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Extremism

While taekwondo typically doesn't qualify as an 'extreme' sport, I'd say we've been pushing the envelope this week. Last night was even more strenuous and hot than Monday night. I felt like I was run over by a truck. We drilled on kicks, ran palgwe chun pubs, ran forms, and sparred. There were countless jumping jacks, 75 push-ups (some on knuckles, some on fingertips, some widespread), 105 sit-ups, and combinations of those, ie: push-up, sit-up, double-front kick, repeated 10 times.

After both classes had ended, it took monumental effort to scrape myself out of the chair and work on sidekicks for another hour, and I couldn't really stop myself from some silliness, being pretty much starved and at the end of my wits.

This summer on Mondays and Wednesdays I get up at 7 AM (or 7:20 with the snooze button), and am at work by 8:30. I eat a noon lunch, then drive straight from work to class, which starts at 5:30, and I'm lucky if I'm there on time. There is no chance to catch dinner in there, or guzzle about 8 quarts of water, and if I ate something nasty like McDonald's I'd be dog-sick in the first 20 minutes of class. By 9:10 when class is dismissed, both Forest and I make beelines to the Ocean Spray machine and slurp up the juice (his is orange, mine island guava) in under a minute. Then it's free practice time; when I need to work on forms and sparring for the tournament.

As Elizabeth pointed out, I'm glad we're working out this much. NO ONE trains like this, except for Master Kim's students (and students of his students). Master Kim requires us all to drill on *everything*. Students who pay for lessons at local academies usually go once or twice a week, and generally don't get the old-school abuse... errr... practice Master Kim is famous for dishing out, because private clubs would go out of business when everyone quit.

Anyway, the positive spin on all this blood and sweat (no tears yet, but at this rate, I'm sure they're coming) is that we ought to be in pretty good shape for 2 one-minute rounds in each match-up, as far as endurance goes. Whether I've learned enough forceful kicks to KO someone or at least score some points on them, I can't say, but at least as long as I'm conscious, I know I'll be up for fighting out the two minutes.

Forest has been missing Darcy, so after class last night we went out with her, just to hang out and catch up. It was a lot of fun, but we ended up staying at Pinball Pete's playing a trivia game until very, very late at night. It was almost 3 AM by the time we got home, got the kitten fed, and went to bed. It was very irresponsible of us, because it meant that this morning there was no way in hell I was going to get up on time. After 6 hours of getting the snot beat out of myself, and then staying up until 3 it just wasn't possible to get up at 7.

So I tried 8:30, and still had no luck. Forest managed to pry both of us out of bed by 9:30, which was a pretty impressive feat, all things considered.

Happily, we've taught Eilonwy to eat solid kitten chow now, so I'm not quite as worried about her as I have been. She's still pretty awkward about it, but she's learning. I basically had to crunch it up into little bits and moisten it, and then hold her head down in the food for her to start eating it. She's really started to pick up some energy and confidence with solid food in her system. She climbed a stairstep yesterday (they are carpeted, so she can claw her way up) and explored the whole living room, dining room, and kitchen.

We still have to separate her from Leeloo when we aren't able to supervise, though, which is sad, because Eilonwy cries when she's alone. She screeched the whole time I was going to sleep last night, and I felt terribly about it. Forest is right, though. We can keep Leeloo in the room with us at night, and not worry about rolling over and squishing her to death. Eilonwy is just too tiny.

Tonight after work are the Tubby awards ceremonies in Bath. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going. I felt like I made Jeff uncomfortable when I came out to see Dr. Faustus, and I don't want to do that, since it's much more his celebration than mine. On the other hand, it would be a nice chance to see friends I haven't seen in almost a year. I miss lots of my theatre pals, and I'd be happy to catch up with their latest doings.

So I guess I'm in the process of screwing up the courage to go. Forest's working until close, so I'm on my own until our exciting plan for a very sedate evening on our couch, around 9:30 PM. Still, it would be so much easier just to hop in my van after work, grab a free dinner at The Store, and head to my nice quiet house, there to take a huge nap and read a good book until Forest gets home. I won't be home at all this weekend, which is the only reason that sounds remotely appealing... other than that I have developed some sort of bizarre shy streak about reinserting myself into old circles.

I don't know where that comes from. I'm certainly not ordinarily a shy person. I guess maybe I've now heard or imagined the thunderous clap of people who hardly know me passing judgement on me, and I was scared by it. Nah, that's silly. What do I care what they think, especially when I know that I'm probably just imagining it?

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I'm really happy with the choices I've made, and don't want to have to explain myself repeatedly to people. It might be influenced by the fact that I tried and failed to retain Jeff's friendship, and am afraid of an encore performance with anyone else. It might relate to feelings of guilt for having so suddenly shifted my priorities away from the Theatre Guild and leaving them pretty much to their own devices this year, because I frankly had to do other things with my life. All of the people who work so hard at BCTG have just as much going on in their lives as I do, but they still donate a ton of their time.

All those things aside, though, I think I'm probably going to go, at least for a little while. It was nice that I was invited, despite the fact that I've been MIA for an entire season.

Well, I've officially been sitting on my butt long enough to get awfully stiff after last night's diversions. I think I'll go take a walk and stretch.