shop around for a local teenager. They aren't all serial killers, right?
The rest of the week will be free to do with as I please. On weeks I don't have Kirstin I will likely attend club on Thursday night, too. Wednesdays are still going to be Forest's and my date night, I believe. So somehow I've managed to make myself busy again, starting next Monday, and by extension starting right now, since I need to clean up my house and catch up on laundry before all this begins. I'm glad. I like to be busy, very much.
Old habits die hard. Last night I realized I was about to go into a mat room with Master Kim in a week, so I spent a few hours working out. It's been ages since I've done a sit-up or a push-up. It felt so good! I practiced ukemi (which you can never practice enough), and I stretched out kinks I didn't even know I had. I happily discovered that I haven't lost too terribly much flexibility, just a lot of strength. It will be nice to get some of that back. I've got a faculty ID to use the facilities at MSU now, maybe I'll go swim again, or lift some weights on my lunch hours. It will take some regrettable time away from my usual lunch hour reading, but I think I'll be glad in the long run.
Forest and I are planning to spend this evening reassuring each other that we're okay. He's had his mind on other things, he's been wheezy lately, caught that flu I had, and had a lot of nasty headaches. I've been lonely, sad, sickly, and measel-ridden. This means that we're each generally okay, but we're both worried sick about each other. So tonight there will be all sorts of snuggling, and we will try to convince our bodies, hearts, and minds that yes, we're still okay.
It sounds silly, doesn't it?
