Dressed down for a cause.

Wow. I wish I could be this comfy every day. I wonder why it is that I'm not allowed to regularly wear jeans to work? Oh, well. I'm just glad I'm not required to wear a kneelength dress, dress shoes, and pantyhose. (When I worked at Hudson's, that was the dress code. It sucked. They actually had fashion police who sent you home if you weren't up to code. Eeek.)

Last night was quite a taekwondo workout; we ran forms just about all night. Master Ron has apparently decided to make our class a regular part of his already crazy taekwondo schedule. While it's been nice having his help, he does things a little differently from our defined customs. I also am not relaxed enough around Master Ron to let up on myself, so I have a really sore knee today, basically because I was stupid and didn't hold back when I ought to have. The dumb thing still hasn't recovered from being twisted last week.

So I have been icing it on and off all day today, in hopes it will be better for next Tuesday's test.

Yes, that's right, it's test time again. This time I don't have a ton of new material; only one new form, and review of all the previous seven. The hardest part is concentrating for long enough to perform them all in a row without mixing any of them up. Many of my now-fifteen forms are similar to one another, and it's easy to get confused.

I think I will pass, though. I've been working hard, and I know my stuff. As long as I don't let nerves terrify me into distraction, I will get good marks. Then I just have one more form to learn this semester, and I can concentrate on reviewing everything and perfecting some of the kicks I need to know which aren't included in forms. I should also spend some time practicing sparring.

I'm hoping to attend a tournament in November in Garden City (near Detroit) for practice, and then will probably compete in two or three tournaments in spring. They are real learning experiences, and I want to get in as many as possible before being asked to test for my (gulp) black belt.

Attending class last night was a major victory for me. I got home from work at 5:30 last night, and found Forest comfy on the couch, playing a game, snuggled up with the cat. Suddenly every bit of myself wanted to stay at home, nice and cosy, and just vegetate. It was an overwhelming, powerful urge to be at home. I just wanted to plaster myself to the couch and never move again.

I suppose it's the result of having been busy all last week, and gone all weekend. I know that I need time to myself, to be at home, and just relax; not even cleaning anything. Just sitting. I haven't taken that time in a few weeks.

I was proud of myself, though. I *almost* played hooky. I was inches away from staying home. Out of sheer force of will, I was barely able to get myself out the door, to the car, and down the street.

And once I got over that hurdle, the rest of the night seemed easy by comparison. It was pretty wierd.

Tomorrow night I will have my chance, though. Forest has Judo, and I have nothing planned. I can go home, sit on my duff, and not do a darned thing all night.

Sure, I should clean my house. Yeah, I have a lot of things I should be doing. But I'm not going to, unless it's fun and relaxing.

Maybe I will spend some time preparing for the Halloween party that we are going to try to host. I'm pretty excited about it, so much so, in fact, that instead of making paper invitations, I created a cutesy web site with details, a map, and an RSVP form, and will be handing out the URL. I spent an hour making pumpkin and black cat clip art for the invitation's navigation tools. Aren't I nuts?

At any rate, I'm thinking of what we want to do at the party, and those things will require a little preparation.

You know it's going to be a fun party when you're considering buying a drop cloth for it. Hee hee.

Of course, I'm in my usual position of having a party in Eaton Rapids. I never know whether a whole bunch of people will be thrilled to show up, or if we will just end up with two or three people. I'll cross my fingers. It's hard living so far from everyone else; and Eaton Rapids isn't an exciting place to go. Forest and I were talking about this this weekend, and realized that if we owned a house on Mackinac Island, it would probably be easier to get people to visit, even though it's a lot farther away. We would be forced to plan everything far in advance, which would help; but mostly I think more people would be interested because at least it's a fun place to be.

In Eaton Rapids we have a lot of tractors, and a lot of cows. The only place open after regular hours in town is the convenience store/gas station and the grocery store. That's about all there is to it. Unless you want to go to church.

Other than that, there isn't a lot going on with me today. I'm looking forward to seeing my friends tonight!