Next phase: It's hard being an intermediate. Well, so far it is. And it's not what you think. I normally don't go to class on a Friday night, but there are no classes tomorrow and I figured since the school was open tonight and we weren't doing anything in particular, it wouldn't hurt to do a makeup class. So, I went. It was a small class, and that was fine. The problem was two fold, however. First, I was the highest ranking adult woman, thus the only other adult woman taking class was a white belt. Nothing wrong with that, but when I was starting out, I was paired up with someone who was only 1 rank above me. I was 3 ranks above this woman. And she didn't seem particularly coordinated. Maybe it's because when I started, I had watched Drew for almsot 6 months that I understood what needed to be done much more clearly. This woman didn't have a clue. But I tried to be supportive and encouraging, as I should be. It was difficult being paired up with her. I think it was better when I could be challenged by someone closer to my own rank or higher. I also think that Ma'am knows that my capabilities are pretty good, as I usually pick up stuff fairly quickly and can kind of keep up with the "big kids" (or adults, as I should say). The second problem was after the white and orange belts left. I was with a bunch of tweens and teenagers who were somewhat clueless, save one. That one was a kid who is a brown belt, and he's pretty good. Alex V. was helping me with my board break, and I was working on the elbow break. It came a lot more easily this time, between Alex's and Mr. Anderson's coaching. I'm feeling a little more confident about board breaking as time goes on, and considering I hadn't done that one for, oh, at least a month, I thought I did pretty well. Instead of sparring, we did some lame ass exercises which were overly basic for me, I felt. Then we did some weapons stuff, but I did it with these two girls who just seem like total geek nerds. They were sweet girls, but just seemed awfully clumsy and awkward. I mean, I'm a geek nerd, but I could always at least keep up athletically fairly well-- I wasn't a clumsy geek. So that seemed like a waste of time to a certian degree.

Well, at least I got a workout, and I also got my hands on something that was almost worth its weight in gold. I finally got my hands on a copy of the Black Belt curriculum book. It has all the "cheat sheets" in them, so you know what's expected to graduate and also outlines what the forms and one-steps and sparring combinations are. It was cool when I came home to look at what's ahead. While I'm a camo blet, because of the cycle I started in, I will be dong green belt form while in Camo belt. That's fine. There are definitely things that I have to learn, and I'm anxious to be taught them. Since it's only 3 weeks until the regional tournament, I don't think I'll be ready for that, unfortunately. I'm hoping that perhaps I can go to another one later in the spring when I'm not in between or just learning a new form, like now. Like, if the regional was at the same time as the interschool one, that would've worked out well, but it wasn't, which is stinky for me. Oh well. It's the sort of thing that I need to talk to Ma'am about.

I still, of course, have to figure out a schedule too when to go to class during the week now. Losing that Tuesday afternoon class still has a sting to it. I wish I could go to that 11 AM class so badly, but it just doesn't work for my schedule. Not until Drew is in school full-time, and by that time, I might be working full-time. It's frustrating. This Friday class, if this is typical, was pretty empty, but it's not usually a good night as many of my clients for my business choose Friday nights often, so I can't commit to that on a regular basis. I'll figure it out.