Which do you want first, the hurting knees or the board break? OK, I'll tell you about the board break first. But before I do, might as well do a review of the week thusfar. Drew's class on Wednesday was fine, nothing extraordinary really. They did a practice of graduation. Drew gets distracted easily, and for some reason, he overtravels from move to move. I mean, you don't always end up in the place you started, but at the same time, you aren't supposed to almost hit all four corners of the mat either! He wants to be in the middle of the crowd so he feels included, and it's funny to watch him. He has fun though, and as he executes individual moves, he's good. It's just having him keep up and pay attention that's the difficult part. Nothing new there!

As for me, I had hoped to go to class last night, but due to inlaws and other visitors invading my house, it just wasn't the right night, so I went in tonight. As I expected, there were the dweeb sisters, very ready to glue themselves to me. But first, warm up, etc. Mr. Lee, who is the ATA Xtreme instructor, started class. It was brutal. I understood the point of the exercises, but that doesn't mean I could do them, or keep up. I'm too big and old for some of this. The end exercise, I was huffing and puffing by the end, in pain, and all it involved was doing a front jump kick and landing switching feet. I understood what I had to do, but it didn't mean I could actually execute the move. I kept laughing and laughing, really at myself, at how bad I was bungling it up, and I was stuck at the very front of the room for all to see. I couldn't keep up even after my attempts to do the move. I was grateful when Mr. Anderson took over the class. We did a practice graduation. When it was the color belts turn, we had the choice to do it on Mr. A's count, or our count, and I said our count. Problem was, all four of us doing it were supposed to be in synch, and this stupid kid in our group (not the dweeb sisters), was rushing through it to the point that I said, "Malachi, slow down!!". I did it horridly as the dweeb sisters crowded me, and Malachi was speeding through. I'm still going to have to practice, and get the DVD from Ma'am (or whomever tomorrow) to practice to get the kinks out. Evidentally I still am goofing up in spots. Then I did my weapon. It was the same as the last cycle, so I whipped through and did fine. No sweat.

OK, so now we are up to the board break. Those who had to break for graduation went first, and then everyone did it. I was SOOOOO happy with my break. I actually even volunteered to go first. I did a few practice hits, and Mr. A corrected my hand position, and then BAM! Right through on the first shot! I was SOOOOO excited! Of course, I had a pad on my arm, and Mr. A reminded me that I can't do that forever. I just replied that I'd keep it on until I got good and until someone told me to take it off. So maybe I'll try one more time with it on, and if I blow through like I did today, then I'll take it off and try that way. Waahoo!

We didn't spar today as we didn't have time, which was fine by me! I was tired from the stuff Mr. Lee put us through, so I was just as happy. So, all in all it went well. I asked Ma'am which class was instructor class, and she said it was only on Wednesday nights. So, I guess after next week, I'll be going on Wednesday nights. And I like Thursday class better, and I like going on Saturday mornings. So I guess that'll be my class schedule. I'll have to see how to work in classes to help instruct. It's a little hard with Drew, as I could go on some afternoon, but he'd be all over the place, and that'd be a problem. So I'm going to have to work something out with JC. Maybe I'll do something where I go to class on Saturdays in the morning, take a lunch break, and then come back and do Tiny Tigers and the Cubs, and Special Abilities after that. I'll have to see if JC is up to that!

The bad knees thing-- when I got home, I think all that crap that Mr. Lee had us do took its toll, as now my knees really hurt especially when going up and down stairs, and the knee that hurts the most is my "good" knee. That's not a good sign. I'll have to take it easy, and hopefully it'll feel better in the morning.